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“I can’t believe I actually believed him.” Mariah looks down in her glass. “I feel like such a fool.”

“Samesies.” I clink my glass with hers, and we both take a big gulp.

Mariah’s phone rings. She sighs, ignores it, then mumbles, “I don’t want to deal with this right now.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“I’ve noticed you have a reoccurring problem with your phone ringing.” I nudge her. “What’s going on?”

“Just... stuff.”

I can’t let her go that easily. “Did you win the lottery and your second cousin twice-removed needs money? Is some gang hassling you to repay your gambling debts? Are you actually an heiress and your bodyguard is trying to track down where you are? Did you—”

She exhales quickly through her nose, and I warm with satisfaction knowing I nearly made her laugh. Mariah glances at me, then back at her phone, which has stopped ringing. “It’s my mom. I was supposed to stay with my parents while I was here. When I applied for the job, I put their address as mine since they only wanted locals for the crew. I didn’t expect to be hired, and I can’t afford to stay in a hotel while I’m here,andI can’t afford to drive in and out from Vancouver for work, so I asked if I could stay with them. They said yes. We... don’t have the best relationship. I’ve been staying with Jax and have been able to avoid them up until now. But not going home has just made it worse.”

“As avoiding things tends to do.”

“Yeah.” Her phone rings again, and this time she answers it. “Hey. Yeah... no, I’m okay. Sorry, yeah.”

I can’t hear what the other person is saying, only that they’re talking a mile a minute and Mariah is sinking further and further into the couch the longer this goes on. Following my instincts, I snatch the phone from her. “Hey! Is this Mariah’s mom? Oh, hey, Janine! Yeah, this is Ellie.” She asks if I’m the friend Mariah’s been staying with.Does she mean Jax?I go along with it. “Yes, that’s me!”

Janine talks for a few more minutes while I “Uh-huh” and “Sure!” my way through the conversation, ending the call as quickly as I can before handing the phone back to a speechless Mariah.

“Um...?” she finally manages.

I gulp down the rest of my wine. “You’re staying here. At least for tonight. You’ve had a glass of wine, anyway. Safety first! The couch folds out and there’s spare linens in the closet. I have turkey dinner leftovers, and more wine. Oh! And we’re going to your parents’ for dinner later this week.”

Mariah’s eyes widen in shock. “What?”

“Yeah.” I give her a nudge. “I’ll be your buffer.”

Her eyes grow wider.

“Don’t worry, parents love me!”

Mariah’s shocked expression slowly shifts to horrified before she downs the rest of her glass. “I think I’m going to need more wine.”

I put the turkey leftovers in the oven to warm and grab the bottle of wine before joining Mariah, who is quietly lost in her thoughts, as usual.

Unsure of what to say, which is a weird situation for me, I sit pensively beside her and tap my fingernails on my glass. “Do you... want to talk about Matt?”

She huffs through her nose. “Nope. Not enough wine yet.”

“Okay. How about your parents?”

“There’s not enough wine in the world for that,” Mariah says into her glass before taking a long sip.

“Okay.”

The awkward silence yawns between us. I’m not one for silences at the best of times, but it’s now settling in that I’ve invited a woman I barely know, who barely tolerates me, and has been banging the same guy as me, to stay with me for an unknown amount of time. It had felt like the right thing to do but now I’m having second thoughts.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” I ask, finally.

“Fine.”

“Great.” I disappear into my bedroom for a moment to retrieve the box of tree ornaments/VHS tapes and plop it down in front of Mariah. “Pick one.”