A Bitch Named Karma by Stephanie Haefner

Author:Stephanie Haefner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 0201-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Once the gifts had been opened, Abby and Daniel left for home and Mom, Dad and Andy retired to their rooms. I sat in the living room alone. The tree remained lit while the rest of the house was dark. I curled up on the couch with a mug of cocoa and watched the snowflakes gracefully float to earth outside the window.

In rare moments of peace and serenity, I thought of Rich and imagined what it would feel like to have him sitting next to me. And that usually led to tears.

Stop this! He’s gone, not coming back, ever.

I longed for him and felt ridiculous coming to such a pathetic realization. The fabulous Lexi Marshall had never longed for anything in her life. Occasionally I did have trouble finding my heart’s desire, like the rare Manolos a few years back. Tristan had only gotten one pair in the shop and they were sold before he could hide them for me. It had been sad, but I didn’t dwell on it. I had moved on to something else.

But this time instead of moving on, I sat there with my eyes closed, imagining Rich’s arms around me, his kisses on my forehead, cheeks, lips. Replaying in my mind were the things he used to whisper to me after we made love and the one and only time he told me he loved me.

I pulled out my cellphone and looked at his picture—the only one I had and just couldn’t bring myself to delete. The desperate woman inside me wanted to call him and beg him to come back. My thumb hovered above the keypad. I knew I could find the numbers without even looking at them.

Instead I opened my contact list and clicked send when I got to Amanda’s name. Never did I think I’d be calling a nineteen-year-old to cry my eyes out to.

“Lexi, merry Christmas! How are you?”

“Miserable!”

“Oh my God! What’s wrong?”

“Rich left me.”

“On Christmas Eve! That bastard!”

“No, it was weeks ago. I never told you. I couldn’t talk about it then.”

“What happened?”

I told her the story.

“Lex, if I could, I’d jump on a plane right now and come and hug you.”

“I know you would. I feel better after talking to you though. I’ll let you go. Have a merry Christmas, okay?”

I went up to my room and opened my suitcase, pulling out a sweatshirt of Rich’s that somehow ended up with my things. I put it on and the smell comforted me. His arms were wrapped around me once again and I drifted into the best night’s sleep in weeks.

* * * *

Christmas morning, Mom made breakfast complete with bacon, eggs and pancakes. She casually mentioned me going to Christmas service with them.

“Mom, I really don’t want to, okay?”

“Alexandra, it’s Christmas, the birth of our Lord. Shouldn’t you go and celebrate Him?”

The last thing I wanted was to come face to face with Pastor John again, but with the busyness of the holiday he would surely be distracted.

I went and made my mother happy.

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