Page 10 of Holiday Unscripted
“I mean,” I speak up before her voice rises louder and all of Macy’s family looks over here and the person who actually took her room starts to feel uncomfortable, “if you want, you could stay with me.” Her head turns toward me so slowly, it’s as if she’s the evil doll from a scary movie. They look all innocent and beautiful, then they feast their eyes on you and, boom, you’re dead. “I have a spare bedroom and it’s not claimed, so it’s all yours.” I want to tell myself to shut the fuck up, but my head and my mouth seem to be off course with each other.
I look over at Denise and Zack, who both take a sigh of relief. “Oh my goodness,” Denise says coming over to me, her hands extending as she points at me. “Nate,” she says with glee, “Nate has a room for you.”
“No.” She immediately shakes her head, and I raise my eyebrows and smile at her, waiting to see if she is going to tell them why she refuses to stay with me. Has the day finally come when she acknowledges that we had one night together? Who knows? She sure as fuck forgot about it the day after when I came over to see her and she pretended I didn’t exist.
“What?” Zack asks. “Why not?”
“Yes, Elizabeth”—I tilt my head to the side and watch her—“why not?”
“Well…” She folds her arms under her chest. “For one, he’s the best man.”
“That makes no sense,” Joshua scoffs, “it’s perfect.” He looks at both of us. “I am surprised we didn’t think of it earlier. But we were going crazy to figure out where to put Macy’s family.”
“Nice to know I came as an afterthought.” Elizabeth looks at her parents. “It’s Jack.” She puts her hand higher than her head. “Then Joshua.” She moves her hand down a little. “And then Elizabeth.” She bends her knees to put her hand near the floor.
“Can we be more dramatic?” Joshua snorts at her.
“We can, actually,” she gladly admits. “We so can. I’ve been up for the last two days it feels like. I’ve had to run for every plane I was on. My luggage and all my clothes are, I don’t even know where right now. Could be in Australia or could be in Bali, what is for sure is that it’s not here.”
“Did you fill out a form?” Zack asks her like she’s not having a meltdown right in front of him.
“No, Dad, I just left the airport, and I’m expecting the airport fairies to find it and bring it to me?—”
“It’s Christmas,” I cut into the conversation. She again turns to look at me. Actually, look is too nice of a word; she turns to glare at me, her gray eyes fixated on me in a way that screams shut the fuck up. “You should have used Santa to deliver it on Christmas Day.”
“Nate,” she says my name and smiles at me. I’ve seen this smile a lot over the years, usually right before she tells me to go fuck myself. “Why are you here?”
“I’m the best man.” I slap Joshua’s shoulder, and he holds up his fist to me. “I’m everywhere.”
“Can you not be?” Her teeth clench as she says it.
“Is that any way to talk to the man who is rescuing you from sleeping on the street?” Denise says. “You need to be nice to him.”
She shakes her head. “I’m going to call the hotel.”
“Um,” Joshua starts.
“Shut up,” she snaps at him and takes her phone out of her bag and shakes it in her hand. “I need a phone. Someone get me a phone.”
“The two hotels in town are all booked up,” I speak up and she, of course, ignores me. “It’s the busiest time of the year, plus with the wedding… They have been booked up for months.”
“Then I’ll go and stay in New York City,” she stubbornly retorts, ignoring me completely.
“It’s Christmas, you think you’ll find a room in the city?” I can’t help myself from egging her on and I can see her jaw tighten, but she avoids even looking at me.
“If I stab him, I’ll probably go to jail,” she announces to the room and not to anyone in particular, “but then I’ll have someplace to stay.” She looks at me and all I can do is smile at her, which makes her even angrier. “I hate fucking Christmas.” She looks up at the ceiling.
“Sweetheart.” Zack goes up to her, his voice is soft as he takes her arms in both of his hands. “It’s going to be okay. You are tired and probably starving. They don’t feed you much on the airplane.”
“She flew business class,” Joshua interjects. I look down at my lap, not sure I can stop myself from bursting out laughing, which would probably anger her even more and make her a bit more stubborn than she normally is. “She had cutlery and real plates.”
“Joshua,” Denise says, her voice warning him to stop talking.
“I’m just saying, Mom.” He holds up his hand. “Listen, you think we wanted to rehome two hundred guests?” he asks her. “We literally have people staying everywhere.”
“Whose fault is that?” She turns her wrath on Joshua. “Who gets married at Christmas?”
“Lots of people,” I chime in.
