Page 24 of Once Upon a Christmas Carol

He held up his drink and half-eaten donut. “Mind if I finish this first? I didn’t have dinner tonight and I’m—”

“You didn’t eat?” She arched her fair brows. “I offered you drinks and appetizers at my house, but you claimed you weren’t hungry and—”

“I wasn’t hungry at the time. But dancing must’ve—”

“You weren’t dancing with me.” She sounded indignant.

He stood now, facing her. “You said you didn’t care to dance.”

“Does that give you the right to run off and leave me like that? To dance with another girl? Don’t you think that’s very impolite?”

“Hey, it’s a dance, Vicki.” He held out his hands. “We always dance with other people. There are no rules about that.”

“There are rules of consideration.”

“Maybe we should take this conversation away from here.” He glanced at his tablemates. “No need to spoil their evening.”

“If anyone has spoiled anything, I would say that it’s you, Victor.” She jutted out her lower lip. “I went to a lot of trouble for this evening, and you’ve done everything you could to ruin it for me.”

Victor glanced at the onlookers at the table, then lowered his tone.

“Look, I would rather keep this private ... for your sake, but since you refuse, I might as well call it what it is. I never intended to bring you to the cotillion. I tried to tell you as much the other day, but you kept claiming I said something about this ... probably months ago at the harvest party just because we danced a few times. But if you hadn’t pressured me, or taken me on your guilt trip, I never would’ve brought you. ”

“I wish you hadn’t!” she yelled.

His eyes widened but he kept his voice even. “Would you like me to take you home?”

“If that’s not too much trouble for you,” she seethed and, turning on her heel, she stormed off.

“Sorry, folks,” he told the table. “This was fun, but her highness is ready to depart now.”

Maria and Antonia chuckled, but Carol was too shocked to say anything. Larry was pleasantly oblivious, tapping his foot to the music, albeit slightly offbeat. After he was gone, Maria turned to Antonia. “Think he’ll come back after he takes her home?”

“I hope so.” Antonia frowned. “He was having such a good time dancing.” She made what seemed like a forced smile. “At least she didn’t throw anything at you.”

Maria laughed loudly now. “Yes, and I was getting ready to go hide the kitchen knives.”

“Is she always like that?” Carol asked them.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen that side of her before,” Antonia confessed, grimly shaking her head. “It was, well, a bit startling.”

“I’ve heard she can get a bit upset when she doesn’t get her way,” Maria added.

Antonia turned to Maria. “She was obviously jealous of Carol.”

Maria sighed. “I suppose we should’ve anticipated that. Too bad.” Now the two of them began reminiscing about a similar incident many years ago with one of their female friends, and Carol noticed Larry was out of punch.

“More?” she asked, pointing to his cup.

“Yes.” He nodded eagerly.

Glad for an excuse to escape the increasingly uncomfortable conversation, she returned to the refreshment table.

She was just filling the cups when she heard two women talking in hushed tones.

She couldn’t be sure of what they were saying, but she recognized the voices from the bathroom and knew they were Victoria’s friends, so she strongly suspected they were discussing her.

Well , let them , she thought. Not much she could do about it anyway.

She strolled back slowly, pausing to take in the people who truly seemed to be enjoying the dance.

It was such a pretty scene with the soft lighting and decor that she’d painstakingly set up.

And the music and food were hits too. Perfect potential for a completely lovely evening.

At least for some of them. She hoped so, anyway.

Back at the table, the older women were still exchanging stories about old friends and love triangles, so Carol did her best to engage with Larry. By now she knew to use only simple sentences with topics that didn’t require a thought-out response from him. And he seemed to appreciate it.

Meanwhile, in the back of her mind, she wondered if Victor would return to the dance.

She really hoped so, and she knew from something Antonia had said that Victoria lived in town.

So it shouldn’t take too long to drop her off and come back.

But she also knew Victoria was adept at manipulation—and that she liked to get her way.

It was possible she’d softened up by now, maybe even apologized .

.. perhaps even enticed Victor into her house with food and drink.

She might be trying to patch things up with him right now.

Carol could imagine Victor, back in gentleman mode, even taking some of the blame.

After all, he probably shouldn’t have danced with Carol three times.

What girl wouldn’t feel a bit upset about that?

Not only that, but Victoria’s pride was at stake here.

Her girlfriends in the restroom already seemed to be planning the wedding—“third time’s the charm,” they’d said.

“A diamond for Christmas.” Maybe the queen and king of the cotillion had simply experienced a lovers’ quarrel, a humorous story that the happy couple would laugh about in years to come, even regaling their tale to all their friends at their fiftieth anniversary.

Carol knew she was torturing herself with these thoughts, but she couldn’t seem to stop them.

Besides, maybe they were therapeutic. A way to get that man out of her system for good.

Like her college friend Holly who’d told her a childhood story about how she’d been caught sneaking handfuls of her mom’s Toll House cookies until her fed up mother told her to “have at it.” So Holly gorged herself until she got sick as a dog, and after that day, swore off chocolate chip cookies forever.

Still feeling sick over her imaginings of Victor and Victoria, Carol made up her mind.

As soon as she got back to Maria’s, she would rebook her flight and go to the Bahamas after all.

Sure, Maria would be disappointed, but really, she seemed greatly improved, and Antonia was nearby and willing to help.

Perhaps she’d even invite Maria to come stay with them until she healed completely.

Because, whatever it took, Carol felt—for the sake of her own mental health—she needed to get out of this place. Before Christmas!