Chapter Five
Clara
“Say it with me: I am worthy of love and affection.”
I raise my filled wine glass in my right hand and repeat, “I’m worthy of love.” I raise my left hand, which holds a tin of peppermint chocolate toffee bark. “And affection!”
Reba shakes her head. “Wine and candy are nice, but they won’t love you back.”
“Sure they do. They cover me with extra padding to keep me warm in winter.”
“Clara. Don’t talk about my best friend that way.”
“The last guy I met online took me to a pyramid scheme party, and somehow I ended up buying him a seventy-five-dollar kitchen sponge, then he asked me to use it to wash his dishes.”
“You just haven’t met the right one. I smell Christmas magic in the air.”
This conversation replays in my dream as I slowly wake up in my extra-warm bed.
Wait until I tell Reba about the first part of my dream. The part where a dark-haired, half-naked Legolas finds me in the woods, and he has the outline of the biggest Christmas package I’ve ever seen. Reba’s going to roll her eyes so hard.
I still can’t believe Daren freaked out and pushed me out of the way.
“That’s it,” I say, snuggling deeper into my La-Z-Boy reclining chair, pulling my blanket close around me. “I’m never dating again.”
To my alarm, my La-Z-Boy responds in a deep, masculine voice with the diction of a very stern English professor. “That’s already out of the question, but I’m happy to hear you say it.”
Every inner alarm bell rings, and I bolt upright, eyes flying open.
That’s when the facts hit me, and I realize I’m sitting not at home in front of my space heater but in the lap of the creature that came to me in my dream.
“What the actual…”
I scramble away from the huge arms that surround me, or try to, anyway. In my haste, I tumble to the floor.
“Clara,” he says. “Have you hurt yourself?”
Cursing, I sort of crab walk away in a truly embarrassing fashion because I do not want to put myself in danger by turning my back on this man…or thing…or whatever he might be.
“Who…what…where…”
And then, the hyperventilating begins.
In my tunnel vision, the elf-ish person stands. I look up, wondering what he’s going to do to me, and for half a second, I can see under the leather skirt thing he wears. Oh. My. God.
Although the untouched parts of me light up like a Christmas tree, I know I have to get out of here for my own safety.
And in the future, I have to stay away from the free cider at Holly Tree farm, because someone spiked it with a hallucinogen.
Throwing the blanket off of me, I face the creature.
“Come back and sit on my lap, Clara, and let me feed you.”
“How do you…where am I?” The words tumble out of me in shock and outrage, and fear.
Without an ounce of effort, it seems, the creature picks me up. Up close, his deep, iris-less eyes take me in and mesmerize me. I see flecks of light in their depths like I’m looking at the Milky Way galaxy. For a brief moment, I’m lost in them before I remember myself.
“P-please don’t hurt me,” I whimper, getting control of my breath and now beginning to tremble.
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