Free The Christmas Key by Chacelyn Pierce Page B

last sexual endeavor. However sparse their sex may have been, he should've tried harder, or she should have tried harder. No. His infidelity was not justified and now she tried to make excuses for him and blame herself.
    He should have broken up with her long before dating someone new. It would've been the respectable thing to do. She would've done it. She glared back at their vacation picture on her desk again, this time with irritation. Asshole .
    She pushed it with one finger into the trash bin that sat beside her desk. With their picture being in that particular corner of the desk, it had fallen into the trash a lot of times. She should've taken it as an omen. She stared back at the article in front of her. No way could she finish it now. The misery and anger radiating through her mind would cause her to give Tiding Sun a big fat F. Xander deserved better than that, so she'd let Tia finish it.
    As if Shalaine summoned her by sheer thought alone, Tia walked into the office. Her boss always wore a skirt and blouse set and took pride parading around the office like a zesty cougar. Her soft brown hair fell in thick spiraling curls that cascaded down her plump backside. Tia never chose anything but hot bright pink for her acrylic nail color and her fashion sense kept up with whatever was in season at the time. Tia opened her rosy-glossed lips to speak but stopped when she caught sight of Shalaine's face.
    "What? Is the article not going good?" Tia came to stand at the side of the desk and peered down at the scribbled red marks on the page.
    "No, it's almost finished, other than a few places that need touching up." Shalaine's face hardened. "Nathan just broke up with me."
    "He didn't! You guys are supposed to go to Alaska tomorrow." Tia put her hands on her round hips.
    "Yeah, well I guess I'll be here next week." Shalaine shrugged. There were always winter movie releases that could use a good review or two. She could lose herself in a few films.
    "No, you won't. Go to Alaska by yourself. I always tell you girls, you don't need a man to have fun." Tia looked at Shalaine, probably surprised that no tears had formed. Shalaine was shocked that the flood gates hadn't hoped herself.
    "Okay , well, fun wasn't the agenda; a holiday romance was: a cozy fire, spiced eggnog, mistletoe make-outs, things like that."
    "That cozy fire can be your furnace. Burn everything , photos, clothes, stuffed animals. Take it all and pour it into the flames. Cry your eyes out while chugging the alcoholic eggnog. Yell and scream, break stuff, and in a week from Monday when you come back, things will be a whole lot better." Tia gave a wink with her heavily mascaraed eye and snatched the X. Christian article off the desk. In a jolly mood, Tia closed Shalaine's office door behind her as she left.
    Tia had always been a bit scorned after her husband left her five years before, but she knew better than anyone about heartache and how to overcome it. Her advice didn't seem like something Shalaine would take, but right now she had no other alternatives. The trip shouldn't go to waste, plus there was the fact that the cabin caretaker had gotten everything on her food list, for two. She'd hate to call him up and cancel at the last minute. She could just gorge herself while watching Xander Christian films; she'd bawl her eyes out and burn photos too. Seemed like the perfect Christmas vacation, for one.
     
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    The cabbie dropped her off in front of the petite snow-covered cottage that seemed like it was a mile from the small road. It sat alone in a wilderness, looking welcoming and romantic, and sickening. Shalaine thought about asking if the cabbie knew of any bear caves so she could walk into one and wake up a sleeping grizzly. Then she thought, Nathan isn't worth something that tragic . The gruff, four-foot-nothing cabbie unloaded her three heavy suitcases and Shalaine was proud that she'd done as Tia suggested. She'd brought the album and her thirty romantic