Worst Christmas Love Story Ever! #JustWriteIt #AHolidaySpectacular

Chapter 1: Off To A Bad Start

It was a well-known fact to her friends and employees that Cara Marx hated Christmas. She didn't celebrate it and usually hid in her luxurious penthouse until the holidays were over and it was safe to leave her luxurious Manhattan penthouse without catching the Christmas spirit. On a side note, nobody she knew could remember having ever received a Christmas gift from her.

Unfortunately, Jayden Jones, her boyfriend of six months, hadn't gotten the memo. Since he happened to be one of those rich heirs who liked to throw their money around (His father was a famous fashion designer), he had booked a suite for them in one of the most exclusive boutique hotels in Switzerland. He didn't seem to have gotten the memo that she couldn't ski either, which was why he hoped to spend a romantic vacation there filled with sports, delicious food and a lot of cosy moments.

When he visited her in her office on December 23 and casually informed her that she should pack because they were going on a surprise trip and leaving that very night with his father's private jet, she thought they were going to the Caribbean. Thinking that they were off to St. Barths, Antigua or a similar island with a sunny reputation, Cara packed a light suitcase that mostly contained bikinis and sexy lingerie. She didn't like Jayden making decisions for her, but at least she wouldn't have to spend the holidays all by herself and she could work on her tan.

Thus, she was seriously considering to give her fling with Jayden, who was twenty years her junior, a real chance when she discovered shortly after takeoff that the plane was going into the wrong direction.

"Where are we going?" she asked him and stopped making out with him at once.

"C'mon, Cara, don't be such a control freak and let me surprise you!" Jayden sighed. Making out with her was his favourite pastime as she was the most attractive and sophisticated woman he had ever been with. Unfortunately, if he wanted things to go smoothly, they had to go her way all the time.

"Darling, you should have noticed by now that I hate surprises."

"And I want you to relax and take things easy for a few days," he countered, although he realised now that taking her on a surprise trip might not have been the smartest idea he had ever had.

"'Relax' is a word that is not even in my vocabulary!" Cara exclaimed as she began to wonder whether it was possible to just tell the pilot to turn the plane around. Jayden would probably never forgive her if she did it, and there was something about him, perhaps that look of a lost, cute puppy on his face, that held her back. "Look, Jayden, unlike all the other girls you know, I actually run a business. I own a successful magazine. So I can't just do nothing and post nothing for a few days... Don't tell me there is no internet connection at our destination!"

"Sorry, I didn't ask them about that," Jayden said ruefully. "But the view of the Swiss Alps is really spectacular according to their website, and we will have a suite with our own outdoor hot tub and private concierge service..."

Switzerland? What was she supposed to do on some lonely, deserted mountain in the Alps? Did he expect her to dwiddle her thumbs in the cold and wait for the private plane to pick them up again? "Darling, that sounds lovely," she lied. "But..."

"No 'buts.' Not this time. Please," he pleaded with her. "I want to be alone with you and get a chance to know the real you."

Well, all she could say to that was that she wasn't really hiding who she was. But for some cheesy reason she remained silent. She touched his soft, light brown hair instead and began to stroke it the way she would have messed up a baby's hair. A nasty thought crossed her mind: Was it possible that she, the mighty Cara Marx, who had been the founder and editor of The Woman of Today since 1989, was developing a soft spot for him? Of all the men she had met, he was neither the most attractive nor the smartest, and she had had better lovers. There had been a time in her life when these things would have mattered to her. But these things did not seem to count when it came to him.

"Darling, I think it's incredibly sweet that you chose to spend the holidays with me and not with your family," she purred.

One of the great things about him was that he was always brutally honest, even in moments when he wasn't doing himself a favour. "Oh, that wasn't a difficult decision. My parents have rented a yacht and want to go on yet another cruise with the entire family. If you have ever been in the Carribean at this time of the year, you know that it doesn't exactly feel like you're celebrating Christmas."

"So that's why you want us to go to Switzerland," Cara said, trying to hide her disappointment. Of course, she would have preferred to go on the cruise with Jayden's family!

"Look, Babe," he began even though he knew that she hated being called a "babe," "I know you like my family, and they have really welcomed you into the family with open arms. I'm grateful for that because I was afraid they wouldn't when we began dating. But as long as my parents keep on bringing up the fact that I didn't go to college..."

"They do that because they are worried about you. I would be, too, if I was in their place," Cara interrupted him because they had had this discussion many times before and it just didn't make sense to her why someone who had so many opportunities in his life preferred to waste most of them. All Jayden seemed to care about were parties, expensive things and the number of his followers on his various social media channels.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you're not my mother," Jayden replied curtly.

Cara always had to have the last word in a conversation like this. "I guess so. I'd be a lot stricter with you if you were mine."

Jayden just shook his head when he heard this and remained silent as he asked himself once more what he had done to deserve it. After all, his parents were already on his case about his decision to quit school. What he actually needed was his girlfriend's support, which she refused to give him even though she would see a lot less of him if he went to college.

They didn't speak a single word with each other for the remainder of the flight because Jayden was upset about her attitude towards him and Cara was angry that they had not gone on the family cruise in the sunny Carribean.