Gusts of icy wind outside nearly muffled the sound of the doorbell ringing inside the echoing hallways of the historic Snowhallow Inn. The melodic chime was just loud enough for Jerry to hear from the dining room.
“I’m coming!” Jerry shouted as he scurried to the door. The brass knob was cold in his hands as he muscled the door open against the weather, revealing a striking young woman shivering on the other side. “Please, come in.”
The raven haired woman thanked him and shimmied inside the disheveled estate. She set a large bag and her purse on the floor and rubbed her gloves together to warm her hands. “I’m sorry to barge in like this, but the waitress at the diner down the street directed me here.”
Her teeth clattered, and she wrapped her arms around her in an attempt to stay warm. There was a noticeable draft of freezing air near the original windows surrounding the old oak door, but that was part of the charm in Jerry’s eyes.
“Well, that’s awfully kind of Miss Cheryl,” Jerry pushed up his glasses. “How can I help you?”
The woman’s dark eyes flickered like the night sky. “You see, I’m in a bit of trouble. My car broke down suddenly, and she said you were pretty handy with cars. Could you take a look?”
She pointed out the window at her vintage red Diablo freezing over in the parking lot of the Frost Diner across the street. Jerry whistled.
“Now ain’t that just the prettiest car I’ve ever seen!” He squinted his eyes as if it would help him see through the icy rain, and let out a sigh. “I could try to take a look after the storm passes, but to be honest, Miss, I’m not sure you want me fussin’ about with a fancy car like that.”
“Oh,” she lowered her head. “How long do you think it’ll take for this storm to clear? I have business to attend to a few towns over.”
“Pfft, that’s hard to say. Storms like this can last hours and even a couple days for the roads to thaw out.” Jerry could see the frustration and disappointment forming as a frown across her rosy lips. “I’ll tell you what. We have a room available. I’ll let you stay free of charge for the evening.”
“Oh, no I couldn’t!”
“I insist,” Jerry smiled. “I can’t leave a damsel in distress out in the cold, now can I? I mean I could, but what kind of man would that make me?”
“You’re too kind,” the woman’s cheeks flushed, and she reached out to shake Jerry’s hand. Her long nails poked through her wool gloves. “You can call me…Lily.”
“Well, Lily,” he gestured towards the staircase in the foyer. “Let’s go ahead and get you set up for the night.” Jerry whistled and a young maid appeared at the top of the stairs. “Annie, be a dear and show Miss Lily to the Snowflake Suite.”
“Yes, Sir,” Annie pranced down the stairs and took Lily’s bags. “Right this way, Ma’am.”
“Snowflake Suite?” Lily raised an eyebrow.
“We really lean into the winter theme here,” Annie smiled back at Lily as she carried the bags upstairs.
“How original,” Lily quipped, somberly trailing behind the bubbly maid.
When Jerry was certain the girls were out of earshot, he dashed towards the phone hooked to the wall next to an old sepia photograph of the inn during its heyday many decades ago.
“Hey Cheryl, it’s Jerry,” his voice beamed with delight. “That woman you sent over? She’s perfect! Thank you… I mean I do feel a bit bad about doing that, but you understand why I had to… you’re always my best wingwoman! I owe you!”
Jerry excitedly hung up the phone, and began his stride towards the dining room. Before he could cross the threshold into the kitchen to check on the dinner Hewitt was preparing, there was a hard knock on the door.
Then another.
Six knocks in total.
Jerry’s blood ran cold. Slowly turning back towards the door, another six knocks pounded as the wind howled angrily. He gulped and turned the knob.
“He’s too early!” Jerry frantically mumbled under his breath. Inhaling sharply, he regained his composure and swallowed his nerves as he delicately swung the door open. “Hello, Sir.”
“How’re you doing, Jerry?” The distinguished gentleman smirked as he sauntered into the Inn and removed his leather coat. “How’s my Inn?”
“Come see for yourself,” Jerry’s voice cracked. He took the man’s coat and hung it on the rack in the corner.
“Don’t mind if I do.”
“I didn’t expect to be seeing you again so soon,” Jerry closed and locked the door.
“Well no one expects the Devil at their doorstep,” the man let out a haunted laugh.
Jerry gulped. “How funny, Sir.”
“So… how’s the entrepreneur’s life treating you, Gerald?” his eyes narrowed. “I certainly hope all of… this… was worth it.”
Jerry took a long glance around the foyer and the paintings lining up the staircase. The history of Snowhallow was encapsulated inside the renovated farmhouse. For as long as Jerry could remember, he wanted to own this place and restore it to its former glory, but it was never in the cards until fate smirked at him six months ago – when he met The Benefactor. All it cost him was his soul and a few unsavory deeds that turned his stomach.
“It has been,” Jerry smiled nervously. “But actually, Sir, I did want to talk to you about our arrangement.”
“Don’t tell me you’re ready to renege,” the gentleman raised an eyebrow. “We are just starting to have fun together.”
Jerry could hear Lily upstairs shuffling around and Annie’s signature giggle. The man lifted his head and looked towards the ceiling.
“Ah, we have guests?” He grinned, exposing his exquisitely sharp and glistening canine teeth. There was a demonic flint in his eyes. “And here I thought it was supposed to just be a guy’s weekend.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Sir.” Jerry put his hand on the man’s back and ushered him towards the dining room. “I have a young woman upstairs that’s stranded from this storm. She’s absolutely beautiful, and I was thinking that maybe the two of you would…”
“Would what?” The man cut him off as he stopped mid stride into the dining room. His eyes sharpened onto Jerry who squirmed under his gaze.
“Well, I simply thought that you two might hit it off.”
The Benefactor stood there with a stoic expression, making Jerry more uneasy, until he burst into a cackling laugh.
“I don’t hit it off with anyone, Gerald.”
“But… you could!” Jerry’s voice lifted. “All I’m asking is for you to have dinner with her.”
“And just what do you think that’ll accomplish?”
“A renegotiation.” Jerry straightened himself to appear taller than his guest. “If I can find you someone to love, then I want my freedom back.”
The man cackled deeply. “Okay, Freddie Mercury. What’s love supposed to do?”
“Aren’t you lonely? Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to love and accept you for who you are?”
“I am who I am, Gerald,” the Benefactor rolled his eyes. “You’re a fool if you think love will change that.”
Jerry sheepishly looked around the dining room, fixating his eyes on the table as he mentally made notes of the place settings. “It…might.”
“Pardon my French, but that shit only happens in cheesy made-for-tv movies, and we both know that’s not the story we are living in” the man scoffed.
“Look,” Jerry’s voice quivered as his heart pounded. “I know it’s a hard sell to find someone who could love the Devil, but if it means I can earn my soul back then I’m willing to try.”
The Benefactor sized Jerry’s faux bravado up with his piercing eyes while the innkeeper trembled like a leaf. It was a longshot, a proper gamble to make two people fall in love under normal circumstances. Even more so when one of those people is the King of Hell in need of a new Queen. A long hush swept across the foyer as the two men stared at each other, a game of chicken to see who would pull away first.
“I’ll tell you what. You’ve caught me in a good mood. So I’ll give you this one and only opportunity,” the Benefactor sauntered over to Jerry. “If, by the end of dinner, this woman agrees to go on a proper date with me, I’ll let you out of our deal.”
Jerry breathed a sigh of relief and eagerly reached out his hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal!” He rushed towards the kitchen. “I need to discuss the menu with Hewitt. Don’t worry, tonight is going to be amazing!”
Jerry could barely turn around before the Benefactor raised his finger to his lips and continued with his demands.
“There is just one little caveat,” the Benefactor trailed off and slowly grinned. “She needs to know who I really am.”
“No, absolutely not,” Jerry shook his head. “We already shook. For the sake of tonight, you’re… Nick, the landlord.”
Nick chuckled. “Landlord?”
“Honestly, it’s not much of a stretch, is it?”
“Fair enough,” Nick smirked.
“Let’s just see how tonight goes, alright? Maybe she’ll like you for who you are and not who you are. Ever think of that?”
“You might have more success in your plan if the girl knew I’m the Devil,” Nick scoffed. “Satan always scores more points than a landlord. Just saying.”
“I don’t care. We don’t need the bad publicity of having the Devil himself as a houseguest here,” Jerry scurried into the kitchen to collaborate on the evening’s menu.
A faint sound of pattering down stairs caused Nick to turn his attention back to the foyer where a giddy Annie appeared.
“Hi! You must be Mr. Nick!” Annie rubbed her hands on her apron then grasped his hand in both of hers. “It’s so nice to finally meet you! We’ve been so excited for your visit!”
“Oh, really now?” Nick cocked his head.
“Of course! Jerry talks about you all the time! I’ve heard so much about you.” Annie giggled. “I feel like I know you.”
“Most people do,” Nick chuckled. His eyes scanned hers, reading deeply into her soul and finding only the brilliant light of innocence and love for life. “Well I’ll tell you. You’re absolutely delightful, and everything Gerald said you were.”
Annie’s cheeks dimpled as she thanked him. She pulled away her copper tendrils from her face, revealing a blushed complexion underneath.
“Are you a natural redhead, my dear?” The maroon flints in Nick’s eyes glistened as he attempted to flirt. Annie nodded proudly. “You know what they say about redheads, don’t you?”
“Like I haven’t heard that one before,” Annie playfully rolled her eyes and grinned widely. “Ask anyone here and they’ll tell you I’ve got plenty of soul to go around!”
“How fortunate for me,” Nick purred. “Will you be joining us for dinner?”
Annie looked out the window, watching the snow and ice pile higher onto the streets. The thick clouds had made the evening grow prematurely dark, and even Lily’s car was barely visible under a thick coating of snow.
“It wouldn’t be safe for me to go home in a storm like this, so I suppose I am.” She started towards the kitchen. “I have a few things I must attend to, but I’ll see you at dinner!”
For the first time in what felt like millennia, Nick thought maybe this could be something. Annie was absolutely charming, and the thought of entertaining her at dinner put Nick’s thoughts about his messy divorce to the side. Perhaps Jerry was onto something. Maybe it was time to get back out there and give love a chance.
No sooner than the thought left his mind did Jerry reappear with candlesticks and wine glasses.
“Gerald!” Nick startled him, causing him to nearly drop his glasses. “What a woman! I just met her. What a charmer that one is!”
“Oh good!” Jerry breathed a sigh of relief, somewhat distracted from the conversation as he set the table. “Dinner will be ready shortly. I’ll go fetch our guests, but please go ahead and seat yourself and pour a glass of wine if you’d like.”
Jerry jolted up the stairs towards the Snowflake Suite to invite Lily to dinner. He raised his hand to knock on the door and could hear the muffled sounds of a distressed voice on the phone.
“Come in!” Lily yelled. He quietly slipped through the door as she aggressively sighed and hung up her cellphone.
“Is…everything okay, Miss?” Jerry approached her with concern. She rubbed her temples in frustration.
“Yeah, it’s just my children are a nightmare,” she shook her head in disgust. “I mean I give them simple instructions and they still can’t manage themselves without me for a single moment. How hard is it to do one simple collection job while I’m stuck here?”
“You… have kids?” Jerry sounded shocked. Looking at Lily, he surmised she couldn’t be old enough to have children, let alone children old enough to run errands for her.
“Hordes of them, it seems,” Lily fussed with her hair in the mirror. “A long fling after my first marriage that resulted in hellions I can’t even keep track of anymore. Just as useless as their father.”
“Yeah, kids can be real demons sometimes, what can you do?” Jerry joked.
“You have no idea,” Lily mumbled while applying red lipstick.
An awkward pause followed until Jerry remembered why he was there. “Anyway, I wanted to let you know that dinner will be ready in about 10 minutes. Nick said he really enjoyed talking with you, so I will set you a place next to him.”
Lily turned around, confusion furrowing her brow. “Who’s Nick?”
“What do you mean?” Jerry’s eyes filled with panic. “The gentleman you met in the dining room?”
“I’ve been upstairs this entire time.”
“Wait, if you didn’t talk to Nick then who…” Jerry hung his head as he pondered for a moment, his glasses slipping down his nose until the realization hit him. “Annie! Shit! Excuse me for a moment.”
Jerry slammed the door, and bolted down the stairs towards the dining room. Catching his breath in the doorway, he watched as Nick filled a glass of Merlot for Annie. “No!”
Lily followed slowly down the stairs, each step louder than the last until she was standing next to Jerry.
“Nick, I’d like to introduce you to Lily,” Jerry gestured to the striking and gracefully tall woman at his side. “Lily, allow me the pleasure of introducing you…”
“Ha! Nick? That’s what we’re calling him now?” Lily scoffed. Nick turned his warm gaze away from Annie and it grew cold and hateful as his eyes met Lily’s. “Lovely to see you again, honey.”
“Lily. What the Hell are you doing here?” Nick seethed through a fake smile.
“I could ask you the same thing,” she smacked her lips. “I thought we agreed, it was your weekend to watch the children.”
“You have children?” Annie crinkled her freckled nose.
“No, stepchildren from her fling with Sam before we got together… and any other angel she let into her bed,” Nick replied without missing a beat. “That somehow I’m still caring for despite our divorce.”
“Now, darling,” Lily cooed. “We don’t need to broadcast your cuckold fantasies to everyone here.”
“Wait, he’s your ex-husband?” Jerry exclaimed. “So… that makes you…”
“Uh huh,” Lily nodded. “Owner of half of his shit.”
“Watch your language, Lilith,” Nick commanded. “We have a lady present.”
Jerry froze in terror. This is not how this was supposed to go at all, he thought as beads of sweat formed on his brow. He started piecing together the clues. Dark eyes, driving a Diablo, referring to her children as hellions… Lilith, the Mother of Demons. Satan’s ex-wife. His eyes grew wide, magnified by his lenses. The phrase I fucked up rang in Jerry’s thoughts like the rolling credits of the Stock Exchange.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Jerry went into the kitchen to grab the feast prepared for this special evening. His hands shook as he clamored to collect the dishes from the counter.
“Here, let me help you with that, Sir,” Hewitt grabbed the silver platter of roast turkey. “You don’t look so good, boss.”
“I’m going to Hell,” Jerry shrieked.
“Now you’re just being overdramatic,” Hewitt reassured. “Dinner ain’t gonna be that bad.”
“No, I’m literally going to Hell.”
Hewitt looked confused, but proceeded into the dining room and placed the turkey on the table as Jerry followed behind with the side dishes. Lilith moved her seat to the end of the table while Annie sat next to Nick, still filled with naive confusion.
“So Lily is your ex-wife? And you both live so far south of here?” Annie tried to wrap her head around the news. “How is it you both ended up here? How wild is that?”
Nick looked up at Jerry shakily carving the turkey, sweat dripping onto the crispy skin. He politely smiled through gritted teeth.
Leaning in, he whispered “I need to speak to you outside.”
Jerry hesitated to set down the knife, but obliged and walked out of the room with Nick to talk privately.
“Gerald, is Lilith the woman you conspired with Cheryl to set me up with?”
Jerry’s eyes grew big. “How…did you know about Cheryl…?”
“Oh please, you act like you can hide your thoughts and actions from me? As if I don’t own you?” Nick rolled his eyes. “Hiring Cheryl to pour leftover bacon grease into the engine? That’s low, Gerald. Real low.”
“I…I wouldn’t even dream of…”
“Don’t try to lie to me,” Nick hissed. “You’ll only make eternity worse on yourself.”
“Okay, yes. We did conspire to get her here, but I had no idea!” Jerry couldn’t brush off the accusations and chose to fall on his metaphorical sword. “But hey, if you’re hitting it off with Annie then I am not above taking credit for that being my plan all along.”
“Cut the shit, Gerald,” Nick shouted. “You really are spineless. This entire setup reeks of a hastily thrown together Hallmark flick. Did you really think you could watch a ridiculous Christmas movie and pull it off? With me?”
“Actually, it was seven movies!” Jerry asserted himself. “And it’s not over yet. You’re all still stuck here until the storm clears. So we all might as well try to have a nice dinner together.”
Nick couldn’t suppress his laughter any longer at this ridiculous plan.
“Gerald, give it up, buddy. Your soul is mine,” Nick placed his hand on Jerry’s shoulder. “You tried to set me up with my ex-wife. Murphy really bitchslapped you with his law. Face it, kid. You’ve lost.”
“But…”
“Oh and Lilith’s going to be furious when she finds out that you’re the one who sabotaged her car,” Nick cackled sharply before his eyes fumed with anger and his voice seethed through gritted teeth. “Or should I say, my car.”
“We don’t have to tell her that, do we?” Jerry’s voice squeaked.
He patted Jerry on the back and encouraged him to go back into the dining room where they sat back down at the table under an uncomfortable silence as the candle lights flickered.
Annie cleared her throat.
“So… dinner sure is delicious,” she tried to defuse the tension while shooting glances at Nick and Lily who were staring daggers into each other. “I can’t wait for dessert. I’m sure Hewitt’s whipped up a real treat!”
Nick cut his eyes over to Jerry and smirked. “Well I suppose, it’s time I come clean since this charade has run its course.”
He set his napkin down in his lap and turned to Annie and grabbed her hand, forcing her to drop her fork.
“My dear, I must confess. My name is not Nick,” he looked slightly ashamed. “And I offer you my sincerest apologies.”
“Oh, I know,” Annie put her hand on top of his and shrugged. “You’re the Devil.”
“Now I know Gerald has probably said some heinous things about me but…”
“No, it’s not that. He literally told me that you’re Satan,” she said assuredly. “I don’t care. If I’m being honest, I’m just glad you’re not a landlord. They’re literally the worst.”
Jerry dropped his fork and his jaw. Nick shot a grin of satisfaction that seemed to say “I told you so” in Jerry’s direction.
“What? You don’t care?”
“You were nice to me, and that’s enough,” Annie smiled sweetly. “Besides, I don’t have a soul to steal anyway. Remember?” She winked flirtatiously.
There was a glimmer in Nick’s eyes. “When this storm passes over, would you like to go on a proper date with me?”
“I would love nothing more,” she giggled and kissed him on the cheek.
Unafraid to ruin the moment, Jerry delightfully exclaimed, “Does this mean I won? I get to keep my soul?”
Staring into Annie’s soft green eyes and listening to her warm giggle, Nick grinned. “I suppose you do.”
Jerry wildly clapped his hands and let out a squeal.
“Not so fast, Gerald,” Nick turned towards the joyous man adjusting his glasses. “Remember that pesky divorce?”
“Yeah?” Jerry stood still in suspense.
“She got half,” he pointed to Lily who waved at him deliciously. “You still have to renegotiate with her.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Afraid not, doll,” Lily winked.
Jerry slumped into his chair as Hewitt entered the dining room carrying a Devil’s Food Cake which Jerry had advised against because it lacked subtlety, but it was Hewitt’s best recipe.
The lightbulb in Jerry’s brain lit up with a new idea, and he rushed over to Hewitt, placing his arm around him and guiding him towards the beautiful but terrifying demon woman.
“Hewitt! Have I introduced you to my gorgeous friend Lily?”
Lily raised her hand for a cordial handshake, and Hewitt obliged.
“Charmed, I’m sure,” she said coolly.
“Lily’s single,” Jerry blurted out. “I think you’d hit it off famously.”
“Uh…sorry boss but,” Hewitt hesitated as his eyes darted around the room, “I’m gay.”
“You…” Jerry took a moment to process before realization struck him like a bolt of lightning. “Son of a bitch!”