Chapter Two
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I screech. Eager to get home and put the trials of the day behind me, I’d picked up the suit from the dry cleaner and didn’t take the time to properly inspect it.
At first, I thought I was seeing things, maybe gotten eye damage somehow and my perception was off. So, I laid the thing out on the dining table...only to find that no, I wasn’t seeing it wrong.
“I’m going to cry,” I say, my voice trembling.
My roommate and childhood friend, Bianca, who’s standing beside me, angles her head. “What’s wrong with it?” she asks, truly baffled over why I’m so upset.
I thrust out my hand. The whole damn suit is evidence of everything that’s wrong. “It shrunk!” I yell. “It’s half the size it was when Travis gave it to me, and I thought that was bad.”
She looks at it again, as if trying to see it with fresh eyes. “Huh. Well, I still don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s cute.”
“Cute? Cute! It’s a nightmare!” I shout, railing over this insanity. How in the world did the dry cleaner manage to shrink the damn thing? Wasn’t that their job, to prevent such things from happening?
“You’re being overly dramatic, Sunny. It’s cute and sexy and you’re going to look great it in. You’ll have guys drooling over you.”
With a huff, I say, “That’s just the problem, Bianca. I’m not wearing it to a Christmas party. It’s for a children’s benefit at the hospital. I’m supposed to be Mrs. Claus giving away Christmas presents, not teaching them sex ed!”
She scrunches her nose and says, “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” I sigh. This isn’t good. It’s Friday. It’s the dead of winter on a holiday weekend and that means there’s a rush on all the stores for last-minute items. The chances of me finding an appropriate replacement suit are slim to none.
But I’m sure as hell gonna try.
“Do me a favor,” I tell Bianca as I fish my phone from my purse and hit the app for the internet search engine. “Get on the computer and find me all the numbers for area costume shops.”
Tipping her head, she rushes over to the desk we have set up in the corner of the living room as our communal work station. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to call all the retail stores and see if anyone has a suit left.”
Her eyebrows lift as she turns to the computer screen and starts furiously typing away. She doesn’t have to say it for me to know what that look is about. We both know this is a long shot. Unfortunately, I’m low on options and almost out of time.
“I’m so sending Travis a glitter bomb for Christmas,” I grumble as I call a nearby store and am immediately put on hold. Nothing like smooth jazz to calm frazzled nerves. Not!
***
I lay in my bed, sighing in frustration every few minutes, hoping one of these times the action will result in blowing off some steam. It’s not working.
Bianca and I had zero luck finding a replacement costume, which means I now have to wear that ridiculous outfit. I can feel my face turning red already. This is going to be the single most humiliating night of my life.
I glance over at the chair in the corner where I draped the sorry excuse for a suit. I swear it’s laughing at me. Travis is most definitely laughing at me, the prick. Good thing I was able to put in a rush order on that glitter bomb. Passive-aggressiveness for the win! The thought of his shock and dismay when he receives my surprise is the only thing that can bring a smile to my face right now. I only wish I could be there to witness it.
My gaze drifts to the picture on my dresser. It’s of my ex-boyfriend, Kyle. The epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, he was my high school sweetheart. We dated from ninth grade to our first year of college when, after pledging to one of those asinine frat houses, he was spotted making out with one of the sorority sisters one drunken night.
I didn’t need to see it happen to believe it, because he told me himself about the infamous lip lock. He didn’t fess up to the “something more” going around the rumor mill, but the confession was more than enough for me to drop him like a bad habit.
Unfortunately, though I cut him off like dead weight, my heart continued to hold on for dear life.
Even all these years later.
I’ll never understand why I can’t shake that man. He’s never far from my thoughts, but I’ve long since stopped trying to figure out why. Sometimes, things just aren’t meant to be. Despite the way things ended, I can’t bring myself to obliterate his memory, which is why I keep his picture on my dresser. Something about that smiling face still warms me.
Bianca calls it avoidance. She thinks I hold onto him to excuse myself from moving on and finding happiness. I think she needs to stop trying to shrink me. We’ve argued circles around each other, and we’ve yet to come to a mutual agreement on the matter. One day, happiness will find me, I’m certain of it.
Shaking off the melancholy that threatens to dig its claws into me, I roll over, turning my back to the memories and the embarrassment of what’s soon to come.
I dread going to that children’s hospital, but I refuse to back out. Never have I been one to run away from an uncomfortable situation. So, I’m forging ahead. Those kids were promised a visit from Mrs. Claus, and I refuse to let them down. I’m going to rock the hell out of that Mrs. Claus suit, and I’m going to have fun doing it.