Page 13 of Christmas in Coconut Creek

He squinted. “Not evensexySanta?”

Oh, thank fuck, a pulse.

I shrugged playfully. “I could possibly be swayed.”

Nat physically relaxed at my back, probably relieved she wouldn’t have to fake her period and whisk me away from my social autopsy.

“I’m Lucas,” he shouted to me.

“We probably should have started with this,” I shouted back. “Ophelia.”

“What fruity mix of juice am I ordering for you, Ophelia?”

“I’d actually like to enjoy what I’m drinking, thank you very much. I know you don’t walk around with a tumbler of Tullamore Dew because it tastes good.”

“Tullamore Dew? That’s insulting. This is Macallan.”

“Every whiskey is just a different flavor of finger paint.”

The corner of his mouth twitched upward, amused. “I think I need to refine your palate.”

With a satisfied grin I gestured to the bartender for another drink. Nat was still stuck to my side, swaying back and forth. I swung my arm around my girlfriend’s shoulder and pulled her toward me.

“I fucking love you, and Florida, and palm trees.” I stared up at the flickering neon lights behind the bar. “Why do I live in Colorado where it’s perpetually raining and my neighbor steals myTimesright out of the mailbox every Sunday?”

“Who the actual fuck still gets a print copy of the newspaper? Christ, maybe youdobelong in Fort Lauderdale.”

I hummed, leaning on Nat’s shoulder while the hazy rhythm of booze and bass vibrated my body to a steady level of intoxication.

Whocaredabout Frankie from Hook(Up)? This was going to be the most incredible three weeks with my best friend. Sipping and sunning on the beach, cooking our own Christmas ham with the little cherries and toothpick-stabbed pineapples. We would listen to Michael Bublé, and make thumbprint cookies, light a different holiday-scented Yankee Candle in every room of Natalia’s apartment.

Coconut Creek could be anewChristmas tradition for me. Something that was entirely mine, untouched by familial expectation or faint reminders of the cheery childhood holiday that I lost somewhere along the way.

Nat shuffled my jelly-limbed body with hers as a familiar song started mixing into the previous. “Where’s your drink?”

“Lucas is buying me drinks, right, Lucas?”

The blond to my right chuckled and handed over a refilled hollow coconut of alcohol. “Does sexy Santa get to disrobe Mrs. Claus later?”

“Let’s see if you can keep up first.”

I took a clumsy sip of my drink and spun around with Lucas’s hands on my hips as Nat squealed excitedly beside me. She was staring at her phone screen, blue hues dancing across her glittery eyeshadow, and jumping up and down like she’d just won the lottery. “Ah! Come on, come on!”

“Where are we going!” I shouted as she pulled me by the elbow to the complete opposite side of the bar. “Natalia!”

“He’s here!”

“Who?” We pressed through the crowd of partiers with Lucas trailing slowly behind.

Nat looked down at her phone again and then pushed up onto her tiptoes to case the rows of people standing against the bar. “Just…someone I want you to meet.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me and then grinned as she finally found who she was looking for leaning against the counter.

She tapped on his shoulder twice before the handsome, sun-kissed man turned around to face the both of us with a disarming smile. His dark eyes roamed Nat’s velvet-covered body hungrily, then he grabbed her face with two big hands and crushed their lips together.

What the fuck?

She melted as his tongue swiped against hers, seemingly in their own little world while I stood there stunned. Natalia had to clear her throat and shoot a glance in my direction before he even noticed they had company.

Biting her lip, Nat gestured to the mystery man she’d just Frenched as I looked back and forth between the two of them. “Phee, this is my boyfriend. Mateo Duran.”

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