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I pull out my phone and gladly update Clara and Bea in the group chat. They’d texted me while I was in the car with Peter.
Bea
Just boarding my second flight. Heathrow was a mess—I’m guessing it’s this storm? Kara, are you at the airport?
And Clara, didn’t I make you swear to send me pictures of the chalet? You have to tell me how awesome of a job I did picking it out.
Unless you hate it.
Then it’s all Nash’s fault.
Since I’m waiting in line, I open the chat and look at the photos again. There’s the chalet from the outside, snow in fluffy white piles around the sides. Another picture of a roaring fireplace with an e-reader and two pairs of legs, which I’m guessing belong to Nash and Clara. One out in the snow of Ricky and Molly building a snowman. Molly’s mouth is open in a shriek, and Ricky’s finger is up his nose.
Kara
Made it to Zurich’s airport. Line is hella long, so I’m crossing my fingers that I’m going to make it.
Clara
We are crossing our fingers for you.
Haha, I just made my whole family cross their fingers and wish for you to make your flight home.
It’s a sweet gesture. And making the flight to get home and be with my family for Christmas is going to be great.
Right?
Bea
I’m almost to the cabin. It feels like I have to push through the air to get there. I swear, my ex misuses the laws of nature to make it difficult for me to make progress.
Clara
Like matching magnet poles?
Bea
Exactly.
Please send me more pictures of your vacation so I can be insanely jealous of the warm and fuzzy vibes.
Clara sends more photos. It’s Rolf and Craig holding a tray of cookies and wearing aprons that have mustaches on them and say,Mr. Right. Then there’s another one with a cozy fireplace and a big Christmas tree, which looks like something that belongs on a Hallmark card. And lastly, there’s Nash with a mug in hand, a whipped cream mustache over his real one, wearing a T-shirt that says,!false: it’s funny cause it’s true.
I’m glad Clara is having a dream Christmas.
Or maybe it’s not that lovely. Just because the photos are beautiful doesn’t mean the actual vibes are too. Rolf and Nash are probably talking about work too much, and maybe Clara’s niblings are behaving like mine—i.e., lots of screaming and running and making a goddamn mess out of everything.
The line inches forward, and I send—less enthusiastically—a message to my family’s group chat.
Kara
I’m at the airport. Lots of lines, so I hope I can make it through security on time.
Nev
Hope so. I’m ready to kick your ass at Risk 2210.
Nev is my older sister who works for Google. My youngest sister, Tanya, the one who works for Heartly, sends a picture of her two kids. They’ve got what could be either flour, powdered sugar, or cocaine on their faces. Since my sister is staunchly anti-drug, I doubt it’s cocaine, so odds are pretty good it’s powdered sugar going on the snowball cookies my mom is baking.
