“What are you doing?’
“It’s a thumb drive,” Trudy said when she was sure it was. She showed the end to Courtney. “More espionage stuff. Nolan saw Reese leave the store with a Twinkle, but I had one, too. He got the two bags mixed up in the warehouse and gave me the one with the codes by mistake.”
“What does that mean?” Courtney said.
Trudy felt like throwing up. “It means that he’s going to show up here and take your Twinkletoes away.”
Courtney sat back. “That’s okay. It’s lousy nail polish, too.”
“Another dream shattered,” Trudy said, trying to make it sound like a joke.
“Twinkle or Nolan?”
“Both.” Trudy packed up the box, feeling sick and stupid.
“Gin?” Courtney picked up her glass.
Trudy shook her head. “You know how dumb I am? I’m so dumb, I believed in that bastard even though I knew he’d lied to me. I even believed he got in that cab to save me. That’s how much I wanted to believe.”
“He did save you at the end.”
“To get the doll,” Trudy said, miserable. “And now I’m alone and Leroy is not getting a MacGuffin. So how dumb am I?”
“You’re not dumb.”
Trudy sank back into the couch as Etta began to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” “Because you know what? I still want to see him. He took my MacGuffin and I still want to see him. I want to kill him, but I want to see him.”
Courtney nodded in sympathy. “I know. I hate Pres but I’d take him back. That’s so sad.”
“Prescott will come back,” Trudy said tiredly. “When the novelty wears off, he’ll want his nice home and his cute kid and his pretty wife again.” And I hope you slam the door in his face because that’s what I’m going to do when Nolan comes after this doll.
Courtney shook her head. “Forget Pres. Tell me about Nolan. Did he say, ‘I’ll call you’? What was the last thing he said?”
“He said, ‘I’m really sorry’,” Trudy said, remembering the miserable look on his face at the end. That had been something: he knew he’d screwed her over.
“And what did you say?”
“I think it was, ‘Rot and die.’”
“You think you might have been overreacting there?”
“No.” Trudy sat up again and stuck another red gumdrop on the roof of the gingerbread house. “I think I just told him the truth. Which was the best thing I could have done. I don’t care if he thinks I’m nuts or irrational or anything else, I told him the truth. He did the worst possible thing he could do to me, so don’t bother showing up with flowers, making cute apologies and bad jokes. And yes, I know it’s not all about him. I know he’s cashing Daddy’s emotional checks, but right now? It’s about him.”
“He sounded like a nice guy when you were dating him.”
“He is. He’s great. Hell, Dad’s a nice guy most of the time. That’s why we believed in him for so long. He loved us, he was a good guy, how could he keep forgetting us like that? Jesus, Courtney, I could have ended up in a relationship like that. ‘Nolan’s a nice guy, he loves me, why am I bleeding from the ears all the time?’”
Courtney nodded. “Yeah. I know. It was almost a relief when Pres left because I could finally stop aching with disappointment.” She sighed. “Except there’s Leroy. Now I ache for Leroy. Especially tomorrow morning.”
“We did it to him, you know.” Trudy blinked back tears. “We should have said, ‘Leroy, there is no Santa, and there’s not going to be a Mac Two under the tree on Christmas Day, although we will do whatever we have to do to get you one as soon as possible because we love you and always will.’ We should have told him the truth. Hell, Evil Nemesis Brandon told him the truth. Pretty damn bad when the only person you can trust is your Evil Nemesis.” You and me, Leroy.
“I hate the truth. Except this part.” Courtney gestured to the Twinkletoes box. “The part where you almost got yourself killed trying to get him that MacGuffin. The part where you brought me a Twinkletoes to make up for twenty years ago. The part where you’re fixing my gingerbread house. The part where we’ll take care of Leroy together tomorrow. I like that part of the truth.”
Trudy dropped the gumdrops and sat back next to her sister, and Courtney snuggled closer and put her head on Trudy’s shoulder.
“Yeah,” Trudy said, patting her arm. “I like the part where you waited up for me. And did the boring part of the gingerbread house. And didn’t tell me I’m an idiot for still wanting a lying bastard.”
“So it’s not so bad,” Courtney said as the first gumdrop slid off the roof of the gingerbread house.
They watched for a minute while another slowly followed the first one.
Trudy thought about putting them back again and decided to let them slide. “What are we going to tell Leroy tomorrow?”