Destination christmas ne.., p.1
Destination Christmas, Next Stop Love, page 1
Destination Christmas, Next Stop Love
(A Sweet Lesbian Christmas Romance)
Barbara Winkes
Copyright © 2022 by Barbara Winkes
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For D.
Chapter One
The night before Thanksgiving, Sabrina dreamed about the train again. She was five years old, holding her parents’ hands as they walked up to the car. The old-fashioned train looked wondrous from the outside, its windows lit up. When they boarded and found their cabin, Sabrina couldn’t believe her eyes. Everything shimmered and shone, wherever she looked, lights, Christmas ornaments and garlands.
They took their seats, Sabrina by the window, her mom next to her. Her dad sat down across from them.
The whistle made her jump, and then the doors closed with a bang. Her heart started beating faster.
They soon left the town behind for snow-covered fields and forests. Every once in a while, she saw the lights of decorated houses and trees along the way, and other villages in the distance.
“Isn’t it magic?” her mother said. She and Sabrina’s father shared a smile as a young woman in a pretty, dark blue uniform arrived.
“Would you like something to drink? Eggnog maybe? And a hot chocolate for the young lady?”
“That sounds wonderful. My husband and I will have the eggnog, and I think Sabrina has been waiting for that hot chocolate all day…”
“Yes!” she confirmed with all the enthusiasm of a young child about to get a sweet treat.
The ride went on, and a few minutes later, the woman returned with their orders on a tray, including a small plate of cookies. Sabrina eagerly reached for her cup. The scent of chocolate and the whipped cream on top promised a delicious treat.
The train’s whistle sounded again, a different sound this time, jarring and annoying…
Blindly, Sabrina fumbled for her alarm clock, and it fell to the floor, still ringing. She got out of bed and picked up the offending object, cursing all the way.
Next, she went into the kitchen and prepared the coffeemaker before heading for the shower. She tried to clear her mind from the bittersweet ambience of the dream still lingering in reality.
Sabrina was thousands of miles away from the snow-covered hills of Boxwood, and her parents had passed away before they could see her rise to fame…and her fall.
Maybe that was too big a word. No one had called to un-invite her from the studio’s Christmas party yet, but the message was clear.
Her project, in which she had invested all her heart and most of her savings, wouldn’t come to pass. She had mortgaged her condo to make the movie about a woman her age finding love with another woman during the holidays, but it wouldn’t see the light of day. Her mind was still reeling, disappointment and denial warring.
No wonder she kept having that dream, a means for her mind to escape.
The train ride she’d gone on with her parents every year as a child wasn’t even that long, five stops, about an hour. In her mind, it had always seemed longer, and beyond magic.
Parents would tell their children that Santa needed that time so he could deliver presents to every house. Sabrina would come home so excited she thought she’d be awake all night—only to fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
It always snowed in Boxwood around Christmas time.
She hadn’t seen any real snow, or been back home, in a long time.
There was nothing and no one waiting there for her.
Sabrina had always enjoyed the comforts a big city had to offer. She didn’t know how to deal with this latest blow. After her first successes, she had all of a sudden found herself with many friends, only to realize that most of them wanted a place in the sun next to a famous person. Often, she’d come to that conclusion too late, and now she was experiencing how fragile and fleeting that fame could be.
As she sipped her coffee in her breakfast nook, Sabrina couldn’t deny reality any longer: She was beyond lonely, but there was nothing she could do about it in the near future. She had to pick herself up and continue.
She couldn’t even go and visit her childhood home for sheer nostalgia. She had to sell it after her parents passed away, and a young couple with a baby had moved in. Sabrina wasn’t sure if anyone still remembered her, or cared, for anything other than what they knew from her movies.
If there was something Sabrina knew she couldn’t handle another disappointment.
That didn’t stop her from wondering if the children of Boxwood still experienced the magic of the Christmas train. The company surely had a website by now.
Scrolling through the pages on her phone, Sabrina was immediately bombarded by Black Friday offers. A lot of people had better be buying and streaming her movies, otherwise she wouldn’t be invited to the next Christmas party.
She couldn’t find any information on the train which wasn’t too surprising. Everything was a little more old-fashioned in Boxwood. However, the little town she’d grown up in now had a website, trying to get tourists to take a chance on their rather limited accommodations.
Sabrina gave up for the moment. It wasn’t important. She wasn’t going back, ever.
* * * *
The holidays were always a difficult time, Christmas especially, but Sabrina didn’t want to think about it yet. She had a party to get through.
“What do you think?” she asked her stylist who regarded her with a proud gaze. She had reason to be proud, a miracle worker, in Sabrina’s opinion. The golden dress might be a little too much, but she had to make an impression, think beyond the recent failure.
Before she got the sobering news, Sabrina had auditioned for a movie. She thought she’d done a decent job, though she might have turned it down had the studio gone ahead with her own project, Love for Christmas.
The Stranger Next Door was a romantic suspense that would pair her with a slightly older, world-famous male actor.
Sabrina would have preferred to get distribution for her own project, but that wasn’t going to happen now. After facing her financial reality, she knew she needed that movie. She had worked on a somewhat regular basis since her early successes, most notably a movie called Dreams of Gold that got a lot of teenagers interested in ice skating.
For years now, she had hoped to achieve that kind of recognition again. She was known, famous even. The projects she’d signed up for, hadn’t flopped, but they hadn’t brought in the big bucks either.
Sabrina hoped her appearance tonight would make sure the right people got back to her in time. She was lucky to have a Plan B. The Stranger Next Door could put her back on the map in a big way.
“You look stunning.”
“Thank you. That’s mostly because of your skills.”
Dina shook her head. “I barely did anything.”
Sabrina had come to a point in her life where she wasn’t sure if this was harmless flattery, or if Dina just wanted to keep her job. Either way, life would soon turn around for her. She’d make it through another set of lonely holidays and start off the year with something amazing.
This party might come with annoying but necessary small talk, but it would be worth it. No more dreaming about the unreachable. That movie was within reach, a realistic project.
Half an hour later, Sabrina stepped out of the limousine and made her way past the crowd to the hotel entrance. A quick sideways look assured her that many of the fans, and some of the paparazzi were here for her. She waved to a group of women excited to see her. For them, she would have loved to realize her project, but it wasn’t meant to be. She had to secure her role in The Stranger Next Door first, build a better foundation for herself before rocking the boat again.
It would all happen in time.
Inside, she found the rooms where the studio held the party, admiring the tall Christmas trees on the way. Sabrina made some small talk, accepted a glass of champagne from a waiter, and finally arrived on the other side of the room where the casting director stood by the scrumptious buffet. Good. That meant she could approach him without being too obvious.
Marc was still in a conversation with a director, so she studied her options. If she didn’t get anything to eat, someone might write about how she had a problem. If she loaded her plate like most of the men did in here, someone might write about how she had a problem.
“Sabrina, hi. I’m so glad you’re here.” She turned around to smile at her agent Marc Pearson. “Despite all,” he added. “Let’s drown our sorrow together?”
“Wait, why?” What had she missed?
His sympathetic gaze worried her.
“Tell me more?”
“You mean they didn’t call you yet? Oh sweetie, I’m really sorry. I thought you were fabulous, but…Don’t tell anyone I told you already.”
“Told me what?” she asked with a frown. “I thought that was a done deal.”
“It pretty much was until you miscalculated your political capital, I guess.”
“It was a holiday romance! There was nothing political about it.”
He shrugged. “I guess some people saw it differently.”
“Well, it was suggested to me that it would be better to go with someone less…controversial.”
Sabrina set down the glass right before it was about to slip from her fingers. This couldn’t be.
“I don’t understand. Less controversial? Who would that be?”
“Emily Davis.” His quick answer told her that the decision had been made, and there was nothing Sabrina, or anyone, could do about it. She would have liked to say many things, and held back all of them, because she knew there’d be no point.
When she first started talking about Love for Christmas, a lot of people had encouraged her, said that it was overdue. Everyone was getting more inclusive these days. When the time came to step up, and pay up, many of the same people were reluctant to return her calls.
Maybe next time…
People aren’t ready unless you have big names and big funding…
But deep down, Sabrina knew that her passion project wasn’t the only thing to cost her this opportunity. She had no negative feelings for Emily who had made it part of her brand to stay away from all politics. Like Sabrina, she had to watch her every step in the public, around people, around food. Emily Davis was almost a decade younger than her.
“Okay. Wow. I see. Can’t have a forty-two-year-old woman be the love interest of a forty-eight-year-old guy.”
He looked embarrassed. “Again, I’m really sorry. I know many folks on the project who would have loved to work with you, but it seems the people in charge are a bit more conservative than we thought. There will always be those who want to turn back the clock.”
She had almost turned down that movie. Now, it was out of her hands. Was the universe trying to tell her something?
“Come on, let’s have a drink.”
Sabrina shook her head. “No, thank you. I can’t stay.”
“I hope that wasn’t because…You’re going to get something else in no time. I promise you.”
“Sure. Don’t worry.”
She turned around and got to get her coat from the wardrobe, then left the hotel through a side entrance. No crying. She wasn’t going to ruin her make-up.
Sabrina walked down a decorated street, passing by a Santa, who, at a closer look, was raising money for an LGBTQ organization. A few steps past, she stopped and took out her wallet only to realize she didn’t have any cash on her.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, self-conscious, and kept walking. Perhaps she could come back another day, and make up for yet another mistake?
On the corner, a diner tried to attract customers with a twenty-four-hour breakfast. For the lack of anything better to do, Sabrina went inside and was about to order a coffee when she saw hot chocolate on the menu written on a blackboard behind the counter. Nothing could ever be as good as the memory of her childhood days, but she was feeling wistful and a little sorry for herself. She didn’t want to drink either.
The waitress seemed rather unimpressed when she took her order, or perhaps she hadn’t recognized Sabrina. Neither interpretation was improving Sabrina’s mood.
“One hot chocolate, coming right up. Is there anything else I can get you?”
“No thanks.”
She found a place by the window and leaned back into the booth, wondering what to do next. Tonight, and the rest of her life. She had come to the City of Angels full of hope, and the first few years seemed to tell her she was on her way. Then—what happened? She had gotten ahead of herself, in denial of how powerful the forces she was up against, were? In her peer group, people had expected her to stay polite and patient. She had made a name for herself, but not big enough to be able to make waves without consequences.
Sabrina would have loved to go home, but she wasn’t sure where that was.
The waitress brought her hot chocolate, and, to her surprise, a brownie on a small Christmas plate.
“I’m sorry, I know you said…just in case you need something sweet.”
“Thank you,” she said, feeling a smile chasing away the frown on her face. “I thought your hot chocolate was already sweet.”
“I swear I won’t tell anyone.”
“It’s fine. Thank you. But I think I’ll take this to go.”
“I’ll get it ready for you. And I wanted to say, it’s too bad we won’t get to see your holiday movie. Thank you for trying. It means a lot to many of us.”
She had held it together pretty well so far, but this small act of kindness threatened her composure. Sabrina quickly took a sip, and it was almost a shock to be transported right back into her dream.
She would have to remember this place—it was as close to the real thing as she’d ever get, minus the complete comfort and safety the holidays had represented for her then.
Chapter Two
Santa had left when she walked back the same street later, and Sabrina had no choice but to take the brownie with her. It would make a tasty breakfast, at least. For what it was worth, she wouldn’t wake up with a hangover—or any more illusions.
She needed a plan.
Something.
Back in her condo, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something urgent she needed to do. But where could she go from here? Tomorrow, or any day after that, the world would learn that the role had gone to Emily. She would have to answer even more questions, to her fans, the people she hoped would cast her, to herself.
What if she could avoid all of them for a while?
She logged into her bank account and stared at the numbers for a while. They didn’t change. Numbers didn’t lie, though they didn’t tell the whole story either. Sabrina hadn’t spent that money on a whim. All her life she had been careful, until that chance came along…and vanished.
“Okay. What if I did something wild?”
There was no one to answer her. Sabrina felt silly, but strangely excited to say it out loud. She went to the website of Boxwood once again, checking for hotels. She assumed that around this time of year, every room in the picturesque village would be sold out, but she could always try one of the bigger towns close by.
Not finding anything that appealed to her, she checked for flights next.
There was one that left for Holbrooke, the closest bigger city, tomorrow. From there, it was another two-hour car ride.
Her fingers trembled as she hovered over the button.
This was crazy. She didn’t have the time to indulge in a leisurely vacation or a trip down childhood memory lane.
But Sabrina wanted it so much. With her dreams and investments going up in flames, she needed a safe place, somewhere she could have at least one more lovely Christmas. It wasn’t too much to ask for, was it? Speaking of safe places…An idea came to her.
Perhaps she could do something even crazier. Miracles could happen around this time of year.
* * * *
She didn’t dream of the train that night. Sabrina barely slept at all after finishing her travel preparations and packing a couple of suitcases. She might still be deep in denial about her situation, but at least she was doing something. If this panned out…Sabrina didn’t finish the thought for fear of jinxing the idea. People in her profession were superstitious for a reason.
Around four a.m., she got up to take a quick shower, get dressed and make herself a coffee she had with the delicious brownie. No regrets.
She’d have the rest of her life for them, should she find out she had made another major mistake.
The cab she had ordered online arrived on time. The driver didn’t seem in the spirit at all, no decoration, no Christmas music. Sabrina didn’t mind. She couldn’t have been more excited.
She was really doing this, running away from the news that would break sometime soon, running back home. True, it wasn’t her home anymore, not at this moment, but maybe there was a way she could still turn things around.
She had booked the earliest flight she could get, hoping she wouldn’t run into too many people that recognized her.
“Hey, Sabrina!”
So much for that. She considered ignoring the man scrambling after her, but she really wanted another coffee before the flight. Perhaps he’d go away if she talked to him for a moment? Suppressing a yawn, she turned around.
