Page 15 of December Wishes
“Ah, right.” Casper leaned back in his chair. “I almost forgot about those fires.”
“Yeah, so, none of those are going into the documentary, right?” Especially since minors were involved. Including Karen’s not-so-bright daughter, although Christina had been cleared of any wrong doings. Didn’t mean much if a certain editor sitting in front of Karen did his job acertainway.The evil edit of Christina Rath. No, thank you.
“Just a footnote,” Casper assured her.
“A footnote?” Dahlia growled.
Karen shoved her empty champagne glass between her girlfriend and the friend she insisted on bringing. “Don’t you two remind me of the Christmas Tree Lighting right now. I’m enjoying a party Ididn’thave to plan. Unlike that event, where yours truly plays a pivotal role.”
“Thought you weren’t planning it, though?” Dahlia said. “Isn’t that some committee?”
“Yeah, a committee of two, and I have to hear everything out before signing off on it. That’s why it’s the same thing every year. Don’t rock the boat too much, and we don’t have to do a bunch of extra work.”
Dahlia couldn’t stop laughing. “Wow. Small town lazy bureaucracy.”
“You’ve had a front-row seat to most of the stuff I deal with. Surely, you understand where the occasional bouts of red tape laziness comes in.”
They had lost Casper, who noticed a piano in the corner of the living room and helped himself to the keys. Karen let out a mighty yawn as soon as “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” banged from the piano and one man’s powerful pipes. Half the room clapped and sang along. Karen had a headache.
“Aw, what’s wrong?” Dahlia opened her arms as Karen leaned into her chest and pushed her ass back to the other side of the couch. “Finally pooping out after a long year of mayoring?”
“More like a long decade.”
“Come on, it’s only been seven years.”
“If you round up, that’s a decade.”
“So don’t run for reelection.” Dahlia shrugged, as if things were as simple as that. “Ever thought it might be time to move on? Both of your kids will be in college as of next year.”
Karen lifted her head. It was a good thing nobody else could hear them over Casper’s tickling of the ivories.I can only imagine the way the rumor mill would turn should it get out I’m thinking about not running for reelection or worse, moving away.That wasn’t done in Paradise Valley. Once a woman committed to moving there, she never left.They call it Paradise for a reason.There was no such thing as the perfect place – God, didn’t Karen know it after seeing the shitshow for seven years in a row – but women took their gay havens seriously. People went out of their way to move there so they could raise their kids in peace. Hadn’t Karen done something similar after her divorce a whole decade ago?
It took me a decade to find love again. The only reason I found it is because I moved here…That was a logistical fallacy, of course, since Karen could have found love in pretty much any major city had she stuck it out long enough. Yet the reason she and Dahlia met was because of Paradise Valley. What if Dahlia was the one? They had only been semi-seriously dating since July. Was that still too early to tell?
“Karen,” Dahlia said, pushing her girlfriend back up. “You okay? We’re losing you. You’re turning on your mayor brain again.”
Or maybe that was the Christmas music giving her a headache.Is it too early in a relationship to tell her that her friends suck?Not that Karen had much room to talk. She was here on Brandelyn’s invitation, and Karen was the first to admit what a pill the town doctor could be. “Actually, it’s my Everyday Woman brain. The one mulling over what you said.”
“I was only being facetious…”
“About me not running for reelection? Or moving away?”
“Either.”
“You mentioned it, so you must mean it on some level.”
“Dunno about that.” Dahlia shrugged. “I mean, would it be more convenient for me if you lived in a city? Yeah, but it would be more convenient if you moved back to California.”
Karen shuddered. “If there’s one thing I promised myself, it was never moving back to California. That’s where my old marriage was.”
“You know there are tons of different cities in California, right? They’re not all palm trees and desert.”
Karen ignored that. “Why don’t you move up here? There’s a burgeoning film community in Portland. Even living there would bring us so much closer.” Portland was only a couple hours away, and that accounted for traffic. They could meet every week instead of once or twice a month, depending on who had the spare airline miles. “I mean, after the documentary releases, I’ll be your only reason to come back to town.”
“You think that’s not a good enough reason for me?”
“I didn’t say that,” Karen quickly corrected, “but if you don’t have your work and its associated tax write-offs sending you here, why would you? Don’t you think you’ll start resenting it after a while?”
“Whoa, where is this coming from?” Dahlia had to raise her voice over the crowd singing Christmas carols. “I make a joke about you not running for reelection, and suddenly I’m getting bored with you?”
