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She moved to the tree and started taking off the ornaments. What had she been thinking? People like Simon, they hired people to decorate their trees with the finest decorations that probably cost more than her annual salary.
“I hope you’re hungry...” Simon’s words faded away as he spotted her dismantling the decorations. He set the pizza box on the coffee table and moved next to her. “Hey, what are you doing? Rearranging the ornaments? I wasn’t sure where to put them.”
“I’m taking it down.”
“Down?”
She nodded. Her emotions were rising. She remembered what it was like back in school when she’d tried to fit in with the other girls. Her mother had found her some stylish clothes at the thrift store. In the end, it turned out they had been donated by one of the rich girls. The blouse had tiny initials on the cuff—the girl’s initials. Pepper had never been so devastated.
This was another of those moments when she was trying to fit in. And there was absolutely nothing she could do to fit into Simon’s world. He might as well live on Mars, that’s how far apart their realities were.
Her fingers trembled as emotions both new and old coursed through her. Simon placed a hand over hers, stopping her from removing yet another ornament.
“Pepper, talk to me. What’s wrong? I know I was hesitant about the tree in the beginning, but I thought we had a good time decorating it.”
She concentrated her gaze on his long fingers draped over hers. “I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have forced this tree on you. You don’t want it.”
He clasped his hand with hers. She relaxed her hand within his. It felt natural for them to be holding hands. When did that happen?
His fingers tightened as he led her to the couch. She didn’t want to sit down. She knew he was going to want to talk things out, and then she was going to appear even sillier than she already felt.
“Pepper.” He paused as though waiting for her to look at him.
She didn’t want to face him. The heat of embarrassment was already lapping at her cheeks. Still, she wasn’t a wimp. Even when the other kids had made fun of her, she’d stood her ground. As badly as their words had hurt, she’d stood there and faced them down. Why should she do any different now?
And so with all the willpower she could muster, she turned her head until her gaze met Simon’s. “We don’t need to talk about this. I’ll just get rid of the tree and things can go back to the way they we
re.”
“What if that’s not what I want?”
“What?” Surely she hadn’t heard him correctly. “You can’t mean you want the tree.”
“Actually, I think I do.”
He did? Wait. She was missing something.
“Just a few hours ago, you were telling me it had to go. Now you’re telling me it has to stay?” Her gaze searched his as she tried to figure out his abrupt change of mind. “Simon, what’s going on?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been holding on to my resentment of the past for too long.”
“You resented Christmas?” Who resents Christmas? It’s the best time of the year.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “What can I say? I’m unusual.” His gaze turned back to the tree. “So what do you say? Can we keep the tree?”
She didn’t know when this had all gotten so turned around, but somewhere along the way their roles had gotten mixed up. She followed his gaze to the tree. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, after all.
“I suppose I could get some more ornaments for it,” she said.
“You know, I just might be able to help you with that.”
“What? How?”
He headed out of the living room. She followed, having no idea what he was up to now. He headed down the hallway. He stopped outside a closed door. He opened it and flipped on the light.
She glanced inside, finding stacks of cardboard boxes. “What is all of this?”
“Things that were given to me—mostly by my mother. I didn’t know what to do with all of the stuff so I put it in here to deal with later.” He started opening boxes. “When I first moved in, I remember her bringing over Christmas decorations.”
