Page 1 of A Little Christmas: Star
Chapter One
Caelum
Most people can avoid the one who got away. Not me. Mine is on every billboard in town.
I understood why he left me—just not why he never came back or asked me to join him. Or maybe I only pretended not to get it. Star and I met on registration day of our freshman year in college. The entire online system crashed, making for a chaotic rush to handle registration the “old-fashioned way.”
Something the school was 100 percent not ready for.
I stood in one line after another, coming face-to-face with rattled and sweating instructors and teaching assistants armed with clipboards, pens, and other tools of destruction. Fortunately, by the time the system went down, about 80 percent of the student body had already registered, but even so, it was chaos and I was told again and again that I might not actually end up in the class I chose once they were able to access the online records again.
By seven in the evening, I was sitting on the steps outside the auditorium, clutching a stack of paper containing information about my possible schedule and classes, when a roar went up from inside.
“Don’t tell me,” I grumbled.
“I won’t, but it seems the system has magically rebooted.” The speaker, a male about my age with sun-bleached hair and dark eyelashes and brows that told me the hair might have more than sun in it, plopped down next to me.
“So, what do we do?” I pulled out my phone. “Start all over?”
“I hope not. I had to cancel an important meeting today to be here.” He leaned back, elbows propped on the next stair up. He might be angry or frustrated, but his position gave a much morerelaxed attitude than his words. And hot. He was the hottest guy here today, and many of those moving in and out of the building cast longing glances or even leers in his direction.
“I have no meetings, important or otherwise, but I did have to miss a shift at my part-time job, which isn’t helping my budget any.”
A guy heading for the doors cursed under his breath. “If they wasted my whole day, my daddy is going to have something to say about this. The building has our family name on it.” He stomped inside, while my new friend and I chuckled.
“What a nib,” he said. “Glad my family can’t afford to donate buildings. The pressure must be tremendous. I’m Star, by the way.” He held out his hand, and I took it.
“Caelum.” I didn’t let go as quickly as I could have. “What are you doing for dinner?”
“I don’t know. Where are you taking me?”
As soon as we confirmed we didn’t have to do anything else with our classes, I took him to the diner, one of my places of part-time employment where I got a discount. And then I took him home to the room I was renting, located over a garage a few blocks from campus.
He had a dorm room, but for the next few months shared my single bed in my studio apartment. I thought we’d be together for the rest of our lives. We planned on it, talking about finishing school and buying a home together, building a life.
Growing up, I was different than a lot of the other kids, always thinking things through before doing them, never just leaping first and worrying about the outcome later. It meant I had fewer bruises than many but also, since I had a tendency to point out possible dangers, got invited less and less to hijinks and mischief. I liked to read and travel and learn things.
Star was everything I was not and yet many things I was. He did well enough at his studies, passing everything in thosemonths, but he was quicker to accept an invitation to go out and have fun, maybe attend a party or a concert. And, of course, he always invited me along.
That led to some late nights studying, but how could I ever say no to that adorable face?
As he pointed out, we were only young once. And we needed to have a work-life balance. Sometimes I felt so much older than Star, although we were the same age. But with his joy and friendliness, he carried me with him into a much more fun, relaxed way of being.
And then one day, that important meeting he’d postponed until the next day bore fruit. Star had been up for consideration to star in a made-for-TV movie. My love had done some acting before I knew him. A few small guest spots on shows, commercials, things like that. But as he’d aged out of his young teen years, the offers were few and not growing the way he wanted. So he’d decided to get a degree instead of struggling in a marketplace where there were many talented people and few opportunities. Then, right before registration day, he’d gotten a call and was supposed to meet with his agent. Nothing was for sure, at that point, so he showed up and signed up for classes.
Which he attended until he got the call.
The movie was going to start pre-production the following week, and if he wanted the role, he would need to be there.
“I can switch some of my classes to online,” he assured me. “Then see what happens next term.”
“Sure you can.” We were curled up in my bed, wrapped in one another’s arms on his last night before leaving town. “You can do anything you put your mind to.”
He nuzzled my chest. “But it might be hard. Depends on how things go with filming.”
“Of course, baby.” I stroked his hair, hating anything that would change the happy life we’d built together but wanting thevery best for him. “Take it a step at a time. Get a handle on your schedule then see how much you can fit in.”
He yawned. “Sounds exhausting.”
