Page 10 of The Holiday Boyfriend

I shot him a grateful smile before chugging down the entire glass. I drove my taxi to the bar, but if tonight went as planned, I’d find someone to go home with.

The glass settled back on the table with a light clank, and I found my friends staring at me with wide eyes. “Rough day?” Levi asked as he filled my glass up again. I didn't chug it this time but played with the handle instead.

Rough didn't even begin to describe it. The problem was that it hadn't even been a bad day. On the contrary, Jim's thoughtful gesture had my entire body covered in sweet tingles. The issue lay in the fact that his actions were getting my hopes up, and I knew how that would end.

Heartbreak.

I didn't know how to explain my thoughts to Levi, so I gave him a one shoulder shrug as a reply before turning to Felix. “How's the packing going?” I asked, trying to change the topic off from me.

Felix seemed to take the hint and went into detail about all the random tasks he had to do before his move and the cute little cottage he rented that was to be his new home for the foreseeable future.

“Wait, let me get this straight. You're moving from one small winter town to another?” Levi asked with an incredulous expression on his face.

I was giving Felix a similar look. Most folks who moved out of town went off to bigger and better cities, not a town that could have been a carbon copy of ours. What was even the point of moving, then?

Felix didn't look phased. He took a sip from his glass and said with a shrug, “I like the small-town life, but I need a change and not much change comes to Wintertown.”

Ain't that the truth?

The only thing that changed here was the season and different tourists that went through our town. Even though we had a lot of the same people coming round every year to enjoy the winter festival the town hosted.

“Plus, I don't want to stay single forever, and there's no chance of me finding someone here. All the men in town only see me as the town's angel baby, and that's not a good thing when I'm trying to get laid,” Felix groaned as his shoulders drooped.Levi and I gave him sympathetic smiles.

From what I heard through the rumor mill, his parents had struggled with getting pregnant for years before Felix came along. They considered him their miracle baby, and being born the day after Christmas, he truly became their Christmas miracle.

With Felix's blond curls that framed his soft face and baby blue eyes, he was the vision of an angel, and somewhere along the lines, a rumor started that those blessed by the angelic baby would obtain happiness. The entire thing got blown out of proportion to the extent that Felix was dubbed “angel baby” and photos of him as a baby in a diaper and fake angel wings were used as promotion to draw people to town.

That was all years ago before any of us at the table even knew how to speak, and Felix had since then tried to erase all the images and rumors that circled around him, but as they said, the internet was forever. Pictures of him in a diaper still made their way on our town's newspaper every so often.

“That's why I need a fresh start, to reinvent myself,” he said with sparkling eyes.

“Here's to that,” Levi said and raised his glass.

“Cheers,” Felix and I said as we raised our drinks. We clinked our glasses before draining the contents. Noticing that our pitcher was empty, I flagged down a waiter to order another one. Tonight was a night of celebration of new beginnings and to forget the troubles that had been haunting me all day.

“Speaking of men,” Levi leaned into me and said, “your ex has had his eyes on you this entire time.”

I peeked back to the bar where Jared was sitting earlier and found his eyes still on me. He smiled when he caught me looking, and I quickly moved my gaze back to our table.

Levi laughed and flung an arm around my shoulder. “You know what they say, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else,” he said.

I felt the tips of my ears burn. Felix snickered at his comment, which only made the heat travel down to my cheeks as well. It had to be the two beers I'd downed on an empty stomach. The goal tonight was to get drunk, not shitfaced.

I waved down our waiter again and ordered some appetizers for the table. Alcohol paired best with greasy foods.

Levi took my silence as me needing more encouragement, so he continued, “I heard Jared hasn't dated seriously since he broke up with you. Do you think he's hung up on you? Maybe you two could reconnect?”

I flung my head at Levi with surprise. While there was no such thing as secrets in town, I made it a point to not keep track of what my exes were up to. This was my first time hearing that Jared had stayed single all these years.

“No way,” I said, waving off his words. “It was a mutual separation. We both knew it was going nowhere. He probably stayed single ‘cuz there aren't many options in town.”

“And to add on to your point, isn't that exactly the same reason why it's a good idea to give it another shot? You've been single for years, and I don't see anyrealoptions beside you either,” Levi said with a pointed look.

I got his hint. He knew about my one-sided crush on Jim from me drunkenly admitting it the first time in the pub. Through the years, he witnessed the lack of progress I made with either confessing my feelings or moving on from them, so I knew this was his way of encouraging me to move on.

The problem was, how did one move on from the love of their life? All my troubles would be solved if I had the answer to that, but I didn't. So instead, I poured myself a glass from the new pitcher of beer the waiter had dropped off and drained it in one gulp again.

Levi and Felix cast worried glances towards me, but I ignored them and refilled my glass before raising it. “We're supposed to be celebrating Felix's brand new start.” I turned to focus my attention on him. “We're gonna miss you around here.”

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