34. Mia
Chapter thirty-four
Mia
The next few hours are relatively quiet. We have The Grinch playing in the background, and mostly, other than asking for someone to pass something, we all sit at bar stools, measuring, cutting, grating and attempting to glue our gingerbread together with royal icing.
My hands shake as I focus on the painstaking task of piping individual tiny bricks onto the face of my gingerbread house. I have to wipe the icing off and redo it for a second, then a third time. Doing the prep this morning was perfect for taking my mind off the news I will be sharing, but now, I’m alone with my thoughts, stewing as I carefully pipe the hundredth minuscule brick. My stomach churns. Should I tell them now, while we’re building? Should I have done it earlier? Do I do it tonight over dinner?
I leave my piping bag and head upstairs to the bathroom. Maybe Will can help.
Mia
I’m panicking about how to tell everyone. I want to do it today, but I don’t know when.
No indication that the message has been read yet. I leave my phone on the bed while I go to the bathroom.
Will
right after gingerbread I reckon. I’ll be there for you. it’s going to be fine
I clutch my phone to my chest, hoping he’ll be proven right. It isn’t even as if I’m genuinely concerned that someone is going to be a jerk about it. But there’s no denying that it’s going to massively change parts of our friend group. I won’t just be Mia, anymore. I’ll be Mia, the rich friend. Mia, the one who runs the fucking resorts . Mia, the one who’s loaded. I don’t want to be that Mia. I just want to be the same old Mia I’ve been for the last thirty-two years.
But after that interaction with Tabloid Sam, as I’m now calling him, I don’t have many choices. My bargain with him has brought some me-time, but I have to tell them. If I don’t, someone is going to bring the article I promised Sam to one of my friends’ attention, and then, if I haven’t told them, I’d be Mia, the one who misled them about who I am for a year. And I can’t be her.
That’s it then. I’ll do it right after we finish our gingerbread houses. I can’t have it hanging over my head anymore.
I just hope I won’t regret it.
By the time I get back downstairs, The Grinch has been replaced with The Christmas Switch . The movie follows a princess who is about to get married, who switches place with a normal woman from Chicago.
We are nearly halfway through the second The Christmas Switch movie when both Matt and Will declare their houses ‘done’ and decide the rest of us have only half an hour to finish. Steph, Chloe and I frantically try to finish off our last bits and pieces.
The timer on the oven goes off. “Alright, tools down, please!” Matt shouts.
Chloe stretches her back. “Oof, I can’t bend like that for so long.” She puts her house next to Matt’s completed one. Matt’s creation is an elaborate modern building with a deck that is cantilevered off the side of the building, and carefully pinned in place by strategically placed structural toothpicks to take the weight of the gingerbread. He has made cute lopsided trees. Like we mentioned earlier, he has sprinkled them with jelly crystals and it looks like they are sparkling with ice.
“I feel like I placed a thousand of those stupid silver balls.” Steph shakes her hands, then stretches each individual finger.
Each house is so different from the others.
Steph’s looks like it’s out of a fairytale. It’s a much more ‘classic’ gingerbread house with a pointed roof, melted (and slightly burned) sugar-stained glass windows and cut licorice straps as tiles on the roof. Each window is outlined with tiny silver balls, stuck on with icing. You can tell she’s the artistic one of us, because hers is very polished.
“Those must have taken ages, Steph,” I say.
She nods. “Yeah, it was horrible, but once I had started, I couldn’t stop.” She tilts her head to the side and looks at it critically. “They look good, though. I like what you’ve done with those bricks.”
“Thanks. I wanted to go very classic, but then I ran out of time to decorate the rest.” I fold my arms in front of me to hide the shaking of my hands.
“I think it’s cute. Did you see Will built his pond?”
We wander to the other side of the kitchen island.
“Looks more like a swamp,” Matt says. “And is it falling down?”
“It’s rustic, ” Will replies. His house looks like a lean-to, but the detailed focus on the outdoor area makes up for it. He has used decorative, crushed gingerbread to make a path to the front door, lots of grass, a snowman on the lawn and even what he insists are reindeer but look more like three-legged goats to the rest of us.
“Chloe, yours turned out fantastic. I watched you cutting out those bits all day, and couldn’t figure out what you were doing, but this is so impressive,” Steph says.
Chloe’s creation is elaborate, like Matt’s—but even less of a house. She spent most of the afternoon cutting various, seemingly random shapes that none of us could piece together and had refused to tell us what she was building. In the last hour, as she assembled, it became clear that she was building the Eiffel tower, which is completely undecorated except for a jube siding off the very top of the tower.
Once we declare Matt the winner, we migrate onto the massive couch, taking the rest of our snacks with us. The room has cooled down, so Matt kneels by the fire, stacking logs to help heat the room.
I snag the remote on the way to my snuggly corner of the couch, pausing the movie once everyone is settled. I have to get this over and done with now, before I chicken out.
“Um, guys. I have some news.” Four faces turn to look at me. “You know how my birth parents died, and we visited that resort?” Blank nods all round, except from Will, who gives me an encouraging smile with his nod. “I didn’t tell you the whole story.”
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my breathing, my hands shaking in my lap. “I, uh, inherited that resort, or part of it. And some other resorts, too. I also inherited Craig’s share when he died.” The only sound is the crackle of the fire, popping away quietly.
“That’s got to be worth a shitload,” Matt breaks the silence, still crouched in front of the fireplace. I tuck my hair behind my ear, feeling a crunchy bit of royal icing stuck in the ends. I start to pick it out.
“Since Craig got injured, the resorts have been run by one of the other part owners, and by all accounts, they’ve been doing a shit job of it.” I clear my throat, then swallow hard. “I’ve taken six months off work to run the resorts myself.”
Chloe is nodding slowly, but says nothing. She’s sitting ramrod straight, staring at the paused TV, expression unreadable.
“That’s a big step, Mia. Did you consider hiring someone to run the place?” Steph asks, her voice gentle. She has a white fluffy blanket tucked over her knees. I let out a brittle laugh, shaking my head. A bit of the icing I hadn’t yet pulled out of my hair hits my cheek as my hair flows around my face.
“Yeah, no luck. None at all.”
“Well, I’m really proud of you, Mia. That’s a massive call. It must have been a very tough decision.”
“Thanks, Steph.” The tension in my chest eases. Steph being her usual empathetic self is the boost I need. I’m thankful she doesn’t bring up the awkward topic of how much money I am now worth. Maybe they care about it less than I do.
“So the plan is to go back to work when you’re able to find someone? Or now you’re presumably independently wealthy, you’ll just, what, live a life of leisure?” Matt is not too polite to bring it up. I catch a slight tinge of something in his voice. Irritation, perhaps? I wonder if he now realizes Will has been keeping this from him. I’d never asked him to, but I guess, in fairness, I had expected him to keep it to himself.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t take the full six months, but we’ll see, I guess. But then yes, I’ll be going back to work,” I say, trying to be firm. I can’t pretend I’m not disgustingly rich, but I want him to know I’m still me. “Will’s been great at helping with the planning I’ve done. It was a tough call deciding to take a break from work. I love my job, and I know absolutely nothing about running a resort. And you guys know me, throwing myself into a new situation with no skills and experience is my worst nightmare.” I hope I don’t sound whiney, even though I feel a bit like a good whine. I manage to get a tight smile from Chloe though, thank god.
“Well, that’s a big step. Good for you, Mia,” Matt says. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this is somehow better than my best-case scenarios. “I’m proud of you, Mia—” Matt turns to Will again. “—but we’re going to be having words later”
“You know you didn’t have to tell us this, if you didn’t want to, right?” Steph asks, concern creasing her brow.
I pause. I hadn’t planned on telling them about stupid Tabloid Sam and my promise for an exclusive interview. Why not? If I’m going to tell them, why not this part too? Get it all off my chest.
“Actually, if I didn’t tell you now, you’d find out at some point.” I explain the interaction with Sam, and how making a bargain for the future gave me the best opportunity to think about what I had to say, and hopefully get him to forget all about me. But if Sam knew who I was, it probably wouldn’t take a different journalist long to find me either.
“I’d hate for you to find out through some shitty article, but also, I didn’t want to pretend I was still going into the office every day,” I explain, relaxing as I speak. “Also, there’s going to be more travel with this job, so even though I’ll do my best to plan around it, there will be times I won’t be able to make it to quiz. And you’re my friends. I wanted you to know, I just needed some time to work through things.” Steph nods. God, what a relief to get this all off my chest.
“Alright, Mia, we get it. You’re loaded. Are we done? Are we ready to start the movie again?” Chloe’s voice is harsh. She turns her attention back to the TV. I wasn’t expecting any particular reaction from her; she’s the only one who hasn’t said anything until now. But I certainly wasn’t expecting that.
“That’s a pretty harsh way to speak to Mia, Chloe.” Steph is disappointed, rather than scolding.
“Are we done? I don’t want to talk about this.” Chloe turns back to the TV.
My elation dampens. What on earth is going on with her?