Finding Home

by Erica Lee

  “Layla Harvey!” nana shouted over the music. “Get over her and greet our guests like a mature young woman.”

  The elf, apparently named Layla, slid across the floor and pulled us into a hug just like her nana had. “I’m Layla Harvey. It’s great to meet you guys.” She motioned to the other girl, who was now making her way over to us. “This is my girlfriend Adrienne Rosen.” Cha-ching.

  Adrienne reached out her hand and greeted us both with a firm handshake. “Sorry if my mind seems to be elsewhere. Our Santa Claus is currently stuck in traffic and I’m worried about whether or not he is going to make it. Of course, this one right here doesn’t stress about anything.” She looked over at her girlfriend and playfully shook her head.

  “I don’t have to stress,” Layla responded, while poking at Adrienne’s side. “We still have the other costume. You can just play Santa again if we need you to.”

  “Absolutely not,” Adrienne answered quickly.

  Layla pushed out her bottom lip in response. “But you make such a cute Santa.”

  With that, a wide grin spread across Adrienne’s face and she leaned over to kiss her girlfriend.

  “Oh to be young and in love,” nana Harvey joked, winking at Alexis and I as she said it. “Now, let’s get to work, shall we?”

  In less than ten minutes, families started to arrive and luckily Santa also arrived just a few minutes after them. For the next hour and a half, Alexis and I served food, while Santa and his two elves talked to each child about what they wanted for Christmas and then somehow presented each one with exactly what they had asked for. Once everyone had been served, nana told us we were free to eat as well.

  Just a few minutes after sitting down with our filled plates, a little girl came up beside us and gently pulled on Alexis’s shirt. “Excuse me miss,” she said shyly. “Could you do me a favor? I asked Santa for a bike and he actually got me one. But the thing is, I’ve never even seen a bike in person. Could you show me how to work it?”

  “Of course I can,” Alexis answered sweetly, as she took the girl’s hand and let her pull her across the room.

  I couldn’t help but stare as I watched Alexis kneel next to her and point to the different parts of the tiny tricycle, clearly describing how everything worked. The girl smiled widely as Alexis lifted her up and sat her on the seat, then continued to grow as Alexis carefully pushed her across the room. I felt my smile, along with the butterflies in my stomach, growing as well.

  “So, how long have you two been together?” A voice said, interrupting my gawking. I turned to see Layla sitting beside me.

  “Oh. We aren’t. I mean we were and then we weren’t. Now we are, but we aren’t.”

  Layla threw back her head in laughter, clearly enjoying the sight of me stumbling over my words. “It sounds like there’s a story here and I want to hear it.”

  I gave Layla a cliff note version of our story, that included how Alexis and I got together, what led to our break up, and then the unfortunate (or perhaps fortunate) ex fiancé debacle that led to us reuniting.

  When I was done with my story, she let out a low whistle. “You remind me a lot of myself. Except instead of running away to New York City, I ran away to Los Angeles. I was just like you though. I couldn’t wait to get out of this town. Los Angeles was like a dream come true to me.”

  “So what changed?” I asked, pretty sure I already knew the answer.

  “I met that much too serious elf over there,” she said, nodding toward Adrienne. “She drove me up a wall from the moment I met her, but let me tell you, I love that girl more than anything in this world. She may be a ball of anxiety about 85% of the time, but she’s my ball of anxiety.”

  “So what about LA? Do you ever miss it?” I asked, mostly for selfish reasons.

  She smiled and shook her head, still making googly eyes over at her girlfriend. “Not at all. I mean, don’t get me wrong, LA is great and there is definitely a lot more going on there than there is around here. Plus, there is still some pain associated with this town that I will never be able to let go of. But as crazy as it sounds, none of that really matters to me now. I don’t know. I can’t quite explain it. All I know is that when you find someone and they feel like home, you stay with them. Because in the end, it’s not the place that matters. It’s the people.”

  Before I could respond, she stood and patted me on the shoulder, then bent down to whisper in my ear. “Speaking of my home. There is something I need to do right now. Wish me luck.”

  I watched as she made her way to the front of the room, then cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “I just wanted to thank everyone for coming tonight. We hope you all had a good time. A special thanks to all of our volunteers, Santa Claus, and of course, nana Harvey.” She then reached her hand out toward Adrienne. “And of course 1,000 thank yous to my partner in crime - Evie the elf. Your impeccable organization is what keeps this running. I also had something I wanted to ask you.”

  Adrienne’s eyes grew wide as Layla grabbed her hands. “You make me the happiest elf in all the land. Two years ago, I had no plans of settling down and then with one kiss under the mistletoe, you changed everything. Now I want nothing more than to grow old with you.”

  I watched tears flow freely from Adrienne’s eyes as Layla went down on one knee. “So, what do you say?” Layla asked. “Will you make all my elfin dreams come true? Will you marry me?”

  Cheers erupted from the crowd as Adrienne said yes and Layla slipped the ring on her finger, but the two of them were too caught up in each other to even notice anyone else in the room. They were home.

  With that thought, I felt a hand slip into my own and looked at the girl standing next to me. I had been lucky enough to find my home back in sixth grade and, even though we had lost it along the way, she was still home to me. I decided in that moment that I didn’t ever want to leave home again. I didn’t want to go anywhere without Alexis ever again. I just had to find the right time to tell her that.

  “Are you ready to head out?” Alexis whispered in my ear and I could tell by the look in her eyes that she wanted to be alone just as much as I did.

  We quickly grabbed our coats, then congratulated Adrienne and Layla, before heading over to say goodbye to nana.

  Nana was staring out the window when we reached her. “I don’t think you should be driving in this,” she warned, while pointing outside. I hadn’t even noticed that it had started to snow, but now there were already a few good inches laying on the roads.

  I was trying to decide how my tiny sports car would fare in this weather when nana spoke up again. “We have a little bed and breakfast down the street. We don’t get too many people who want to stay there these days, but I can’t bring myself to shut it down. It’s all yours if you want it. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen. I’ll even come by in the morning and cook you breakfast.”

  I looked to Alexis to see if she was ok with it and she nodded enthusiastically. I watched the snow accumulate outside and smiled to myself. I found myself wishing Santa was still there so I could thank him for the early Christmas present. A night alone with Alexis is all I could have wished for.

  Chapter 15: Alexis

  As Taylor and I walked hand in hand toward the bed and breakfast, I felt my nerves beginning to build up. I couldn’t remember the last time we had truly had a night alone together and I wasn’t naive enough to believe that we would simply go to sleep. I had been thinking about ripping Taylor’s clothes off since that first kiss when we were sledding. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea and I knew it would make me fall even deeper, but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to resist once we were truly alone.

  My mind drifted back to our first time having sex. It was the last weekend of the summer before our junior year started and Taylor’s dad was away reporting on a big news story in Philadelphia. It wasn’t either of our intentions to go all the way that night as we laid in her bed watching some romantic comedy that I can’t
even remember at this point. As it usually went when we were watching movies, the watching quickly turned into making out. Only this time, the making out led to some pretty heavy petting, which led to Taylor staring down at me with eyes wide, shyly asking for permission to remove my pants. She removed every piece of clothing slowly and I’ll never forget the way her eyes burned into my skin as she looked at me fully exposed for the first time. The sex wasn’t perfect. There was a lot of fumbling around and unsure touches, but, my God, was it beautiful. I swear I could still hear the way Taylor had screamed out my name. Seriously though. It was crazy how well I could still imagine it. It was like I was hearing it in this present moment, rather than in my daydreams.

  “Lexi? Hello? Earth to Lexi.” I snapped out of my daydream to see Taylor giving me a confused grin as we stood in front of the door to the bed and breakfast. “Where did you just go? I’ve been saying your name for like five minutes. I had to resort to screaming to actually get your attention.”

  “You seriously don’t want to know,” I said with a giggle, as I pushed her into the house.

  “I do actually,” she shot back, but she let it drop as she let out a low whistle while looking around the bed and breakfast. It was like a winter wonderland. There was a small christmas tree off to the side of the door and another larger one in the common area. Christmas lights ran down the staircase and fake snow was arranged at random spots on the floor. Every single doorway had mistletoe hanging above it and when Taylor noticed this, she pulled me to the nearest one and dipped me back as she connected her lips with mine. We stayed lost in the moment for a few minutes before coming up for air. Taylor stared at me lovingly and pushed a piece of hair behind my ear, letting her hand linger there.

  “Do you remember our first kiss?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Of course I do. I’m pretty sure I attacked you with my lips,” I laughed. I really had. It was after a football game our freshman year. Taylor and I had gone back to her house and as we laid in her bed talking, she asked me if I ever felt different than the other girls at school. I pushed her to elaborate and she admitted that she just couldn’t bring herself to like boys the way she thought she was supposed to. Something about the way she was looking at me told me that she actually liked me that way, so without giving myself a chance to overthink it, I quickly leaned in and kissed her.

  “It was a very welcomed attack,” Taylor admitted. “I’m pretty sure I had a crush on you from the very first moment I saw you in our Reading Comprehension class in sixth grade. I asked you for a pencil and when you handed it to me, our hands brushed and I felt sparks. I remember thinking ‘Oh I think I’d like to be this girl’s friend,’ but clearly it was so much more than that.”

  I looked into Taylor’s eyes as we reminisced and I couldn’t take it anymore. “Taylor, I need more,” I blurted out. The truth was I needed more of everything. I needed her love. I needed her future. I needed her to never leave me. Instead of asking for any of that, I decided to ask for the one thing I knew I could get from her. “I need...all of you tonight.”

  The desire in Taylor’s eyes burned right through me into my soul and, without saying another word, she lifted me up and started to carry me toward the stairs. Once we had made it up, she stumbled around trying to find any bedroom to take me into. Inside the bedroom, she gently laid me down onto the bed and took a moment to take me in, before crawling on top of me. Soon she was face to face with me, kissing me desperately. Her tongue slid across my lips begging for entrance into my mouth, which I happily welcomed. I let out a moan as our tongues met. We had made out a lot since she had come back, but this time was different. This time we both knew that the kissing was only the beginning. As we continued to kiss, Taylor’s hands began to run up and down my body. I put my hands into her hair to try to keep myself from moving too quickly. Taylor clearly didn’t have the same idea as she let her hands roam underneath my shirt. When her fingers finally pushed passed my bra, a gasp escaped from my lips and I instinctively lifted my body to get closer to her touch.

  Disappointment overcame me as much too soon I felt her hands move away. It didn’t last long though when I realized she had something else in mind. When her hands reached the waistline of my jeans, I noticed the same questioning look as our first time and I nodded in response to her silent question. She wasted no time unbuttoning my pants and sliding them down my legs, until they were on the floor. I followed suit and did the same to her. We each continued to remove layers of clothes from one another until we were both completely exposed.

  Taylor drew in a deep breath as she looked me up and down. “Lexi. You are perfect,” she uttered, before beginning to place kisses all over my body, starting with my neck and making her way down. When she reached her final destination, it was slow and tender. It had been a long time since I had been intimate with anyone, but I knew it wouldn’t have mattered if there had been multiple other people over the years - nothing would have compared to this. She gauged my reactions and focused on the spots that elicited the greatest response. Before long, I was tumbling over the edge and I braced my hands in her hair as the final tremors ran through my body.

  When her face was back at the same level as mine, I kissed her slowly, before pulling back to look into her eyes. “Tay..I…”

  Before I could finish, she nodded in response. “I know Lexi.” But what did she know? Did she know that I was madly in love with her and always had been?

  I couldn’t be sure, but since I had been interrupted from telling her, I decided to show her instead.

  Chapter 16: Taylor

  I awoke the next day in a mess of limbs and hair, surrounded by Alexis. Every single one of my senses was aware of her presence and I couldn’t help but think back on the night before. I had forgotten that sex could feel that way. It hadn’t been the same with Stacy. With Stacy, it was a release while with Alexis it was a declaration. It was the admittance of feelings in the most intimate way possible.

  Before I had time to think about what those feelings were on either end, there was a knock at the front door. I quickly jumped out of bed and threw on my underwear and bra, before grabbing a robe from the closet and wrapping it around me.

  I opened the door to find nana standing there with a wide grin on her face. She gestured to the shopping bags in her hands. “I’m here to cook you breakfast if that’s ok,” she beamed.

  I let her in and within a few minutes, Alexis had joined us, wearing an identical robe to my own. If nana was taken aback at all by the scene in front of her, she certainly didn’t show it. Instead, she hummed Christmas carols as she cooked eggs, bacon, and French toast. While the three of us ate, she told us the whole story of her granddaughter and soon to be granddaughter-in-law. Her words made the proposal from the night before even more magical.

  Once we were done, we offered to help clean up, but nana insisted we should head out since the snow had let up for now and was supposed to return later in the day.

  Most of our hour drive home was spent in silence, but it was a comfortable silence. It was the kind of comfortable silence you could only achieve with that special someone.

  “Do you have any plans for next Saturday?” I asked, as we pulled into town.

  “You’re not really going to make me wait a a whole week to see you again, are you?” Alexis mocked.

  “Of course not,” I reassured her. “I plan on being attached to at the hips all week. I just wanted to ask if I could make you dinner. Is chicken parm still your favorite?”

  The smile that spread on to Alexis’s face was enough to make me melt into a puddle on the coldest winter day. “You remembered,” she beamed, before adding, “I’d love to.”

  ————————-

  The next week with Alexis was one of the best weeks of my entire life and before I knew it, it was Saturday and I was working on preparing dinner. I needed this night to be perfect, because this was the night I was going to tell Alexis that I had decided to stay. As I worked on getting
everything ready, I decided to call Josh to break the news to him.

  “Let me guess,” he started, without even saying hello, “you’re not coming back, are you?”

  I let out the breath that I had been holding. “How did you know?”

  Josh laughed on the other end. “Oh come on girl, you’ve all but forgotten about your best friend. I’ve barely heard from you the past few weeks and any time I have, it has been about Alexis.”

  “So, what do you think?” I asked hesitantly.

  “What do I think? I think it’s crap that you have barely talked to me,” Josh joked.

  I rolled my eyes at the phone. “You know what I mean. What do you think about me staying here for Alexis?”

  “I think you should have done that seven years ago, but I’m glad you are finally making the right choice.”

  I was going to question Josh about why he had never said anything at the time, but was interrupted by the sound of someone ringing my doorbell.

  I looked toward the kitchen clock and shook my head. “That must be Alexis. She would show up an hour and a half early. That girl. I swear. I’ll talk to you later Josh.”

  I smiled as I hung up the phone and made my way to the door. My smile dropped as soon as the door was open and I saw who was standing on the other side.

  “Stacy? What are you doing here?” I questioned, as she pushed passed me to walk into the house. It didn’t go amiss how she immediately stuck her nose up while her judgmental eyes roamed around the modest country home.