Meeting Mr. Christmas (Collier’s Creek Christmas)

Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Nursing a beer, Jed let the warmth and the mellow jazz flow over him as he sat in the basement bar that was Odette’s. The deep, rich sound of the saxophone was soothing and for the first time in four days, the tension in his neck and shoulders had softened. Not much, but not much was better than nothing, and he’d take it.

The few wall lamps were turned low, and old wine bottles sat on the tables, each one holding a candle, the undulating flame casting pools of both light and deep, shifting shadow. He’d been here only once, with Noel. There had been a band playing that night, too, the female vocalist singing something Noel had told him was called scat. Everybody else in the bar had enjoyed it, according to their enthusiastic clapping and whistles, leaving him as the odd one out.

Jed let his gaze wander over the prints stuck up on the walls, so many and randomly placed. Most were in French and showed a long ago version of Paris. Or he assumed they were Paris because he thought he recognized the Eiffel Tower. He took another swig from his bottle, the imported lager stronger, the flavors different from what he normally drank. Different… he could get used to different.

He finished the beer and, about to raise his arm for another, the door swung open, letting in a blast of cold air before it clattered to a close. Jed’s heart surged, and rather than call for another beer, he opened his mouth to call out to Noel, to wave him over, to… His arm, barely raised, dropped back to the table. Noel, and — a guy, a guy Jed didn’t recognize, a guy Jed didn’t know and didn’t want to, a guy who was Noel’s date.

In the shadowy corner at the table for one, Jed pressed himself back against the wall as he watched, unnoticed, the nightmare unfolding before him.

Noel was smiling. He was talking and laughing, his face animated as he pulled off his hat — not his rainbow colored one, nor any of his animal hats, and definitely not one with the bunny ears, or the one with the parading dachshunds, no, not one of those — but a sensible navy blue beanie, leaving his dark hair standing up in tufts. Noel laughed some more as he smoothed it down before peeling off his coat.

Black skinny jeans encasing long, lean legs, sitting low on his hips. They were what he’d worn to Connor’s party, which seemed like a lifetime ago. Just like he’d worn the belt with the heavy silver buckle, which glinted in the swaying candlelight. Thedark blue shirt Noel wore was threaded through with a dull silver thread and was a perfect fit for his lean torso. It was new, Jed knew it without knowing how, just as he knew Noel had bought it especially for his date.

Jed pressed himself so far into the wall he was in danger of busting through to the other side. He could creep out. Noel wouldn’t notice, because all his attention was on his date — the word burned like battery acid in his gut — the date who grinned down at Noel like he wanted to fuck him into tomorrow.

The bar had filled up since he’d come in, and though not as full as the Tap would be, or Randy’s, it was busy enough to make the customers raise their voices to be heard. But it’d never be loud enough for him not to pick out Noel’s light laughter. But this wasn’t laughter for him, this time, but for the guy he didn’t recognize, the guy who looked at Noel like he was going to be his next meal, the guy Jed wanted to shove his fist into.

The beer sloshing around in his stomach began to bubble and burn its way upwards, threatening to burst from his mouth and spew in a never ending acidic torrent. Throwing some bills on the table, he put his head down and pushed through the crowd, away from Noel and his date. He couldn’t take it, he couldn’t watch Noel smiling up at another man, leaning forward as the guy whispered in his ear. But most of all, he couldn’t watch Noel’s lips part or his head angle as the guy leaned in to kiss him.

He couldn’t watch any of it, not if he didn’t want to have his heart torn from his chest and ripped into a million bloody little pieces.