Annihilate Me: Holiday Edition (9 page)

“What’s
the matter?”

“My
boyfriend dumped me just before we went on break.
 
OK?
 
He up and dumped me after two years of me totes being there for
him.
 
Fuck him.
 
And while we’re at it, fuck my
life.
 
I’m still in love with him.
 
I shouldn’t be taking this out on
everyone here, especially on Lisa and Tank, but I am.
 
I’ll pull it together.
 
I’ll be nice.”
 
She looked over her shoulder, where Tank
and Alex were gathering bags out of the SUV.
 
“I should apologize to Lisa and Tank in
person.
 
It was pretty rotten what I
said to them in New York.”

“Why
don’t you leave that alone for now?” I suggested, not wanting her to say
something potentially worse even if she didn’t mean to.
 
“You’ve already apologized.
 
And I’m sorry what happened to you,
Daniella, especially before the holidays.
 
Your ex is an idiot.
 
Look at
you, for God’s sake.
 
You’re beautiful.
 
It’s going to be tough for him to replace
you.”

“I
know.
 
Like, right?”

“Totally.”

“Mom
said you were super nice.
 
For once,
I guess she was right.
 
I hope we
can become friends.”

“We
already are.
 
Maybe I’ll even make
you the perfect martini later tonight.”

“I’ve
never had a martini.”

“You
haven’t?”

“No.
 
It’s usually a cosmo for me.”

“A
martini is even better.
 
Not so long
ago, a stranger who then became a dear friend of mine once said that she would
make me one as smooth as silk and as cold as January.
 
And she did, just when I needed it
most.
 
I’ll do the same for you.”

“I’m
way into that,” she said.
 

“Then
consider it done.
 
Now, how about if
we stay here so you don’t ruin your shoes, and I’ll help the boys with the
bags?
 
There are a lot of them.
 
I’ll help lug them into the house.”

“I
can help.”

“Help
your mother.
 
She can barely
walk.
 
And I think she’d appreciate
your help.”

“I
probably should do something nice for her.”

And
with that, Daniella walked away from me, went over to her sister, said
something in her ear, and I heard Alexa say, “I get it.
 
Don’t worry about it.
 
You’re just in a rotten mood.
 
It’ll pass.”

“Do
you need some help, Mom?” Daniella said.

“From
you?
 
Stay away from me.
 
I know what you’re up to.
 
You’ll throw me into the snow.”

“I
will not.
 
Now, give me your
arm.
 
I’m sorry I was such a bitch
earlier.”

“What’s
gotten into you?”

“I’ll
tell you later.
 
I’ve had a bad few
days.”

“Well,
why haven’t you told me about it?”

“I
don’t know.
 
It’s probably still too
fresh.”

Crisis
averted?
 
I wasn’t sure, but I certainly
hoped so.

Naturally,
I was wrong.

CHAPTER NINE

When
we were in the house and had unpacked our belongings in our respective
bedrooms, Blackwell announced that someone had to take her to the grocery
store.

“Who’s
up for
that
task?” she said.
 
“I’ve got some cooking to do, and I need food to do it.”

“I
can take you,” Tank said.

“I
assume we’re hours away from a store?
 
The closest one is what?
 
Probably
in Boston?”

“We’re
about thirty minutes from the local Hannaford.
 
It’s in Ellsworth.”

“What
the hell kind of a name for a town is ‘Ellsworth,’ anyway?
 
And what’s a ‘Hannaford’.”

“It’s
a chain of grocery stores in Maine,” I offered.
 
“They’re very good.
 
You’ll find what you need there.
 
Especially there.
 
They’re used to catering to people like
you.”

“What
do you mean, ‘people like me’?”

“The
summer crowd.”

“But
apparently, I’m part of the winter crowd.”

“Plenty
of summer people come back here for the holidays.”

“They
must hate themselves.
 
Anyway,” she
said to Tank, “we should go.
 
I have
lists that need to be checked off.
 
And I need your big brawny muscles to carry the bags and to push the
carts.
 
Does anyone want anything
special while I’m gone?”

“World
peace,” Alexa said.

Blackwell
just looked at her and blinked.
 
“What’s happened to you?” she said.
 
“Who stole away my child?”

“No
one.
 
I’ve become socially
conscious.”

“Oh,
my dear.
 
I’m so sorry.
 
What a disappointment you’re in
for.
 
But I support you.
 
You know that I do.”

“It
sure as hell doesn’t sound it.”

“But
I do.”

“I
had the house stocked yesterday,” Alex said.
 
“We have lots of food, snacks, wine,
liquor—pretty much everything.
 
You should check the fridge and pantry before you leave.”

“I
will, but my list is filled with the exotic.
 
I should have given it to you when you
had your little elves do their shopping, but whatever.
 
It’s probably best that I choose the
food myself, anyway.
 
In researching
this meal, I’ve learned that you need to pay attention to little things like—I
don’t know—expiration dates.
 
That sort of thing.”

Was
she serious?
 
I looked across the
room at Lisa, who locked eyes with mine in a way that suggested horror, but I
didn’t want to know.
 
If Christmas
dinner went belly up, there always was the Crocker House, which was one of the
best restaurants on the Point.
 
I
decided that I’d secretly make reservations there in case we found at the last
minute that we needed a good place to eat.

*
 
*
 
*

When
Tank and Blackwell left, I went over to Alex, asked if he’d be willing to
entertain the girls for awhile, and when he agreed, I took Lisa aside.

“Let’s
go and see your room,” I said.

“And
have a chat?”

“I’d
like that.”

“I
think we should catch up.”

“I
couldn’t agree more.”

“We
haven’t caught up in a while.”

“And
there’s so much to say.”

We
went down to the first floor, where there was a huge family room that featured
a large-screen television, a small kitchenette area with a refrigerator, a
microwave and a bar, and plenty of comfortable seating.
 
There also were two bedrooms—one
for Lisa and one for Tank.
 

We
went into Lisa’s bedroom, which, like Tank’s, had a gorgeous view of the
ocean.
 
Here, there was a king-sized
bed, the walls were painted slate-blue, and the maple floors gleamed as if
they’d just been polished, which of course they had.

“So
pretty,” I said.
 
“I love the
fireplace.
 
And that’s some bed.”

“All
of this needs to lead to romance,” she said when she closed the door behind me.

“I
hear you on that.
 
Do you see what I
mean about these bedrooms being completely separate from the rest of the
house?
 
If anything happens between
you two, you’ll have your privacy.
 
And
by the way, I happened to notice on the flight that you were holding hands.”

“He
reached for mine,” she said.
 
“Can
you believe it?
 
And did you see him
lean over and kiss me on the neck?”

“I
didn’t….”

“Well,
he did.
 
And it was really sweet.”

“May
the Christmas Gods shine down and something wonderful fall upon you—like
Tank’s naked body.”

Lisa
looked up at the ceiling.
 
“Christmas Gods?” she said in a light voice.
 
“Can you hear me?
 
If you could make that happen for me, I
swear I’ll take out that scene in my new book in which the zombies eat the priests.”

“You
have a scene in your book in which zombies eat priests?
 
What’s wrong with you?”

“The
kids will love it, but I’m willing to sacrifice it for a night with Tank.”

She
sat on the edge of the bed while I took the leather chair facing her in the
corner of the room.
 
“Comfy,” I said
about the chair.
 
“And because it’s
leather, it won’t stain.”

“You’re
terrible.”

“I’m
just giving you ideas.
 
What did you
two talk about on the way here?
 
I
was too busy trying to keep the peace between Daniella and Alexa.”

“Those
two might be the end of us.”

“I
really felt for you and Tank when Daniella started to talk about Tank’s
Christmas balls banging away in the night.”

“I
didn’t.
 
I was hoping he heard
her.
 
I was hoping that he knew that
others in the room felt that something wasn’t right between us.
 
Look, at this point, I’ll take what I
can get from that man.”

“As
you should.”

“It’s
been months!”

“About
Daniella,” I said.
 
“There’s a
chance that she isn’t a total terror.
 
When we arrived here, she apologized to me for her behavior back at
Wenn.
 
I could tell that she was
sincere about it.
 
Her boyfriend
dumped her just before she left university for New York, which explains her
moodiness—at least to a point.”

“Ugh,
I hate breakups.”

“Fortunately,
I’ve only been through a brief one with Alex.”

“Lucky
you.”

“What
did you and Tank talk about on the plane?”

“You
know him—he’s nothing if not the strong and silent type.
 
But he did tell me that he was glad that
we were spending Christmas together.
 
And get this—he finally asked me what I was doing for New Year’s
Eve.”

“Really?
 
That’s positive.
 
What did you say?”

“I
said I had no plans.
 
I said that I
was hoping to spend it with him.”

“And?”

“He
asked me if I’d like to go to dinner in the city that night.”

“Excellent.”

“Naturally,
I said that I’d love to.”

“So,
you’re moving in the right direction.”

“We’ve
moved in that direction before.
 
We
keep having these stops and starts.
 
I don’t get it.
 
I just hope
that our plans for New Year’s Eve don’t go south.”

I
pointed to the closed door across the room.
 
“You do know that you have adjoining
rooms, don’t you?”

“Oh,
I know.”

“What
was it like when you unpacked?”

“That’s
the tragic part.
 
When we first came
down here, I don’t think he knew that there were two bedrooms.
 
Alex didn’t tell him that, which was sly
on his part.
 
Not knowing the house,
we each came into this room first.
 
Tank put our suitcases on the bed, we unzipped them, I went into some
netherworld because I couldn’t believe what was happening, and then he saw the
door.
 
He went around to see where
it led, and then he apologized profusely when he realized that through it was
another bedroom meant for him.
 
I wanted
to say that there was plenty of room here, but I couldn’t bring myself to do
it, so he took his bag and unpacked in there.
 
I wanted to cry when he left.”