29. Nova
29
NOVA
I was still on the phone with Veronica when there was a knock on my door.
“Hey, hold on a minute. Somebody’s pounding on my door.” I tossed the phone on the bed and yelled, “Give me a second!” as the pounding continued.
I put my feet back into the fuzzy slippers, which were slightly warmer and therefore more comfortable this time, and found a robe to wrap around me. Whoever was on the other side of the door was going to have to get me with my hair the way it was.
I practically stumbled my way through the apartment. The smell coming from the kitchen was still there. Maybe I needed to take the garbage out. It looked like I was going to have to spend a good part of my Christmas morning cleaning the kitchen.
The knocking continued.
“Yes, yes. Give me a second.” I looked through the small peephole and only saw the top of someone’s hat. It didn’t give me enough to go on, but the hat somehow looked familiar.
I was too tired to think clearly to ask who it was, so I pulled the door open.
“Surprise!”
I stood in shock as Veronica smiled and danced in front of my door. Of course, the hat looked familiar. I had just seen it on her head.
“Well, aren’t you going to say anything?” she asked.
I reached out and pulled her into a hug. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“The boyfriend whisked me away for a white Christmas, and he did not disappoint.”
“He whisked you here? How did he know?”
“I had to see you. It wouldn’t be Christmas otherwise, and I knew you weren’t coming home, and your parents certainly weren’t going to come up and see you.”
“So you came to me for Christmas?” My eyes started tearing up. “I can’t believe this.”
My heart felt warm and wrapped in love. Whoever said platonic love wasn’t real didn’t have a best friend like Veronica. I hugged her again, rocking back and forth, almost violently in exuberance.
“Come in, come in, come in. It’s too cold out there.” I stepped back, tugged on her arm to drag her into the apartment. She followed, and I closed the door.
“Sorry about the smell. I haven’t been able to figure out what it is. I’ve barely been home the past few days. We had a huge snowstorm.”
I hastened to straighten up my small living room and give her a place to sit. Not that my living room was a mess. I hadn’t spent much time at home. I pretty much spent all day with Bryan and Amelia and only came home to sleep.
“The phone!” I ran into my bedroom and picked up my phone, showing it to Veronica as I turned it off and ended the phone call that was still connected.
“Very clever,” I said. “What are your plans for the day?” My mind was completely blown and not certain what to do next. Veronica was here.
“I don’t have any food,” I practically cried. I was overwhelmed and so happy.
“That’s fine. We can go out,” Veronica said.
“I’m so happy you’re here. Tell me, how did he know to bring you here?”
“When I told the boyfriend I missed you, he suggested why not come up for Christmas day?”
“But last minute tickets had to be expensive.”
Veronica pressed her hands to her chest, one on top of the other. “Apparently, he made travel plans as soon as I told him you weren’t coming home. He let me think that this was my big, bright idea, but he had it planned for a few weeks.”
I sighed. How sweet. “That would explain why your mom wasn’t so mad at you?”
“Right, because she knew I was coming to see you.”
“Oh, my God, Veronica, you’re the best. I should get changed, and then we can go. Wait a minute—” I stopped. “You’re engaged!”
She nodded. “Uh-huh.”
“Let me see the ring.” I lunged for her hand as she held it out.
The ring was even prettier and threw more sparkles than it had over the phone. “This is so beautiful. Let me get dressed, and then I guess we can go back to your hotel and pick up the boyfriend, I mean fiancé,” I corrected. “And then we can figure out what to do. It’s still really early, though. I don’t know if anybody would be open for coffee.”
“Why don’t you get dressed? I’ll make some coffee, and I’ll let him in.”
“What do you mean, let him in?” Did we leave him standing outside?” I had opened the door and yanked her into the apartment, not noticing somebody else out there.
“He’s sitting in the car,” she admitted.
“Bring him in, bring him in! I can’t believe you’re here.” I was so excited. I gave her another hug before I dashed into my bedroom and closed the door.
My plans of not brushing my hair would have to wait for another day. It was such a mess. There was no way I was going to get a brush through it unless I had a ton of conditioner in it. I cracked open the door and yelled out, “Hey, Veronica, I’m gonna take a quick shower so I can get a brush through my hair.”
“Okay, you do what you need to,” she called back.
I closed the door and immediately jumped in the shower. I gasped as cold water hit my skin. I didn’t expect the water to be that cold. The hot water was usually pretty good in the building. I loaded my hair up with conditioner and began running a wide tooth comb through it, working out the knots. It really was in bad shape, and this was going to take a while. Once I got my hair completely combed out, I finished my shower. I wrapped up in towels and threw my bathrobe back on before heading back into my bedroom.
I could hear a second, deeper voice through the closed door. I didn’t pay any attention to the words being said. I was finally going to meet the secret boyfriend. I guess I was going to have to start calling him the fiancé now, and then after the wedding, I would refer to him as the husband.
I was going to meet him now, and he was going to have a name. This was so weird. I was finally going to have a face and a name to go with Veronica’s boyfriend.
I pulled out my clothes before returning to my bathroom so I could dry my hair. I wasn’t worried about any kind of style. I dried it and brushed it straight.
I was more concerned about it being full of rats’ nests and knots than it looking pretty. As soon as it was mostly dry, I braided it for the safest style for wooly cap wearing. I threw on my clothes and stepped out.
Veronica was sitting on my ratty sofa, and her fiancé had his back to us in the kitchen. Veronica gave me a tooth bearing grin.
“Nova, I want you to meet my fiancé.” She sounded nervous.
I figured it was her finally realizing the importance of this moment, the best friend meeting the fiancé. I was so excited, and I wasn’t the one engaged or getting married or…
“David? What the fuck?” I stared at the man in my kitchen. The man who I had never wanted to see again. “What the fuck?” I repeated. “Why are you in my kitchen? Veronica, why is David here?” I spun to face her.
“Well,” Veronica started.
“No, no.” I shook my head. This could not be right. My blood pressure skyrocketed. I could hear the pounding of my heart in my ears as if I had run a marathon. I had a hard time catching my breath. My chest clenched. This was all wrong.
“You know what he did to me. Don’t you even care?”
She opened and closed her mouth a few times like a koi fish.
“There is nothing you can say. I can’t believe this. I cannot believe this! You need to go. You need to go now!”
“Nova, would you just listen to her?” David asked.
“You don’t get to talk to me. You shouldn’t even be here. Oh, my God, I didn’t think I needed a restraining order.” I turned my wrath on Veronica. She knew all of the details of the pain David had put me through. “You let him come into my apartment! You let him know where I lived. I had to move states to get away from him, and you brought him here!” I stormed across the small space and pulled open my front door. “Get out! Get out now!”
“You’re still a bitch,” David insulted me as he walked out.
I grabbed Veronica’s arm and shook her to a halt as she walked in front of me. “You knew he cheated on me. I cannot believe you were willing to listen to him in any way. He’s gonna cheat on you. How long after we broke up did you get together? I can’t believe you’re engaged to him.” I was so angry I couldn’t see straight.
“Nova,” Veronica started. Her tone wasn’t abashed. She was actually talking down to me. “He’s been the secret boyfriend all along.”
“No, the secret boyfriend was supposed to be different guys you’ve been dating. You said none of them were good enough for any of us to meet. You started dating the secret boyfriend when David and I were…” Realization dawned on me. Veronica must have thought I was such an idiot. “He was cheating on me with you, and you pretended to be my friend.”
“I wasn’t pretending. I am your friend.”
“No friend would do this to me. I never want to see you or talk to you again. Go away.”
She walked away, and my world came crashing in on me. My best friend had betrayed me and tried to bring the man who hurt me the most back into my life. The man I wanted didn’t want me back. It was Christmas, and I didn’t have a Christmas tree or presents, and my apartment smelled funny.
I couldn’t do this anymore. I collapsed in on myself and wished everything and everyone would go away.