Chapter 29
Sunday, December 23
After what felt like the longest night of my life, I woke up in my childhood bedroom in Pineville, immediately checking my phone to see if Marco had called or sent a message. Closing in on twenty-four hours after I’d gone to Dessert Dudes and everything had so spectacularly blown up in my face, my cell remained stubbornly silent.
Late last night, I’d sent Marco the pictures I’d taken of the bank and credit card statements, wishing I hadn’t let Vince snatch the Floral Reef invoice from me because otherwise I’d have included that, too. Maybe I’d call the florist and request another copy via email and send it to Marco in a few days if I still hadn’t heard from him. I needed him to have all the facts so he could work through everything.
Whereas the trouble caused by my kiss with Joe…well, I couldn’t solve that so easily. I technically hadn’t done anything wrong—Marco and I weren’t in a relationship at that point—but I could see why he was upset. Had the situation been reversed, I would’ve been, too, if I’d found out he’d kissed someone right before seeing me. Before we opened up to each other and finally agreed to give us a shot. Now, realizing how deeply I cared for Marco, the idea of losing him entirely felt like my heart was being ripped to shreds, and I couldn’t stop the fat tears from rolling down my cheeks.
Curling up beneath my duvet, I wished Dazey were snuggled here with me. Yesterday afternoon I’d given her a pat and said goodbye, and when Anita had asked me to reconsider my decision to leave for Pineville two days early, I’d refused.
After packing a bag, I’d set off, and with the traffic and a quick stop for food, the eight-hour trip took closer to nine. I called my parents to let them know I was on my way and, unsurprisingly, they’d both waited up, worried about me.
As soon as I’d arrived, Dad had taken my bag out of my hands and hung my jacket in the hallway closet. “How was the drive?” he asked.
Long. Lonely. Filled with many questions I didn’t have answers to. “Good, thanks.”
“Why did you come alone?” Mom said, her motherly instincts and intuition going into overdrive as she guided me to the living room, where she pressed a mug of hot cocoa into my hands. “Did you and Anita have a fight?”
“Kind of.” I sighed as I leaned back on the sofa.
Mom raised her eyebrows. “Callie, a small argument doesn’t warrant driving hours into the night. Tell us what’s going on.”
“Is she still coming for Christmas?” Dad asked.
“I think so,” I answered.
Discomfort at the realization that our tiff could spoil the holidays had slinked around my belly. Anita was supposed to come to Pineville after the weekend. As I’d driven here, I’d wondered if I should call her but wasn’t ready to take that first step.
Once again, I’d tamped down the rising frustration I felt toward my sister for meddling in my life since the beginning of the month—and long before that. However, if I was being honest with myself, I was more frustrated with how I’d handled things with Marco.
In hindsight, I knew I shouldn’t have rushed to Dessert Dudes but spoken to him privately, laying out the information for him to digest and deal with as he saw fit. As unlikely as it seemed, the slightest possibility remained that Vince had been telling the truth about everything. I should’ve given Marco the facts, time, and opportunity to investigate things properly himself.
“Want to share what’s going on?” Dad asked gently, interrupting the debate that raged inside my head. “Maybe we can help you sort through things.”
I took a deep breath, gathering my thoughts. “Anita’s been pushing me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful she organized the Advent calendar challenge for me, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
“I’m glad,” Mom said, rubbing my back. “She wanted you to find your spark again. She’s been worried about you. We all have.”
“I appreciate that,” I replied. “Except, well, she’s become a bit overbearing.”
Mom looked at Dad, then back at me. “I’m getting the impression you’re not only talking about Anita now, are you?”
I hesitated before shaking my head. “You have a little, too, if I’m being completely truthful. About Oliver. Anita was trying to get me here for the holidays, but I felt so embarrassed about him dumping me. That was part of the reason why I didn’t want to come.”
“Are you serious?” Dad said. “You have nothing to feel embarrassed about. He’s the one who royally messed up the best thing he ever had.”
“Your father’s right,” Mom agreed gently. “We had no idea you felt this way.”
“We only pushed for you two to get back together because we thought Oliver was who you wanted to spend the rest of your life with,” Dad said.
“Exactly,” Mom continued. “You were so upset by the breakup. Anita said there were days when she thought you might not get out of bed. That’s why I’ve been trying to fix things.”
“I don’t need or want them fixed,” I said. “Yes, I was devastated, but I worked hard to get over him. Oliver isn’t who or what I need anymore, but it seemed like you didn’t want me to move on from him because you so badly wanted us to get back together.”
Mom put her arm around my shoulder. “Callie, all I want for you is to be happy, and if that isn’t with Oliver, so be it.”
“You’re not mad at me or disappointed that things didn’t work out?” I asked.
“No, darling, of course not,” she said. “I was disappointed for you, sad that you had to go through all that heartbreak. I can’t stand the thought of you being hurt.”
“I’m okay with what happened now,” I said. “I promise.”
As she pulled me in for another hug, I finally felt all the guilt of my failed relationship with Oliver crash to the floor. I took another long breath. “In other news…I met someone a couple of weeks ago.”
“Did you?” Mom said.
“Anita didn’t say?”
“Not a peep,” Dad replied.
“His name’s Marco. I really like him.”
“That’s great, honey,” Mom said. “In that case, we can’t wait to meet him.” Dad gave Mom a not-so-subtle look, and she quickly added, “When you’re ready, of course.”
If they ever meet , I thought. I had no idea where Marco and I stood, but as my shoulders sagged and I rubbed my eyes, I didn’t want to elaborate on what had happened. It was too complicated, and I was beyond exhausted.
Not much later, I’d crawled into bed and closed my eyes, surrounded by my Nick Jonas posters on the walls. Another thirty seconds, and I’d already fallen asleep.
It was almost 10 a.m. on Sunday now, so I got up, brushed my teeth, and tamed my curls before heading to the kitchen. Dad stood at the island, grating chocolate, while Mom was at the kitchen table, hands plunged into a bowl of dough.
“Morning,” I said, incredibly happy to see them.
“Hello, sunshine.” Dad gave me a hug. “How are you feeling?”
“Great,” I replied. “Need help with the Meyer bash preparations?”
“That would be lovely.” Mom wiped her hands on her apron as she picked up what looked like a to-do list. “Let’s see…I’m running behind on party favors. I was thinking small cookie bags.”
“How about I make batches of Mail?nderli?”
Dad’s face lit up. “Now you’re talking. Double the amount so there’s plenty for me.”
“Can you pick up the supplies?” Mom asked.
“On it,” I said. “I’ll have breakfast and go to the store. Maybe it’ll clear my head a bit more. Thanks again for the talk last night. It really helped.”
An hour later, armed with a grocery list longer than my arm because Mom had added a dozen things, I drove into town. Odd how barely over three weeks ago I’d dreaded being in Pineville in case I ran into people I knew and they asked about Oliver and me. Now, when the grocery store’s cashier, who was a friend of Mom’s, told me how sorry she was to hear about the breakup, I replied with a truthful, “Thanks, but I’m completely okay.”
As I got back home and parked in the driveway, I was about to retrieve the bag of groceries from the trunk of my car when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Glancing over at next door’s yard, I expected to see Ursula or Quentin, but instead it was Oliver disappearing into their old boat-shaped tree house, alone.
I wasn’t sure if he and Sarah were planning on coming to the party tomorrow, but I decided to deliver an in-person invitation so he knew the offer was sincere. After closing the trunk of the car, I walked to the ladder and climbed up, popping my head into the tree house when I reached the top rung.
Oliver sat against the wall with his eyes closed, his jacket wrapped around his middle, and a dark green woolen hat pulled over his ears.
“Permission to come aboard?” I said.
Startled, he turned to me. “Callie? I didn’t expect to see you in town.”
“Is this a bad time?” I asked. When he shook his head, I climbed all the way up and sat cross-legged on the dusty floor next to him, like I used to when we were kids. “How are you? Where’s Sarah?”
“She’s…not here,” he said.
“Is she out, or arriving tomorrow or something?”
He shook his head and exhaled slowly. “We broke up.”
I could’ve sworn the world stopped spinning for a moment, and all I managed was a whispered, “Oh.”
“Friday night.”
“What happened? You seemed so happy together and…” I stopped, watching as Oliver opened and closed his mouth, so I rushed on with, “It’s none of my business. I didn’t mean to—”
“I broke off the engagement.”
“What? Why?”
Oliver took another deep breath and exhaled it all in one go. “A few days ago, Sarah said, and I quote, she felt I was pretending to be someone I’m not.”
I remembered how odd he’d seemed at Lions Valley Park when I’d bumped into them while sledding with Marco, and the feeling I’d had that he was putting on an act for Sarah’s benefit. “Do you think she was right?” I asked. “Were you pretending?”
He looked at me, gave me the smallest of nods. “She thought I liked golf, adored classical music, and loved to travel. I bet you know how none of those are true.”
“Surely you didn’t break off your engagement because of Chopin and a trip to Bali?” I said, trying to ease some of the tension, but Oliver just stared at me.
“Not exactly,” he replied. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and especially since you left Whitlock & Blake. Gutsy move, by the way.”
“Thank you.”
“I need to tell you something.” Oliver’s blue eyes stared straight into mine. “I’m sorry for what I did to you, for all the hurt I caused.”
“I know. You already apologized and—”
“What I said wasn’t enough,” he cut in. “I have no excuse for breaking your heart, not a single one. I did some soul-searching recently and realized my real problem, the reason I was so unhappy toward the end of our relationship, was that I’d become bored in Pineville.”
“Bored?”
“Yes, with my job, my life.”
“With me?” I asked gently.
“At the time I thought so, yes.” He winced at the admission. “Everything seemed routine and mundane. When I got the promotion and transfer to Fallbrook, I hoped it would solve the problem. Except when we arrived, I couldn’t shake the feeling we’d already turned into our parents at not yet thirty. It freaked me out.”
“And when Sarah came along, all different and shiny and bright…”
“I pretended to be someone I’m not because I didn’t want to be me.” He reached for my hand. “The thing is, I’ve never had to pretend with you. We’ve known each other since we were kids, but like I told you the other day, you seem different. Still you, but confident and strong. You’re amazing. Exactly the girl I fell in love with all those years ago.”
“Well, I—”
“I made the wrong decision,” Oliver blurted. “You’re the person I need, Callie. That’s why I left Sarah. Please say you’ll forgive me because you’re the one I want. You get me. You’re my anchor.”
If he’d told me this six months ago, I’d have lost myself in a familiar, safe embrace. It would’ve been so easy. We had history, were comfortable together, knew each other’s likes and dislikes, idiosyncrasies and habits. Oliver represented security, stability, but as he leaned in, I put my hand on his chest.
“The thing is, I can’t be your anchor,” I said, gently pushing him back. “And I don’t want you to be mine. I want to sail toward new horizons and keep discovering who I am, no matter how many storms I have to navigate my way through.”
“What?” Hurt and disbelief laced his voice. “We belong together. Everyone has always insisted were a—”
“Foregone conclusion?” I asked, shaking my head. “For a while, I thought the same thing but then I realized we get to decide that. Not them. And if I’m being true to myself, it isn’t what I want.”
“Oh, I see.” He shifted his body around and dropped his head a little, his expression sadder than ever. “Is it because of your friend, that Marco guy?”
I shook my head. Truth was, I hoped Marco might join me on my adventures, but if he couldn’t take this journey with me, I had the confidence to manage on my own. “You’ll find your way, Oliver. Maybe you need time to figure stuff out, like I did.”
I patted his hand before whispering a goodbye and climbing down the tree house ladder with the absolute certainty that I was, at last, leaving all my regrets and sadness about the demise of our relationship behind.
—
Later in the evening, once my delicious Mail?nderli party favors had been carefully packed into little paper bags and I’d helped Mom and Dad make half a dozen other dishes, I went to my room, where I planned on wrapping the gifts I’d brought for my family.
When I opened my bag and lifted out some clothes, I spotted an item I didn’t recognize—a package covered in the familiar glittery green Grinch paper, the number 23 written on it in silver pen. My last Advent calendar treat, which Anita must’ve snuck into my things before I’d left Fallbrook.
When I tore off the paper, I saw a small, purple velour–covered album with the word FAMILY written on the front in gold glitter pen. As soon as I opened the cover and turned a page, I sank onto my bed. Anita had printed old photographs, each of them taken on the days we’d crafted the decorations that now hung on the Charlie Brown tree in our apartment, and filled the album.
Mom was in the first photo, holding a clothespin painted green, with me sitting next to her wielding a brush, our smiles ten feet wide. In another, Dad sat with Anita, who stuck out the tip of her tongue as she painstakingly glued googly eyes onto a wine cork destined to become a reindeer’s head.
Page after page was filled with images of our childhood, including the one of me writing my Christmas list, which included the infamous date with Nick Jonas. I couldn’t believe she’d done this for me on top of everything else. Even after our argument, she’d slipped this final gift into my bag.
As I cradled the precious item in my arms, the warmth in my heart spread across my entire body. I couldn’t stay mad at Anita, not after this, and I finally decided on how I could repay her—in part, at least—for my wonderful Christmas countdown, which had given me so much more than I’d ever expected.
After bringing up the details of the ice-climbing adventure company she’d hinted at for weeks and perusing their offerings, I purchased a day pass for each of us. This would be my closely guarded secret right up until Christmas morning, and I couldn’t wait to see the look of astonishment on Anita’s face.
First though, I had to ensure she was coming to Pineville. I wanted to put everything behind us and have a long-overdue family Christmas, like we used to, all of us together. With a smile on my face as I tapped on Anita’s number, I pressed the phone to my ear and waited for her to pick up.