Page 56 of Christmas in Coconut Creek

“It’s an act.” Mateo ran his fingers through his fake white beard. “Mrs. Claus and Old Saint Dick.”

17

Nothingwastooscandalousto say at brunch. I’d sat through many PTA meetings over bagels and coffee and listened to parents show their true colors over school district politics.

You’d be shocked to hear the kind of gossip that gets spewed when someone’s kid isn’t getting first class attention in a classroom of thirty to one. Which PE teacher is sleeping with the new divorcee, whose English teacher is writing naughty romance novels on the side. I’ll be the first to agree that we’re not paidnearlyenough money to deal with parents. The kids are fucking cake in comparison.

So—brunch was good for open conversation, first and foremost. A few bellinis, some eggs benedict, avocado toast on house-made everything bagels. And Natalia and I playing a game ofwho can keep their mouth the fullest the longesttoput off the inevitable discussion about the events of the night before.

It didn't take long before Natalia’s fork clattered onto the plate in front of her. “Frankie saw my whole rack, didn’t he?”

“Likely,” I admitted. Leave it up to her to break the ice. “And what a rack it is.”

She shook her head, smiling. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“No, don’t you dare,” I said. “You don’t need to apologize to me, or to anyone. It’s no one else’s business.I’msorry, we just—when you didn’t hear the fire alarm—”

“Mateo pulled that shit out of his ceiling when the battery started dying.”

“Completely valid.”

The corner of her mouth twitched upward. “We’ve been keeping the whole cam thing between us forobviousreasons. I just don’t want you to think I was afraid of your reaction, because I totally wasn’t, Phee. I knew you’d be a rockstar about it.”

“It was just—shocking,” I told her. “Old Saint Dick’s…dick was all up in my face.”

She cackled. “Was it as big as Frankie’s?”

“Isn’t it a conflict of interest to talk about your boyfriend’s best friend’s dick?”

“You’ve seen my guy’s, your guy has seen mine. We should all just stand naked in a room together and get it over with.”

“That sounds like an orgy.”

Nat took a sip of her drink and pondered something. “How comfortable are you in front of a camera?”

“I love you, but absolutely not.” I snorted. “With my luck, my vagina would get plastered all over Pine Ridge by the parent-teacher association and they’d protest outside my house with pitchforks. My siblings already pretend I don’t exist. Imagine if that became my legacy.”

She frowned. “Worth a shot.”

“You guys look like you have it all in the bag without us,” I joked. “I’m sorry we found out the way we did, but I’m selfishly glad I know.”

“I am too.” She let out a deep breath. “Having no one to talk to about it is exhausting. I feel like I’m tiptoeing around constantly.”

Nat was one of four in a strict, traditional family. Every sister had their father wrapped around their finger, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that neither Nat, Camilla, Isabella or Mia would want to deal with the cardiac arrest Mr. Russo would experience knowing one of his daughters was selling sex.

“What is it like?” I asked around a spoon of yogurt. “Since when?”

“I was so sick of working in that bank every day. I just wanted to be in control of my own money and time. I neededfreedom. This ass is too perfect to be sitting on it all day.”

“Understandable.”

“I was doing it on my own for a little while before I met Matty. Just some solo stuff, live camming, photos. When we started dating I didn’t tell him, and I stopped performing because I was head over heels and I didn’t want to jeopardize it. But then I was back to the same shit job, and I wasn’thappyanymore. Mateo noticed.”

“As any good man would.” I refilled both our empty drink flutes with the pitcher.

“So I just fucking told him.” She shrugged. “I said, I love you but I hate my job, and before you I was making a lot of money doing the cam thing. I knew it wasn’t for everyone but it was forme—and I wanted him to love all of me.”

“Obviously I know the ending of this fairy tale.”

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