Chapter 2
TWO
TEN DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS
I don’t know why people think Valentine’s Day is the holiday of love and romance when clearly it’s Christmas. If it weren’t, would there be so many movies about this time of year that focus on falling in love and realizing how much you want to be with someone?
Copper Hill is one of those towns that come alive for the holidays.
It seems like everyone wants to visit a small town at Christmas, to walk the main street with a cup of coffee or cider as the snow falls around them.
They want to star in their own movie, hoping that they’ll bump into the Beta of their dreams when they both reach for the stained glass angel.
We don’t have many places to shop most of the year, but everyone told me the pop-up Christmas market always draws a crowd from nearby Syracuse. It’s my first Christmas here, and the sheer number of people who traveled to shop shocked me. Somehow, everyone in town downplayed the crowds.
“Come now, Clara, I’ve never seen someone so glum while wearing a sweater covered in tinsel,” Sylvia, my boss and the owner of Brew-tiful Days, teases, leaning against the counter beside me.
The shop name is a groan-worthy pun, but when I asked Sylvia about it, she asked me what the point was of owning a business if she didn’t get to be a little silly with it?
I look down at the ugly Christmas sweater I’m wearing today. “Yes, well, it was not my idea to wear tinsel. It is cruel and unusual punishment to make this my uniform for the month.”
“Blah blah. You’re young, beautiful, and unattached. That sweater won’t hinder your opportunity to find a nice Alpha to cuddle up with for the cold weather.” She pours a cup of hot apple cider from the urn beside me and slides it across the counter. “Let me live vicariously through you.”
I groan, burying my face in my hands. Not this again.
Sylvia is sure that an Alpha is what I need to improve my spirits. But as a Beta, having an Alpha never appealed to me. Why would I be with someone knowing that I would be ditched the moment they meet an Omega? And even if they didn’t find an Omega, how was I to go about managing a rut on my own?
No thanks.
But I can’t exactly say that to Sylvia. She had an Alpha that she loved, based on what she told me, and I don’t want to offend her.
When she hired me six months ago, she helped me out of a tough spot after my job laid me off.
I couldn’t afford my apartment in the city anymore, so when my best friend Felix, an Omega, suggested I move to Copper Hill and be his roommate, it was impossible to turn down.
“If not an Alpha, what about that Omega you live with, Felix? Are you sure he’s not your scent match?” Somehow, in a few short months, Sylvia has uncovered my biggest desire.
She maintains these romantic notions about scent matches because a friend of hers, Alex, whom she also helped during a rough time in her life, stumbled on her scent matches at the circus, of all places. She believes that if Alex found love there, anyone has a chance.
I’m surprised she opened up a coffee shop instead of a matchmaking agency.
“He’s on suppressants.” I don’t tell her how my stomach swoops when I think about the possibility. “Besides, we’ve been friends forever. If we were meant to be together, we’d know by now, wouldn’t we?”
She hums thoughtfully. “Maybe, maybe not. There’s only one way to find out.”
It’s not like I haven’t thought about it. While Beta and Omega scent matches are uncommon, I’ve heard of a few in my life. If I were to have a scent match, I’d want it to be Felix.
I love him. I always have.
We’ve been friends since college and have always gravitated toward one another from the moment we met.
He was playing hacky sack, wearing a hoodie that dwarfed him, and had a massive, gorgeous smile on his face.
I couldn’t look away. I had been staring at him for a minute or so when his eyes snapped to mine, and something told me I had to speak to him.
We ran toward one another, chatting like we’d known one another our whole lives. We’ve been friends since.
In the ten years I’ve known him, I’ve never been around him when he’s off suppressants.
And it’s not like I could ask him to go off of them for my sake.
What would I even say? “Hey, Felix, I’m in love with you, and I want to find out if we’re scent matches because all I can think about is being with you, and nothing else could ever be as right and as good as we could be.
But if we’re not scent matches, can you forget this ever happened so you can find your Alpha and leave me behind? ”
Because an Omega doesn’t need a Beta when they have an Alpha.
No, I’d better not. It’s easier to pretend that my soul doesn’t ache when lying in bed at night.
Why would he ever choose me? What do I have to offer him? I have no savings. I’m working part-time as a barista, and I don’t even have my own place to live. I add no value to his life.
“Do you want to head out early?” Sylvia asks, jarring me out of my thoughts. “It’s slow enough.”
I pull off my apron and fold it carefully. “Yeah, that’d be nice. Thanks, Sylvia.”
She waves off my thanks and pushes a to-go cup of cider into my hands. “Do me a favor, will you?”
I stifle my groan. I have a feeling I know what is coming, but I can’t brush her off.
“Sure. What’s that?”
“Ask for what you really want this Christmas. Not some gadget, or purse, or gift card. What you really, really want.”
What I want is to know is whether my best friend and I are meant to be together without ruining our friendship.
But I’d never ask for that.
“Clara? Is that you?”
“Who else would it be?” I call back, kicking my boots off. “No one else has a key.”
Felix pokes his head around the corner, his curly, honey-brown hair falling into his dark blue eyes. “Yeah, well, you’re not supposed to be home yet, so maybe you are a very polite robber or something.”
I follow the scent of pumpkin soup into the kitchen, wrapping my arms around Felix when he turns to me.
His knock-off cashmere sweater is soft under my cheek, a classy contrast to the ugly sweater Sylvia has mandated I wear for the entire month of December.
“Sylvia let me go early. The market was slow.”
Our kitchen is compact, but cozy. The apartment we share is a little dated, but I have never loved a place I’ve lived before as much as this one.
The cabinets have that ugly blonde wood that was once popular, and the appliances are yellowing white, but we’ve made it our own.
Right now, it’s decked out to the nines in Christmas decorations.
I’m not going to tell Felix he can’t string the garland and hang up the Candy Cane Lane signs he loves so much, even if they’re not to my taste. He smiles every time he sees them, which is good enough for me.
“That’s surprising. Isn’t it normally busy all the time right now? There are only ten days until Christmas.”
I reluctantly untangle myself from him. “Just an off day. I’m sure tomorrow it’ll be jam-packed with shoppers trying to finish up their lists before the parties start.”
He blushes and ruffles the back of his hair. “Speaking of parties…”
“Oh, is your company having one?”
Felix works for Copper Hill Construction, also known as CHC.
They’re the premier builder in the area, and that’s not just because they’re the only ones around.
The team frequently travels for those home makeover TV programs. That’s how good they are.
Why they settled here, I’ll never know, but hey, they employ a lot of people who would otherwise have to commute into the city.
He works in accounting on a small team of four. I also have it on good authority that he has a major crush on his boss, Gabriel, the CFO. He’s the only Alpha Gabriel has ever brought up to me.
“Yeah. I was wondering if you’d want to come with me?”
I’m not sure why he looks so nervous. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been his date to something. I attended his fraternity’s formal every year while we were in college. We always have fun together.
It’s one of the reasons I love him so much. I have never once felt uncomfortable around Felix. From the moment we met, he’s been the one person I know I can be myself around. I don’t feel the need to pretend to be someone I’m not.
“Absolutely! It’ll be the perfect opportunity for me to see if Gabriel is as hot as you say he is. Plus, I’ll need to make sure he’s good enough for my best friend.”
Felix blushes bright red and turns back to the stove, stirring the soup he’s been working on.
“You don’t need to do that. It’s not like anything could ever happen there.
” He sighs, and there’s a sadness there that I hate.
I know he’s got to be wanting an Alpha at this point in his life.
It’s instinctual for Omegas. “He’s good-looking, for sure.
He’s been weird lately, though. Katy jokes that he’s constantly on the edge of a rut. ”
“Oh, well, then maybe you need to stay away. You’re the hottest Omega in town. I doubt he could resist himself.” I lift myself onto the counter beside the stove, grabbing a spoon and stealing a taste of the soup. “Holy shit, this is so good. Your best batch yet.”
He looks at me out of the corner of his eye, the tips of his ears pink at my praise. “Yeah?”
“Absolutely. I’d eat this and only this for the entire month if I didn’t think I’d get scurvy.”
“Pumpkins have plenty of vitamin C. Scurvy is like, one of the few things you wouldn’t have to worry about eating only this for an entire month straight.” He grabs a clean spoon and tastes the soup. Apparently, he finds it lacking because he adds some maple syrup and grinds fresh pepper into it.
I move to dip my spoon back into the pot, and he pops the back of my hand with his wooden stirring spoon.
“No double dipping! That’s gross.”
“You don’t mind sharing my germs,” I tease.
A thoughtful foreign expression flashes across his face, but it’s gone before I can make sense of it.
“No, I suppose I don’t.”