Page 78 of Not Home Alone

Her phone rings, and she pulls away from me, apologetically. “It might be my dad, hang on.”

I know even before she looks at the screen that it’s her boss. How does she not know this?

“Don’t answer it.”

She frowns. “There’s a big event going on tonight, so I should just…” She holds up a finger. “One second.” Turning away from me, she takes the call. Her tone is sharper than usual, which is interesting. She paces back and forth. I stay where I am, watching her, and finally she looks up at me, making a frustrated face. That’s when I know something awesome is about to happen. She asks her boss if she’s read her proposal. I can tell she doesn’t like the answer. But then she says she has to get back to her date and hangs up. She looks shocked that she just did that, but then she skips over to me. “Did you hear that?”

“I did. Good for you.”

“Was that mean? Was that incredibly unprofessional?”

“Not at all.”

“Ugh.” She holds up her phone and types out a text. “I should apologize for being rude.”

“Pretty sure your boss is being rude every time she calls you while you’re on vacation.”

“There,” she says. “I asked her not to call or email me again until after Christmas.” She seems proud of herself, so I should just let her have the moment, but…

“What did she say about your proposal?”

“She said my ideas are a little too ‘out there.’ It’s what she’s said about every creative idea I’ve pitched in the past couple of years.” She shakes her head.

There’s a lot I could say right now, but I stay quiet because I have a feeling Merrily is about to have a breakthrough.

“I don’t want to go back to that job.” Her face slowly lights up again. “I think I do… I want to stay here…” She takes my hand. “Same as you…”

“Merrily…” I place my hands on her shoulders. “It’s not that simple.”

“Hey, it’s Merrily and her man!” shouts an unfamiliar lady’s voice.

“Thank god.” I turn around to see the stepsister who threatened me walking over to us, slouching, her hands shoved deep into her pockets. “I can’t believe I’m saying this to you,” she says to Merrily, “but I am so happy to see you, please save me from them. They’re driving me nuts.”

Behind April are two middle-aged women and an elderly couple, all of them yelling and holding up their phones to snap pictures of us.

“Oh hey, everyone,” Merrily says. “Come stroll with us!” She squeezes my hand. “It’s my family,” she tells me. “It’s fine.”

It was fine.

Sort of.

I’m not sure which of Merrily’s step-aunts grabbed my ass when she pretended to lose her balance, but one of them did, and it was very much on purpose.

And things are fine now, because we’re finally alone together at the house.

In the living room. In front of the tree and the fireplace. Merrily is sitting on my lap, wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants, with her laptop on her lap. She’s been composing an email to her boss for the past fifteen minutes, and I’ve been hard for fourteen minutes. She won’t even let me touch her boobs while she’s typing.

It’s fine.

She’ll send the email eventually.

“Should I tell her I’ll follow up by calling her tomorrow morning?”

“Yes.”

“What if she tells me she won’t accept my resignation?”

“She can’t.”