SINGLE & READY TO JINGLE

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

KENZIE

It’s not until I’m out in the chilly early November air that I stop and think about what I just did. My cheeks heat with embarrassment and I pull my phone from my bag and call Tessa.

“I’m really hoping you’re calling me from the bathroom to tell me you’re going home with your date and to give me all his details so I can send out a search party if you don’t surface? It’s only been forty-five minutes.”

“Most people answer the phone with hello.” Just hearing her voice pulls that security blanket feeling over me. I walk toward downtown. At some point I’ll have to hop on the subway, but I need to burn off some of my irritation before battling hundreds of people.

I hate this feeling of unworthiness. It’s both familiar and unwelcome.

“Since I hear honking taxicabs, I’m assuming it’s a SOS call?”

I stop when the light changes. “It’s an ‘I made a scene and stormed out of the restaurant and now I feel bad about it’ call.”

“What? You stormed out of the restaurant? I didn’t even know you were capable of such emotion.”

“Har.” The light changes and I walk again, dodging the gawkers.

It’s a running joke about how much I let roll off my back. I always look at the positive side of a situation and don’t focus on the negative, and my attitude has always served me well. Tessa has the temper of a city stray old dog, so she’s never been able to understand how even-keeled I can be, even when someone has upset me.

“Wait, is this a joke or something?”

“No! I’m serious.” While I walk, I fill her in on everything that went down—the costume, his apparent embarrassment, his irritation, and finally what he said about the whole disaster of a date.

“You did the right thing. He sounds like a jerk. If it were me, I probably would’ve dumped my wine over his head.”

I glance up at the street sign and realize I’ve walked ten blocks by now. I head toward the subway. “I haven’t told you the best part yet. Guess who my date was?”

“You know the guy? I thought the app—”

“He’s my brother’s best friend—Andrew Wainwright.”

“No way!” I pull the phone away from my ear from her screech.

“Yep. Can you believe that?” I hike my bag farther up on my shoulder and smile as I pass an older lady checking out my elf costume.

“Are you going to tell Finn?”

I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “No. What’s the point? This is the first time I’ve even met him after all these years. There’s not a big chance I’ll ever run into him again.”

Tessa clucks her tongue. “You’re a better woman than me, Kenz. I’d want to make him pay.”

I don’t tell her, but the first thing that runs through my head is that I’d like to do the opposite. As angry as I am with him, I feel bad for him. I wish I could change his mind and show him the magic of the holiday season. You’d think someone had sprinkled me with elf dust. Maybe it was the flashes of pain I saw on his face that he tried to mask. Maybe it’s because I too am familiar with pain, but Christmas and my memories of it have been a soothing balm. A part of me wishes he knew what that was like too.

“Anyway, I’m going to hop on the subway now. Want to do drinks later this week?”

“Just text me when and where.”

“Okay, I’ll check my schedule and let you know. Bye, babe.”

“Bye.”

I hang up and slide my phone back into my purse before taking the stairs down to the subway and using my pass to enter through the turnstile.

While I wait on the platform for my train to arrive, I go back over dinner with Andrew. I don’t know why but that look on his face when I asked if he was going home for the holidays and whether he liked Christmas is stuck on repeat in my head, but I cannot forget it.

After I reach my stop and emerge from the bowels of the city, my phone chimes in my purse. When I pull it out, I see a missed call from my brother. I stop walking and let out a groan, my head falling back so I’m staring straight up at the dark sky clustered with skyscrapers.

With a sigh, I right my head and look at the screen, wondering what I’m going to hear when I call him back. Why is my brother calling? Did Andrew call him after I stormed out? For what purpose? I told him I wouldn’t tell my brother.

God, something about Andrew Wainwright feels like a stubborn splinter under my skin.

My brother and I aren’t particularly close. We live in the same city, me moving here years after him, but we’ve rarely hung out. Maybe it’s the six-year age gap or maybe it’s that he had a completely different childhood than I did. We talk probably once a month and see each other a handful of times a year. I love my brother and don’t have any ill will toward him. We’re just not that close.

I don’t want to wonder for days why he called and whether it’s about what I said to his friend, so I hit his number to call him right back. If it’s about Andrew, I’d rather deal with it now so that tomorrow, I can put the Scrooge behind me and enjoy my favorite season of the year.

“Hey, Finn. I missed your call?” I ask with a nervous hitch when he answers.

“Yeah, I was just calling to invite you to my place for Thanksgiving dinner.”

I open my mouth then shut it. It takes me a moment to recover from my surprise because in all the years we’ve lived in the same city as adults, he’s never once invited me to Thanksgiving dinner, let alone hosted. I didn’t even know he could cook.

“You’re cooking?” I clear my throat, hoping to hide the surprise in my voice.

The sound of his laugh reverberates in my ear. “Hell no. I’m having it catered.”

“Ah, that makes more sense.” I walk down the street toward my apartment.

“There’s someone I’d like you to meet, and I figured Thanksgiving was as good a time as any.”

My stomach drops for a moment. “Oh my god, Finn are you dating someone special?”

Over the years, I’ve only ever met one woman my brother has dated and that was a chance meeting at a bar on St. Patrick’s Day. He has never, ever wanted me to meet someone before.

“You’re not going to make a big deal about this, are you?” His tone is eerily similar to Andrew’s at dinner and I’m getting a better idea of how the two of them might connect as friends. They both have that agitated lawyerness.

“How long have you been seeing her?” I stop at the corner when I spot Mrs. Hoffmeister smoking on the front stoop of our building. No doubt she’ll ask me to do something for her if I pass her. I might as well wait, see if she goes inside.

“Zahra and I have been together for about nine months.”

“Oh, love her name. So pretty. But seriously, Finn, how is this the first I’m hearing about it?”

He sighs and I picture him pushing his hand through his sandy-colored hair. “I didn’t want to jinx anything.”

Oh, she must be really special.

“You don’t say…”

“Cut the s**t, Mac. Are you coming or not?”

I chuckle. “Of course I’m coming. Let me know what you want me to bring.”

“Will do. Oh, and you should know that Mom and Dad will be joining us too.”

The excitement I felt moments ago plummets to the ground like a dead bird splattering on the concrete sidewalk.

My brother quickly fills the silence. “C’mon, Mac. It’s not that big a deal. It’ll be fine.”

My parents and I have a complicated relationship, to put it mildly. I love them, they’re my parents, but growing up wasn’t easy.

“Are you sure you want to do that? What if they start fighting at dinner and Zahra is there?”

“I’ve already explained their dynamic to her. She’s prepared.”

I frown. “What are they doing in Manhattan anyway?”

“They’re at some conference down in Florida the week of and their flight home has a layover in Newark, so they figured why not just spend the night and come into Manhattan for Thanksgiving. They’re leaving the next day.”

Nice of them to mention to me that they were coming to town.

“Sure, I’ll be there. Listen, if Tessa stays in town, can I bring her along?” Normally I hang with Tessa on Thanksgiving, or if she headed home to Milwaukee, I’d join her.

“Sure, the more the merrier.”

“All right. Anything else?” I head toward the building now that Mrs. Hoffmeister has gone inside, waiting to see if Andrew has called my brother.

“Nope, that’s it.” I hear the smile in his voice. It’s nice to hear him happy. It’s obvious to me that he doesn’t know anything about who I had dinner with tonight.

“Okay, see you then. Looking forward to meeting Zahra.” I say her name in a singsong voice like a child.

“Don’t act like that when you meet her, okay?” He hangs up.

I smile as I slide my phone back into my bag. It’s about time my brother found someone he cares about. I hope one day I join him.