Page 14 of Ghost of Ex-mas Past
Brin
How’s your family? And the house? Is it absolutely gorgeous up there?
You wouldn’t believe the assignment Marco’s boss gave him. I’m sure you’re busy with your family, but I can’t wait to tell you all about it when you get home!
I text her back, telling her the house is just as gorgeous as I’d hoped. She doesn’t respond—she’s probably at work.
Across the hall, the bathroom door creaks open and Charlie slips out. “Bathroom’s all yours,” he says with a head tilt. His hair is damp and pushed back and his white shirt has transparent spots where drops of water fell onto it.
“Thanks,” I say, looking away from the drips and gathering my toiletries.
When I get out of the shower, Naomi’s in our room, lying on her bed and scrolling on her phone.
“My turn.” She pops up and gathers the stack of clothes at her feet.
I put my dirty clothes in the corner and duck my head to get into bed. A muffled voice comes from the other side of the wall—Charlie. I wonder who he’s talking to so late at night. A girlfriend?
It doesn’t matter. I’m exhausted, and I curl up in bed and fall asleep to the soft rise and fall of his muffled voice.
In the morning,I wake up while it’s still dark out. Naomi’s bed is empty, so I slip out of our room and tiptoe downstairs. The living room is also empty, but I hear voices and follow them to a door that opens to a staircase heading down to the basement.
Naomi and Kayla are on either corner of the couch, feet up between them, and looking at me when I come to the bottom of the stairs.
“Good morning,” Naomi says cheerily. As a nurse, she’s used to weird hours, and I’m used to her obnoxious good mood first thing in the morning. Kayla’s another story. She’s not a morning person, and she looks worse for the wear today. Her long blond hair is overdue for a coloring and she has circles under her eyes.
They both move their feet, making room for me to sit between them.
“What are you doing awake?” I ask Kayla. My sister’s always been a little curvy, but I think she’s lost weight, and with the tiredness evident on her face, I wonder if I should be concerned.
“Having trouble sleeping,” she says on a sigh.
I give her a look. “Not stomach issues, right?”
She waves my concern away. “It’s not the food.”
“Jasper’s not up?” I ask.
“He sleeps like the dead.” She says it with that soft fondness she always gets when talking about her husband.
Okay, I’m jealous. I’m the oldest sister and the only thing I’ve really accomplished in my life is my job. My dating life sucks. But also, I barely have any friendships, and the ones I have are sparse and transactional. The people I see the most, the ones I enjoy spending time with—Brin, Marco, Clara, Nash—are fiscally tied to me.
If I moved jobs, I would lose Clara and Nash. If my roommates moved out, would I ever see them again?
Unlikely. My first roommates were when I was living in Mobile, dating Charlie. I wasn’t a lot of fun back then—no hookups or wild drunken nights, which my roommates were constantly doing. I’d already lost most of my friends from high school when they went off to college. Then I broke up with Charlie and my roommates told me I was “a bummer.” Moving to New York meant I lost all my friends again—I never connected with anyone. It’s just not worth the effort.
This jealousy and sadness over the fact that my three sisters are now happy in their personal lives have to stop. It used to be easier, sitting on the couch with my sisters swiping through Tinder together (or in Naomi’s case, providing commentary). Now, though, Kayla has her husband and Yvette has her fiancé and my love life is even more miserable than my social life.
“This basement is a big upgrade from the one in Pithole,” Kayla says.
There was a basement in the house in Pithole, but this one is actually finished instead of a hodgepodge of conveniences crammed in to make it livable. This one has a big TV, a couch, and some exercise equipment.
She nudges me. “Remember watchingElfdown there?”
I laugh, knowing exactly what time she’s talking about. “When you said you had a crush on Zooey Deschanel?” I’d looked at Kayla and said, “You do?” and she said, “You don’t?” and six months later Kayla announced she was bisexual.
“Ah, my queer little heart still goes pitter-patter every time I look at her.”
Naomi stretches. “We’ll have to watch it. After we watch the best Christmas movie of all time.”
