Chapter 40: Chapter 40

Enchanted

Synopsis:

Enchanted, to fill with great delight or charm. As soon as Tatiana Rivers set eyes on Damien Romano, she was head over heels for her Knight in the navy blue Armani. Tall, fair and handsome, with a dash of wickedness, seemed like the perfect recipe for a fairy tale. The only problem, he’d her best friend’s husband’s older brother. But Damien Romano isn’t interested in love, not after a past experience had left him burned and scarred for life. Although he’s attracted to his sister-in-law’s best friend, he doesn’t think he can fall in love ever again. So he agrees to only be Tatiana’s friend with benefits for the duration of two weeks while their gang goes on their honeymoon/vacation. Can a relationship completely based on sex survive the tests of time? And what will happen when Damien finally realizes that Tatiana has feelings for him even outside the bedroom?

$Chapter

Chapter 40-Prologue to Enchanted

Tatiana’s P.O.V

I looked around my empty living room and sighed. It was going to be a long, lonely Christmas this year.

I walked over to my coffee table and sat down on the carpeted floor. I leaned against a couch, facing the fireplace where I threw in a few tiny twigs and made a pitiful fire that hardly provided any heat or light. Thankfully, the fairy lights that I strung on the wall above the fireplace were lit, and it provided the only illumination in the darkened room while I sipped from a bottle of Ravenswood Old Vine. It didn’t matter anyway; I had no one to celebrate Christmas with.

I didn’t want to pity myself, but I did. I didn’t have any decorations in the house, the single string of fairy lights notwithstanding; I hadn’t made any plans for dinner and would probably be having one of the instant ramens from my fridge, and lastly, I didn’t have anyone to spend Christmas with. None. Even my parents were out vacationing somewhere tropical, and even though they had invited me, I couldn’t make myself say yes because of self-pity.

Suddenly, the holiday that I waited for desperately all year round had turned into a complete nightmare. I didn’t want to be the whiny single friend who had nothing going on in her life and ruined her best friend’s Christmas, so I didn’t ask Ken or Grace to stay over. They both had people to celebrate the holidays with. Grace was engaged, and Ken was already married. Who would’ve imagined that the heinous, outgoing, little nymph would get married before any of us?

In fact, we’d all expected it to be me.

That thought brought back a round of unpleasant feelings and nightmares. Connor, the same sweet, gentle boy that I’d fallen in love with during my freshman year of college, had turned into a brutal, sadistic man that I couldn’t leave yet I couldn’t live without. That relationship had gone toxic long ago, but I guess I decided to just close my eyes and ignore the signs that the love of my life was turning into someone else.

I can still remember how I spent Christmas last year, cuddled up in his arms and with my best friends beside me. Grace had still been scared of getting into any kind of relationship back then, so she came alone while Ken had brought along a guy she had called a “friend.” Grace and I both rolled our eyes at that explanation, but later on, it had genuinely felt like they were just casual friends. And then Ken started singing Jingle Bells in her most obnoxious voice, and the guy suddenly had something important to get to, and that had been the last time any of us had ever seen him.

Connor had been alright even then. We hadn’t been as intimate as before, but I thought it was because of work stress. Actually, it had been a couple of months later that he started being cruel and abusing me.

The first time was in late January when he turned up at my apartment in the middle of the night, dead drunk and all beat up. When I asked him what had happened, he slapped me. That had been the first time he physically abused me in our relationship, and I was too shocked to react. However, the next morning he acted all normal, telling me he didn’t remember how he ended up at my house, so I decided not to tell him the truth. Everything had been fine for a couple weeks before he did it again, and this time, I had scars to prove it.

But Connor looked so apologetic the next day that I let it go. It hadn’t taken me long, however, to figure out that Connor was doing this on purpose. He soon started blaming all his failures on me and abusing me for it. But I still held on until I was broken and bleeding on the inside while I tried to act as normal as possible in front of my friends. I didn’t want Ken and Grace to know the truth. I didn’t want them to find out how pathetic I’d become. I knew they’d try to drive Connor away to keep me safe, but I didn’t want to be the loser who couldn’t even keep a steady relationship.

I shook my head. Self-pity was the worst thing possible on Christmas Eve. My mom would surely skin me alive if she heard about it. So I got off the floor and dusted my ass off, set aside the half-empty bottle of wine before moving on to the kitchen.

It was Christmas Eve for God’s sake, and I couldn’t mope around the house while my friends were out having fun. At that moment, I couldn’t help the pang of envy I felt for my friends. But Christmas is supposed to be the happiest holiday of the year, so I decided that there was nothing stopping me from enjoying it alone. I could make myself some dinner, or I could bake a cake! Christmas isn’t Christmas without a cake, right?

So I headed off to the kitchen, turning the lights on in the process, and opened my pantry door to five empty shelves.

I groaned. It’s like the universe wanted me to stay miserable. I turned to my fridge instead and, thankfully, found seven eggs, a few slices of stale bread, a half-empty jar of peanut butter, a couple sticks of butter, and a packet of breakfast sausage.

Great. So I didn’t even have a cup of instant ramen to last me through the night. What am I supposed to have for dinner, breakfast?

I was so tempted to bang my head against the fridge door and scream, ‘Why me?’ to the heavens, but I didn’t want to add any more drama to my tragic evening. So I went back to the couches and my half-empty bottle of wine and turned on the TV. Maybe I’ll finish the entire bottle tonight and pass out drunk and won’t have to eat dinner?

I wrapped the blanket that was sitting at the end of the sofa around me and turned to a random channel. Then another. Then another.

“Goddamnit!” I snapped, throwing the remote on the floor and curling up into the blanket. “I’m not gonna cry. I’m a big girl now, and big girls don’t cry. I’m not gonna cry, dammit!”

But despite my strong words, I felt my eyes water, and a single, traitorous tear slipped down my cheek, making my lips quiver harder. Today is the worst day of my life! Correction: the worst Christmas Eve of my life, and I was pretty sure that the rest of my holidays would be exactly the same.

Ding dong.

I was so surprised at the sound of the bell ringing that I nearly spilled the contents of the wine bottle onto myself and the blanket, but, thankfully, I saved it just in time.

“Who could it be at seven in the evening, that too on Christmas Eve?” I wondered out loud as I got off the sofa and, placing the wine bottle on the coffee table, went over to the front door.

When I looked through the security camera, it was all black. My heart slammed against my ribcage. Is there a serial killer standing outside my door? Tentatively, I pressed the speaker button on the control panel and asked, “Who is it?”

But there was no answer. I asked again, and this time too, there wasn’t any answer. I think it’s high time I called the co—Wait…What was that sound? It sounded like leaves rustling...

What the—

I decided to hell with it and unlocked the door to come face to face with a humongous Christmas tree.

“Merry Christmas!” several voices yelled at once, and the next thing I know, I was being tackled to the ground by Ken and Grace while Daniel and Victor stood at the door, trying to keep the tree from falling on top of us.

“Guys?” I asked, astounded as Ken and Grace finally let go of me and pulled me to my feet. “I thought you guys had plans for today?”

“Yes, we did.” Ken nodded enthusiastically. “This was the plan.”

“But…but…” I was lost for words.

“Sorry to cut into the moment, girls,” Daniel’s voice came from outside. “But our asses are freezing over here. It’d be really kind of you if you could move aside so we can enter.”

“Shit! Sorry!” Ken pushed us all out of the way so the men could come inside with the giant Christmas tree.

“But what are you guys doing with a Christmas tree?” I asked, confused as to why they were here instead of where they said they were supposed to be.

“Well, since we’ve both known you for over five years, we knew that you can’t celebrate Christmas alone, and you probably won’t even have supplies to bake a cake,” Grace told me while Ken nodded her head in the background.

“So we lied to you about having plans for today, and then here we are.” Ken waved her hands around my room. “Now, while the men are getting the tree set, let’s get all the bags from outside, shall we?”

Ken and Grace stepped outside into the chilly winter night and came back inside with six large bags before they kicked the door shut. I stayed inside since I was only wearing a thin, crème-colored sweater with navy blue leggings while the girls were fully armored in thick jackets and scarves and knee-high boots.

“What’s all these?” I asked as they placed the bags on the kitchen counter.

“Decorations, of course!”

“And oven-ready meals,” Grace butt in. “Now, get your oven-safe dishes out so we can get the food ready before dinner time.”

“Hold on,” I said and went over to the kitchen and started opening drawers and taking out large oven-safe casserole dishes. In the meantime, Ken turned the oven on and set it to preheat and took another bunch of bags over to the boys.

Grace took out three large foil containers and a jar filled with what I presumed was gravy. And then she took out a store-bought container of pumpkin pie along with two bottles of wine. “Ty, I’ll need a saucepan to heat the gravy,” Grace announced while she transferred the contents of the foils into the casserole dishes.

There was cheesy mushroom risotto in the first foil, seafood spaghetti in the second, and roasted chicken in the third foil, and from what I could see, they’d brought enough food to feed an army.

I felt my eyes mist over. “Thank you so much for doing this, guys. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for this.”

“Oh hush!” Ken wrapped her arms around me from behind. “What kind of best friends would we be if we left you alone on Christmas Eve while we went out and had fun?”

“And isn’t Christmas all about spending time with family?” Grace joined in on the hug, and the three of us stayed like that for a good few minutes until Victor called us over to help set up the decorations.

When we came into the living area, the men had already changed out of their heavy jackets and were wearing matching red sweaters and black pants. They’d also put more logs into the fireplace, so the flames now burned bright and hot, illuminating the entire room and bringing warmth to every corner. Ken and Grace also joined the men after changing out of their warmers, and I noticed they too were wearing red. Grace wore a long-sleeved, red sweater with black jeans with golden hoop earrings and her hair tied in a high ponytail while Ken wore a full-sleeved, red dress that reached her lower thigh and wool stockings. Ken had chosen black pearl earrings, and she’d let her corkscrew curls loose around her face, which was always her best look.

“Alright, go and change while we set up the tree.” Ken pushed me in the direction of my bedroom. “And wear something red! We’ve decided to do a themed Christmas this year, so wear anything you’ve got in red and black!”

“Okay,” I told her before entering my bedroom and shutting the door behind me. I didn’t go to my closet right away; instead, I stood with my back to the door and my eyes closed, thanking God over and over again for giving me the bestest friends in the world. They weren’t just my friends. They were my sisters. And what surprised me the most was how Daniel and Victor had both made themselves at home at my house without feeling the least bit uncomfortable.

“Hurry up, Ty!” Ken’s voice came from outside the door. “We have a whole bunch of decorations to put up!”

“Coming!” I called out, surprised when my voice broke a little. I dabbed at my cheeks with the sleeves of my sweater when I realized that some tears had spilled out of my eyes.

Not wanting to keep my friends waiting, I headed over to my closet and pulled out an old long-sleeved, red sweater and black leggings and, after changing into them, quickly applied a bit of makeup and some golden hoops.

When I came out of my room, the tree was set up, and the men had added a couple more fairy lights in different areas of the room before going back to placing ornaments on the tree. Ken was currently hanging a couple of socks on the mantle of the fireplace, and Grace was heating up the gravy. I went over to help the men string up ornaments.

By the time we were done, my house looked beautiful. The Christmas tree was all decorated and lit up along with several other fairy lights that we placed all over the house. Several socks hung from the mantle, and all of them were filled with gifts. And finally, we all sat down to have dinner.

“Let’s eat!” Victor said, rubbing his hands together as Grace and Daniel brought the dishes out of the oven. “Man, that smells delicious!”

Daniel served the food on the plates while Grace poured the wine into tall glasses, and we all took eager bites of the heavenly delights as soon as everyone had their plates in front of them. Several moans sounded from all around the table.

“Alright,” Ken cut in as soon as we swallowed the first bite. “Now tell us who do you think has which cooked? It can be multiple people.”

“Well, there’s risotto and spaghetti, so it’s definitely Daniel. But the chicken seems different to how Daniel usually makes it. Who made that?” I asked.

Shyly, Victor raised his hand as Ken and Daniel gave him affectionate pats on the back, and Grace looked at me with disbelief.

“Can you believe it?” She asked me, “My little brother has turned out to be a great cook!”

“Don’t boast. I’m not as good as Daniel.” Victor’s cheeks were red.

“Honey,” Ken said solemnly while placing her hand on Victor’s back. “I don’t think you’ll ever be as good as Daniel.”

In retaliation, Victor simply took the chicken from Ken’s plate and placed it on his own. “If you don’t say I’m the best cook in the world, you won’t be getting any of my food…ever.”

“Speaking of,” I told Daniel. “It’s Christmas Eve! Isn’t your restaurant and club buzzing with people tonight?”

“It’s alright. My staff can handle it for tonight while I celebrate with my family,” Daniel said. “When my parents were alive, we had a blast during Christmas. Italians don’t eat meat during Christmas, so my mom would use seven different kinds of fish and incorporate them into various dishes. I used to hate eating eel growing up, but my mom always made it taste so delicious, my brother and I would clean up the entire plate.”

Grace squeezed Daniel’s shoulder while he narrated his childhood story. “I’m sure your mom is really proud you, and she’ll always watch over you,” Grace told him.

“So,” I changed the subject. “Have you guys started preparing for the wedding yet?”

“Nope.” Grace shook her head. “I’m already stressed at all the things I’ll need to do for the wedding. It’s best if I take my time getting into the muddy waters.”

“Actually,” Daniel interrupted. “My uncle recently told me about a venue we could check out. It’s this little church not too far from here, but it’s really beautiful. We could go check it out soon.”

“Hmm…” Grace looked thoughtful. “Alright, but after New Year’s.”

“Deal.”

After dinner, we sat down on the couches and drank more wine while we waited for the clock to tick twelve so we could open all presents. One thing that I never forget, no matter how much my Christmas sucks, is to buy presents for my friends. This year too, I’d gotten them gifts that I knew they’d love. Yeah, I had to put in a few extra hours at work to get them, but it was all worth it.

At exactly twelve on Christmas Day, all of us were huddled up near the fireplace, tearing up gift wrappers like we were five-year-olds instead of reasonable adults. Even Daniel and Victor looked excited.

We took turns opening each other’s gifts. Mostly, they were wool and chocolates, and there was Daniel’s gift.

“Seriously?” came all the excited yells.

“Yeah.” Daniel nodded.

“An all you can eat buffet on New Year’s Day! Thanks, man!” Victor patted Daniel on the shoulder.

“And all you can drink too,” Daniel reminded. “Use them wisely.”

“Alright! Last one,” Ken said as she picked up my gift. “You’re up next, Ty.”

Grace was the first one to open my gift, and her eyes widened as soon as she saw it. “Oh my God! Ty, this is gorgeous.” She held up the pearl-studded hair clip with a blue sapphire in the middle for all to see. Ken held out her gift too—a similar hair clip but with a different design.

I’d chosen flowers for both of them, but while Grace’s hair clip was a rose, Ken’s was a daisy. The entire outline was done in pearls with the sapphire right at the center.

“Something new and something blue,” I told them. “It’s for your weddings. Well, Grace’s wedding anyway, since Ken doesn’t need to wear it at the wedding any longer.”

“Thank you.” Grace engulfed me in a big hug, followed by Ken. “It’d perfect! Thank you so, so much, Ty!”

“You’re welcome.” I patted their backs before we parted. “I’m glad you liked them.”

“What did you guys get?” Ken turned to the men, subtly wiping the corner of her eyes.

“Tie clips.” Daniel held out his for everyone to see, as did Victor. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”

“Anything for my family.”

And that was how my worst Christmas Eve ever turned into the best Christmas Eve of my life, surrounded by my friends who were my sisters and my family.