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Wow, yeah, math was not my strong suit. “This is amazing. This is the best day of my life. I can’t believe you— Wait.” I frowned. “If your mystery lover is Ms. Cummings, then how did you get hurt…in the butt?”
“Pegging, Fran.”
I slapped my hands down on the table and rose halfway from my chair, turning slightly, then whirling back to face him. “No.”
“Sit down.”
I sat, but probably not as quickly as he would have liked. “You got pegged by Ms. Cummings.”
“I did.”
“Until youranus tore.”
“Whisper.”
“We used to make so much fun of her name.”
“I know.”
“And her haircut.”
“I know, we were awful.”
“And then you go and get strap-on rammed by her so hard you had to see a doctor. Ahotdoctor. Thehottestdoctor. Cass, you are the hero this town needs. Did she do anything else fun, like beat you with a protractor, or–”
“Fran!” Cass’s voice was suddenly sharp. Any spark of amusement was gone from his eyes. “Please stop, okay? I feel weird turning this into a joke. She’s actually really nice, and we’re both adults, and I just…like I said, I was lonely.”
“You didn’t say you were lonely.”
“Well, I was.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that.
It was Cass’s turn to play with the sugar packets. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, this Santa thing. For yourkids?” He emphasized it like he couldn’t quite believe it. Like it would somehow make more sense to him that I’d abducted a random pair of five-year-old twin girls and was now passing them off as my own than that they were actually mine. “Like, I just turn up and eat cookies?”
“Yeah, it’s not a big deal. Except it is, for them, you know? My girls.”
“Yeah.” He showed me that eye-crinkling smile again, and my stomach flip-flopped. “Because of the move, and being in a new place.”
“Exactly. You just, um, you just have to turn up before bedtime on Christmas Eve, and eat the cookies we’ve made, and read a story, and...” There was a sudden lump in my throat, and I missed Ben. Or at least I missed what I’d thought we had. I’d thought we’d had it all figured out, I guess. The relationship thing, the kids thing, the growing old together thing. Then it turned out that for months he’d been looking for a way to extricate himself from me and Ada and Em. I felt stupid that I hadn’t noticed he was pulling away, even as he made more and more excuses about needing to stay late at work. “And that’s it, really.”
“Maybe I should come over sometimes and get the lay of the land, so to speak. Just so Santa doesn’t look lost and confused on Christmas Eve?”
I hoped I didn’t look as surprised as I felt. “Right. Yes. Yes, you should come over. To practice.” Was this really happening? I cleared my throat. “Ada and Em are going to a friend’s Saturday afternoon. You could come over then.”
“Sounds good. You want me to bring the suit?”
“The suit?”
“The Santa suit.” He grinned. “Dress rehearsal?”
“I’m good without the suit.”
“Suityourself.” He took a long gulp of his mocha.
“I’m not going to laugh at that.”
He set his mug down. “Not even to be polite?”
