Chapter Five

Be our Christmas miracle

Samantha

I gasp and sit straight up in my bed. Wait…when did I get back to my apartment? My head shifts side to side as I blink quickly, looking around. Yep, my apartment.

Holy shit. I look at the clock on my nightstand: 8 pm.

It’s been two hours…I was at the office two hours ago.

This is what it must feel like to totally lose your mind because I know this is my place. I look over to the corner of my room…those are my shoes…my eyes land on the door of my room…and that’s my purse hanging around the knob.

But how did I get here…

Another quiet breath leaves me as ghost Reed comes to mind.

No, no, no, no… none of that can be real. I definitely hallucinated all of it. Him and Cole. Yeah. I pat my hands over my body as I think it, just as a reassurance all my thoughts are happening in real life.

“But it felt so real,” I whisper, remembering the last thing Reed said to me.

It’s never too late is a lie. Don’t let us get away, Sunshine. Be our Christmas miracle.

That familiar pit in my stomach sits there, hollowing me out as I hear those last two words—Christmas Miracle—over and over in my mind.

How can I be that for the five of us if I don’t even believe in them anymore? We went from amazing to awful in the span of months. I wanted my happily ever after. I wanted to marry the men of my dreams.

Until I had to choose one of them…just one to make it legally binding.

That’s when the jealousy began. The fighting started. That was our end. Love couldn’t conquer all. So I left them standing in that cabin staring at my back as I walked away.

And now I’ll never believe in the magic of Christmas because that’s when I stopped believing in love.

“Oh my god,” I groan, hopping off memory lane. “This is delusion by baked goods, not life reevaluation time. Get it together.”

I let out a heavy sigh and shove the covers off me before I stand from my bed.

But frankly, no matter how unreal the last two hours were, my brain is still trying to make sense of the night.

I can’t even remember how I got home. Did I drive? My eyes pop open as I hurry to my purse, searching for my keys, but come up empty.

So I got a ride…but from who?

I’m staring at nothing as I stand there trying to remember even a snippet of the missing two hours. My eyes narrow and my breath slows… there has to be something in there. But before I can explore every facet of my unreliable mind, my phone rings. And my shoulders hit my ears as I yelp and jump in my place.

“Shit!”

I grab my phone out of my purse, answering the villain of the hour.

“You drugged me.”

“Hey, girl, hey…” Eleanor answers trying to hide her laughter. “Calm down. That’s why I called…”

I cut her off. “To apologize? Because I’m sorry are the only words I’m interested in hearing come out of your mouth.”

She laughs again. I fume and my mouth readies to tell her that not only did I have an unholy night encounter with Cole but that I hallucinated Reed too, when she cuts in.

“Relax, you’re fine. You got the good fruitcake…the unfun one. Millie and the boys are happily tripping.”

 I frown. “Whaddayou mean?”

“What I said. Your dessert is fine as wine. It’s just the regular gross shit in a fruitcake.”

I’m shaking my head. “No…nope. That can’t be true…”

“Are you okay?”

I’m still shaking my head in answer even though she can’t see me. And my eyes are as wide as saucers. Holy shit. I’m fine? A panicked giggle escapes.

“Sam…hello? Are you okay? Mom wants to know what time you’re getting here.”

I can’t speak. What do I say? That I’m Ebenezer Screw’ged because I’m love fucked and have to find the meaning of Christmas? I think I preferred believing I lost my mind. There was at least an explanation for the headlines that will surely come when I’m running down the freaking street in a white bedgown and matching hat.

Oh my god.

“Samantha,” my sister presses.

But as she does, my head turns toward my bathroom. I’m not breathing because there’s steam coming from the cracked door. And the sound of water running makes me blink a hundred miles an hour.

“Dude, do I need to come over? Hello…are you dead?”

“No,” I finally breathe out as my heart starts to race. “I…I….”

“You…you…are you having a fucking stroke?”

“I have to take a bath…”

I don’t wait around to hear what she says as I hang up and drop my phone, talking to myself.

“There were four ghosts in A Christmas Carol…”

I take a tentative step forward….

“Marley, the boss…”

Cole.

“The ghost of Christmas past…”

Reed.

My hand touches the bathroom door as I slowly push it open and my eyes meet a familiar pair of hazel ones. His dimples flirt with me as he smiles and leans down turning off the bath.

“Hey, cutie.”

The ghost of Christmas present.

There’s a small intake of my breath before I answer.

“Hey, Jace.”