Merry Mix-Up (Holiday Hearts)

1. Jade

1

JADE

T he dining room table in my parents' sprawling 2400-square foot home was full, both with an array of food dishes and numerous friends. Amber and I made the unanimous decision to host our friends for a "Friendsgiving" celebration knowing she would only be in town for just over forty-eight hours before jetting back to LA and more classes. My belly was full and so was my heart despite my real friends all being in Chicago where I left them.

"And you guys are never, ever going to believe this." Naomi, Amber's best friend, clapped her hands and stood up after having already roused us all to a fit of laughter. Her jokes were always the center of attention and tonight was no different, though she seemed adamant that we stop laughing immediately after her intentional stab at comedy.

I fit in with these guys the way a donkey fits in with a herd of horses, but they accepted me. While an outsider would look at the group and think I didn't fit in because of my brightly colored hair and wild sense of style, these guys didn't seem to mind. And I needed people around me as much as anyone else, so rather than being a recluse, I just followed on Amber's skirt tails and did what she did. Except business school—that was all her.

"What now? You're buying a puppy?" Amber joked, and the group continued chuckling at Naomi's expense, but when Jared, her boyfriend, stood up next to her, I got the point. This was something serious. Most of them probably assumed she was pregnant or something, but I noticed the tiny diamond on her left hand earlier in the night and wondered when that happened. Naomi was my twin's best friend, not mine. And Amber wasn't exactly a Gabby Gossip when it came to friend-type things.

Naomi's hand shot out and she bent her wrist down, displaying the ring I had spied there earlier. She wriggled her fingers and Jared shouted, "She said yes!"

Everyone around the table erupted into shouts of congratulations and applause, and Amber shot to her feet and rushed to Naomi’s side and hugged her. I was happy for them, but slightly discouraged too. It seemed like everyone had someone lately, and I was a lone wolf. Maybe it was my rainbow updo that scared guys away, or maybe because I was bold and outgoing and that intimidated them. Whatever the case, Amber had always been the flower to whom all the bees were drawn while I was a weed in the garden meant for plucking and discarding.

I clapped with them but thought the ridiculous display of hugging and jumping up and down giddily was a little dramatic. Amber always did have a flair for that, though. Even when she was trying to be modest, she loved the attention. Mom said she did it with her body language and actions, but I did it with my wardrobe and hairstyles. Chalk that up to one of the reasons her degree was something sustainable while I had chosen fashion design.

I sipped from my glass of wine and watched them all chatter about how happy they were for Naomi and Jared, and when Naomi started handing out orders regarding her wedding party, I was grateful that my place in this tribe was on the fringe, like a lost puppy that tagged along.

"Mav," Naomi whined, grabbing both of Amber's hands. "You just have to be my maid of honor!" The way she whimpered out the nickname melodramatically made me chuckle and hide it behind my glass of wine as I sipped it more. She could win an Emmy for that act.

Amber tossed her jet-black curls behind her back and nodded eagerly. "Of course. You're my best friend, closer to me than my sister." Ouch. Amber's words stung, but they were true. We were identical twins but nothing alike, and she was definitely closer to Naomi than me. We weren't the cutesy, dress-alike, do-everything-together type of twins. We had separate lives and I liked it that way.

They hugged again in a sickening display and moved away from the group, but closer to my end of the table. I heard them snickering about Jared and the wedding night and when Amber asked, "When are you planning to set the date?" Naomi's response shocked us both.

"Christmas Eve, of course."

I looked up at the bold redhead who had always been impulsive and a bit reckless and still, I was surprised. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and this woman thought she was going to pull off a wedding in just over thirty days? For a moment, both Amber and I thought it was laughable, so we laughed. But Naomi pouted her bottom lip out and shook her head.

"It's not a joke, Mav." Amber's nickname sobered her when Naomi said it. She had called Amber Maverick, or "Mav" for short, since the fourth grade when Amber refused to back down to bullies. It later proved useful on the basketball team when there were two Ambers, and it just stuck with her. Now it was a signpost indicating her tenacity and refusal to give up or underperform, which was why she was tackling her doctoral thesis while studying for her finals midterm and completely unavailable to play maid of honor this month.

I pushed myself away from the table that had descended into chaos of individual conversations so loud I couldn't hear myself think. My belly was too full to eat another bite, and I wanted to slip out and go back to my apartment before Mom and Dad came home and made us clean up. It just wasn't my thing. Amber pushed for this party here where we had more space. She could clean it up.

"Of course, yes!" Amber belted out, but she sounded nervous and giggled. "Oh, hey, Jade, hold up!"

Her words clawed at my back and I turned and looked over my shoulder as she rushed out, "Be right back." She walked away from Naomi and followed after me as I continued my march through the kitchen toward the living room. I was tired and I wanted to just lie down now.

"Hey, Jade, I said hold up." Her feet slapped on the tile floor and I heard her galloping toward me, but I didn't slow down. She was just going to tell me she was going out drinking with the gang tonight and then make me clean up.

"No, Amber. I'm not doing the dishes. You are staying here tonight. Do them yourself." I reached for my heavy jacket on the hook near the back door. I was parked out front, but we hung our coats near the mud room because the front hall closet was packed with our friends' coats.

"It's not that," Amber blurted out, stopping my hand before I could get my jacket.

"What, then? Go have fun with your friends. I'm tired. I appreciate your letting me hang out with everyone, but I'm just not feeling the whole 'I’m a happy bride planning my wedding' vibe." I reached past her and snagged my coat and purse and slid my arms into the silk-lined sleeves as she stared at me with puppy-dog eyes. "I swear, I'm not doing the dishes."

"She asked me to be her maid of honor, Jayjay." It was her turn to pout a lip out and her eyes turned to large, round moons. I didn't know what the heck she wanted me to do about this. She was the one who agreed to help her best friend when she knew damn well she'd be in California, a four-hour flight from Chicago plus an hour drive to Danville.

"So what?" I asked, and I turned and marched up the hallway. "You'll figure it out. Maybe Newt will pay for you to fly back here every time there's some sort of event." Naomi's fancy older brother who was basically old enough to parent her past her pre-teen years was loaded. He owned a stock-brokerage firm in the city and used dollar bills to pad his mattress to sleep well at night. Hot, but kind of a show-off.

"Jade," Amber said, grabbing my arm. I whipped around, unable to stop the momentum, and noticed her looking back from where we'd come. She pulled me into the bedroom we used to share as teens, where she'd be sleeping tonight as I went home to my lovely private apartment across town to sleep peacefully alone.

"My God, Amber." I winced and pulled my arm out of her talons and rubbed it. "What gives?" Amber was the insistent type. She never really let up or stopped nagging until she got what she wanted. I, being the younger twin, ended up doing whatever she wanted most of the time or risked the wrath of Mom and Dad when they heard how I traumatized her by not giving her what she wanted.

"Jade," she hissed. "You owe me."

Amber was the poster child for perfection. She never got in trouble. She got straight As, and she was on the dean's list when she graduated with her bachelor’s. Now finishing her master's and moving on to a doctorate in business studies, I paled in comparison. My dad called my degree useless and told me I'd never find a decent job. I was the wild child who got in trouble and messed up.

Like the time I wrecked Mom's Suburban on icy roads on a night much like tonight. I had no one to call but Amber, and she bailed me out. She lied to Mom and Dad and said she was driving it because she knew they'd never get angry with her. But I'd have been banned from borrowing their cars and forced to walk everywhere I went. Danville wasn't a huge city, but when winter hits, it's too cold to walk from house to car, let alone to the supermarket or school. High school would have sucked. Amber saved me.

"What do you want?" I asked, reluctantly resigning to the fact that I knew she had me. Even now, years later when I was an adult and Mom and Dad should have laughed it off, if she told them about that coverup, they'd be angry. It was the holidays. I didn't want anyone to be angry. And I didn't want this secret hanging over my head anymore, either, but now wasn't the right time to divulge it. Mom had a knack for holding a grudge.

"Pretend to be me." Her expression got suddenly serious and thoughtful, and her eyes pleaded with me even as I burst into laughter. The look on her face was priceless.

I walked toward the plaid-covered bed and flopped onto it, laughing at her suggestion. We tried that once in middle school with gym class and everyone knew I wasn’t her. I had two left feet back then, and now, I had bright red and yellow hair, with splotches of green and blue. Her jet-black beauty and all-natural makeup were boring. I couldn't pull that off if I tried.

"What's so funny?" she asked, walking over and sitting down next to me.

"You. Oh, my God, Amber. You think I'm going to pull it off, dressing like you, and how? My hair looks like a unicorn vomited on it. Your hair is longer than mine too, and how the hell will I learn to do makeup the way you do?" Perfectly contoured and next to nude colors, she was my polar opposite. My makeup was "clownlike at best," or at least that's how she and my mom described it. "No."

"Oh, I swear, Jade." She sounded next to tears. "Naomi is my best friend. I can't be here and in UCLA at the same time. You have to help me. I can't let her down." Her eyes welled up with tears, and no doubt, she was feeling emotional, but I could tell when she was fake crying. I had always been able to tell.

"I can't do this, Amber, I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be working with Ginny this month to gear up for the opening of the studio in January. I have?—"

"Please," she begged. "Your mentor will understand if you take the month. You're learning so much and your designs are already finished. You said so yourself earlier." Her lip quivered, and I bit mine, not wanting to snap at her. What she was suggesting was rude and inconsiderate. She’d never give up her future or put it on hold for a month for me. I was always doing stupid things like this for her.

"Just tell her you can’t do it." I shook my head, determined to stand my ground this time.

"Tell my best friend whom I love so much that I can't be the maid of honor at her only wedding? Are you listening to yourself? That's cruel." She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me that look—the one with puppy dog eyes and pouty lips.

"And sending your twin in to do it for you isn’t?" I scoffed, but she was wearing me down. I grew up with Naomi the way I did with Amber, sleepovers and slumber parties. I knew Naomi would be crushed, and even though I shouldn’t have felt guilty about this and Amber should have just fessed up, I was leaning toward helping her.

"Please, Jayjay," she whimpered, and her use of my childhood nickname won me over. I was weak and I caved like the front end of a Honda in a collision.

"Fine… but I have no clue how this is going to work. Naomi is going to see right through it." I closed my eyes and wished I could sink into the mattress beneath me.

"Makeover tomorrow morning." Amber smacked a kiss on my cheek and ran to the door. "Eight a.m. don't be late. I'll go to the pharmacy as soon as they open to make sure I have everything, and you'll get a crash course on being me!"

The door slammed and I knew she was gone. I covered my face with both hands. I didn't need a crash course on her. She was my twin. I memorized her wacky behavior and quirks years ago. What I needed was a glass of whiskey and a time machine. Christmas couldn't come fast enough.