AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fruit of all types, most of it not native to the area, overflowed several baskets.
Orange juice, espresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate… if it was a breakfast drink or a mug of something warm, it was there and ready to be consumed.
One of our family’s charities was for hungry children, and ever since I had sat on the board of it, I realized just how much food we wasted and how many children would kill for a fraction of the food on the table. It soured my mood ever so slightly as I stood there alone, in the doorway.
The chiming of the doorbell took me by surprise since everyone was here. Jackson probably forgot his keys and was crawling back after a wild night out on the town. I shook my head and walked toward the door, calling out to Jackson and scolding him for forgetting his keys, when Jackson spoke up from the stairs. “It’s not me, man.”
“If not you then who? Are you expecting anyone?” I thought about Mom’s “friend” and my eyes went wide. Jackson seemed to think the same thing judging by the way his face fell, but I had to give him credit because he said, “Let him in. I need to apologize.”
I didn’t even bother to check who might be standing there. It could only be Charles. I swung the door open and expected to see the older man, but my heart dropped into my stomach as I recognized the blonde on the other side of the door.
Her hair was longer than before, her bob had grown out and it wasn’t as bleached blonde, more honey colored with highlights. It made her look more grown-up than the white blonde of our teenage years. Her eyes were icy blue and filled with tears.
“Nathan—” she took a step forward with her arms open to hug me.
I stepped out of reach and put a hand up to stop her. I couldn’t find the words to speak right away, but once I could, I choked out, “What are you doing here, Carly?”
“I wanted to talk,” she said, wiping the tears from her cheeks and sniffling, which seemed super fake to me. “You haven’t been responding to my texts or answering my calls, so I thought this might be the best way.”
“I’m not answering your calls because I have no desire to talk to you ever again. What part of that don’t you understand?”
“But Nate—”
I wanted to shut the door, but she was standing in the way. I didn’t want to put my hands on her, or else I would have slammed the door right in her face.
“Leave.”
“I have nowhere to go.”
“You can get a hotel,” I scoffed.
“Not this last minute, not on Christmas…”
“I’m sure if you caught a train to Geneva or back into Paris, you could find something.”
“I don’t want to leave without talking to you. I made a mistake, but Nate, we could make this work.”
“How? You fucked my best friend.”
“I had wanted to ask you for an open relationship, I thought maybe—”
“You should have asked before you slept with him, I might have considered it. But you didn’t ask, you fucking cheated on me, Carly. And because of that, I can never trust you again, nor do I want to. I’m over you, I’ve moved on and you really should, too. Get married to Brett, you two deserve each other.”
“Nate…” She sobbed, her knees seeming to go weak.
Carly stumbled in her footing just enough where I could try and shut the door, hoping she would move out of the way. But a hand on the door stopped me.
“Wait,” Mom said from behind me. “I have something I’d like to say to her.”
I looked over at Mom, who I had no idea had come down already. She was dressed in her Christmas pajamas, matching us, and she looked a bit silly, but Carly’s eyes went wide when she saw her.
“You are an absolutely horrible person, Carly. I never liked you, and I’m so grateful you finally showed your true colors, because my son deserves better than you. Now get off the property before I have security personally escort you away like the trash that you are.”
I never knew Mom had such strong feelings for Carly, nor had I ever heard her speak to someone like that. I stared in shock. Carly backed away, still crying, but she knew my mom was serious. I shut the door and turned around to lean against it, when I noticed that Mom and Jackson weren’t the only witnesses to what had happened.
Everyone was there.
All eyes were on me.
