Free Winter Wishes (Sharing Space #5) by Nina Perez

Winter Wishes
    Sharing Space – Book Five
     
    By Nina Perez
     

    Copyrigh t© 2013 Nina Perez
    All rights reserved.

    To the usual suspects…
     
    MJ Heiser & Steven Novak
     
    My Project Fandom crew
     
    My parents, siblings, and family
     
    Sophie Loney
     
    And most of all, thank you to Donny, Kali, and Jack
     
    Special thanks to all my new readers who hang out with me on Facebook. <3

    Table of Contents
     
    Chapter One: Shining Moments
     
    Chapter Two: What a Ho-Ho-Ho
     
    Chapter Three: Too Little Too Late
     
    Chapter Four: Not Quite Good Enough
     
    Chapter Five: Saying Goodbye
     
    Chapter Six: Black Christmas
     
    Chapter Seven: Confession
     
    Chapter Eight: A Lot Like Love
     
     
     
     
     

     

Chapter One
Shining Moments
Patrick
     
    “Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t love me.”
     
    “I don’t love you.”
     
    “You’re lying. You can’t just turn it off. You can’t just flick a switch and suddenly not love someone. When we were at our best, we were like fire. You don’t just turn that off overnight.”
     
    “This isn’t overnight. You know that. You just won’t admit it—”
     
    “What? Is it your family? Your mother is making you do this, isn’t she? What has she threatened you with this time?”
     
    “It’s not my mother. It’s not my family. It’s me. My feelings have changed. I’ve changed. Since the accident I’ve become a different man.”
     
    “No. I refuse to believe it. You’re still the same man. Somewhere inside there is the man I love, the man who loves me. I… I… have no idea what my next line is.”
     
    “Cut!”
     
    “I’m sorry, Patrick.”
     
    “No worries.”
     
    I smiled at my co-star, Jenni Freeman, who played Carly Buchanan on Shining Moments . We’d been shooting scenes together for a few weeks and it wasn’t like Jenni to forget her lines this often in one day, but we’d also been working since six in the morning. It was now after five and everyone was ready to call it a day.
     
    “Sorry, guys,” Jenni said, turning towards the crew and our director, Mick, who’d just called cut on the scene.
     
    “What do you say we call it a wrap for you two? We can pick this up first thing tomorrow. You both have a five a.m. call time, correct?” Mick asked, consulting his iPad.
     
    Jenni and I both nodded in agreement. Early morning call times were old hat to me now that I’d been working on the show for almost a full month. I didn’t mind one bit. I was working. I was an actor. And that was all that mattered. As I walked towards my dressing room—past Stages Four and Five and several makeup rooms—I smiled at the photos lining the walls. They were framed glossy headshots of the show’s cast members. There were veterans; actors who’d been on the show back when I was in diapers and there were Emmy winners, fan favorites, and icons. Now I was their peer, and it felt amazing.
     
    My suitemate, a young black actor named Damien Yates, was resting on one of the sofas when I entered the room. He had an open script tented across his chest and was looking up at the ceiling, softly reciting lines. Not wanting to disturb him I quietly made my way to the mini fridge and grabbed a bottle of water.
     
    “Hey, man. New scripts should be here soon.” Damien sat up, tossing his script on the sofa cushion next to him.
     
    “Didn’t mean to interrupt,” I said, dropping into the recliner on my side of the dressing room.
     
    “I was done. I got four pages of dialog in this one. If I don’t know it by now…”
     
    “Yeah. I’m trying to get used to how fast it all moves.”
     
    We shot each episode weeks in advance, but still only had a little more than one week to learn new lines. It was definitely a lot more fast-paced than theatre or commercials, but it was also more rewarding.
     
    “We get a bad rap with the cheesy storylines and all, but you don’t appreciate how much work soaps are until you’re in it.”
     
    He