Page 52 of Holiday Unscripted
Whiskey hears the door from wherever he is in the house and comes trotting over to us. He smells me and then his tail wags even faster when he sees Elizabeth and just as fast when he sees Gavin. “Traitor,” I mumble. “Let’s go outside,” I snap my command and he turns his attention back to me and follows me to the back door. “So why can’t he leave with your father?”
“He’ll be bored out of his skull with my father. The two of you have a lot in common,” Joshua explains, and I turn to see Elizabeth showing him around and offering him something to drink.
“I don’t think I have anything in common with him. I don’t even know what he does.” I turn around and my voice is low.
“He’s in top-secret communication, something or another.” I roll my eyes at his description of Gavin’s job. “Either way, take good care of him, and I’ll see you guys in a couple of hours.”
“You know what would be fun? Why don’t you bring Macy here and we can surprise her now?” He chuckles at my idea. “You know what, after your wedding, I don’t want to see you for a month,” I grit between my clenched teeth.
“Okay, well, I’m going to go upstairs and get ready for tonight,” Elizabeth announces. “Or, you know what, you’ve been traveling all day?—”
“Or maybe he just took an hour flight,” I cut in. “We don’t really know where he came from.”
He points to me and chuckles. “You trying to get me to tell you my secrets?”
“Couldn’t care less.” I put my hands on my hips. “But if you want to tell us your secrets...”
“Took an AMC flight overnight and landed this morning, then got on a flight from Delaware.”
“So you say.” I hold up my hands. “No one can tell if you are lying or not, so we just have to pretend that is what you did. But you could have also just flown in from Virginia.”
“I guess we will never know.” He perches himself on the stool.
“Well, anyway,” Elizabeth interrupts, “you should take a shower before I do.”
“I couldn’t,” he tells her. “It’s not right, you should go first.”
“Or you can take a shower in my bathroom,” I tell Elizabeth, “and then you can shower at the same time.”
“That sounds good,” Elizabeth agrees. “Do you want to follow me and I’ll show you where the bathroom is?”
“That would be amazing.”
“I don’t think you need to show him where it is,” I counter. “It’s the second door on the right.” He nods at me, picking up his backpack and walking away.
“What is your problem?” Elizabeth asks me. “You are being so rude.”
“I’m being rude?” I put my hand to my chest. “I’m not the one pretending I’m the President of the United States with some top-secret bullshit. Who the fuck are we going to tell?”
She rolls her lips. “I’m going to get in the shower and then get ready.”
She turns and walks away. “Remember the house rules,” I call to her retreating back and she turns to look at me, “no nipples in the common area. Must be fully covered.”
“I’ll make sure to knock on Gavin’s door to tell him the house rules.” She turns and walks away from me. I’m about to chase after her when Whiskey scratches at the back door and the doorbell rings.
I get Whiskey and Elizabeth gets the front door. “Hey,” I hear her say, “what are you doing here?”
“Delivering this.” I peek my head around the corner and see Zack with a black bag. “This is for the mystery guest.”
“Dad, she’s not here, you don’t have to talk in code,” Elizabeth chides. “He’s upstairs in the shower.”
“Okay, well, can you give him this?” He hands it to her.
“I’ll give it to him.” I snatch it from her. “He’s in the shower right now, but I’ll put it at his door.”
“Someone is uptight,” Zack states. “Four days to go and we’ll be over all this wedding talk.”
“One can hope,” Elizabeth retorts, getting on her tippy-toes to hug her father, “but I have to go and get ready now.”
