Page 4 of Bad Boy Bachelor Christmas
Sitting cross-legged on my bed, I called my folks.
Dad’s voice filled the line first. “I love seeing your name on my screen. How’s my favorite daughter? What’s it like up there? Been raining buckets all afternoon down here. Damn winter weather.”
I smiled. “Hey, Dad. I’m good. It’s raining here too.” I looked out my small window above my tiny fridge. “It looks like it’s trying to snow, though.”
“You okay? You sound down, honey.”
I heard my mother in the background calling for him to put me on speakerphone so she could hear me. I waited while they fumbled with the phone. Mom and Dad had never really caught up with the times and learned how to operate their iPhone with ease. They still called me to help them get into their accounts all the time, and I had a notebook full oftheirpasswords in my nightstand.
The curse of a millennial child, I supposed.
“Your father says you sound down?” My mother’s voice was laced with concern. “Did something happen? Did the meeting with your counselor not go well?”
“No, no, nothing happened,” I said, trying to add some lightness to my voice. Being away from my parents for so long had been hard and was only getting harder the longer I was here on campus. When I first started my program I’d been eager to carve a path for myself. I’d been a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed twenty-one-year-old on the cusp of figuring out who she was and what she wanted. I was tired of living at home and ready for an adventure. Now I found myself aching for all the familiar comforts of my childhood home. “My appointment with Dr. Kent went well. She wants me to do a specialized internship. Apparently, it would look really good on my resume and help me stand apart from other applicants when I’m ready to step into the job market.”
“That’s great news, honey!” Mom cried ecstatically.
“We’re so proud of you,” Dad added. “When is the internship?”
I sighed. “The month of December.”
“Oh,” they said in unison.
My heart fell. “I know. I didn’t want to take it. I said no at first. All I’ve been thinking about for the last two months was coming home and spending the month with you guys. I was even looking forward to Auntie Lois’s Christmas Open House party, and that’s saying something.”
My parents chuckled softly.
I hated that damn open house party. My aunt insisted on hosting it every year two days before Christmas. She was a terrible cook, so the food was always bad, and the party was dry because she and her husband weren’t drinkers. Not that I needed alcohol to have a good time, but the whole affair felt stale within the first hour, and people often clustered in corners, debating when was the polite time to leave.
But this year?
I wanted to go. I wanted to do all the things. Go for a walk to look at the Christmas lights on my block, go ice skating, Christmas shop with my dad like we used to when I was a kid and struggle to find the perfect gift for Mom, see my friends, go dancing…
“I think I have to do the internship,” I said resolutely. “Dr. Kent is going to try to put in a good word for me to get some time off so I can be home over the holidays, but it looks like we won’t get the extended time we’d hoped for. I’m sorry, guys.”
They hesitated for only a beat before chiming in with positive reassurances.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” Mom cooed. “This is your dream! Dr. Kent wouldn’t lead you astray, and hey, there’s always next Christmas.”
“Your mother is right. It doesn’t make any sense to pass on such a big opportunity. Especially not for my sister’s God awful Open House.”
I smiled. “You’re sure?”
My folks spent the next five minutes convincing me not to feel guilty. It only sort of worked. By the time I got off the phone I was sniffling and missing them even more, but when the email rolled in from Dr. Kent with the referral to apply to the internship, the flutter of excitement in my stomach told me I was making the right decision.
I clicked through the links, attached my resume and portfolio, read it over six times, and hit send.
I’d never been to New York before. All design students dreamed of an internship in the Big Apple. How bad could it be to be away from home when I was going to be in one of the most incredible cities on earth during my favorite time of year?
CHAPTER3
NORTH
Justin, my best friend and a local realtor, let himself into my house and shook the light dusting of snow from his shoulders onto the polished stone floors. His boots, thick-soled to add an extra couple of inches to his height, squeaked as he heel-toed them off and abandoned them right smack in the middle of my entranceway. He strode under the massive antler chandelier overhead and down the hall toward me, where I waited at the entrance to my kitchen.
“How’re things?” Justin had a low, deep voice, which often surprised people who met him. They expected something else from his five foot eight frame and pinched features.
He and I were opposites in almost every way, and people often joked that I could put him in my pocket and carry him around.
