Page 49 of A Roommate for Christmas
“Yes, my handsomeand ruderoommate.He was terrible at first.I could barely stand to be in the room with him, he was that bad.But when we were snowed in together, he actually turned out to be a pretty nice guy, and I developed a major crush,” Paige admitted, leaving out the part about their steamy romantic evening to spare herself from her mother’s reaction.
“Well, you should ask him on a date!”her mom exclaimed.
“It’s ...complicated.”Paige sighed.“He just got out of a relationship, and I don’t want to be his easy rebound.”She decided to keep the backstory short and sweet, partly because she didn’t feel like explaining the difference between a break and breakup to her mother, but mostly because it still stung to think about how Carter didn’t bother telling her about Monica.
“That’s not always a bad thing, you know,” Anne offered.“Your dad and I met right after I broke up with my ex-boyfriend, but I never thought of him as a rebound.I was all in right from the start.”
“Wait, really?”Paige asked.“I don’t think I ever knew that.”
“Oh yeah, I had dated so many boring guys, and this boyfriend was no different,” Anne explained.“He worked for Grandpa, so I felt like I had to stick it out with him because of that.But you can’t force a spark, hon.I called it off and he was devastated, but I knew he wasn’t the guy for me.And then just a couple of weeks later, I met your dad at a concert, and it was love at first sight.”
“I knew about the concert story, but I had no idea you were only recently single.”Paige loved the story of her parents’ meet-cute.Each time she heard it, it renewed her belief in true love.
“You never know when love will knock on your door!If you really like this guy, and if you think he might like you too, just talk to him when you go back to Chicago.”Her mom gave her a reassuring smile.
“Thanks, mom.I really needed that,” Paige said as the pair stepped back in stride with the rest of the group.
At the end of their walk, the family piled into the car and went on a hunt for the best Christmas lights in the city.And for the first time in six days, Paige was filled with Christmas cheer.
Chapter 18
Thesunpeekedthroughthe blinds of Paige’s childhood bedroom on Christmas morning, and the smell of fresh coffee pulled her out of bed and toward the kitchen where her early riser dad was surely getting started on breakfast.
They always started Christmas morning with a big meal, and when she turned into the kitchen, she saw a box of pancake mix sitting on the counter.She couldn’t help but smile as she thought of Carter.
“Hey, dad, let me help,” she said, grabbing a mixing bowl and the rest of the pancake ingredients.“I learned a trick recently to make the best pancakes.”
Paige added in the ingredients just as Carter had taught her the week before, carefully mixing everything together.She poured the batter onto the pan and within minutes she had a beautiful stack of golden pancakes to set in front of her dad, Ron.
“Whatever trick you used, I need to learn it!These are fantastic, Paige,” he said.
“You just need to pay attention to the little things,” Paige said, echoing Carter’s words.“You need to put the ingredients in the bowl in the right order, don’t mix them too fast, and take your time before the first flip on the pan.”
“Well, compliments to the chef, and the chef’s teacher,” Ron replied before digging back into his pancakes.
Paige started on the next stack as her mom filed into the kitchen.She had thought a lot about what her mom had told her the day before, and the pancake mix on the counter this morning felt like a sign.
She knew she should have given Carter more time to tell her his side of the story before she jumped to conclusions.Paige was still hurt by his lack of communication about his relationship status with Monica, especially after she told him about her past with Chance, but what if he was really feeling the same thing she was feeling?On the flip side, what if her blatant rejection of his apology sent him straight back into the arms of his ex-girlfriend?Being alone at the holidays sucked—she knew from personal experience the year before—and as cool as Carter portrayed himself, Paige knew he wasn’t immune to feeling lonely.Besides, he had seen the messages she sent to Nadia.He probably thought she wanted nothing to do with him anymore.
Paige decided she would ask Carter to meet up as soon as she got back to Chicago so she could apologize for the messages and talk through everything that happened, and she desperately hoped he would say yes.
***
After breakfast, the family moved on to opening presents.
Paige gave each of her parents the books she got them on Black Friday.
She unwrapped a candle, a sweater, some fun nail polish, and a gift certificate to upgrade her Nespresso machine when she got back to Chicago.
She thought of the first morning snowed in with Carter and how he stole her freshly brewed coffee.It had infuriated her in the moment, but she couldn’t help but smile at the memory now.If she had told herself eleven days ago that she would be missing Carter, she would have laughed out loud.But here she was, wishing she could be wrapped up in his arms.
As they were cleaning up at the end of the gift exchange, there was a knock on the door.
The family exchanged confused glances, clearly not expecting company on the holiday.Paige was closest to the front door, so she made her way over to it.
Dad probably just forgot about something he ordered for mom.But I didn’t think they delivered on holidays.
When she opened the door, her stomach flipped, and she let out an audible gasp.
