Page 2 of Merry Mix-Up

"What do you want?" I asked, reluctantly resigning to the fact that I knew she had me. Even now, years later when I was an adult and Mom and Dad should have laughed it off, if she told them about that coverup, they'd be angry. It was the holidays. I didn't want anyone to be angry. And I didn't want this secret hanging over my head anymore, either, but now wasn't the right time to divulge it. Mom had a knack for holding a grudge.

"Pretend to be me." Her expression got suddenly serious and thoughtful, and her eyes pleaded with me even as I burst into laughter. The look on her face was priceless.

I walked toward the plaid-covered bed and flopped onto it, laughing at her suggestion. We tried that once in middle school with gym class and everyone knew I wasn’t her. I had two left feet back then, and now, I had bright red and yellow hair, with splotches of green and blue. Her jet-black beauty and all-natural makeup were boring. I couldn't pull that off if I tried.

"What's so funny?" she asked, walking over and sitting down next to me.

"You. Oh, my God, Amber. You think I'm going to pull it off, dressing like you, and how? My hair looks like a unicorn vomited on it. Your hair is longer than mine too, and how the hell will I learn to do makeup the way you do?" Perfectly contoured andnext to nude colors, she was my polar opposite. My makeup was "clownlike at best," or at least that's how she and my mom described it. "No."

"Oh, I swear, Jade." She sounded next to tears. "Naomi is my best friend. I can't be here and in UCLA at the same time. You have to help me. I can't let her down." Her eyes welled up with tears, and no doubt, she was feeling emotional, but I could tell when she was fake crying. I had always been able to tell.

"I can't do this, Amber, I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be working with Ginny this month to gear up for the opening of the studio in January. I have?—"

"Please," she begged. "Your mentor will understand if you take the month. You're learning so much and your designs are already finished. You said so yourself earlier." Her lip quivered, and I bit mine, not wanting to snap at her. What she was suggesting was rude and inconsiderate. She’d never give up her future or put it on hold for a month for me. I was always doing stupid things like this for her.

"Just tell her you can’t do it." I shook my head, determined to stand my ground this time.

"Tell my best friend whom I love so much that I can't be the maid of honor at her only wedding? Are you listening to yourself? That's cruel." She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me that look—the one with puppy dog eyes and pouty lips.

"And sending your twin in to do it for you isn’t?" I scoffed, but she was wearing me down. I grew up with Naomi the way I did with Amber, sleepovers and slumber parties. I knew Naomi would be crushed, and even though I shouldn’t have felt guilty about this and Amber should have just fessed up, I was leaning toward helping her.

"Please, Jayjay," she whimpered, and her use of my childhood nickname won me over. I was weak and I caved like the front end of a Honda in a collision.

"Fine… but I have no clue how this is going to work. Naomi is going to see right through it." I closed my eyes and wished I could sink into the mattress beneath me.

"Makeover tomorrow morning." Amber smacked a kiss on my cheek and ran to the door. "Eight a.m. don't be late. I'll go to the pharmacy as soon as they open to make sure I have everything, and you'll get a crash course on being me!"

The door slammed and I knew she was gone. I covered my face with both hands. I didn't need a crash course on her. She was my twin. I memorized her wacky behavior and quirks years ago. What I needed was a glass of whiskey and a time machine. Christmas couldn't come fast enough.

2

NEWT

December 29th

Not much changed over the years here at home. I might have missed a few holiday traditions now and then, but when Naomi pleaded with me to come home for Thanksgiving, I humored her. We weren't close—in relationship or in age—but I loved my younger sister fiercely so I cleared my schedule to be here for her.

"Newt, my God, look how you're doing that!" Naomi's snarky chiding made Mom snicker as she untangled the lights that would string the tree.

It still amazed me that there were two women on this planet who hadn't subscribed to the consumerism mindset of day after Thanksgiving shopping. Mom and Naomi never broke this tradition of erecting and decorating our tree the same Friday every year, and I was prostrate on the floor trying to screw the base bolts in place to keep it upright while Dad watched the game with a lazy hand on a high branch.

"Dad! It's leaning!" Naomi continued to chide and lecture as I unscrewed the bolts and Dad repositioned the tree over and over until it was perfect.

Life was like that sometimes—having to redo things because they just weren't quite straight, like my first several attempts at getting my brokerage firm off the ground. I was a flop for four years in a row, but then I struck gold and ever since, I'd been raking in the money like we raked the leaves in fall.

"There, it's perfect." Mom sat with the wad of tangled lights on her lap, looking up at our Christmas tree with sparkling eyes and a broad smile. She loved every Christmas tradition in her soul the way I loved the sight of more zeroes at the end of my bank account balance. It was no wonder they lived in this little Christmas-obsessed town for so long and refused to give up the home I tried to help them graduate from.

I slid out from under the beast and helped Dad position it in front of the large bay window in the great room of their home. The old place was too sentimental to them to give up. Otherwise, I'd have had them in a much nicer spread uptown where they could be closer to everything. But money only goes so far when the heart is involved. Mom and Dad would let me help them update or renovate to modernize, but they wouldn't move. I respected that.

"There, now can I just get a hoagie and sit and watch football?" I dusted the pine needles off my button-down, and Naomi picked one out of my hair and patted my chest. Her manicured nails were red and green with tiny little cubic zirconia peppered on them. Very festive.

"Nope, you have to do the tree with us. It's tradition." Her wink would have looked playful to any outsider not familiar with my family traditions, but I knew it was a threat. It said, "Miss this and your ass is mine." If Mom was the Christmas Queen, Naomi was the sorceress, able to bring grown men to their kneeswith a single glance, and I was weak. She was my sister, and as much as I just wanted to relax, I had to participate. I couldn’t let her be disappointed.

"Fine, but I can at least eat while we're doing this, right?" Her insistence on forcing me to continue traditions I had skipped in previous years was her way to hold on to her own childhood for one more year.

She was getting married now, and that meant a new world was beginning. One where new traditions would start and old ones would end. Naomi and Jared would have their own tree now, their own holiday meals. Unlike me. I thought I'd have that at one point, had the ring and was ready to propose too, but it didn’t turn out how I planned and at thirty-six, I was still single and searching.

"Nope again." Naomi picked up a box of ornaments and thrust them into my chest with a grin.

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