Santa (Maybe): A Rom Com Novella (10 page)

“I may have had something to do with Chad being there,” Ami said. “I’ve been texting him
all day, pretending to be Kristen. Then I text Kristen, pretending to be Chad. I got one of those cheap disposable cellphones. Bought with cash. Untraceable.”

“She
’s brilliant!” Jagger said.

“Brilliant? Or crazy
?” Joe protested. “They might have burned Mark’s house down.”

“I’m just glad Festus wasn’t in there,” Mark said.

“Yes, I wouldn’t put it past Kristen to shoot him,” said Ami.

“Are they doing what I think they’re doing?” Madeleine asked.

Chad appeared to be pouring the contents of a gas can around the living room floor while Kristen watched.

“They
’re doing exactly what you think they’re doing.”

“Please tell me they didn’t get a chance to light that!”

“Just watch.”

Chad finished sloshing the gas onto the floor. Then he turned to Kristen.
She grabbed him and pushed him up against the wall and started kissing him.

“Eww!” Madeleine didn’t want to see
this.

The video cut off.

“You’ll be happy to know Kristen didn’t get anything she came for. The police arrived before they got around to igniting the accelerant and, according to Jagger, it appears they were arrested fully clothed,” said Ami.

“So
, Jagger was there when the police arrived?”

“I was still in the back of
the van. Watching through the cameras. I didn’t talk to the cops. Didn’t want Kristen to get a look at me.”

“I
talked to them, though,” Mark said. “We arrived just as they were putting Kristen and Chad into the police car.”

“Jagger was the one who called the police?” Madeline was still confused.

“Yeah,” Jagger said. “I waited a little while to put in the call. Said I lived in the neighborhood and was walking by with my dog. I had a feeling Kristen and Chad would fool around a little before they got around to lighting up.”

“Wasn’t that a bit risky?
Waiting so long to call the police? ” Madeleine asked. Poor Mark. Was he regretting getting involved with her family again?

“Maybe a little.” Jagger grinned
.
 

Mark
looked across the room at Madeleine. She was looking back at him. He wished everyone else would go away and leave them alone.

They finally did. Ami and Jagger left
together. Joe went off to bed. Mark stood by the fireplace, waiting. Madeleine stayed where she was, keeping the couch between them.

“
Do you believe me now?” Mark asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s all you have to say? After all those horrible things you thought about me.”

Madeleine walked up to him and put a finger to his lips.

“Shut up.”

“That’s kind of rude,” Mark scolded.

“Shut up and kiss me!”

He’d imagined this moment a thousand time
s and it was every bit as good as he’d imagined it. No. It was better. Sure, the wooly Santa beard was getting in the way a little, but it didn’t matter. She tasted so good. Madeleine let out a little moan. Mark pulled away and looked into her eyes.

“Ami tells me you have a rule about—“

“I’m giving you an exemption,” Madeleine said.

“How long is this exemption good for?”

“It’s too early to tell, but I’d say there’s a possibility it could be permanent.”

Mark didn’t say anything. Instead he picked
her up in his arms and headed for the stairs. The second night he spent with Madeleine, he wasn’t going to be sleeping on top of the bedspread.

Madeleine
stood in the middle of the street and waved until Mark’s car turned the corner and drove out of sight. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t cry, but she’d broken that promise before he’d even made it out of the driveway. Portland might be only a commuter flight away and she’d see him the very next weekend, but she couldn’t wait until she tied up all her loose ends in Seattle and joined him in Portland for good.

Madeleine
was looking forward to Monday. She shouldn’t be getting so much pleasure from anticipating the look on Angela’s face when she informed her she was quitting. Angela would be sorry to lose Madeleine, but Madeleine wasn’t the least bit sad to be leaving. Two weeks. In two weeks her days in divorce court would be over.

Not everything was rosy
, of course. It would be hard to leave Ami here and Chad hadn’t been too happy when Madeleine had informed him of her intentions. However, since he only had Emily every other weekend and was currently out on bail until his court date, he wasn’t in a position to create too much of a fuss. He was looking at jail-time and so was Kristen. Madeleine felt sorry for them both. Maybe she shouldn’t, but she did.

There was also the house to sell. Chad hadn’t been too happy about that either, but it was her house now
, and he didn’t have any say in the matter.

Madeleine
already had a job lined up through someone Ami knew. She could start whenever she was ready. She’d be representing victims of domestic violence. There wasn’t much money in it, but Madeleine didn’t care.

She was so happy for Mark. He was
finally realizing his dream of owning his own gym. Well, part-ownership, anyway. And after they got married, she’d buy out his friend Stan, and it would be their gym for good.

Madeleine took her mitten off and looked at her hand. It
was strange to have a ring on her finger again. She turned her hand back and forth in the light to make the stone sparkle. It had belonged to Mark’s grandmother. When Mark had gone to his parent’s for Christmas he’d come back with the ring. He’d carried it around until Valentine’s Day, then he’d proposed.

I
t was awfully quick, but Madeleine wasn’t having second thoughts. Mark was everything that Chad had never been.

M
adeleine’s phone jingled.

“Hi, Mark.”

“Just making sure you haven’t forgotten me. Out of sight. Out of mind.”

“Not a chance.”

“I’m the luckiest man on earth.”

She didn’t know how to react when Mark said sweet things like that. She wasn’t used to it.

“Recent history might indicate otherwise.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Why?”

“Because all the bad stuff had to happen to get to the good stuff.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“I know I’m right. Just because you’re 6 years older than me doesn’t—“

“Are we about to have our first fight?”

“I thought we already got that over with.”

“We weren’t a couple then.”

“Weren’t we?”

“No.”

He had loved her
way back then. He loved her even more now. She had no doubts, just delicious anticipation of a long and happy life together. Mark and her and Emily. Together. A family.

“Are you still there?” Mark asked.

”Yes. I was just distracted by happy thoughts.”

“
No fighting, then?”

“No. We can save
fighting for later.”

“Why not? We have all the time in the world.”

THE END