The Christmas Sisters

Hannah poked around in the makeup bag and pulled out a lipstick. “Which is?”

Beth flushed. “I pretend I’m in a movie.”

“A movie?” Posy peered through the snow and wondered how fast she dared drive. “Which movie? Something scary and terrifying, I hope. Preferably with dinosaurs.”

“Whatever movie fits the scenario. It’s easier to pretend I’m playing a character than it is to be me. For that interview with Corinna I felt like a fraud. But I dressed the part, and the boots nearly killed me by the way, and before I got in the elevator I told myself I was in a movie, and I was playing a bright young thing who was going to turn the company around.”

Hannah eyed the road ahead, then took a chance and swept the lipstick over her lips. “So I need to think of a movie where a woman chases through an airport to tell a man she loves him?”

“You can write your own movie,” Beth said. “But the part you’re playing is a beautiful, confident woman with great legs and incredible hair—”

“Shallow as a rock pool,” Posy muttered. “I would have gone with big heart.”

“For example,” Beth said, “on the outside you look sleek and together. No one would guess that you’re plotting how to do away with your younger sister.”

“I’m the one driving her to the airport.”

Hannah handed the makeup back. “So I’m a character who is chasing through an airport to tell a man she loves him. Why didn’t I tell him before now? Why leave it until the last minute? Maybe my character is a wimp, like me.”

“Your character is a spy.” Beth found a blusher and handed it back to Hannah. “Use this. You’re a beautiful spy and he’s a spy, too, for the opposite side, so you’ve both been fighting what you’re feeling. Your name is Hannahskya, or Hannahova.”

“Hannah Over sounds like a call sign.” Posy snorted with laughter. “Hannah, Over and Out. There is no way I’d go and see this movie, by the way. It’s going to be a flop at the box office.”

Beth ignored her. “You are both about to embark on dangerous missions, but you have this one last chance to tell him how you feel before you are dropped from an airplane over the mountains of Kazakhstan.”

“There are some great mountains in Kazakhstan,” Posy said. “You could drop me there any day.”

No one was listening to her.

But Hannah did appear to be listening to Beth.

“What if he rejects me?”

Posy heard the vulnerability in her voice.

“He’s not going to.”

Hannah was silent. “I wish I had your confidence. We’re assuming we can even catch him before he flies. He’s not responding to my call. Maybe he doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“He’s probably already on a call. You’re always on the phone and the two of you seem well matched. If you ever get married, you can include that in your vows—‘Do you take this woman and her phone...’”

Posy beeped as a driver pulled out in front of her. “What does he think he’s doing?”

“It’s you I’m worried about.” Beth covered her eyes with her hands. “I’ve been on fairground rides less scary than this. And that’s a statement of fact, not catastrophizin

g.”

“I’m pretending I’m in a movie. I’m playing the part of a getaway driver in a heist.” Posy noticed Beth fiddling with her phone. “Who are you texting?”

“Jason. I want him to know that I love him and the girls, in case anything happens to me.”

“Look on the bright side. Thanks to you at least he now knows how to take care of the kids.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather he didn’t have to. And, by the way, it is not going to make Mom’s Christmas if all three of us die in the same accident.”

“Catastrophizing!” they all yelled and then started to laugh.

“We’re here!” Posy saw the lights of the airport in the distance. “I’m going to pull up outside and you are going to race into the airport. Try calling him again.”