by Ward Maia
“Hey,” James answered.
They stood there awkwardly, just staring at each other. James shifted from foot to foot and chewed on his lower lip.
“Oh, right. Come in.” Sam stood aside and blushed slightly.
James seemed to relax and stepped into his apartment, handing him the bottle of wine with a red bow on the neck.
Sam opened his mouth to thank him and say he didn’t need to bring anything. Not necessarily out of a sense of politeness, but because Sam’s mother had cooked enough food to feed a small army. Far more than the eight people in his apartment. But just then, Aunt Millie came to investigate who was at the door.
“Hello.” She extended her hand for James to shake.
To Sam’s surprise and Aunt Millie’s delight, James wrapped one arm around her and gave her a kiss on each cheek. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Aunt Millie blushed and waved her hand in the air. “I think I like you.”
James’s smile grew impossibly big and he bounced on the balls of his feet.
Sam guided him into the small cramped space and introduced him to the other family members he hadn’t met yet.
“I thought you said you didn’t really have anything to salvage.” James turned in a circle to survey the last-minute decorations his family had bought.
“My mother doesn’t believe in Christmas without any decorations,” Sam told him.
James nodded and was pulled into a heated conversation about sports with Sam’s brother-in-law.
Sam went back and forth between the kitchen and the living room, helping his mother and sister finish cooking everything but not wanting James to be left to Aunt Millie’s devices.
When dinner rolled around, Sam’s father extended a blanket and used the stools and a few boxes Sam had lying around to put the food on.
They had a picnic-style Christmas dinner, chatting happily about everything and nothing.
Sure, the apartment was cramped and all the windows had to stay open so they wouldn’t overheat, but his family was there. They had traveled halfway around the world to make sure he wouldn’t be alone on his first Christmas in a foreign country.
And then there was James. Who sat cross-legged next to Sam and just seemed to fit right in. Even with Aunt Millie’s crazy stories and ideas.
Somehow, this handsome and sophisticated man looked right at home, having Christmas dinner on the floor of Sam’s tiny apartment, talking to his aunt about palm readings and astral maps. He fit. With the tacky cloth angels hanging from the tree with their glittered wings. With his aunt’s crazy theories about astral projection and his brother-in-law’s passionate discussion about European soccer teams.
And with Sam. Who he eyed every now and then with a look of wonder and hope.
As the night progressed, Sam felt himself relax. And maybe he let himself hope that James would want more than just this.
“Merry Christmas, baby brother,” Ana said and gave him a one-armed hug while cradling his nephew, who’d fallen asleep halfway through dessert. “We’ll be back tomorrow for presents.”
“But I sent your presents through the mail,” Sam told her, only then realizing that he wouldn’t have anything to give to his family.
His family that had flown all that way to see and spend Christmas with him.
Ana waved him off and stepped into the hall after her husband, who was cradling the other two boys, who were also asleep. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll open them when we get home.” She waved goodbye one more time before stepping into the elevator and leaving.
Sam made his way back to the kitchen, smiling at his father passed out on the couch and snoring slightly.
“Ana was terrible,” he heard his mother say.
“How come?” James asked in his rich baritone voice.
“She used to dare him to do the worst stunts.” She clucked her tongue and shook her head as Sam leaned against the kitchen doorframe. “One Christmas, she dared him to jump from the car into a snow pile.”
“Did he?” James asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“Yes! Except he missed the snow pile and landed face-first on the ground. Broke his right front tooth! He spent the next year smiling with his mouth closed until the other one came down.”
They both laughed and Sam couldn’t help but smile. Out of all the stories his mother could tell James, that was in no way the most embarrassing one. He’d gotten more than one thing stuck up his nose when he was a kid.
“He’s always had this jump-first, think-later attitude, except when it comes to people. But it’s always worked out fine for him. That’s why I wasn’t worried when he said he was moving here. I knew he’d be okay.”
The kitchen was filled only by the sound of running water and dishes clattering against each other after she spoke.
Sam’s heart felt warm and so full he was a little worried it would actually pop out of his chest. “Hey,” he said, stepping up behind her. “You’ve done enough. Why don’t you go watch some TV with Aunt Millie, and I’ll finish here.”
“I think we’ll actually go to the hotel. Your father can’t really stay up that late anymore.”
Ten minutes later he hugged his mother, Aunt Millie, and his father good night and saw them to the elevator.
And then he was alone with James.
“Need any help?” He walked back into his kitchen and leaned on the sink next to James, who was still washing the dishes.
“Sure.”
They washed the dishes in companionable silence. Aunt Millie had left the TV on in the living room, and every now and then, laughter and music filtered into the kitchen from whatever movie she’d been watching.
“Your family is nice,” James told him.
Sam smiled and nodded. “Yeah. They are. They can be a bit much sometimes. But I always felt like that’s how family is supposed to be.”
“Me too.”
“What’s your family like?” Sam asked. He found himself wanting to know more about James and the people he’d come from.
“They’re loud and love to meddle in each other’s lives.” James smiled, a wistful look in his eyes as he recalled memories of his family.
“Do you have siblings?” Sam asked.
“Four sisters,” he informed Sam, who couldn’t help looking a little surprised. “And five cousins. All girls.”
“Really?”
“Yep. I’m the only boy.” James sounded smug.
“I imagine you must’ve been spoiled rotten,” Sam told him.
“To my core.” James bumped his shoulder playfully against Sam’s.
They finished washing in silence until all the dishes were clean and all the garbage had been thrown away. Sam thought about creating more work to keep James from leaving, but just as the thought crossed his mind, James yawned hugely.
It was late and it wouldn’t be fair to keep him just because Sam was afraid things would go back to normal once the holiday was over. He wanted more time with James. More of the shared intimacy from time spent in his cramped apartment. More of his warm skin against Sam’s. Just more.
Old insecurities still plagued Sam every now and then, holding him back from reaching across the space between them and pulling James against him.
“You must be tired,” Sam said, giving James an out.
For a moment, Sam thought sadness crossed James’s face before he smiled his familiar polite smile and it was gone.
“I should probably get going, huh?” James asked but didn’t move toward the door.
“It is pretty late,” Sam said. He felt silly. Why couldn’t he just tell James how he felt? Or at least ask him if he wanted to stay? Or maybe ask him out on a date? Maybe James would say no. Maybe he would turn Sam down. But he’d never know unless he asked.
Besides, Sam remembered James having fun the previous night. That was at least something, right?
“Okay.” James bowed his head and turned toward the door.
He replayed his sister’s wor
ds in his head. She was right, and intellectually, he knew that. Even if his shyness and insecurities told him to let James go, he couldn’t.
He liked James. As more than his coworker or just a decent guy. And all doubts aside, he was pretty sure James liked him too. Hell, he’d even said as much, right before pushing Sam against a coconut tree and kissing him stupid.
Warmth pooled in his stomach at the memory of James’s kisses and Sam blushed. He shook his head and locked his shyness away in a temporary cage. “You don’t have to leave,” Sam blurted out.
James turned back to face him. “Yeah?” This time, Sam wasn’t imagining the hope that flickered in his eyes.
Sam took a deep breath and gathered whatever courage he had inside of him. “Yes. You don’t have to leave. You can spend the night. I’d actually like you to.” Sam wriggled his hands.
Silence filled the already cramped living room. The lights he’d hung on the fake Christmas tree blinked away, oblivious. First blue, then green, then red, and finally, all of them together.
“I’d like to stay and spend the night with you. Is that what you’re asking?” James took a step toward Sam.
“Yes. That-that’s what I’m asking,” Sam admitted, nervousness making him sweat. But he lifted his chin and gave James the most confident smile he could muster. He owed himself the risk of pursuing James and seeing if maybe they could be more to each other.
The thought made his stomach flip with giddiness and nervousness.
“Okay.” James closed the distance between them and wrapped Sam in his strong arms. The kiss was sweet and seemed to go on forever. Sam relaxed into James’s hug and against his lips.
“I gotta ask you a question, though,” James said, breaking the kiss.
Sam wanted to tell him that whatever it was could wait until morning. But James pulled away and Sam reluctantly stepped back from his embrace.
“What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?” James asked.
Sam was momentarily taken aback by the question and all he did for a few seconds was blink at James. Then a shy smile curved his lips. Because he knew why James was asking.
“That depends.” Sam hooked one finger on James’s belt loops and pulled him in.
“On what?” James asked.
“On what you have planned,” Sam said.
The smile that almost split James’s face in two was blinding and goddamn gorgeous. Sam sealed their lips together and kissed James long and hard, right there in his cramped living room, with cheap Christmas lights framing them and the sounds of the TV in the background.
“Merry Christmas.” James pulled Sam toward the bedroom.
“Merry Christmas to you too,” Sam answered, then kissed James with everything he had.
SAM WOKE and blinked painfully at the light filtering in through the window. He groaned at the pounding pain in his brain. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to his skull. Repeatedly.
His throat was dry as he tried to swallow. But his tongue felt too big for his mouth, like something had crawled into it and died.
“Blagh. Gross,” he grumbled.
There was a heavy arm thrown over his waist. Sam looked down and smiled through the killer hangover as he remembered the previous night.
He’d watched the fireworks and the New Year Celebration on the beach. With James. And then they’d proceeded to get plastered.
Sam couldn’t remember the last time he’d had that much fun.
“Ugh. Make the bad man stop.” James buried his face into Sam’s neck.
Sam chuckled and then regretted it, hiding his face behind his hand.
“Why are you wearing my shirt?” James asked, his voice muffled against Sam’s skin.
He looked down his body and, surely enough, he was wearing James’s pink tank top.
“I don’t really have an answer for your question.” Sam hid his face in his hand again. “I also probably have glitter in some not-so-sanitary places.”
“I’ll help you look for it later,” James mumbled.
Sam smiled and nodded. He’d been going out with James since Christmas.
But work started in a few days. And they still hadn’t talked about what they were doing or what they were to each other. But it was too early and he was too hungover to think about that just then.
Later, after they’d dragged their sorry asses to the bathroom and lazily washed each other’s bodies while James helped Sam look for the elusive glitter, they sat at Sam’s tiny kitchen table.
Sam had his head leaned against James’s shoulder and sighed contently, taking a big gulp of his plain black coffee.
“So, it’s a new year,” James said, his voice a little hoarse from all their partying the previous night.
“Hm. I guess it is,” Sam said.
“I want to ask you something,” James said.
Sam raised his head and turned to look at him. James’s eyes were a bit red, but they were soft as he looked at him.
“What are your plans for carnival?” James asked.
Sam smiled and set down his coffee, then tackled James to the floor and laughed.
He was happy. He’d decided to be brave, just for five minutes, and taken what he really wanted. And oh, it had paid off.
They spent carnival together and maybe drank a little too much. Sam met James’s family and experienced firsthand their loudness and just how spoiled James really had been growing up.
Six months after they started dating, James asked him to move in. Sam finally left his tiny, cramped apartment, but it was bittersweet. He’d made a lot of memories in that apartment. Mostly with James. But also his family.
Like that first improvised Christmas.
“Is that the last one?” James asked, relieving Sam of the box he was carrying.
“Yeah. All done.” Sam wiped his hand on his jeans and looked around.
James’s usually pristine living room was cluttered with opened and closed boxes along with things James had gotten out of the boxes while Sam carried them up from the car.
“Do we really need to keep this?” James asked, pulling one of the cloth angels with the glitter wings out of the box marked “Christmas stuff.”
Sam’s heart tripped a little over itself at his casual use of we in his question. “Yes. We definitely are keeping them. And all the rest of the decorations my family lovingly bought to brighten my sad self.”
James’s eyes softened and he pulled Sam in for a hug. “Welcome home, baby. I love you,” he murmured against Sam’s ear.
“Love you too,” Sam said. “And there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
“Good. Because I plan on spending all the holidays here with you. For all the years to come,” James said.
And then, they did just that.
WARD MAIA was born and raised in Brazil and has seen almost every corner of that great and beautiful country. With a M. in Geology and Metamorphic Petrology, spending time in underground labs was more commonplace than interacting with real humans, which lead to the creation of entire fictional universes. The heroes that populate those universes are usually flawed and find love in unexpected places.
Having traveled throughout the North and the South of the country, Ward now calls the Northwest of Brazil home. Alongside a grumpy sixteen-year-old poodle (that insists on always having the last word) and hundreds of paperback novels, Ward lives five minutes from the beach and enjoys drinking copious amounts of coffee and feeling the ocean breeze while writing about unexpected places and people.
Twitter: @_WardMaia
By Ward Maia
Summer Santa
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are
used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Summer Santa
© 2018 Ward Maia.
Cover Art
© 2018 Adrian Nicholas.
[email protected]
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-057-6
Digital eBook published December 2018
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America