Free Once Upon a December: A Holiday Short Story Collection by Sydney Logan Page A

Benjamin and Olivia Fisher.
    Ten years ago, I’d been a boy in love.
    I still am.
    Life is full of highways, and some are just too long when you’re trying to find your way home. In my case, some forgotten roads completely disappear. Time erases them, to the point that you begin to wonder if they ever really existed in the first place.
    But they did. I know they did.
    I close my eyes and try to ignore the image that flickers behind my eyelids. In my mind, Emma Hayes is still eighteen years old. With her long red hair and deep green eyes, she’d always looked at me as if I was her dream come true.
    And I was, until I ripped those dreams away.
    We were together for more than a year, and it had been the happiest time of my life. But being crazy in love makes you do stupid things. Careless things.
    And then things happen that you never imagined would happen to you.
    When Emma told me she was pregnant, I questioned if the baby was even mine. The accusation was ridiculous, considering I’d been her first and she’d been mine, and we’d been inseparable since our first date. When her dad showed up at my house, he and his rifle made it clear that I was expected to take care of my responsibilities.
    There’d been no question in my mind that I loved her. Emma was smart, funny, and everything I could have ever wanted in a girlfriend . . . and someday, in a wife. I’d never been a romantic person or believed in love at first sight, but Emma Hayes had made a believer out of me.
    Then I ruined it all by being the biggest jerk imaginable.
    During the third month of her pregnancy, when her morning sickness was at its worst, the enormity of our situation began to weigh heavily on me. When our parents told me I’d have to find a full-time job and forego college to take care of my new family, I became bitter. And with that bitterness, I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have. Hurtful words I didn't mean. Hateful words that made her cry. Heartbreaking words that sent Emma to the hospital, where she miscarried.
    My fault.
    The doctor told me I wasn’t to blame, but I didn’t believe him. I could tell by the look in Emma’s eyes that she didn’t believe him, either. Her green eyes, once so bright with love for me, were now hard and cold. And my parents, who used to be so proud of me, now looked at me like I was a monster. Because I was.
    We graduated high school a month later, and I packed everything I could fit into my car and fled to the nearest community college. I worked full-time while going to school and eventually transferred to Belmont to complete my degree in finance. After that, I moved to Atlanta and spent six months working as an intern for an investment group before being offered a salaried position in the Mergers and Acquisitions division of the company.
    While I’m a professional success, I’m a complete failure when it comes to my personal life.
    I haven’t been home in ten years. I won’t even fly through the state of Tennessee if I can avoid it. Some days, like today, it’s unavoidable. Out of obligation to my mother, I check in with my family from time-to-time, but it’s a brief Skype call. They never mention Emma and I never ask. No matter what she’s doing now, and no matter who she’s with, I know she’s better off without me. As for me, I haven’t even tried to fall in love.
    It’s impossible to love again when every face I see is hers.
     

     
    “Sir?” My eyes snap open to find a flight attendant standing over me. “I’ll need you to fasten your seatbelt before landing.”
    I blink rapidly. We can’t possibly be in New York already.
    “Landing?”
    “Yes, sir. Weather conditions have become unfavorable, so we’re having to divert to Nashville.”
    “Nashville?”
    “Yes. Hopefully it won’t be too long of a delay. But in the meantime, welcome to Tennessee.”
    I almost laugh. Can the universe really be that cruel?
    Yes. Yes, it can.
     

     
    The furious voices of holiday travelers echo