Mason (Mail-Order Brides For Christmas)

1

Mia

Last Christmas was the first one I spent without my parents, and I promised myself that by the next one I’d have someone to spend the holidays with. I’ve been in a mood lately, unsure of what I need to do but knowing that I need to do something. With Christmas not too far away, I’ve taken a look at my life and am sad to see what a lonely existence I’ve been living since I lost my parents. It is time to do something. Something drastic.

I can’t keep doing the same thing day in and day out. Get up, go to work at my job as a cashier at the local Piggly Wiggly, come home, watch television, and go to bed just to get up and do it all again.

Sure, I probably shouldn’t have had a few drinks. Especially since I was under the drinking age and had to use a fake ID to get them. And I probably shouldn’t have made such a big decision for my life after having said drinks. But it’s too late to back out now. I signed the paperwork. Of course, I could probably get out of it. Say I was under the influence when I signed them or something. But I don’t want to. The more I’ve thought about it, the surer I’ve become. And besides, it worked for my parents. So why can’t it work for me?

Of course it was a different time and circumstances then. My mom and dad were promised to each other before they even met. Their families wanted to join. My dad’s family wanted to join with my mother’s family’s land. It was the seventies then, so things like that weren’t common. The days of arranged marriages were something of the past, or at least I thought so, and so did my mom and dad. And my mom told me that she was going to refuse her parents and tell them no, that getting married was not an option, they needed to find another way. But as soon as she laid eyes on my dad, she knew she would go through with it. My dad felt the same way. They both told me it was love at first sight. They were married almost twenty-six years, and even though it was devastating that I lost them both at the same time, in my heart I knew it was for the best. Their love was one for the ages. Neither would have wanted to be without the other. They were two halves of a whole, and from the moment they married, they never spent more than a night apart. If one had survived the car accident, it would have been too much for the other to bear.

So now here I am, alone in this world. I have the wineries all in my name, but I don’t work there. I haven’t been able to bring myself to go there, not since the accident. The winery was sort of like my parents’ other child. They loved it, and everything they created there was amazing. They left it to me, and I know what a special gift it is, but I haven’t been able to go there. I receive my monthly royalty payment automatically deposited into my account, but I don’t touch it.

I look at my packed bags sitting on the floor next to my chair. There are people everywhere, arriving and departing, everyone in a hurry to get somewhere. I like to imagine what each person is doing, what their life story is. The man across the way keeps looking at me curiously, and I wonder if he’s wondering the same about me. I laugh to myself. There’s no way he could guess that I’m a mail-order bride on my way to meet my future husband.

In the light of day and sobered up, I am waiting for the regret to set in. I signed up online with a matrimony matching website, Mail Order Brides for Christmas. The call from Holly Huckleberry to be interviewed via Skype was definitely interesting as I learned all the ins and outs of being a mail order bride. But what sold me on the idea was talking with Joy Mistletoe. She is my husband-to-be’s mother. She wanted to speak to me before I signed any papers. Joy was warm and excited. She reminded me so much of my own mother that I probably would have promised her anything she wanted. She told me that I would be a perfect fit for her son and their family.

I try to recall everything she said, and I can remember her telling me that she has six sons who own their own businesses, and they are all special guys that have found themselves in a time crunch situation. I know she mentioned the name Mason, and I try to remember exactly what the reason was he needed to get married, but the hangover and too much alcohol has caused my brain to be frazzled.