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1 cup hazelnut butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg
½ cup chopped hazelnut
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CHRISTINA
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“TWO DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!” My dad yelled out the car window. “Two days!”
The people on the sidewalk cheered and danced at his words. One of them even pulled out a confetti gun and fired it into the air.
“Jesus ...” He shook his head, rolling up his window. “The people in this town really are fucking nuts.”
My mother playfully slapped the back of his head. “You’ve done that six times since we landed, George. I think that’s enough.”
I caught sight of my father’s face in the rearview mirror, knowing that he was going to do it at least two more times before we arrived at my house.
Since the moment they met Amy and me at the airport, I’d put on my best fake smile, deciding to hide my hurt for the rest of the holidays.
I knew it was silly to believe that what I had with Nathan was ‘something,’ or that talking to him for hours without missing a beat was what made him a perfect match. I knew that, and I still let myself think that this was my chance to finally become a heroine who gets a ‘happily ever after’ like the girls in the romance books.
He’d officially ruined it, and I was never talking to him again.
I should’ve known he was full of shit when he acted like he read romance ...
“I’m excited to see my girls.” My mother gushed from the backseat. “You two make me so proud! I’m also excited to see the certain new someone that you have in your life, Chrissie. Will we get to meet him?”
“Him who?”
“Nathan, the guy Amy told us about.” She smiled. “She says he’s practically your soulmate.”
“I didn’t necessarily say soulmate.” Amy shot me a quick “Sorry” look before steering the car down Main Street. “But I did say that you were supposed to act like you didn’t know anything about him until she brought him up herself.”
“Oh, hush.” My mother laughed. “Well, I’ll wait until he comes over for dinner and I’ll size him up for myself. In the meantime, do you think he’s the one, hon?”
I rolled down my window as we approached a group of people standing by a stop sign. “Two days until Christmas! Two days!”
They screamed like they’d just won the lottery, and the subject in the car was immediately changed to all the things that made the people of Cedar Falls “crazy.”
“Can you drop me off at my bakery?” I asked Amy. “I need to file a few things before we shut down for the holiday.”
“Absolutely.”
I kept a smile on my face until we made it to Sifted Perfection, promising not to work late after I stepped out of the car. But the moment I stepped inside the bakery, I damn near lost it.
You can bake Nathan out of your life, just like everyone else, Christina ... You can do it ...
Holding back tears, I pulled out my late grandmother’s recipe book and flipped straight to the “When Motherfuckers Break Your Heart” section.
As I was looking over my options, the last person I wanted to see walked through the doors. Looking sexy as always in his uniform, he walked right up to me.
“I’m not ringing up customers right now, sir.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’ll need to wait in line with everyone else.”
“I’m not here as one of your customers.”
“Then you have no reason to be here.” I hated that my body was reacting to him. “I don’t want to hear from you, see you, or deal with you. I also deleted that recording we made, so you won’t be able to blackmail me into going back to you this time.”
He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“The door to leave is behind you, Officer Benson.” I crossed my arms. “Merry Christmas.”
“Christmas is two days from now.”
“Isn’t it wonderful!” A customer walked in right as he said those words, shaking the bells around her neck. “I can’t wait for it to get here!”
We both gave her a blank stare, and one of my associates moved to take her order.
“I need you to explain what the hell has happened between the last time I saw you and right now,” he said. “And I’m not leaving until you do.”
“So, after I tell you, will you leave?”
“Depends on how good your reasoning is.”
“Fine.”
He followed me into my private kitchen and shut the door. “What happened to you showing up for the flight to New York? To you inviting me over to spend time with your family when they landed?”
“I’m not letting you meet them ever.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you’re just another asshole, and I hate that I’ve already slept with you.” I opened a drawer and pulled out a glittery red envelope—tossing it to him. “After we left the resort and I bought all your bullshit about liking me—
“I do like you.” He interrupted.
“Yeah, whatever.” I shook my head. “I decided that I wanted to try to pay you back for some of the nice things you’ve done for me, decided to try and be a really good friend.”
“Girlfriend.”
I ignored him. “So, a few days ago, I went down to The Wish Tree and stole your ornament right when they were closing. I figured I could get a few things for you, but you’ve already gotten everything you wanted. So, fuck you, and Merry Christmas.”
He raised his eyebrow, looking confused. As he opened the envelope, I shook my head at the words I’d read several times already.
1. Wish One. Fuck a random woman in Cedar Falls. Six months has been too long to go without fucking ...
2. Wish Two. If the sex is good, fuck the same woman a few more times, but no more than a few. (This shit can’t last for longer than a month.)
3. Wish Three. Fuck a different random woman in Cedar Falls. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
He looked at the list for all of five seconds before crumpling it and tossing it into the trash. Then he had the audacity to smile.
“You know,” he said. “This is a perfect example of the number one issue I have with certain heroines in the romance books.”
“Not wanting to be a doormat for the hero isn’t an issue.”
“Failing to communicate with him is.” He smiled. “You couldn’t have texted me and asked me about this? Accepted one of my phone calls and told me that this was bothering you?”
“Are you seriously blaming me for the words you wrote?”
“I never wrote any of those words,” he said, stepping closer. “And I know we’ve only known each other for a short while, but do I honestly seem like the type of person who would participate in a goddamn Wish Tree tradition?”
“Yes.”
“No.” He brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “I specifically recall us discussing how I didn’t participate when we were riding to the resort ...”
“Maybe you were lying.” I shrugged. “All types of people want to win ten thousand dollars and a week at a luxury resort.”
“I just spent a week in a luxury resort with you,” he said. “And if I wanted to win that badly, I would’ve found a way to cheat the night I broke into the Plaza and stole your wish ornament. Don’t you think?”
I stared at him.
“My brother was with me when I broke in that night.” He paused. “He filled one out under my name and sealed it without showing it to me. I didn’t think anything of it.”
“Even if I wanted to believe you—”
“You do believe me.” He smiled. “Nonetheless, I apologize for letting him seal it without reading it first.” He clasped my hands. “But I really wish you would’ve talked to me about this instead of just ignoring me. We could’ve had way more dates by now.”
“You’re saying ‘dates’, when you really mean sex.”
“Yes.” He ran his fingers through my hair. “I really do like you, and I do think we’re damn near a one hundred percent match.”
“Damn near?”
“We’ll be a perfect match after you go a few years learning how to communicate better than the romance heroines.”
“What makes you think we’ll last longer than one year?”
“I can’t see myself ever letting you go,” he said, pressing his forehead against mine. “I honestly can’t.” He pressed his lips against mine, kissing me slow and senseless, making me forget why I was ever upset.
When he let me go, I looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you about the list first.”
“Don’t be. Am I still allowed to come join your family for dinner?”
“Maybe.”
“Why is it a maybe?”
“Depends on how well the make-up sex goes.” I smiled and he pushed me against the wall.
“I can deal with that,” he said, kissing me all over again. “Did you really delete that recording?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Would you like to make another one?”
“Yes...”
“Now or after Christmas?”
“Now.”