Page 36 of Christmas Confessions

“Damn,” I tell her as I hand the flask back.

She looks over her shoulder to make sure nobody is watching, then she throws some back herself.

“Where is Jennifer?!” I can hear my mom asking Uncle Gerry in the kitchen.

Jennifer hides the flask. “Aunt Laurie?! I’ve missed you!” she squeals, shooting me a wink before heading into the kitchen to greet my parents.

* * *

When we allsit around the formal dining table for dinner, Jennifer is plastered. The governor’s daughter is plastered.

“I just don’t even know how you guys are still married,” she slurs to my mom and dad. “Oryou, for the matter,” she says when she turns to her dad. Then she stabs at her Christmas ham with her fork and shovels it sloppily into her mouth. “All relationships are doomed to fail at some point. So, what’s the point of even getting into one?”

Uncle Gerry shakes his head. “She is still getting over that break up,” he informs us.

“No, I’m not!” Jennifer argues. “Idumpedhim! Because all men are cheaters and liars and…” She deliberately points her fork and glares at Derek. “And wife beaters.”

Uncle Gerry leaps up from the table. “That’s enough, Jennifer! What’s the matter with you?”

Jennifer starts giggling uncontrollably.

The governor looks at her in horror. “Are you high?”

She only laughs harder. Leave it to the governor to assume that giggling means marijuana.

Seeing the look on Derek’s face as he angrily cuts his ham, I can’t help but laugh a little to myself, too. I had expected the evening to be awkward and quiet. But thankfully for Jennifer, it’s turning out to be quite the opposite.

26

KENNETH

Ican’t hide my surprise when Eliza shows up on my doorstep the next morning.

Selena and I were busy packing up our stuff and getting ready to head to the airport to go back to Quincy, and the loud knocking on my door had scared Selena nearly half to death. She even ran into the kitchen and ducked below the counter while I walked over to go answer it.

“Eliza?!” I cry out when I see her.

My stepmom is wearing an expensive fur coat and leather gloves. Her eyes are full of sadness as she stands out there in the hallway of my building.

“Oh, good,” she says to me, making me step aside as she lets herself enter. “It looks like you guys are getting ready to take off. That means we must be on the same flight back to Quincy.”

I was wondering why she was dressed for the cold—LA isn’t exactly a place where you need a fur coat and leather gloves in the winter.

“Wait,” I start, my head hurting from confusion.

Over in the kitchen, Selena slowly stands herself up and smiles brightly at Eliza.

“Were you just… hiding from me?” Eliza asks her.

Selena blushes, embarrassed. “No, no! I dropped my earring somewhere. Just… looking for it.”

Eliza doesn’t buy it for a second. “Were you guys expecting somebodyelseto be at the door?” she asks. “Are you two some sort of Bonnie and Clyde pair? Trying to avoid imprisonment or something”

Selena and I laugh, but it’s only half-hearted on my part because I still have no idea what Eliza is doing in my apartment, and why she’s saying she is coming to Quincy with us.

I step toward my stepmom and close my apartment door. “Not that I’m not thrilled to see you again—even though yesterday was kind of rough,” I explain. “But… what do you mean, ‘same flight to Quincy?’ Why are you going there?”

Even though I can tell she’s sad, she keeps an air about her that is light and casual. Probably because she is in front of a stranger and doesn’t feel comfortable being her normal self. She’s always putting on a show for people. I don’t know how she does it.

---