“What the fuck are you doing here, Nina?”

Hannah didn’t want to speak. She wanted to punch something, preferably Nina in her perfectly put together face. The bitch didn’t even have the decency to show up and ruin Christmas looking like shit.

She looked like she always did when she showed up for a Williams’ Christmas dinner. Nina never exactly wore a ballgown, but she looked like she was about to walk some red carpet somewhere instead of getting ready to sit down to a homecooked meal among normal people. That night was no different with some kind of red silky fabric covering her legs under a full-length fur coat.

She’d probably waited down the street for Hannah and Curtis to show up so she could make her entrance. Hannah was surprised she hadn’t cut in during the engagement conversation. She was sure Nina had been there lurking.

“I missed you too, Hannah.”

“You sure have a funny way of showing it. I don’t remember a single time you tried to reach out in the last three months to say you’re sorry.”

They’d walked about ten feet out the front door into the yard. Hannah had made sure the door closed behind them, but worked to try to keep her voice down so their conversation wouldn’t be heard. She preferred her family and neighbors didn’t hear how Nina had played god with her life.

“Do you remember a time I ever apologized for anything? I’ve been seeing a shrink to try to work out my problems, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet.”

Hannah stared at her ex-friend, trying to gauge whether she spoke a word of truth. They hadn’t even dived into anything serious and Hannah already doubted her. That said a lot about where things stood between them. There was no change in the way annoyance always made it in her voice and her general gaze still showed how much better she thought she was than everyone else.

Something in her eyes had always shown that, but Hannah wasn’t sure she’d noticed it before. The voice was hard to get over, so she was used to that. Spending time with other people had taught Hannah that most people didn’t naturally keep their face with their nose turned up.

“I remember one time you apologized, but that’s not what this is about.”

More words were ready to come out of Hannah’s mouth, but Nina interrupted. She tried to reach out to touch Hannah’s shoulder, but Hannah shied away from the touch. The move caused a quick eye roll from Nina.

“Everything goes back to that day, Hannah. I admit that I messed up not telling you I changed your appointment, but come on, when have you ever had sex with a guy too stupid to put a condom on? That’s not something I could’ve foreseen happening, so you can’t blame me for it.”

“It doesn’t matter if you foresaw it. It happened. For two weeks, I had to live with the fact that I may be a mother without making a single plan to become one.”

Hannah didn’t like thinking about it. She knew eventually she really would be pregnant, but she’d psyched herself into thinking she was pregnant and then the tests said she wasn’t. There had been relief about the unplanned portion of everything, but Hannah was ready to admit how much she wanted that baby.

“But things worked out. You didn’t get knocked up from your wild day of inhibition, and you ended up getting him to put a ring on your finger. Kudos for managing that one. I thought for sure it’d take a baby to get that done. Curtis has never been a stable guy. I’ve talked to some of his exes and they all said he was great in bed, but emotionally detached.”

The urge to punch Nina hadn’t necessarily gone away, but it increased to new levels. The woman had never been in love, a sad fact that Hannah had trouble understanding. Hannah had her own excuses for why it’d taken her so long, but Nina didn’t have the shyness and lack of men interested to fall back on.

Nina had slept with at least fifty or sixty guys, which was probably on the low side, but Hannah couldn’t imagine even reaching double digits. With that amount of possibilities, it was hard to believe not a single one of them resonated as more than a quick fling.

It hurt a little to think that someone she’d cared about so much would never feel the things she did with Curtis. Everyone, even Nina, deserved to find some kind of love in their life, but Nina wasn’t going to let that person in. She cared too much about herself to share her life with someone else.

“Do you know how much it hurt both of us to find out we weren’t having a baby after having to think about the possibility for weeks? Of course you don’t, because you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

The smile that slithered onto Nina’s face was unsettling, but Hannah didn’t let it get to her. Nina was always plotting, and the smile was a good indicator her gears were at work. That was the main reason Hannah had taken the conversation outside. She didn’t want her family, including Curtis, to get anything on them when Nina exploded, because it was a guaranteed event.

“He sure has added a little spirit to you, hasn’t he? Your little milk teeth look like they’ve been filed. Obviously, not too sharp, but you have a little bite to you.”

There was an odd sense of pride in the words. Hannah felt like a science experiment finally amounting to something. She’d been off in some corner growing mold or something for years and now she was being put to use.

“You know nothing about him, so don’t act like you do. I don’t care how many ex-girlfriends you were able to round up and quiz. They don’t know him.”

Nina laughed. As usual, Hannah was going to say more, but whatever crossed Nina’s mind was more important.

“I heard he said something very similar to Paul when your old friend paid him a visit the other day.”

Hannah couldn’t hold it back. She’d tried her hardest, but bringing up the creep crossed the line.

She didn’t think about it, she just pulled back her arm and curled her fingers into a fist. The next thing she knew, that fist was flying towards Nina’s perfect face. Hannah had never hit someone in earnest, so she wasn’t ready for the pain that radiated up her arm. Her playful fights with her brothers hadn’t prepared her.

Bones collided and jolted Hannah’s arm. She had little care about how Nina faired when her own hand felt like it was on fire.

“Shit,” she said as she wrapped her other hand around the injured hand.

Turning her back on Nina wasn’t the best idea, but she needed to walk off the pain. Fuck it hurt.

Nina’s laugh was a little surprising, but the way it chilled Hannah’s body wasn’t. She looked up briefly to see the woman massaging her face.

“I take it back. You’ve lost your milk teeth. I never thought I’d be able to say that. Good for you.”

“That’s enough.” Hannah jumped hearing Curtis’ voice from her left. “I don’t know, nor do I care, what in the world you’re doing here, Nina, but you need to leave before I call the cops.”

The man speaking was quick to make his way over to Hannah and wrap an arm around her shoulders. He tsked as he looked down at her hand, swiftly taking it and placing a soft kiss on it. It reminded Hannah of all the times she’d tried to kiss away his pain. He was right. It didn’t work, but the sentiment made her feel a little better.

“What are you going to tell them? That your fiancé just assaulted me?”

“The way I saw it, you attacked her first.”

It was bad enough Curtis had witnessed the altercation. Hannah felt slight mortification hearing her father offer to lie to the police for her.

“Plus, this is my property, so I think the law would be on our side.”

Hannah was staring blankly at her father, so she saw the small wink in her direction thanks to the porch light glowing behind him. She knew she was going to have to explain herself, and she wasn’t sure how she would even begin to tell the story without revealing key details she didn’t want her family knowing.

“Touché, Mr. Williams. I guess that’s my cue to leave. Please let Mrs. Williams know that I’m sorry I won’t be staying to enjoy the delicious meal she’s prepared. I will leave you with your presents, though. There’s no reason a little misunderstanding should keep you from enjoying them. This year I even handpicked them all instead of sending someone out to do it for me.”

Nina smiled sweetly and put the bag she hadn’t lost hold of on the ground in front of her. Her eyes briefly trained in on Curtis, with an odd glint in them. Hannah wanted to say it was almost respect, but she based that on what she saw in other people’s eyes. Nina had never shown respect for anyone, other than the time she met the designer of her favorite pair of shoes.

“I want to continue this conversation, Hannah,” she said as her eyes moved to Hannah. “I’ll be in touch.”

Hannah had no response to that. She wasn’t sure if it was a joke, but she figured it had to be. Any continuation would probably end the same way, which didn’t bode well for Hannah’s hand.

Turning and swaying her hips as she walked away, Nina didn’t wait for a reply. If the woman was seeing a shrink, she needed to get her money back, because they weren’t helping.

“We should probably get some ice on this, and clearly I’m going to have to teach you how to punch,” Curtis said as he studied Hannah’s hand in the minimal light available. “Tell me you didn’t curl your thumb inside your fingers.”

A touch to her thumb caused Hannah to wince. Her whole hand hurt, but the thumb was particularly a touchy spot.

“I don’t remember. I just swung back and tried to hit something.”

Curtis pulled her in close to him, leading her towards the house. The bag of gifts was forgotten on the lawn as her father held the door open for the pair.

“I saw that.” Curtis leaned in to whisper in her ear. “And it’s going to take a miracle for me to make it home before I have to show you how fucking hot I thought that was.”

Her father’s throat clearing from behind them indicated he might have heard just a little of the whisper. Hannah felt her face flush from a pretty equal mix of embarrassment and lust.

When they walked into the kitchen, the rest of Hannah’s immediate family were acting too bizarre to not have witnessed what happened outside. They had scattered away from the island, with one brother staring into the fridge, another pretending to clean the glass of the patio door, and the other three members of the family doing similar unrealistically needed tasks.

“Oh good, you’re back. I was just getting ready to set the table.”

Her mom was the only one doing something theoretically needed by putting whipped cream on the pumpkin pie. Usually they just passed the whipped cream around the table so everyone could get the amount they wanted, so it was a little out of character. The fact that it had been one of the pies warming in the oven and the whipped cream would melt added to how suspicious it was.

Karen pasted a Cheshire Cat grin across her face and picked up the bowl with mashed potatoes in it. They all knew something had happened, even if they hadn’t watched, which Hannah was fairly sure they had, yet not one of them asked the question hanging in the room.

That was why Hannah loved them. Obviously, since they were her family, that was a given, but they made it easy on her.

“I’ll help carry, but I need to get some ice on our little boxer first. I’m worried she broke her thumb.”

Curtis left Hannah’s side for a second so he could complete his task. He had to push Miles out of the way and dig around in the freezer, before coming back with a bag of frozen peas. Hannah made a small face of disgust, thinking about eating the peas. They definitely weren’t one of her favorite vegetable, but the instant pain relief they provided put them slightly on her good side.

“As you all can figure out, Nina and I had a little falling out a few months ago and things haven’t improved.”

“I’m sorry, honey,” Karen said as she put the potatoes down. “She called a couple days ago wanting to verify what time dinner was. Since she’s been coming to Christmas dinner for years, I didn’t think anything of it.”

Hannah shook her head. She couldn’t believe Nina’s audacity. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but it was one thing to mess with Hannah’s life. Bringing her family into it was just another new low.

“It’s not your fault. I didn’t tell you.”

It would’ve been nice to leave it at that, but Hannah thought they deserved some explanation. Only Curtis and she knew that Hannah wasn’t even working with Nina anymore. She realized there was a lot she was hiding, and for the most part she was going to keep it that way. She’d always been a private person, even with her family.

“I don’t really want to get into the whys, but I quit my job and haven’t had contact with her since. You guys know how she is. She finally took things too far and I decided I don’t need all that negativity in my life.”

“Thank god,” Vinnie proclaimed. “When you said you were getting married, all I could see was a maid of honor from hell. Now I can be happy about your little announcement.”

Vinnie had been pretending to rearrange the vegetable platter when they’d come back in the room. He picked up a carrot and chomped on it before walking out of the room towards the dining room.

“I’m glad I could ease your fears,” Hannah hollered after him.

After that, the night went off without a hitch. The family welcomed Curtis with open arms and no one pushed for more information about Nina. Hannah got the feeling everyone had taken a big sigh of relief. It was a little painful to realize she’d been causing her family grief over the years because of her choice of friend, but she was glad the cloud hanging over them was gone.

For Hannah, it wasn’t that easy, though. Nina had said she’d be in touch, and it sounded like a threat. Knowing what Nina was capable of, Hannah wasn’t going to have any peaceful night’s sleep in the foreseeable future.