Loving Christmas Eve by Lanner Mia Coco

Author:Lanner, Mia Coco
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

Sera

No.

The word reverberates round my head.

What was I thinking? What did I expect? I could tell from our conversation that the man who has haunted my dreams for two decades had absolutely no idea who I was. I knew him in a heartbeat. Twenty years of remembering. Twenty years of dreaming. Twenty years of wishing. And then there he was. Sitting in a cubicle with a bandage on his head, waiting for me to take his observations.

Not quite how I’d dreamed it, but there you go.

And he had no idea who I was.

That definitely wasn’t part of my reunion dream. At no point in my long-held daydreams did I feel my heart smashing into pieces.

I could tell instantly. No hint of recognition flickered across his handsome face. His eyes twinkled as he cracked jokes in an attempt to relieve the seriousness of the situation, to keep things light for his young niece, but there was no trace of our connection, our spark. Not even the faintest ghost remained of what we’d shared. What we felt that night. Or, what I felt, at least.

I cocoon myself more deeply into the blanket and flick through the endless array of Christmas movies currently hogging the television schedule. Tinsel-bedecked happily ever afters are not what I’m in the mood for right now. Even a long slug of marshmallow stuffed hot chocolate can’t shake the bitter taste from my mouth.

My night with Ali Whyte was short but I had always been sure it meant something. My heart told me it did. Now the what-ifs, and the daydreams, and the long-cherished hope that one day we would find each other once again, perhaps even…well, they seem so stupid. The silly hopes of a love-struck idiot.

I was always so certain it would happen. That one day we’d meet again, and he would reach out, take me into his arms and hold me there forever.

Turns out I was wrong.

With a heavy sigh, I select the title of the Christmas movie I think is least likely to reduce me to a sobbing mess. As the opening scene rolls, my eyelids begin to droop. The combination of comfortable couch, warmth from the blanket, physical exhaustion from a long Christmas Day shift in A&E, and mental exhaustion caused by not being recognised by someone who has held my heart for two decades threaten to overcome me.

I gaze into the dancing flames of the open fire, waiting for sleep to claim me. But it doesn’t come. Instead, my fuzzy brain offers me memories of that one wonderful night: the feeling of his lips on mine, the goosebumps that raised on my flesh as his hand brushed over my skin, his tongue exploring my mouth with such tender gentleness that it made my head spin…

It was his gentleness that did it for me. For such a big, strong man, his touch was like the lightest breath of fire flashing across my skin. A flame like that burns. No one else has ever come close to touching me the way that Ali Whyte did.

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