Holiday Madness: A Boyfriend Thief Christmas Story Read Free Page B

side up and began
tossing things into it.
    “It’s not stupid,” I told him.
“It’s not you. It’s me. I don’t want to dance in front of everyone.
Especially not on TV.”
    “You’ve danced in front of
people before,” Zac pointed out.
    “That’s different!”
    “How?” he asked.
    I opened my mouth, but I
couldn’t explain. I didn’t want to be the center of attention, with
all of those eyes on me while I humiliated myself. I didn’t like
for people to laugh at me. Even now, even after how far I’d come
with my insecurities, I didn’t want to be the giant hot dog dancing
for hours on stage while people laughed.
    “If you thought my idea was
dumb, you should have told me two days ago.” Zac stood and hefted
the box up on his hip. “You would have saved me all this work for
such a stupid idea.”
    “Zac,” I said.
    But he stomped out of the
house, slamming the front door behind him.
     

    Christmas Eve.
    I stared up at the ceiling, not
wanting to get out of bed. Once I got up, I’d have to face a day of
dancing in a giant hot dog costume. A day of my boyfriend being mad
at me. A day of being laughed at.
    I grabbed my phone and checked
for text messages. Nothing. I had texted Zac at least twenty times
after he’d left my house the night before, but he still hadn’t
responded. I wanted to call him and apologize, but I also didn’t
want to give him a chance to hang up on me. It would be completely
understandable if he did, but I didn’t want to deal with the
possibility of it actually happening.
    When I couldn’t avoid it any
longer, I rolled out of bed, showered, dressed, and drove over to
Diggity Dog House. Zac’s beat up car was already in the parking lot
and my stomach lurched at the sight. I parked a few spaces away and
then sat in my car, my hands gripping the steering wheel. Deep
breaths. I could get through this. I would not have a panic attack
just because I’d be dancing in a giant hot dog costume all day and
my boyfriend wasn’t speaking to me on Christmas Eve.
    A knock on the window next to
my head made me jump. Molly grinned at me through the window.
    “You look like you’re thinking
about running off to the Himalayas,” she said when I climbed out of
the car.
    “Don’t tempt me.” I pressed a
hand to my stomach. “I don’t feel so great.”
    “Have you eaten anything this
morning?” she asked.
    I tried to remember everything
I’d done since I rolled out of bed. “I don’t think so.”
    “That’s your problem, then. Go
inside and get a hot dog.”
    “Ugh,” I groaned. “I cannot eat
a hot dog this early in the day.”
    Molly grabbed my hand and
pulled me toward the door. “It’s too early for whining too. So get
in here and see what your boyfriend’s done with the place.”
    When I stepped through the
glass door, I wasn’t sure that I had entered the right restaurant.
It did not look like the Diggity Dog House I knew. The ugly orange
and brown walls had been covered with sheets of cotton matting.
Colorful lights were strung all around the walls, so that it looked
like Christmas lights glowing against a snowy background. The floor
was also covered with white cotton, with lumps here and there
covered with the cotton matting to create snow drifts piled around
the room.
    The tables closest to the drink
dispenser had been cleared away and a small temporary stage had
been set up, with tiny Christmas trees all around it and a
glittering disco ball hanging overhead. There was even a fake
snowman standing in one corner and a chair covered in a red cloth,
with a big red Santa's toy sack next to it.
    My mouth hung open as I turned
circles, taking in the transformation. Even the sponsor posters
were nicely done and made to look like sign posts attached to giant
red and white striped candy canes. Zac had gotten more sponsors in
the last day. There had to be at least fifteen posters around the
room.
    “Zac did all of this in two
days?” I asked.
    “Can you believe it?”