Seize the Night

“Steady as she goes.” Remi took the vodka out of his hand and chugged it.

“Whoa, Nellie.” Merrick grabbed it back. “We’ve got five hours left on this flight.”

“Sorry,” she said. “Take it. I’m fine.”

“Yeah, you seem real fucking fine. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that you’re the world’s worst liar?” Merrick asked. “You’re stressed about seeing this Julien guy again. Yes?”

“A smidge,” she said. “A skosh.”

“Are you going to tell me why?”

She shook her head. “Not if you won’t let me have your vodka.”

He gave her the vodka. “Sip it and talk. You can’t say something like ‘Julien and I started this rivalry’ and sashay off all dramatic-like without telling me the story.”

“It’s a humiliating story,” Remi said.

“Miss?” Merrick addressed the passing flight attendant. “I’m going to need some popcorn.”

“Merrick.”

“Talk,” he said. “And don’t leave out any juicy details.”

“I’m leaving out all the juicy details,” she said. “You get the bare bones.”

“Is there boning involved in the bare bones?”

“Near boning,” she said, wincing. She took a steadying breath and focused her attention on the hum of the airplane engines. It comforted her, the sound of the engines reminding her she was thousands of miles and years away from the time and place of her greatest humiliation.

“Go on...” Merrick said.

“This was back when I was in college—just graduated, actually. Winter graduation. I’d come home for Christmas, and Mom and Dad dragged me to a big Christmas party at The Rails.”

“That’s that huge horse farm in Versailles, yes?”

“Yes, bigger than Capital Hills and Arden put together.”

“Got it. So it’s Christmas. It’s a party. You’re what? Twenty-one?” Merrick asked.

“Twenty-two,” she said. “It was a formal party, so I had an excuse to buy an awesome dress. Jade strappy thing.”

“Did it make your tits look good?”

“You could have seen them from space,” she said.

“I approve. Continue, please.”

“Anyway,” she said and paused to sip Merrick’s vodka. She hated the stuff but needed a little liquid fortification. “I was there about an hour before I saw this gorgeous guy. He was standing on the other side of the room talking to a big, hotshot Kentucky basketball player. So I assumed he was a University of Kentucky student, probably a freshman. He was drinking a glass of white wine, and he looked so handsome in his tuxedo. He had messy red hair. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.”

“Gross.”

“Do you want to hear this story or not?”

“Tell.”

“Julien was so beautiful that I had to chug a whole glass of wine just to work up the courage to go talk to him.”

“And you did, and he was smart and funny and nice and all that boring shit women love?”

“All that and more,” Remi said. “We walked through the house together. Gorgeous house. Every room decorated in a different Christmas theme. It was like something out of a fairy tale or a movie. I’d never seen anything like it, never felt anything like it. The night was perfect. Ever have a moment so perfect that you know you’ll remember it the rest of your life while you’re still living in the moment?”

“Never,” Merrick said. “But it’s a good dream. Too bad dreams lie.”

“It felt like a dream, but it wasn’t. This was real.”

Remi closed her eyes and found herself once more in that house on that night. She and Julien stood by the fireplace mantel lined with a dozen yellow candles in antique brass candleholders. The room was filled with antique toys and a tree that soared all the way to the cathedral ceiling. The silver and gold stars on the tree reflected the dancing light from the fireplace. She’d never been the sort of girl who believed in love at first sight. And then she met Julien and that night, that one perfect night, she believed.

“This guy must have been special,” Merrick said.

“I thought he could be.” Remi knew she was the world’s worst liar. Might as well tell the truth. “I didn’t know how special he was, because he only told me his first name—Julien. We talked about everything and nothing. I don’t even remember what we talked about except that he made me laugh and asked me questions like he wanted to know everything about me. Before I knew it, there we were, standing under the mistletoe.”

“Best kiss ever?” Merrick asked.

“Best kiss ever,” she agreed, remembering how Julien’s lips had shivered lightly at the first gentle contact. The gentleness quickly turned to passion, and before she knew it, her arms were around his back and his mouth was on her neck, at her ear, at her throat. Every Christmas since then she’d thought of Julien. The lights, the tree, the scent of pine and candles brought the memories back. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t imagine spending Christmas with Brian Roseland. Christmas was already claimed by Julien and that one perfect night he’d been everything she’d wanted but never thought to ask for.

“I’m guessing the inevitable happened,” Merrick said.

“We found an empty guest room. I thought I remembered locking the door behind us.”

Merrick cringed. “I see where this is going...”

Remi nodded, her face flushing at the memory.

“We kissed for a long time. Julien seemed a little nervous, and I didn’t want to rush things since we’d just met. But then he unzipped the back of my dress and I unbuttoned his shirt...and his pants...and then.”

“And then?”

“And then while things were happening, he said something weird and I stopped.”

“Weird? What? Did he deny the Holocaust or something?”

“He said...‘This feels better than I ever dreamt it would.’”

Merrick cocked his head to the side.