Jillian Chantal

The Tuesday Tales word of the week is tragic. My alter-ego and I have a new Christmas anthology out this week and am sharing a bit from one of the stories in it. This is from The Magic of Fruitcake. The heroine is an actress and has befriended a homeless lady on the streets of New York. The heroine has landed an important movie role and finds herself falling for the director.

Check out the other tales here. 

“I’ll call you as soon as I’m out of the meeting with the production team,” Hans said. “Go inside and treat yourself to the vitamin C and zinc. We want you well enough to do a press conference in a few days once everything is approved.” He touched her lightly on the cheek. “We don’t want any red noses.”

She laughed. “I do have some stage makeup. It can hide any number of flaws.”

“You’re flawless already,” Hans said. He appeared to realize what he said and added, “And we want to make sure if you do get sick from being out in the weather that you’ll still look healthy for the press conference.”

Marla smiled. “Thanks for lunch and an interesting day.” She turned to Abigail and Gus. “It was nice to meet you, Abigail, and I wish you and Gus all the best.”

“We’ll see each other again. I’m sure of it,” Abigail said.

When Marla was on the sidewalk, the car pulled away. Marla had mixed emotions. She wanted to be alone but she already missed Hans. She was in trouble and she knew it. There was no way she should be having feelings for the man who was going to be her boss. But she did.

Instead of going inside and having the pity party she wanted to give to herself, she decided to see if she could find Miss Jane. Suddenly, the thought of her empty apartment made her want to not be in there by herself. Besides, she still owed Miss Jane her thanks for the fruitcake.

She walked down the street toward Miss Jane’s usual spot. As she went, she wished she had returned to her apartment long enough to get her wool beanie. The fedora wasn’t warm at all.

Miss Jane wasn’t in her regular alley nor was she at the coffee shop. Marla really was getting worried now. Had her friend frozen to death somewhere during the snow storm or was she holed up somewhere warm and cozy? Marla hoped it was the second option, but she wasn’t at all sure that would be true. The city’s homeless problem was tragic and epidemic. She’d tried many times to get Miss Jane to tell her where she was from and where her family lived.

Miss Jane would always smile coyly and say she and her husband have a lot of work to do the last part of the year. Marla had never seen a husband and wasn’t sure he even existed but Miss Jane was always referring to him.

The older woman didn’t explain the kind of work she and her husband did either. It was decidedly odd. She didn’t really seem homeless as she was always tidy and never smelled bad but the truth was, she was always on the street since she’d appeared a couple of months ago.