mistletoe.

I'll be home for Christmas

SIX YEARS AGO

"Simone, you can't just leave and hide." Olivia sighed.

"There is nothing for me here. I am not hiding, you know where I will be. I am making the best decision for me." Simone continued packing.

"Why won't you tell him?"

"Please! What I look like crawling back. He is engaged, I don't need your brother to save me like I am some damsel." Simone sucked her teeth.

She didn't need him to save her. She didn't want him wanting to make amends. Simone was going to do this without him. She knew that Olivia was just trying to get her to do the right thing. She didn't hold it against her that she wanted her brother to know. It wasn't easy to fall out of love with the one person you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with. It also wasn't easy to hide something that was so life-changing.

Simone was making the right decision for herself. She was choosing herself. Nobody else had to support her decision and she didn't care. She wasn't a teenager that had abandonment issues anymore. She knew back in college that she could only depend on herself and that's what she planned to do. His little time cap didn't come true least not the marriage part to her anyway. When she wanted no drama in her life, she meant it. She was no longer standing in his way.

"Please don't do this."

"Olivia, I love you. I love you so much. That is not going to change - ever but I have to do this for me. I have to protect myself and I have to protect my baby girl. Protecting myself means keeping myself at arm's length from him. I get it, he is your twin brother but we grew up and we grew apart. We tried, and it didn't work out."

Simone never once questioned why she wasn't good enough for Jordan. She knew that she was the best thing he had at the time. She built up his confidence, and taught him how to love and care for another woman. She was his first love, but she wasn't his last. It was okay because she knew that she had something that Layla Keating didn't have - his DNA. She hadn't talked to Jordan in years which was a shocker considering she constantly kept up with Olivia. She was her maid of honor in Olivia's wedding and godmother to their little boy. She had avoided him all night that day.

Simone never expected them to creep back into their old ways. She never thought one college party during a visit home would result in sharing a single dorm with her one-year-old during her last year of college. She had graduated and moved on settling for Washington. Life was going to be good for her. They weren't two lovers in high school anymore. Feelings and people changed.

"I promise, you aren't losing me. She will know who you are."

***

Present Day

"Mommy!!!!"

Simone snapped out of her thoughts after seeing the news report on Jordan's divorce from Layla. She wasn't the least bit surprised but maybe it was for the best. She looked up seeing her baby girl still not in her pajamas. A head full of wild curls, truth be told - Liv could've spit her out herself and nobody would know the difference. Simone had only been back to Beverly once since leaving. She traded tennis professionally for a career in nursing. It was a change but she enjoyed being able to work the hours she wanted at a local hospital.

"Yes, my love."

"Can you read me a story?" Naomi rubbed her eyes.

"First of all, why aren't you in pajamas little girl? You are going to get sick." Simone pushed off her bed to her feet shutting off the television.