Page 53 of A Very Merry Enemy
The air between us sizzles with everything that will be left unsaid.
She gets in her car and drives away.
The rest of the afternoon blurs together. More customers. More trees. More pretending.
I mess up an order. Drop a saw. Forget to tie down a tree properly, but Dean catches it just in time.
“You should go home,” he tells me around four thirty. “Before you hurt yourself or someone else.”
I don’t argue, but don’t leave.
By five, the exhaustion has taken over, so I find Jake and tell him I’m leaving.
“Get some rest. Show up tomorrow with a different attitude.”
“Yeah.”
I drive home to my empty house.
The second I walk in, I go straight upstairs. The bed is unmade. The pillow she used still has the indent from her head. I can still smell her skin on the sheets.
Panic rises in my chest.
I strip everything and throw it into the washing machine on the hottest setting, like I can wash her away.
I should shower because I have sweat dried on my skin. I should eat because my stomach is empty. I don’t.
Instead, I walk to the kitchen and see the box of cookies we made last night still on the counter.
I pick up the container and take one out, then bite into it.
Even today, it’s incredible. The crispy exterior and the gooey fudge center are a perfect combination.
Better than anything that French asshole ever made, I bet. The thought hits me with bitter satisfaction. This is ours—mine and Holiday’s—and it pisses me off that even now, even hating her, we still create magic together.
This recipe is a winner and it could actually win the contest.
That devastates me because I know what she’ll do with the money. I know that she’s planning her escape.
We created something perfect, and I’m destroying us in the process.
I set the container down and walk to the living room. I sit on the couch, looking around the house I built for a family I may never have.
For her.
Always for her.
My phone buzzes on the coffee table.
I pick it up and read the calendar notification.
Baking contest meeting
Wednesday, 6pm at the Community Center.
Mandatory for all contestants.
That’s the next time I’ll be around her. I’ll sit in the same room with her and we’ll act like a team.
