I hobbled up the steps to my apartment, anger and fear twisting my insides into knots. Frasier, you idiot! I wanted to shout. He hadn’t gotten the money from his new job, he’d borrowed from Officer Ting so I could pay back Officer Ting, then made off with the rest. No wonder Jay had accused me of screwing over his boss when I gave him the money. He’d known.

He’d known and still taken me to Alfonso, waited for me, driven me home, all for nothing and after I’d rejected him. I didn’t understand it.

Didn’t Fraze realize what he’d done? The trouble he’d put me in? Simon would never let the debt pass with his own money if he found out. He would never let this go. With Fraze gone, I would be the target. The only way I was safe was if Jay decided to keep his mouth shut.

I gnawed on my lower lip. Could I trust Jay to keep his word? He clearly hated me now, so why he’d helped me at all tonight was a mystery. He thought I’d concocted this whole plan with “Fred,” that I was actually capable of that kind of deceit and manipulation.

Grabbing my pillow, I pressed it against my face and screamed. A few times. What a mess. Fraze hadn’t told me where he was going, only that he had a job with a record producer, which was obviously a lie. He hadn’t told me anything to protect me, but it didn’t matter, because Jay had seen us together. That had never been part of Frasier’s plan.

I clutched the pillow like a lifeline, like the teddy bear Fraze had given me for my fourth birthday. The teddy bear I’d slept with until I turned fourteen but still kept on my bookshelf, a reminder of the brother I loved but rarely saw. It was one of the few things I’d brought with me to Vegas. I glanced at it, sitting on my dresser by a framed family photo. Now I wanted to strangle the stupid thing.

I lifted my swollen ankle and put the pillow underneath. Jay and Officer Ting weren’t my only problems, though they were definitely the most dangerous. There was no way I’d be able to hobble around the diner on one foot, even with crutches. Craig would never allow it. This was the second time in a month I’d have to take sick leave and I might get fired over it.

And what about my dancing? A couple of weeks to recover was a couple of weeks without practicing. I couldn’t lose that time. I needed every second I could spare or my audition piece would never be good enough for Mallory Hugo and Essence Dance Theater.

I’d thought it was all over, that with Nico’s debt paid I could finally get back on track. But life was an even bigger mess than before.

Craig fired me. Apparently, I wasn’t even a good waitress, which took my list of talents down to zero. I searched online for job openings, but with my sore ankle, I could barely get around for interviews. Bronwyn borrowed a pair of old crutches from a friend, but suggested, in her latest dead voice, that I wait until I healed before braving the streets of Vegas. Despite where he got it from, that extra grand from Fraze was a blessing.

Christmas was only three weeks away. Bronwyn hadn’t put up a tree or lights or anything festive. I couldn’t afford to go out and buy a bunch of decorations so I settled for a dancing light-up tree I found at a local thrift store and Christmas movies on Netflix.

I missed my parents. Missed the snow that blanketed Hillstone in a sea of clean white. Unlike Vegas, where everything was brown and dead and dirtier than normal.

I turned on White Christmas just as Bronwyn was coming home from work. She put her bike away and disappeared into the shower. By the time she got out, I was already at the Minstrel number.

“What’s this?” Bronwyn asked.

“White Christmas.” She gave no sign of recognition. “You haven’t seen it?”

Bronwyn sat beside me on the couch. “Doesn’t look very Christmasy.”

“It gets there, eventually.”

We watched the rest of the movie in silence. I wanted to say something, wished she’d talk to me, but at least she was there. With me and not shut up in her room all alone.

When the movie was over, Bronwyn scrubbed tears from her eyes.

I didn’t ask if she was okay because she obviously wasn’t. I didn’t push her to talk. Instead I said, “Do you want to watch another?”

“Sure.” She rose from the couch. “You pick while I make popcorn.”

I scrolled through the list while she poured kernels into the popper. It’s A Wonderful Life seemed like a good pick, but it might have been a bit much for her right now. So I decided on Elf.

A few minutes later, Bronwyn was back, placing the bowl between us. I took a handful and popped a piece in my mouth and was hit with a sour blast to the throat. I started to cough.

“Oops, sorry.” She grabbed the bowl. “Salt and vinegar. I guess I didn’t mix the flavoring good enough.” She expertly tossed the popcorn inside the bowl without spilling a piece.

Turning on the movie, I ate the rest in between sips of water. The next handful wasn’t as strong.

“Nope, not this one,” Bronwyn said. She grabbed the remote.

“What’s wrong with Elf?” I asked.

“I hate Will Ferrell.”

I laughed. “Why?”

“Don’t know, just do. I can’t watch him in anything.”

“Okay then.”

To my surprise, she settled on The Nativity Story. “Gotta get my religious fix in,” she said. “Right, church girl?”

I squirmed. “I haven’t gone to church since I came here.” It wasn’t that I had lost my faith, I just hadn’t made time for it. With Sunday diner shifts and no preacher father breathing down my neck, it’d been easy to skip. Now I felt guilty.

Bronwyn gave me a wry smile. I was so happy to see it, I didn’t care that she was mocking me. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t tell.”

“Who, God, or my dad?”

“Either or.”

“Well, thanks for that, but maybe you should be more worried about your immortal soul than mine.” I grinned and stuffed more popcorn in my mouth.

She paused the movie. “I will, when it’s necessary.”

Maybe it wasn’t necessary, for her. She’d put up with Nico for so long it practically made her a saint in my book.

She grew quiet. I waited.

“I got him a Christmas present, a while ago.” She looked at me. “Do you think I should give it to him?”

“That depends. How expensive was it?”

She sorta smiled. “I still love him, you know.”

“I know.”

“When do you think that will stop?”

I sighed. “I think that’s up to you.”

She threw a piece of popcorn at me. “Not the answer I wanted, Hale.”

“It’s the only one you’re gonna get.” I threw a whole handful at her. She gasped then immediately began snatching the popcorn on her lap and eating it.

“You waste one kernel and I will murder you,” she said.

I laughed. “Then I guess you better start worrying about that soul of yours after all.”