Page 67 of The Holiday Ex-Files

“It’s not me,” I said uneasily. “He told this woman he loves her. Like you, he’s just helping me figure myself out. That’s all.”

“Okay.” Mara shoved half the cupcake in her mouth. “It’s just, you sound disappointed by that,” she said with her mouth full, which was super attractive.

I squirmed where I stood. “No, I don’t.”

You totally do, Miss Sparkly sang.

Hey you, I thought we were on the same side now. You’ve had one heck of an October, lady. And three trips to Hobby Lobby, so zip it.

You’ve had an amazing October too, she fired back. Don’t deny it. You are happier than you have been in a long time, so you zip it, lady.

She had some points. She always had her points. And a lot of the time she was spot on. I was happier than I had been in a long time. There were even times I didn’t feel like the interloper, that Sparkles and I could be one again. Or maybe it was that she was letting go of me. I wasn’t sure. But she was for sure right about one thing, I should zip up some of my thoughts. Our thoughts. Thoughts like what a stable force Noah was. Or how adorable Noah was when he read stories to his nephews and acted out all the voices. Or how sweet he was to take his sister to her doctor’s appointments when Adonis had to work. It’s weird how I had never noticed what a good guy he is. I blamed it on my Ben vision. He’d consumed my every thought. I realized now how dangerous that kind of love was. I think it was one thing to be wrapped up in one another as new love tends to do, but I think real love, the truest kind of love, makes you want to be a better person and make the world a better place. To do that, you have to see outside of the two of you. Ben and I never got there.

Mara rubbed my arm. “Okay. If you say so.”

“I totally say so,” I said too quickly. Noah and I were friends, plain and simple. To think otherwise would complicate everything.

Mara gave me a placating smile.

“Enough talk about men; let’s do your eyes, Aries, and catch up on Cosmetics and Crimes. We have a party to attend.”

Mara smiled and grabbed my hand. “You are happier, just so you know.”

“I know.”

“You know that makes me happy, right?” she asked.

I wrapped my arms around her. “Of course I do. You’re my person. The big enchilada in my life.”

She giggled. “I do look good covered in cheese.”

I leaned back, eyes wide. “How do you know that?”

She gave me an impish grin. “It’s probably best not to talk about it.”

If Mara didn’t want to talk about it, it must be either really bad or too good, so I let it drop.

We ended up sitting on the floor in my living room with Cosmetics and Crimes playing in the background while I did Mara’s flame eyes. I’d practiced on myself, so I knew what I was doing. Hopefully. I’d even made a stencil using a label and X-ACTO knife because I was clever like that, or maybe because I’d seen someone on YouTube do it.

I readied my makeup palette with all sorts of fun liquid eye shadow colors. Everything from reds and oranges to hot pink. Mara was going to look truly like fire.

While I carefully applied the stencil to Mara’s left eye, she said, “Thanks for letting my mom come tonight.”

“I’m glad she asked. How is everything going with your parents?” I hesitated to ask, while I started to feather in the orange eye shadow.

“I think my dad is in denial. He’s trying to buy his way out of it, like he does everything in his life. But Mom isn’t having it this time. Though I think it killed her to refuse the anniversary band with three rows of diamonds that my father gifted her.”

“That had to hurt.” Kellie had once quoted Zsa Zsa Gabor, “I never hated a man enough to give him diamonds back.” At the time, she had been trying to convince me to keep the two-carat stunner Ben had given me. But I hated Ben so much that I didn’t want the reminder. Not even the money I could have gotten had I sold it. To me that felt like blood money. Instead, I donated it to the women and children’s shelter. Ben was livid about it, which made it even better.

“Don’t worry, she went on a shopping spree. A little retail therapy. She and my dad need some real therapy.”

“I think everyone does.” I dabbed my brush into the yellow shadow.

“This is true. But at least Mom is sticking up for herself this time. Dad doesn’t know how to deal with a backbone. We all usually end up bending to his will.” She sounded ashamed to admit it.

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