Page 43 of Meet Me on Christmas Eve

As always, Hazel had invited me to her family holiday, and as always, I’d declined. I didn’t have a good reason. Who wouldn’t want to spend Christmas in Paris? Hazel’s mom was Jewish but always went all out for Christmas. I’d never understood, but her entire family was a big, strange, wonderful thing of beauty that I’d long ago learned not to question.

Well, I did have a reason for declining. I liked staying here, by myself. It wasn’t a good reason, I supposed. But I wanted—no, I needed—to keep Dad’s memory alive. Gallivanting across the globe and attending a glitzy party wasn’t Dad’s style at all, and even though I’d changed a lot since I was a kid, I needed to feel close to him on Christmas, at least.

I texted her back “I’m good,” as one does when trying to not burden someone else with their woes. I set the phone down on the kitchen island as I rifled around in the fridge.

My face clouded over when I saw how empty it was. Dammit, I was going to head to the store yesterday and completely forgot. It had been a fairly busy week. Well, technically not that busy, but I’d kept myself busy. With Hazel gone and that annoying holiday loneliness setting in, I knew that keeping myself busy would be key. I’d planned a rigid routine of working, exercising, redecorating my dining room, and plotting some new approaches to try with Jane after the holiday. But with yesterday’s personnel crisis—and that’s putting it mildly, since it ended with two valets in the hospital—I’d totally forgotten to restock the fridge. And the pantry.

Ugh.

Would any stores even be open this late on Christmas Eve?

I picked up my phone to look up some places.

Hazel: You’re good? What are you doing tonight?

Hazel: Revealing as always, I see. ;) Well, you’re lucky I’m having a blast here so I’ll let it go. I’ll text you later, Mari.

Hazel: Lots of love, talk tomorrow

Me: Sorry, just stepped away for a bit. I’ll be OK. Have a great night!!

I’m not normally an exclamation point sort of woman—much less double exclamation points—but I wanted Hazel to have fun and not worry about me. She did spend too much time worrying about me, didn’t she? Ugh. So unnecessary, especially since I was always fine. Just fine.

After finding the address of the one store in town still open, I hurried to get my winter gear back on. I had to bundle up, and the place was closing in an hour.

At the store, I was scanning the label outside of the aisle when something caught my attention from the side. I swung my eyes over and nearly gasped aloud. How is it possible we’ve lived in the same area for years and never encountered each other, yet all the sudden I run into himeverywhere?

Before I could think about how stupid my action would be, I ducked into a different aisle and pulled my thick brown hat down over my forehead and eyebrows.

Shit, I left my cart at the end of the other aisle. I tried to think fast. Would it be better to just run? Did I have a clear path to the exit from here? This was row 7.

I shook my head and took a deep breath.

Get a grip.

This is insanity.

With that, I slowly walked back around to where I’d left the shopping cart, trying to peer in all directions at once.

When my hands landed on the cart, I let out a sigh of relief.

No sign of Terry now.

Had I even seen him before, or was I now imagining him in odd places? Ididfind myself thinking about him a ridiculous amount this week. Not exactly conjuring his actual appearance, but it had been a long day, a long week, perhaps I’d hallucinated it. Wishful thinking. How stupid, and how unlike me.

I took another slow, steady breath and looked at the exit door.

Maybe I should just leave.

Screw this.

Sure, having food is nice, but was it worth running into him?

I bit my lip and then nearly laughed at my own indecision. How ridiculous. I proceeded to walk down aisle 6 and tried to focus on my shopping list.

By aisle 13, I’d forgotten about him as I carefully examined the labels of 14 different kinds of caramel ice cream. They all looked so good, but I didn’t have a huge freezer (by design, thanks to a little ice cream addiction), so I was limiting myself to one. Maybe two.

OK, I’d probably get three or four.

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