Page 9 of December Wishes
“You can keep it here, and I’ll put it on whatever table you’re using to write.”
“You’re kidding! I would die of embarrassment!”
Heaven took the nameplate back and placed it on the edge of the table, on prominent display to the rest of the café. “Done. Can’t be changed now.”
Salama plucked it off the table. “You wanna try again?”
“Next step? Moving the mistletoe to that spot right there.” Heaven pointed to the beam above Salama’s head.
“Uh huh. Then what? Making me bake the cookies for Santa Claus?”
“No way. I make the better cookies in this relationship.”
Salama wasn’t arguing that.
“You know I don’t have anything to give you back right now, yeah?” she asked. “You have to wait for Christmas to get your presents.” All two of them. Salama had gone all out that year!
“Who says I need you to give me a present? Having you pretty up my café with your presence is enough for me.” Heaven got up and blew her girlfriend a kiss. “You coming by my place for dinner later? Or are you going to tell me that pizza is enough for you?”
“Why would I have mediocre pizza when I could come by and have your cooking?” Salama held the nameplate against her forehead. “Did you miss the memo? I’m a badass writer, and I need to be treated as such!”
“Yup. I’ve gone and done it. Opened Pandora’s Box to your ego.”
“You love it!” Salama called after her. “You must have known what it would do!”
She got one last wink before Heaven disappeared behind her counter and greeted the next customer to approach the register. Salama sat back and hid the smile attempting to break free from her lips.
She may not have had many Christmases in her life, but she had a really good feeling about this one.
Chapter 6
FRANKIE & ELAINE
“I have yet to convey what an idiot he was.” Frankie stacked the recently cleaned dishes before placing them in one of the cabinets. Beside her, Elaine diligently scrubbed and passed the clean dishes to her girlfriend, who regaled her with tales of what ablasted dummyDominic had been earlier that day. “Like, you should have seen his face. Standing there with his mouth hanging open, catching flies and lookingshocked.Shocked! What else did he think would happen when he wanted me to throw his wallet across the street?”
Elaine couldn’t contain the laughter that made her smile like Frankie told the funniest joke in the world. She passed a cleaned spatula and added a little more soap to the mixing bowl collecting suds in the sink. “I’m sorry, this is the best thing I’ve heard about all day, and I first heard about it when Christina came running in after school to tattle on him.”
“She would,” came a voice from behind them. Dominic sat at the dining table, laptop out and textbooks flipped open. “Ever since I told her she had pimples, she’s had it out for me.”
“Gee, wonder why,” Frankie muttered.I must be the only person in this house who understands how stupid the whole thing was.She would never forget it. Dominic, motioning for her to throw him his wallet – across Main Street, no less! The boy had a few dumb ideas in his life, but Frankie had no idea what he thought they would accomplish from such a stupid stunt.To be fair, I enabled it.That stretch of Main Street was four lanes wide. What an idiot.
“There wasn’t too much damage, though, right?” Elaine dried her hands on a towel Frankie handed to her. “Did the car, like, crack your cards in half?”
“It was a bit more squished than usual, yeah.”
Frankie snorted. Her brother had one of those impossibly tiny wallets that held him up wherever he went, because he had to sift through every loyalty and rewards card to find the one debit card he had from their credit union. Then he had to go back and find his punch card for Heaven’s. He must have had five in there, because whenever he gave up, he started a new one.
“Surprised the coins didn’t puncture the tires,” Frankie said. “Seriously, did the cards crack?” Dominic better get them replaced if he wanted to see new ones before Christmas.
“Cards are not busted, but I’m thinking of getting it replaced, anyway. I’m about due a new pin number. Let’s revamp the whole shebang.”
Frankie had to chew on that for a bit.A new pin number…She had the same pin number from when she opened her account ten years ago. How often did people change those? Sounded like a pain in the butt.
“Can you believe him?” Frankie turned to Elaine. “So lackadaisical! If that happened to me, I’d be steaming mad.”
“We know,” both Dominic and Elaine said at the same time. “But,” Elaine continued, “you’d look like you were chill on the outside.”
“You saying I stew?”
