Any Way You Plan It by Monique McDonell

Author:Monique McDonell [McDonell, Monique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Redfish Publishing
Published: 2016-04-22T04:00:00+00:00

Marissa made it home in record time. She was pretty sure she’d driven as if the speed limit was a suggestion and not a rule. She pounded up the front steps and flung the front door open so hard the glass panes in it shook. She was mad.

She just wasn’t entirely sure who she was madder at—herself or Mike.

She could hear the southern twang of a certain television doctor telling her that if you do what you’ve always done you get what you always get. She slammed the door so hard the windows shook and headed for the kitchen. She grabbed a glass and a bottle of wine and went to sit on the sofa. The only lights in the house were those of the Christmas tree. It was pretty and usually it was a source of great joy but not tonight. In the end, she’d had to go get one. Not with Mike, but she got one and decorated it herself. She couldn’t quite face Christmas without a tree.

She’d been single a long time, but for the first time in a really long time, she felt alone. She blinked back the tears and poured herself an embarrassingly large glass of wine. She saw the lights of a car turn up her drive. She hoped it would be Mike, but she heard the footsteps on the porch and recognized them as Todd’s. She was pathetic; she knew their footsteps.

Todd didn’t knock, he just let himself in.

“You might want to consider locking that,” he said, closing the door behind himself.

“Why? No one but you and me ever comes here,” she said.

He went to the kitchen and grabbed a glass. He landed on the sofa next to her. “They might.”

“They won’t.”

She listened to the glug, glug of the wine in the glass as he poured.

“So, you know how I try not to dole out the advice because it makes me feel like a tool?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here.” He took a sip of his wine. “You know that English movie you like where the guy is in love with his friend’s wife and he holds up all the signs to her on Christmas Eve and says enough?”

“Love Actually,” she said. She knew exactly the moment. It was sad and impossibly romantic.

“Yeah. This is your sign moment. This is your sign.”

“Because it’s Christmas Eve?” she asked.

“Because it is enough.” They sat there in silence. He was right. She knew he was right.

“I just wanted . . .”

He pulled her into a hug. “I know. I wanted that for you, too. I love that guy like a brother . . . I wanted him to be one of the good guys, but maybe he just isn’t, at least where you’re concerned, honey.”

“Kevin says he’s a chickenshit.”

“We kind of love Kevin, right?”

“We definitely kind of do.” She smiled against his chest. She let out a sigh. “I kind of wanted a happy ending.”

“You’ll get one,” he said. “I just think you’re not there yet .

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