Page 12 of The Twelve Months of Christmas
He was obviously a nice guy, so of course he had a girlfriend. All the best ones were taken.
You’re not interested, she reminded herself. But at least they were on good neighborly terms now. She’d take her clear conscience back home and enjoy her evening. And after dinner she’d grab another gingerbread boy, pretend he was Wyatt and bite off his head. The thought made her smile. And that was an improvement over the day before.
“How was your Christmas?” Sunny asked the next day as Arianna ushered her into the kitchen where they were going to be filming a reel forTo Your Health, Arianna’s YouTube channel and website, which Sunny had created for her.
“I’ve had better.” Arianna took a mug from the cupboard and fixed her friend a cup of peppermint tea.
“Yeah, me, too,” Sunny said. “What a fail.”
“Uh-oh,” Arianna said.
“You can say that again. The kids didn’t come.”
“Weren’t you supposed to have them on Christmas Day?”
“Yes, but the Weed conveniently didn’t get back from Spokane in time.”
The Weed. Arianna appreciated the cleverness of Sunny’s nickname for her husband’s ex, but it did give her pause. Would Wyatt someday have a new wife making up a crummy nickname for her? Ugh.
“I know you had a special day planned,” she said. She didn’t know a lot about Travis’s ex, though from what Sunny had shared, she sounded incredibly selfish and immature.
“I did.” Sunny frowned at her mug. “It was so disappointing. Of course, Travis was ticked. My dad was ticked because Travis was ticked and being grumpy. It sucked.” She sighed. “How was yours?”
“I tried to smoke us out. Forgot to open the fireplace damper.”
“That had to be interesting,” said Sunny.
“It was. Our neighbor came over to help and I turned into a Christmas bat. Had to take over cookies last night and apologize. All in all, it was a crappy Christmas. I wish I could have a do-over.”
“Same here. Christmas in January.”
Arianna smiled at the thought. “Christmas all year long. At the rate I’m going, it would take twelve months of practice to get it right for next year.”
“It’d take twelve months of presents to make my stepdaughter like me. If I’m lucky.”
“Oh, well. You’ve got to move on,” Arianna said. Maybe that should be her mantra for the coming year. Sunny didn’t appear to be listening. “Sunny?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about the idea of Christmas in January. Why not? It’s kind of a blah month, anyway. And think of all the sales you can take advantage of.”
There was no reason you couldn’t keep the Christmas spirit going. Or, in Arianna’s case, resurrect it. She could do a repeat and in this version not have to worry about her ex stealing away her daughter before the day had even begun.
“It could be fun,” Sunny continued. Sunny was all about fun, which had a lot to do with why she and Arianna had gone from provider and client to friends in the year they’d worked together. “We could start a whole new trend, like the Christmas-in-July thing.”
“That’s just about watching movies.”
“Pretty half-hearted. If you’re going to do Christmas in July you should do it right, with carols and Christmas cookies and presents.”
“And sweaters?” Arianna teased.
“Okay, maybe not the sweaters, but at least Santa hats.”
“Go for it.”
“I just might.”
Arianna chuckled. “Right. Good luck bringing Santa out of hiding. You ready to start?”
“I am if you are. Got your talking points ready?”
