Page 37 of Christmas Crisis
“You take it black?” The guy smiled—his big white teeth sort of pissed me off—and gestured to my mug. “Hard-core.”
“I take it however,” I clarified. A few seconds passed. I sipped. He chewed noisily. Finally, I asked, “It sounds like you know my name, but what should I call you?”
“Huh? … I’m Stone,” he said, confusion evident. Like I should have known that.
“Oh.” I waited for him to say more.
For the first time, his smile faltered. “Did Miranda not…tell you about me?”
Now I was confused. “No. Should she have?”
“Well, yeah. She mentioned you wouldn’t recognize me since you’re not online much, but I’ve heard so much about you, I just figured she’d tell you about me. Even though we’re keeping this whole thing on the down-low.”
“She’s never mentioned a Stone.”
“That’s strange because—”
“Stone? Who are you talk—” Miranda stopped short in the bedroom doorway. “Oh.”
Startled, she ran a hand through her unbrushed hair. The gesture drew my eyes to her, and I noticed she wore only a large T-shirt with a skate company logo on it, barely covering the tops of her thighs.
Stone eyed her hungrily, walking over to wrap an arm around her waist before kissing her forehead. To me, he said, “Nothing like when your girl wears your clothes, amiright?”
If I’d had any lingering doubt about who Stone was to Miranda, that cleared it up. As did the plus signs he drew on her hip with his palm.
Alright, dude. I get it.
“I see you two have met,” she said, extricating herself from Stone’s grip. “Gimme a sec.”
She went into the bedroom and returned wearing sleep pants underneath the giant shirt.
“I thought you wouldn’t get here for a few more hours.” She gave me a hug, although not our usual lingering one.
“Made good time,” I replied stiffly.
“That’s great,” she said, with a brightness that didn’t reach her eyes. “And you met Stone.”
I nodded. “I did. Except he seems a little surprised you haven’t mentioned him to me.”
“Yeah, babes,” Stone piped in, still munching his donut. “I feel like ‘Leo this’ and ‘Leo that’ works its way into every conversation we have, but somehow you never mentioned me to him?” It didn’t sound like an accusation, but there was an edge to his voice.
Miranda met his stare directly. “I haven’t told anyone about us. That was our deal. But to be honest, I was planning to break that agreement and tell Leo.” Swiveling her head to me, she explained, “I wanted to talk to you about Stone in person.”
I understood immediately. As much as I didn’t want to acknowledge the gravity of the situation, I couldn’t deny it either.
In theory, if she was getting involved with someone—and I didn’t know the level of involvement she had with this Stone character—she could shoot me a text or tell me on the phone. But that would mean denying what we’d been to each other these past eleven months. Our closeness. Would she need to save some of that closeness for this guy now? The thought made my lungs constrict.
“Right,” Stone said to Miranda. “I know how much you like keeping our thing private. Especially now that I’ve got the movie.” He shoved the last of the donut into his mouth. “Speaking of which—” Crumbs flew from his lips. “I’d better get moving. I need to meet Shoshanna at ten.”
“Your PA?” Miranda asked.
“Yep. Signing contracts this morning. Naomi’s gonna be there too. I’m excited to finally meet her.”
He bounced into the bedroom, returning with a backpack slung over his shoulder.
A bolt of annoyance sped through me when he kissed Miranda and murmured, “I like you in my shirt,” loud enough for me to hear.
I shoved the feeling aside. I had no right to be possessive. Miranda deserved to find her happiness.
