Previously…
– Sabrina and Jason’s friendship cooled after the accusations that he was late to the custody hearing because he’d slept with Alex. A blood test later proved that Alex had been drugged, and he and Jason deduced that someone had set them up so Jason would miss the hearing.
– Tori and Zane resumed their relationship after the loss of their unborn daughter, though she remained estranged from her parents.
– Diane went to Ohio to track down Therese DeLuca. Instead she met Therese’s sister, who informed her that Therese passed away last year but gave Diane a locket, suggesting that she ask her mother about it.

“There,” Sabrina Gage says as she hangs a final baby-blue ornament on the Christmas tree inside Thaw Coffee & Tea. She takes a step back to take a look at the tree in its entirety. Crisp white lights have been hung around the artificial tree, swooping up and down its circumference; paper ornaments in shades of white and blue hang all over it. Customers and staff are encouraged to take an ornament and then return with whatever item is printed on its back, thereby supplying a whole slew of gifts for the needy this holiday season.

“Looks great. And I bet those families will be really grateful,” a voice says from behind her. Sabrina turns with something of a start, given the evening hour, and sees Jason Fisher standing there. She eyes him up and down nervously. It has been weeks since they had any kind of serious interaction, and she is just as uneasy about it as she suspected she would be.

Still, seeing him up close and personal, it is difficult to override her feelings of affection toward him.

“Hi,” she says stiffly.

“Hi.” Jason glances around them. Another barista works behind the counter, cleaning up from a typical holiday shift of busy activity and hurried orders. A man and woman sit at a table by the window, chatting. Otherwise, the café is empty, and a jazzy version of “Jingle Bells” plays over the speaker system.

“Do you have some time to talk?” he asks. Sabrina notices that he shifts his weight from one foot to the other and back again, and he knots his fingers together roughly. He seems to be as nervous as she is.

“I actually have to–”

“Are you getting ready to take off?” the other barista calls over the counter. “I’ve got everything cleaned up.”

Sabrina’s jaw flaps open and closed without producing any more words. Caught, she looks back at Jason.

“I’d really like it if we could talk,” he says, his eyes pleading with her.

Again she hesitates.

“We have to clear the air between us, Sabrina. Please?”

—–

The electric fireplace gives a breathy hiss, and then a flame leaps up and begins to dance from the fake logs lying inside it.

“At the risk of sounding corny as hell,” Diane Bishop announces, “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”

“That isn’t corny. It’s nice,” her daughter responds as she unpacks takeout containers in the galley kitchen of Diane’s condominium.

“It’s an overused cliché, and you know it,” Diane says with a grin. “But I must say, I’m enjoying the fruits of that cliché right now.”

“And that’s what we call a mixed metaphor, Mom.”

“Believe me, I saw enough of those during my publishing days.” Nevertheless, Diane gazes around the condo in appreciation. Two full, vibrant poinsettias flank the stone facade of the fireplace. A neat green tree, trimmed with tasteful gold tinsel and a variety of ornaments in red and pink, emanates cozy light from one corner of the room.

“Thanks for picking up dinner,” Diane says as she crosses back toward the kitchen.

“You’re welcome. It was no trouble. I swung by Bill’s on the Pier after work, and Travis had our order ready to go.”

“Well, it’s nice to have a weeknight meal with my daughter. I miss this.”

Samantha smiles, her face full of genuine emotion. “I do, too.”

“I’m so glad we’re in a better place,” Diane says. “There’s almost no one else on Earth I’d say this to, but I’m beyond grateful that you chose to forgive me for everything that happened.”

“It’s worth it. I appreciate how remorseful you’ve been.”

Diane feels the slightest sting of guilt, knowing that she arranged for Samantha and Jaq Pearson to start dating.

“How are things with you and Jaq?” she asks. “From the looks of things at Thanksgiving…”

“It’s going well.” Samantha is unable to suppress an even broader smile now. “Really well.”

Diane expels a breath of relief. No matter how it began, the rest of the relationship has been organic. What’s done is done.

“It makes me happy to see you happy,” Diane says. She slips past Samantha to take down two white plates from an upper cupboard.

Accordingly, Samantha goes to a drawer to get forks and knives.

“So how was your trip?” she asks. “It’s too bad you couldn’t come visit Grandpa’s grave with us.”

Again Diane hesitates. For this lie, however, she feels very little guilt. She knows that she had to tell it.

“It was fine. Uneventful. A lot of glad-handing with sponsors.” She busies herself with setting the dishes on the dining table. “I’m glad you were able to go with your grandmother, though.”

“I am, too. She let me take a box of his things — we should look through it later. I don’t even know what half of it is. I think Grandma wanted to start getting his stuff out of the house.”

“I’m sure,” Diane says, her attention piqued slightly in light of her recent interest in figuring out her family’s connection to Therese DeLuca. “What do you want to drink?”

“Do you have any La Croix?” Samantha asks.

Before Diane an answer, however, there is a forceful knock at the door — a knock with enough urgency to make it clear this isn’t some end-of-day Amazon Prime delivery being dropped off.

“If this is that neighbor who keeps locking herself out…” Diane mutters as she moves for the door.

Samantha goes to the refrigerator to retrieve drinks for them, but she stops, intrigued, when she hears Diane whip open the door and address the visitor.

“What are you doing here?” Diane asks sharply. “And for that matter, how did you find me?”

—–

The cold winter air stings Jason’s fingers and ears as he and Sabrina walk down the evergreen-lined road behind Edge of Winter Arena. Street lights illuminate the path and throw a shiny glow over the wet asphalt.

“So the difference of a few hours meant that the drug showed up on Alex’s test, but not on mine,” Jason explains. “And I can’t ever prove that I was drugged, too, but…”

“Jason, I’m so sorry,” Sabrina says. “No one deserves to have something like that happen to them.”

He glances over at her, grateful that she has been receptive to his explanation of what happened the night of the Wild Lady’s grand opening and the following morning.

“Thanks,” he says, letting out a sigh that manifests as puffs of white air curling out of his mouth. And because of– whoever did this, I basically have no chance of ever getting back custody of Peter.”

“That just breaks my heart. I know how much you love that little boy.”

“I do. And I’m not sure how to pick up the pieces and move on.” Soggy leaves crunch lightly underfoot as they walk a few more steps in silence. “But having my friend back would be a great start.”

He hears Sabrina exhale loudly, and then she stops walking and turns toward him.

“I’m really sorry that I’ve been distant,” she says.

“I understand.”

“That doesn’t make it okay. Jason, when I heard what came out in court — my mind was spinning–”

“I’m sure. I didn’t even understand what was going on.” 

“But it was wrong of me,” she says, her words tumbling out rapidly. “I shouldn’t have assumed the worst. You’re a man of very strong character — I’ve come to know that since we’ve become friends. Believing lies and rumors the way I did… it isn’t fair.”

“Thanks for saying that,” he says. “But I can’t blame you. The way things came out… it was all pretty damning.”

“Still, I shouldn’t stand in judgment. It’s just, well… when I heard that you and Alex might have…”

“We definitely didn’t. I feel horrible for accusing Alex of taking advantage of me, too. I was angry and I lashed out. Talk about unfair.”

“But he’s forgiven you, right?”

Jason nods. “Luckily.”

Sabrina gazes down at her feet. “I hope that means you can forgive me, too.” 

“Forgive you? Sabrina — I’m the one who came to see you. I’ve only been keeping my distance because I could tell you were upset.”

“I was,” she says, finally raising her eyes, “and it was selfish of me. Because… the thing is… part of the reason I was so hurt was because…” She pauses, and the whooshing sounds of traffic out on the main road fill in the space. “Because I’ve started to think of you as more than a friend, Jason.”

—–

Diane stares back at Zane Tanaka as he stands at her front door.

“I looked in Tori’s contacts in her phone, and she had your address,” Zane explains. “I need to talk to you.”

She folds her arms and lifts one eyebrow. “About what?”

“Hi, Zane,” Samantha says as she steps out from the kitchen.

He reacts with surprise to the sight of her. “Hey, Samantha. I don’t want to interrupt. I just– it’s about something you said at Thanksgiving, Ms. Bishop.”

Diane nearly laughs at the formality of his address, but she can tell from his nervous demeanor that this is serious.

“Sam, would you give us a minute?” she asks before disappearing into the master bedroom.

After Zane steps inside, Diane closes the door and turns to the younger man. “What’s this about?”

“You know how you told Tori you’d be happy to help her get a job at the radio station?”

“Yes, my memory is still intact.”

“Well, I was looking at the KBAY website, and there’s an opening for an IT specialist,” he says, fiddling with the zipper on his North Face jacket. “I know that your offer was to help Tori, but…”

A little laugh scratches its way out of Diane’s throat. “You want me to give you a job? After what you did to Sarah and Tori? You have to be even crazier than I thought you were.”

—–

In the bedroom, Samantha lingers by the door for a moment, curious about why Zane could possibly have come to see her mother. Not wanting to intrude upon their privacy, however, she closes the door.

She goes to the bed, where she had placed the box that she brought from her grandparents’ home in Sun Valley. It is a fabric-covered box with a removable lid like a shoebox. She opens it and sifts through some of her late grandfather’s items; since she has a few minutes to kill, she might as well pull out a few things that her mother might want to have, even if she and Henry were never particularly close.

She selects a few photographs, as well as a nameplate from Henry’s desk at Modern Ways Manufacturing, the company that his own father founded. Samantha studies each of the photos again, marveling at the sight of her mother and Aunt Natalie at her age and younger. After sifting through the box for another minute, she picks up the chosen items and moves to place them on Diane’s nightstand.

That’s when she sees it.

At first she does a double-take, confused. She hurries back over to the box to be sure that she isn’t imagining things.

“What in the world?” she says aloud as she picks up the heart-shaped locket.

—–

The headlights of a pickup truck coming down the street bathe Jason and Sabrina in their glow. The rush of noise and light gives Jason a brief moment to contemplate his response. Everything he can think of seems either presumptuous or condescending, though.

“Really?” he finally says.

Sabrina winces. “Yeah. That night we went to the Wild Lady — I guess I thought it might be, well, a…”

“A date.”

She looks pained as she nods. “But then, when you dropped me off, it seemed awkward, and I felt like such a dummy for thinking you might–” She cuts herself off and fumbles for her next words. “I guessed I had misread the situation, and the next morning, when it sounded like you’d run off and had some kind of thing with Alex — I know you didn’t, but I felt so foolish…”

“Just to reiterate,” Jason says, “absolutely nothing happened between Alex and me. He’s my best friend, and he’s married, and he’s also a man. If that was going to happen, it would’ve happened a long time ago, when we were both single.”

“It isn’t my business,” she says, waving a hand. “You don’t have to explain anything to me. It was very judgmental of me to get upset about that. It just felt like kind of a… a punch in the gut. I felt so dumb for having misread things that badly. And now I’ve gone and made it even more awkward.”

“No, you haven’t.”

“It’s okay, Jason. If we could just get back to normal and pretend all this never happened–”

“I don’t want to get back to normal,” he says, adding a little force to his voice.

Even in the darkness, he can see Sabrina go pale. “You don’t?”

“No. That night when I dropped you off, I felt the awkwardness, too,” he tells her. “Because I stopped and second-guessed myself, and then it got weird and I let you get out of the car, and I thought I’d totally blown it.”

Her eyes grow wider. “You mean…?”

“I was thinking that night felt like a date, too,” Jason says. “But when we pulled up outside your place, I wasn’t sure if I was misreading things, and I chickened out.” 

“You didn’t misread anything,” she says incredulously.

At last, Jason relaxes and smiles. “Then why don’t we agree not to go back to normal? Because I’d love to take you on a real date. One that we actually agree is a date.” 

“I’d really like that.”

“Good.” They share another speechless moment, but this one is bubbling with excitement and promise.

—–

“I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” Zane says to Diane.

“To put it lightly,” she responds.

“But I can’t change the past. All I can do is be better going forward.”

The sentiment causes Diane to bite her tongue and pause. Unfortunately, she can relate to what Zane is saying all too well.

“There’s a big difference between saying you want to change and actually changing,” she says.

“I know. But I’ve been there for Tori every step of the way since we lost our baby. I’ve been picking up all the freelance jobs I can, but a full-time gig would really help–”

“Didn’t you quit your last one because you were banking on the hundred grand you tried to blackmail out of my best friend?”

“That was really stupid of me,” he says. “Listen. You care about Tori, don’t you? She’s Sarah’s daughter and Sam’s cousin.”

“Of course I do,” Diane says. “Which is why I’d like her to do a hell of a lot better than some blackmailing lowlife.”

“Like I said, I’m trying. I want to provide for Tori. I want her to be able to find out what she really wants to do, not just take some dead-end job to pay bills. That’s why I’m asking you — and I know you don’t owe me anything — for some help.” 

Diane glowers at him. On one hand, she wants to tell him to get lost; she doesn’t owe him a damn thing. On the other, she doesn’t want to make Tori’s situation any more desperate, especially after the awful last year the poor girl has had.

Finally, she crosses to the counter, retrieves one of her business cards from her purse, and hands it to him.

“E-mail me your résumé and the job listing,” she says. “I’ll walk it into H.R. myself. I can’t make them hire you, but I can probably get you an interview.”

“That would be amazing,” Zane says, clapping his hands together. “Thank you so much. If there’s ever anything I can do for you–”

“Frankly, my blackmailing days are probably over — but if they aren’t, I wouldn’t trust you to do my dirty work. How about you just keep your word and treat Tori as well as she deserves to be treated?”

He nods eagerly. “Yeah. I plan to do that. I promise. Thank you.”

Diane opens the front door. “E-mail me as soon as you can.”

“I will, as soon as I get home. Merry Christmas,” Zane says before slipping out of the condo.

“Merry Christmas,” Diane says as she closes and locks the door. Then she calls out to Samantha, “He’s gone!”

Seconds later, Samantha emerges from the bedroom.

“You’ll never believe the audacity of that guy,” Diane says. But as she turns around, she can tell from Samantha’s expression that Zane’s visit is of little interest to her.

“Mom, why do you have this?”

Diane watches as Samantha holds up the worn silver locket.

“That’s nothing,” she says, not sure that she is ready to confess to her daughter yet about her mission to figure out Therese DeLuca’s connection to their family. “What does it matter?”

“Because,” Samantha says as she opens her other hand, revealing an identical locket. “I’ve never seen it before, but it’s exactly the same as this one that Grandma found in Grandpa’s drawer.”

END OF EPISODE 999

Why did Henry and Therese have matching lockets?
Will Diane regret helping Zane find a job?
Are Jason and Sabrina ready to begin a romance?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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