"Now, what do you want to get for Drew?"
"I'll probably just get him a pass for skiing on boxing day." I sighed, grabbing a book on woodworking that I was sure my father would like and adding it to my pile.
"Are you sure everything is all right with you?" Mom asked, stopping to look at me as I wandered down the scrapbooking aisle looking for something for Ann Marie.
"For the hundredth time, yes. I am fine," I bit out just as my cell phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket and looked down at the screen. "I have to take this," I said, handing my mother the stack of items I had chosen.
I wandered outside and slipped into a doorway, out of the wind. "Hello."
"Alexa, it’s Cameron. Listen, if you want your job back, I have an assignment for you."
I let out a laugh. "As if, Cameron. Are you sure you haven't dialed the wrong number?"
"Look, you’re the only one I know who can actually do this assignment. It starts on the thirtieth."
"Listen, I'm not coming back for one assignment, Cameron."
"Lexi, please, you don't understand. I need you."
"Should have thought about that before. I have to go. I'm out with my mother." I took a breath as I hung up the phone. I had no idea what I was going to do after Christmas, but it felt good to tell him off. I smiled to myself and wandered back into the shop to find my mother.
* * *
"Lexi,come on. These cookies aren't going to bake themselves," Mom called from downstairs.
I put the items I had purchased away a wandered down the stairs. I had spent a better part of the afternoon texting back and forth with Cameron, silently wishing he would go away. The stress of him begging was getting to me.
I made my way into the kitchen only to find Mom there with all the ingredients pulled out, looking irritated. "All right, so did you want to make them or should I?" she asked.
I looked over everything, the thought of trying to bake overwhelming me, and I burst into tears.
"Alexa, what on earth?" she asked, coming around the counter and wrapping her arms around me. I clung to her like I had done when I had been a child. The stress of everything pouring out of me.
"You’re right, Mom, everything is a mess," I blurted through tears.
"What's a mess?"
"I did something I shouldn't have. I made a mistake. That's why I came home."
"What did you do?"
I could feel my stomach start to turn. "Oh, Mama, about a year ago, I got involved with my boss, and he fired me after we didn't work out. Now he wants me to take a job with him again."
I felt her place her hand on the back of my head and stroke my hair, just like she used to do when I was little and upset.
"Alexa, life is full of mistakes. This isn’t going to be the first, and it certainly won't be the last. What matters is that you learn from them."
"Yeah, but I can't find decent work, Mom. I have a shitty job doing crappy assignments that I used to do when I first started. It's nothing like what I was doing. It pays half of what I was making, and things are so tight," I said, pulling away and wiping my eyes.
"Is that the reason you came home and brought everything with you?"
I nodded my head. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth. Just another way I let you down."
"Alexa, you, my dear, have not let me down. What did you end up telling him?"
"I told him no." I gripped the angel charm around my neck and closed my eyes. The headache I already had was now coming on full strength.
"Can I be honest with you, Alexa?"