Noelle The First

by Nicole Falls

  "I'm about to..."Noelle whimpered before shuddering atop me. Her orgasm triggered mine as I pulled her down onto me as far as she could go and I groaned through my release. Noelle collapsed on top of me; head snuggled in the crook of my neck as her breathing slowed. I knew that we needed to get up to take care of cleaning ourselves, but the heaviness of my eyelids left me powerless to do nothing more than tighten my arms around Noelle and follow her into dreamland.

  At some point during the night we both got up, showered, played a little more, and then settled into another deep sleep—spooning. I awakened in the morning before Noelle did. I looked over her shoulder to the clock and it was just after ten am. It had been quite some time since I had slept in this long, but it was definitely needed. I nibbled on Noelle's ear, pulling the lobe between my teeth.

  "Wake up, babe," I said softly, directly into the shell of her ear.

  "Good morning," Noelle murmured, turning in my arms so that we were face to face.

  She looked so damn cute, eyes low with sleep that I could resist capturing her mouth in a kiss.

  "Good morning," I replied, after I'd had my fill, "So...uhhh...it's after ten o'clock..."

  "Did we have early plans today?"

  "Nah, but I mean...normally, we'd've had breakfast by now..."

  "Shut up," Noelle laughed, before smacking me on the arm, "What time is it anyway?"

  "Ten oh seven, so by my estimation you're about two hours late to breakfast duty," I quipped.

  "Oh. Well I thought as much as you ate last night...and this morning, you'd be full. My bad," Noelle shot back, giggling.

  "So, does that mean you're not making breakfast or...?"

  "Ugh, you're so spoiled,” Noelle said, climbing out of bed.

  I followed her out of the bed and into the bathroom as we brushed our teeth side by side before getting dressed and heading downstairs. When we entered into the kitchen, we smelled food, but there was no one around. Just a huge paper bag on the table with a note attached. Noelle padded over and read the note, then shrunk into herself.

  "What's it say?" I ask.

  "Nothing important," she replied a little too quickly, "Just that Juju brought us breakfast from Maxfield's."

  I walked over to see what was in the bag and grabbed the note from Noelle's clutches to read it for myself.

  NoNo (or Brudda, whichever of you gets up first),

  Hopefully this is still hot by the time you get it because y'all clearly will need your sustenance replenished if the sounds coming from your side of the house last night were any indication. Somebody (or maybe both of y'all hell I don't know which one of y'all it was screaming like a lil bitch after that third round...) put in work last night. There's also some hot tea to soothe those vocal chords that definitely got a work out. Shit...I'm jealous. I'll make sure to stay out tonight so you can get as loud as you need to if that was your version of restraint. Love y'all.

  Xo,

  Ju

  I laughed, "You sister is wild, babe."

  "Oh my God I can't believe she heard us. I also can't believe I was that loud. I'm never that loud," Noelle said, more to herself than me.

  I poked out my chest and started singing, "Well you can tell everybody, I'm the man, /I'm the man, I'm the man...yes I am."

  Noelle rolled her eyes and started pulling the to-go containers out of the bag then spread them on the table. Juniper left no stone unturned with her breakfast spread and she was right about us needing our sustenance because we definitely blasted through all of that food.

  "So what's on the agenda for today?" Noelle asked.

  "You know what? Since it's Christmas Eve..."

  "My birthday eve," Noelle interrupted.

  "Your birthday eve," I amended, "I figured we'd do what we always did back in the day on Christmas Eve. Cozy pajamas, hot chocolate, board games, A Christmas Story marathon playing in the background. All of that. Ginger and Josh need to do some last-minute shopping, so the girls will be hanging out with us this afternoon. That cool?"

  Noelle grinned, "That's more than cool."

  “Tee No,” Payton called out, “Will you please tell your niece to stop eating candy off of the house because it’s compromising the structural integrity.”

  “Shoudn’ta decided to top the roof with gummy SweeTarts, you know they’re my favorite,” Jordan retorted, snatching another one off and popping it into her mouth.

  I shook my head at the baby’s impudence as Noelle walked back into the room with a tray of mugs of hot cocoa, biting back a smile as she chastised Jordan for eating most of the candy we’d bought to make gingerbread houses instead of actually helping her sister complete the project. Payton and Jordan fussed back and forth a little bit before Noelle threatened to call their parents and send them home in lieu of all of us gathering in the living room to watch a couple of Christmas movies. On the docket were the Charlie Brown Christmas movie and the first Home Alone. The girls had never seen either and both were favorites of Noelle’s. She’d made me drag out their old VHS player from the basement and hook it up to the television upstairs so that the girls could watch the films in their original medium.

  It was cute…the turnaround in such a relatively short amount of time. Hell, all of her sisters had pulled me aside at least once to thank me for bringing back their fun-loving sister. The old Noelle was back and everyone was grateful, but no one more than Noelle herself. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times she’s gushed or said thank you for these past few days. I’m just glad that it worked, honestly. A lot of this was a big risk—planning all these things, getting Noelle to buy in and trust me to help bring her spirits up. But she did…and we got her back on track. Sitting here watching her snuggled with her nieces, watching her favorite movies with an unending grin on her face? Priceless.

  “Tee, is Mr. Jay your boyfriend?” Payton asked out of nowhere.

  “Pooh, what do you know about boyfriends?” Noelle asked her, amusement lacing her tone.

  “Well I know he’s not your husband because we haven’t seen him all of our life and there hasn’t been a wedding and we don’t call him Uncle Jay, but me and Jordie definitely saw him kiss you on the cheek in the kitchen. And that’s what boyfriends and girlfriends do. All that kissy face stuff.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Ooh and he paid for our stuff at Target. Boyfriends always pay for stuff,” Jordan chimed in.

  “Not always, baby girl,” Noelle muttered.

  “You don’t have to confirm it, Tee. Jordan and I have amassed enough evidence to prove Mr. Jay’s your boyfriend without a doubt.”

  “All of your evidence presented so far is circumstantial. Jay and I have been friends for years. Friends kiss, friends pay for each other’s things from time to time,” Noelle countered.

  “Yeah, but friends don’t pinch your bottom like daddy sometimes does mommy when he thinks we aren’t looking,” Payton said, matter-of-factly.

  At that, Noelle turned to me, eyebrows so far up her forehead that damn near blended with her hairline. I couldn’t do anything, but put my head down and chuckle.

  “All right, you got me there, Pooh. Yes, Mr. Jay is my boyfriend,” Noelle confirmed.

  I looked up to see her face covered in a grin that matched the one that had spread across my face.

  I woke up as Jay was striding up the stairs with me in his arms once again.

  “You know you could have just woke me up to walk up the stairs, right?” I asked, snuggling into his hold a bit deeper.

  “You always look so peaceful and I don’t want disturb that. Besides, you weigh like twelve pounds, kid. It’s light weight,” he replied, plopping me down on my bed after we crossed the threshold of my room’s door.

  “When did Gigi and Josh come get the girls? The last thing I remembered was starting that Grinch movie with Jim Carrey.”

  “Oh they came to get them a couple hours ago.”

  “And you didn’t wake me up to say bye?”

&nb
sp; “Babe, they’ll all be back over at nine for breakfast with our families. I think you’ll survive…”

  “What time is it anyway?”

  Instead of answering me, Jay crawled over me on the bed, resting his weight on his forearms before lowering to cover my body completely and capturing my lips in a sweet kiss. We traded soft slow kisses before Jay pulled back, his gaze zeroed in on a spot just over my head. I craned my neck to see what had his attention and noticed my digital clock changing from eleven fifty-nine to midnight. Jay lowered his head to kiss me once…twice again.

  “Happy birthday, babe.”

  “Merry Christmas, love.”

  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks to my friends Christina, Sarah, Trina, Ashley, Ajua, Tahmeka, Shanté, & Jillian for everything you did consciously and unconsciously during this writing process. Shout out every member of Nic’s Nook, y’all the real MVPs.

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  Other Titles by Nicole Falls

  Adore You

  Smitten

  Then Came You

  Sparks Fly

  About the Author

  Nicole Falls is a contemporary Black romance writer. She’s also a ceramic mug and lapel pin enthusiast who cannot function without her wireless Beats constantly blaring music. When Nicole isn’t writing, she spends her time trolling her friends and family while drinking coffee and/or cocktails or checking off yet another of these great United States visited in her quest to see some land! She currently resides in the suburbs of Chicago.

  Keep up with my random, rambling thoughts (& my podcast!) at: www.nicolefalls.com

  Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/_nicolefalls