Wanted Read online

  Copyright 2019 © Gone Writing Publishing, LLC

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  Chapter One

  Lily

  Without a care in the world, Lily bounced up the four flights of stairs to get to her apartment even though the bags she was carrying were cutting off the blood supply in her arms. In fact, she practically skipped down the hall when she got to her floor. Today was Thanksgiving, her second favorite holiday because it led to—what she thought—the greatest holiday.

  Lily’s cheeks hurt from constantly smiling.

  “Harley, you here?” Managing to unlock the apartment door, Lily called out as she walked in and kicked the door shut. Harley, her roommate, always called her cheap, but Lily thought of herself as frugal and Black Friday shopping was the ultimate way of saving money. Pride pulsed through her.

  When no answer came, she maneuvered herself to her bedroom. Dropping all the bags in the middle of the floor, she shook out her arms to try to get the blood to flow again. As much as she wanted to go through everything, food had to come first. Since she was shopping ‘til she dropped, her blood sugar was low because she hadn’t eaten anything.

  Strolling through the apartment, she already began to mentally plan the decorations. This would be her fourth year here. A place she called home and loved. When she walked into the kitchen, she decided on a sandwich and chips. As she gathered the items, she tried not to let her smile fall as she thought about not seeing her parents today. She understood their work came first but she still held out hope. Lily knew better after all these years. Smearing peanut butter and jelly onto two slices of bread, she chose to focus on Christmas. The greatest holiday, in her opinion. She barely cared about her birthday, but when December hit, holiday joy spread throughout her soul.

  Picking up the plate of food, she made her way to the living room. Sitting on the couch, she curled up her legs under her, turned on the TV and went straight to the Hallmark channel. The outstandingly charming Christmas movies were on, making the ebullience remain. She watched intently already knowing there will be a happy ending but still cheering for the bad boy millionaire to see the way of the good-natured country girl. As they were riding off into a Christmas wonderland, Harley came strolling in with a plate of leftovers.

  “Harley.” Lily jumped up from the seat and rushed over to her friend. “Please tell me those delicious Thanksgiving smells are for me.” She excitedly clapped.

  “Slow down there, Lil. If you weren’t out shopping all day with the rest of the sale-saving-lunatics, then you would have been able to come over to my father’s and would have seen my newest stepmother attempt to cook and serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Lucky for you, though,” she handed her the plate, “this pumpkin pie is store bought.”

  Lily laughed. “Thank you for thinking of me.” She turned and moved toward the kitchen. “How is the new stepmother?”

  “Well, she’s twenty-five with a fresh set of boobs, just like the others.” Harley sighed following her. “However, it was nice to see Dad. He’ll be spending a lot of time in China after the New Year, so I won’t be seeing much of him.”

  “Oh, how come?”

  “More business over there and apparently, they like rich American businessmen.” Harley shrugged off the comment.

  Lily and Harley had a lot of things in common regarding family dynamics, and it seemed to be the reason they gravitated toward each other on freshmen orientation day. They have been attached at the hip ever since. Lily’s parents made sure she had a secure apartment in Georgetown when she arrived in Washington, D.C. Harley was staying in a penthouse her father put her up in, but she didn’t want to stay there. Lily and she moved in together almost immediately. Neither could imagine getting through the last three years without each other. There had been many ups and downs, but they always held each other up.

  “How was all the shopping?” Harley asked taking a seat at the breakfast bar.

  “Fantastic. I purchased everything I had on my list and more. Plus, I got some additional decorations and the greatest thing happened to me.” Lily reached for a fork.

  “Did you find a two-for-one on towels?” Harley faked a gasp of excitement.

  “Better. I won a Twelve Days of the Ultimate Christmas.” She couldn’t contain her squeal at the end.

  “The what?” she asked, furrowing her brow in confusion.

  “It’s twelve days filled with everything Christmas. I’m talking The Nutcracker, A Christmas Story, the symphony, the lighting of the national Christmas tree, a carriage ride to see the window displays, all of it! They have tickets for Gaylord’s National Resort. Even the toy train exhibit. All of it.” Her voice grew higher and higher thinking of everything. She already had it planned in her head.

  “That’s great,” Harley said with a deadpan tone. “It’s just for one, right?”

  “No.” Lily giggled. “For two. One for you and one for me.”

  “Stop.” She held up her hand. “I’m out.”

  With her mouth opened in stunned silence, she almost felt as if she’d cry. “Wh…what do you mean?”

  Harley stood up, moved in front of Lily and gripped her shoulders. “I love you like a sister, and I’d move a mountain for you. However, if I have to go to one more bullshit, over-the-top Christmas activity with you, I may end up on the eleven o’clock news strangling Santa Claus.”

  “But…” Lily pouted. “Who am I going to go with? You’re my only true friend.”

  Giving her roommate a small smile, she shrugged again. “I don’t know, and I’m sorry it won’t be me, but I can’t handle any more of it. I know by Monday this whole place is going to look like an elf threw up Christmas with all the decorations you have. I can handle it because I know it’s your thing. And…I can handle the extremely cheesy Christmas movies where the guy and girl run off into the sunset holding mistletoe, but that’s it…nothing more.”

  She knew how over-the-top she could be with Christmas. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help it. This holiday meant more to her than anything. It celebrated the end of the year of stressful days, never-ending deadlines, and sleepless nights. It brought families together from near and far. But most of all, it showed that a new year was around the corner and with it came a fresh start.

  “All right. Maybe I’ll just donate it to someone.” Lily pushed the plate of pie away from the edge of the counter and made her way back into the living room to pick up the items she left behind.

  “Wait,” Harley called after her. “I know you want to do this.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” she lied, not looking at her friend.

  “You’re a liar. However, I
have a suggestion?”

  Lily’s ears perked up.

  “Post an ad on Tumblr or LinkedIn or one of those sites.”

  “Oh, so a serial killer can strangle me with Christmas lights or something?”

  Harley rolled her eyes. “You’re being overdramatic. Besides it’s not like a man will answer the ad. I don’t see any guy doing an Ultimate Christmas Adventure unless he’s getting laid, and I don’t think you’re going to give it up to a stranger.”

  She couldn’t argue with her because the point was valid. “I’m going to organize my room.” Lily left Harley and went to her room.

  Finally pulling all the items out of her bags, she began to lay everything out on her bed and floor. She purchased some gifts for Harley to open on Christmas Eve. They had created a tradition of spending it together. They would drink overly spiked eggnog and exchange gifts as the Grinch played on the TV. She stared at the few things she got for her parents. She loved Christmas because it was the one holiday she and her parents spent together. Her parents both had high-power careers that had them bouncing all over the world. But every Christmas—every single Christmas—they were together as a family.

  Once she finished putting everything into her closet, she went into her bathroom. Her long blonde hair didn’t lay in its normal soft waves. It was frizzy because of all the running around she did today as she went store-to-store. Her eyes looked like crystal blue water and were similar to her mothers. She had been blessed with high cheekbones, full lips, and a nice nose. All natural and none of it from plastic surgery. She did workout to keep her thin frame, but during the holidays, she held the motto that calories didn’t count. She’d worry about it after the first of the year.

  After washing her face and tying up her hair, she stretched out on her bed and picked up her cell phone. Scrolling through Instagram, nothing seemed to catch her eye. She tapped the Twitter app but nothing was there either. She thought about Harley’s idea to post on the internet that she was looking for someone to join her on the adventure, but she quickly pushed it out of her mind. She’d seen enough Dateline episodes to know how it would end.

  Cyber Monday was just as fun as Black Friday, but when you have classes, it ate into shopping time. Which was why Lily now sat in the campus coffee shop with her laptop open, clicking through her emails to see which deals were the best. Scrolling through the sites, she searched for things to buy. However, she didn’t see anything that caught her eye.

  Shutting her laptop, she sipped her vanilla latte and glanced around the coffee shop. Everyone seemed to be in their own world. Either typing away on phones, tablets or laptops. There were a few going old school and using actual textbooks. A couple near the back smiled and flirted between each other. Lily wished she had someone like that in her life. She had boyfriends in the past, but the last year she’d been single. It was by choice because her school load had grown. She wanted to follow in her parents’ steps and achieve a long-lasting career. Maybe one that would travel around the world like theirs. Her parents were her role models.

  Her cell phone dinged alerting her of a new email. Opening the app, she saw it was from the group that hosted the Ultimate Christmas Adventure requesting the info for Lily’s guest. Her heart sank. She didn’t have anyone to go with, and it made her feel lonely. She decided to ignore it since the email stated she had until December first to reply back.

  Glancing around again, she saw a bulletin board with several notices on it. Some were looking for roommates, people searching for jobs, people looking for employees, and everything in between. She wondered if anyone really looked at the board. Then Harley’s voice popped into her head. ‘Post an ad.’ The table next to her was an older woman, who was writing in a notebook.

  “Excuse me,” Lily kindly said to the woman. “May I have a piece of paper?”

  The woman nodded and ripped out a page from the back.

  “Thank you.”

  She grabbed a pen from her bag and wrote on the paper:

  Searching for a fellow Christmas enthusiast to join me on an Ultimate Christmas Adventure. Please contact Lily.

  She left her school email because she felt it would be safer than leaving her phone number or any other personal information. She’d give it until November thirtieth, which was the end of the week. If no one answered, the adventure would be a solo one for her.

  Chapter Two

  Zane

  Zane clicked ‘buy’ and crossed off the last item on his Cyber Monday shopping list. Looking over his Christmas shopping list, he didn’t have a lot of people to buy for since his family was small. Aunt Alice, Uncle Ed, and Spencer, his cousin. They may be small in number, but they were all he had.

  That’s one thing he liked about the holidays. Zane enjoyed shopping for them. It was his way of giving back for all they gave him. When he was eight years old, he lost his parents in a car accident. His aunt and uncle took him in and gave him a home. He could never repay that, but it didn’t mean he would ever stop trying.

  Christmas was his favorite time of the year. It meant time with family, and a large warm meal in the home that he spent the last handful of years before he went off to college. His uncle always brings out his special occasion peach schnapps, and his aunt bakes homemade cookies, pies, and cakes along with a big dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

  Needless to say, they were eating delicious baked goods well into the new year.

  Zane glanced at the small tree in the corner of his and Spencer’s apartment living room. It was a sad little thing. He had sold the one he had in Boston when he decided to move home and was now regretting that decision.

  As a kid, his favorite thing was to decorate the tree. His aunt would make hot cocoa, they’d put on Christmas music, and all four of them would decorate the tree together.

  Zane had just transferred back to Georgetown this school year and moved in with his cousin. It had been a long time coming and he was glad to be back home.

  As much as he loved his family, he decided after high school he needed to get out on his own. His parents’ deaths had been hard on him, and even though his family was great, he needed to get his head straight. And moving far away from everything that reminded him of his parents seemed like the solution.

  He was wrong.

  Zane was a biomedical engineering major and found a highly regarded program in Boston. He was at the top of his class, but no matter how much he craved the academics, something was still missing.

  He missed his family.

  It was soon clear to him that moving away to Boston wasn’t the answer. That’s how he ended up back in Georgetown.

  “Are you done with your online shopping yet?” Spencer complained from the kitchen.

  Zane closed his laptop, adjusted his glasses, and smirked at his cousin. “Nothing wrong with online shopping. I get to avoid the over-caffeinated crowds and still take advantage of all the Cyber Monday deals.” Avoiding crowds was kind of Zane’s trademark move. Biomedical engineering kept his nose in a book, and that’s how he liked it.

  “Nothing wrong with getting out once in a while either.”

  Zane rolled his eyes at his cousin. “Spence, I get out.”

  “Do you?” Spencer questioned, sarcastically.

  “I do.” Zane wasn’t about to defend himself to his cousin. Spencer liked to pick on him about it. It was all in fun. “I’ve just been busy with school.”

  “I know, time flies when your nose is stuck in a book,” Spencer teased. “Anyway, we’re out of coffee, and I’m starving. I thought we could go grab some grub then hit the coffee shop for some fresh coffee grinds.”

  “You know. You could order coffee grinds online and have it delivered monthly. Then we’d never run out.”

  “That’s great, Zane. But I enjoy walking around the Georgetown shops and socializing with the cute coeds.” Spencer looked around the apartment. “I can’t believe you haven’t gotten cabin fever yet.”

  “I told you, I get out plenty.
”

  Zane re-opened his laptop with the intention of setting up a coffee delivery for Spencer because even Zane didn’t enjoy running out of coffee. Before he could log on to the website, Spencer walked in front of him and pushed the screen shut.

  “Lunch is on me, let’s go. Time for some fresh air, Z.”

  “Fine. I could eat. And as long as you’re buying,” Zane teased then headed toward his room. “Just let me put my contacts in.”

  Zane pushed open the door of the local coffee shop, and the chimes over the door jingled. Spencer followed him in but made a beeline for the retail section of the café.

  Walking around Georgetown made Zane realize just how much he missed this town.

  It wasn’t that Zane was a hermit or anything weird like that, he just didn’t dig big crowds. Or maybe it was just that he preferred a good book. It was nice to walk around and see all the Christmas decorations. He was working on Spencer to get a bigger tree, and after checking out one in one of the shops on their way to lunch, he was pretty sure that he had his cousin convinced. Sure, they wouldn’t be at the apartment for Christmas Day, but it was more about the excitement of the days that led up to it anyway.

  “My mom would love this!” Spencer pointed to a basket filled with different types of coffees and related items. “You know my mom loves her coffee. I could buy her a nice mug to go with it.”

  Zane tilted his head and examined the basket. “Yeah, she’d like that. But does she need anything else? Something to go with it.”

  Spencer moved around the coffee shop picking up then putting back down different types of mugs.

  As much as Zane enjoyed buying people gifts and had a self-proclaimed knack for shopping for others, watching Spencer attempt it was almost painful. He distracted himself by checking out the posts on the bulletin board.