by Natasha Boyd
“Don’t you remember that you were the one calling yourself crazy when it came to him a few months ago?” she asked, not waiting for an answer. “Only that was an international phone call. Of course you two are crazy. You kissed before you met and you had a sexual contractual obligation to the guy after a day. You found what you weren’t expecting.” She sighed and her voice softened in a way I hadn’t heard before. “Love is crazy. Love is absolutely moronic, if you ask me, but…totally worth it, right?”
I was stunned for a moment by her candor. She was usually the one turning her nose up at the notion of love, telling me she was happy with her lineup of lays and dinner at home in her pajamas. I wished she would find the kind of love Evan and I had. It was crazy, but yes, it was worth it.
“Totally worth it,” I breathed my reply.
“See, I should have a fucking daytime talk show. I’m so good at this shit,” she said, sending us both into a little laughing fit.
“Are you mad?” I asked as my giggles subsided and I thought once more about the key.
“Why would I be mad?”
“Because…eventually it’ll mean we aren’t roommates. This house is just step one. I don’t know when we’ll move in, but…” My voice disintegrated on the air and I chewed on the inside of my cheek waiting for her to say something. My stomach turned. Change was not my forte. As exciting as the idea of the house and living with Evan was, I felt guilty knowing I’d leave Georgia behind. I’d been the one to take care of her for so long, and I wasn’t sure what it would be like for the two of us to be apart.
“Look, Danielle, as much as I’d love to be the Blanche to your Rose, I’ve always known someday we’d pack up good old apartment A. I didn’t exactly picture you leaving me for a friggin’ castle with a movie star,” she laughed, “but just because we won’t always have the same address doesn’t mean we won’t always be best friends.”
I sighed, relieved that my best friend was exactly who I’d always known she was. The sweetest girl, with a big heart that she hid from everyone but me.
“Plus, who knows, maybe I’ll get my own movie star someday and we can have side by side mansions,” she added flippantly. “Didn’t Jack Eversea get snapped up by some waitress? Maybe ordinary girls are about to start trending in Hollywood.”
I laughed. “You could never be considered ordinary, Georgia.”
I made myself a quick bowl of instant oatmeal, since of course Evan had made sure my favorite kind was in the pantry—or was it Harrison?—while Georgia started telling me about the drama that had unfolded at her family Christmas party the night before. Just as our conversation dwindled, along with my oatmeal, Evan walked into the kitchen.
“I’m gonna go, sweetie,” I said to Georgia.
“Okay, mama. Tell Evan I said hey and make sure you get the loud stuff out of your system so I can start sleeping on my weekends,” she teased.
I snickered and told her I loved her before hanging up.
Evan was wearing a smile—and some clothes, unfortunately—when he wrapped his arms around me where I sat at the island on a barstool.
“Did you already eat?” I asked, leaning back into his solid frame.
“Yeah, I’ve been up for a while.”
“You could’ve woken me up,” I said.
He turned his face into the side of my neck and breathed in deeply, as though he was inhaling my very essence. He exhaled with a sigh and whispered, “Yesterday was a lot for you, I could tell. You needed the sleep.”
I pressed my lips together and shut my eyes to enjoy the feeling of him easily wrapped around me. He still knew what was best for me. He knew what I needed and wanted and he made sure to either make it happen without me knowing or to do the thing I loved best and tell me to do it.
“The snow is supposed to get really bad tonight. I was thinking we could run out this afternoon and get any other food you might want to have in the house, maybe pick up a movie…and buy decorations.” The last bit he added quietly—hesitantly—as though he thought he was pushing his luck. I wanted to roll my eyes at him. He knew I was staying. He’d known the minute he saw my face when we pulled in the driveway that I would never tell him to sell the house or go fuck himself for buying it.
“You wanna get a tree?” I asked, craning my head to look up at him.
He moved to my side, still keeping his hands on me. Evan’s brow lifted and his lips bowed slightly. “Yeah. A tree, lights, ornaments, garland. The whole shebang.”
“Don’t forget mistletoe.” I grinned.
His lips crushed against mine the instant my words were out and I moaned at the passionate kiss he gifted me with. His hands took my face gently and when he pulled back, planting another quick peck on my parted mouth, he simply gazed down at me with a smile. “I don’t need mistletoe. I’ll kiss you whenever I want,” he said quietly. He bent in low and pressed his lips to the hollow of my throat then breathed, “Wherever I want.”
A tremble rippled through me and the same butterflies descended into the depths of my soul that had every time he’d ever laid a hand on me. Evan spun the barstool I was on around and carefully started to unbutton my sweater. His kiss trailed from my throat to my collarbone and then as my breathing picked up, I felt his words as warm breath against my breast.
“Let me fuck you in every room of this house.”
His hazel eyes peered up at me with a glint of mischief and sin that I adored. I really liked doing as I was told.
SHE STARTED TO giggle and it might’ve been the single sweetest noise I’d ever heard. Her breath was still heaving but as she pushed a hand through her hair and sat up, she sighed calmly. I put my hands on her waist and helped her down from the edge of the pool table. Maybe having sex on the pool table that had been left by the previous owners in the entertainment room wasn’t the best idea, but I’d always wanted to try it. It was hard for me to assess how I felt about the location seeing as how anytime my cock slid into Danielle, the world faded away and I was lost to her and her alone.
She was wearing only a smile, her clothes shed long ago in another room on another floor of the house. I tilted her chin up with my fingers and kissed her sweetly. We’d made our way around the house, laughing as we tangled playfully. There were a million things I’d come to love about Danielle, but my favorite—aside from the devilish things she could do to my body—was her sense of humor. Whenever I told her how funny she was, she rolled her eyes. She’d told me once that she was never fun until she met me, but I doubted it. Maybe now she was just relaxed enough with me to let herself feel the fun.
“We didn’t make it to every room,” she chuckled, “but there’s always tomorrow.”
“And the next day,” I added, raising a brow.
“And the next,” she shot back.
Her silly smile settled into a tender one as we stood gazing at each other—naked, unashamed, unfazed, and in love. “Every day until forever,” I whispered.
I saw her swallow hard and I knew she was still letting the idea of the key and the change of address roll around in her mind. She might be a fun girl, but deep down she was still logical Danielle. The same girl who ran away from me at the mention of sex over breakfast mimosas at Desire Resort. The same girl whose eyes went wide the first time I told her to take her clothes off. She was timid and worrisome, but I’d known that from the beginning. So, just like everything else, I’d give her a little time.
She liked to be pushed, though. She liked my direction and I believe she trusted me when it came to setting the pace of our relationship—whether she’d admit it or not. The veiled panic I saw in her eyes at my words wasn’t about the house. It was about the forever part. I didn’t know if she was worried about agreeing to it—questioning her own judgment—or if she just couldn’t believe I was asking for her forever so soon.
Fuck soon. Fuck the arbitrary timeline society had laid out for us and the way our relationship should progress. If I wanted to ask Danielle to marry me after six months, I
would. When you know, you know—don’t people say that? With her I know. She’s it. Anyone who looks at us and thinks the regular girl off the streets of Philly should be pressing me for a ring has it wrong. I was the one who needed to let Danielle know I couldn’t live without her. I needed the security of Danielle and her love.
I had another little box for her for Christmas that held something way bigger than this house, but the look in her eyes made me question whether or not I should save it for another day. Another time. Another location.
Danielle bit her lip and smiled through it. “Maybe we should get going and head to the store so we aren’t our driving when the snowstorm comes.”
I scooped her up in my arms the moment she looked at me for my approval on her suggestion. She squeaked and held on tightly to my neck. The warmth of her body against mine as I carried her upstairs felt like all I’d ever need.
“Let’s try out that fancy new custom shower your handyman boyfriend installed,” I suggested.
She laughed into my shoulder. “You just wanna fuck me in there, handsyman.”
I gaped at her dramatically, then grinned. “That’s completely beside the point.”
WE PULLED INTO the massive parking lot of the superstore and I caught her beaming in the passenger seat.
“You excited?” I asked.
“I really love Christmas,” she said. “When Georgia and I put the tree up at our apartment last week, I was sad you weren’t there. I’m glad we get to do all the Christmasy things together now.”
I reached over and squeezed her gloved hand. “Me too, Sassy.”
We trekked hand in hand across the snow-covered pavement to the automatic double doors and just as we found ourselves under the hideous fluorescent lights, Danielle peered over at me. “Have you ever even been in place like this?”
I rolled my eyes as I pulled a cart from the line. “Come on, Dani, you say that like I’m some Rockefeller. I’m not Preston Kelt, I just play him on TV. Mom and I spent plenty of days in the local superstore,” I retorted before gasping comically. “I’ve even been to thrift shops!”
She shoved my arm as we headed to the seasonal department. “You know I’m just teasing you. What were your traditions growing up? What did you and your mom do together at Christmas?”
I glanced over at her and smiled. Dammit, this girl knew how to shoot an arrow into my heart. Turning the cart down the long aisle full of boxes of every kind of lights, I took a deep breath and thought of my mother. “Mom was an amazing cook and an even better baker, so for me Christmas was always about the kitchen. She taught me how to roll out the dough perfectly for cut-out cookies and we would decorate them together. The best part was that we’d always start out really precise. We’d spend a long time on each cookie, perfecting the icing and the sprinkles, and then we’d make a game out of it. Like who can make the ugliest snowman. Or who can use the most sprinkles. She always knew how to make things fun, even though we didn’t have much. One year, all I got were cookies. She boxed up all the ones she’d decorated with me on Christmas Eve and put them under the tree.”
My face fell a little when I remembered it and I drew in another breath before I looked over at Danielle standing still beside me.
She rested her hand on my arm and gave me a sad little smile. “She was a good mom,” Danielle whispered.
The corner of my mouth lifted slowly at first and then I cracked a full smile as the rest of the memory flooded my senses. “Yeah. She had good intentions with that one. She couldn’t buy me gifts, so she let me eat every cookie in the house. It made me sick, of course. I wolfed down so many sugar cookies that I puked green icing beside my bed.”
Danielle laughed and her face contorted. “Oh, gross!”
I chuckled and nodded. “You’d think I’d hate that Christmas. No presents, sick off cookies…but I remember it really fondly. She stayed up with me until I felt better. She crawled in bed with me and read me books.”
Only since I’d met Danielle had I talked about my mother so much and so often. If she hadn’t stared me down on the beach that day and told me I’d have to disclose the truth about the tattoo on my chest, I might still be trying to open up to her about it. But instead, divulging that secret to Dani had open floodgates of memories—good and bad—that I shared freely. When she listened, she always wore a whisper of a smile and eyes so sweet and kind they’d make any man melt. For years, I’d held in every fragment of my mother. I didn’t want to share her with anyone. I didn’t want to talk about her in terms of being gone. Even with Kim, my ex-wife, I told her only as much as she needed to know. And she never asked for more.
I cleared my throat and grabbed two boxes off the shelf and held them up. “Multi-colored or white?” I asked.
A perfect, ingenuous beam settled on her mouth as she contemplated her decision. Her shoulders went up as she breathed deeply. “Multi-colored,” she said firmly. “The brighter the better.”
I nodded and winked at her. “The LEDs then. Our tree will glow, baby.”
I tossed three boxes of lights in the cart and headed to turn the corner to the next aisle with Danielle at my side. Her eyes settled on tree toppers on the end cap and I looked at her expectantly.
“Angel or star?” I asked.
Danielle faced me and shot a sultry grin that nearly had me adjusting myself in public. “Well, you know how I feel about stars,” she said, grabbing the box containing a big shiny gold star.
We continued down the rows and rows of ornaments, some singular, some in big collections. We laughed over the ugly ones and contemplated whether we wanted to give the tree some kind of theme or just grab whatever we liked and make the tree our own. Danielle had just finished explaining why we needed to buy this weird pickle ornament when I heard it.
“I swear to God, that’s him,” a voice whispered.
Danielle turned and smiled tightly as two teenaged girls approached. She took the cart from me and muttered, “I’ll be over here. Don’t take too long, hot shot.”
I wet my lips and smirked at Danielle as she began perusing the insane amount of ornaments. I turned when I heard a quiet little voice.
“Um…excuse me?”
I smiled and I swear I saw one of them have a mini stroke. The girl who was brave enough to speak was a petite blonde with a plaid flannel shirt and torn jeans on.
“Yeah, hey, girls,” I replied.
The stunned one let out a squeak from the back of her throat and her friend swatted her. They couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Looking at them a little closer, the halfway assertive blonde and the utterly stunned brunette, I felt a little like I was seeing a glimpse of Georgia and Danielle as teens.
“C—could I take a picture with you?” the blonde asked.
“Of course,” I said, motioning her toward me and putting my arm out for her to tuck underneath. She fumbled for her cell phone and quickly clung to my side, holding the phone out in front of us. I took it from her and a syllable dropped from her mouth. “I have longer arms,” I said coolly. We took a few snaps together and by the look on her face when she reviewed them, they were social media-worthy.
I crooked my finger at her friend and saw her blush and roll her eyes as she walked over to me. “Shall we selfie?” I asked. Her lips pursed, hiding her grin. Young Dani all the way. I took her phone from her hands once she presented it, then held it out and took our picture a few times.
When I handed her the phone, I saw her hesitate as if she stopped herself from speaking.
“You ladies get home before this blizzard hits, okay?”
They both nodded and thanked me, then the blonde started rattling off how many times she’d seen Speed Thrills. I cracked a joke about my hair in the movie—completely tragic—and they both cut up, finally seeming a little at ease. They turned around when one of their names got called from the next aisle over and when they looked at me again, the brunette found her voice.
“Is she your girlfriend?” she asked, nodding her
head in the direction of Danielle.
I breathed a laugh and turned to see the love of my life standing on her tiptoes, grabbing a tube of glitter-covered baubles for our tree. “Yeah. Yeah she is,” I replied a little dreamily.
A slow and genuine smile grew on the young girl’s face as her friend grabbed her hand and whispered, “Come on, my mom’s waiting.”
“I hope somebody looks at me that way one day,” the brunette said before giggling as her friend dragged her away.
I couldn’t respond quickly enough and by the time I thought I had a response, they were dashing off, laughing. As I stood there, a little stunned, all I heard was an echo of, “Oh my God! We just met Evan Weston!”
I felt arms slip around my waist from behind. “Oh my God, Evan Weston!” Danielle breathed mockingly at my back. I could hear the smile in her voice. Turning to capture her in a quick, firm embrace, I sighed.
“That was sweet of you,” she said, snuggling close to my side as she pushed the cart back to Ornamentland. “I would’ve never had the guts to do that when I was their age,” she added.
I pressed a kiss to her temple and thought of the mini Dani I’d just encountered. “For some reason, I doubt that.”
She made a little pfft noise and I peeked into the cart with wide eyes. “Okay, I think you got enough ornaments for two trees.” I laughed.
“There’s just one more I wanna show you,” she said. She pushed the cart to another aisle and handed me a single ornament off of the rack. I laughed when I took it in my hands, holding it up by its ribbon. It was a clear globe filled with sand and tiny seashells and written on the glass was: The beach is where my heart is.
“I like it. But I’m pretty sure my heart’s in a Wal-Mart right now,” I said, staring at her.
Danielle smiled and kept walking as she took the ornament from me and placed it in the cart along with all the others she’d picked up. “Let’s go grab some groceries,” she said. “I was thinking maybe we could bake some cookies tonight.”
A shuddering breath left me. She turned her head and I caught sight of her stunning blue eyes. Everyone should be lucky enough to have somebody look at them that way.