Josh

JOSH

THREE YEARS LATER…

I’m late. I’m soooo late, and I’m soooo going to hear about it. In my defense, we’ve been spending Christmas in Vermont for the past two years, so I’ve completely blocked out just how impossible it is to spontaneously find a cab in a snowstorm in Manhattan this time of year. Besides, it’s not like I was the one who made me stop by the store at the last minute.

The cab gets stuck in traffic a few blocks from our apartment. I look out the window. Everything is just white. My shoulders slump when I sigh deeply.

“Hey, I’ll get off here,” I tell the cabbie and pay for the ride.

Outside, I’m immediately pelted by snow, but I’m warmed by love or whatever, so I suck it up and start to walk.

It’s only four blocks, but by the time I push open the door to the lobby of our building, I’m soaking wet.

I go to the elevator and get inside, where I lean against the wall. I glance toward the mirror. I look like a wet scarecrow, but instead of finding it annoying, I smile at my reflection.

The elevator doors slide open, and I hike the paper bag with groceries higher on my hip. The moment I step into the apartment, the bag breaks apart, and everything spills to the floor.

Yeah, that tracks.

Right on cue, there are footsteps, and my boyfriend steps into the hallway.

His eyes move over the chaos I’ve created during the whole fifteen seconds I’ve been home.

I point my finger at him. “Not a word.”

He pretends to zip his lips before he comes and crouches down next to me. He takes my face in his hands and kisses me.

“Now that’s a welcome home I can get behind,” I say slightly breathlessly, once he pulls away.

“Am I allowed to speak now?” Gabriel quirks his brow at me.

“Permission granted.”

We start picking up the groceries and take them to the kitchen.

“What happened?” Gabriel asks while he puts the groceries away.

“Stupid paper bags,” I grumble.

Gabriel laughs. I’ve gotten used to his wide smiles by now. They’re a regular thing, at least when he’s with me. He’s still reserved and serious with other people, but at home, he relaxes and has learned to kick back.

“I’ve stuffed reusable shopping bags everywhere. How do you always forget it?” Gabriel asks.

“Just be glad I remembered to follow the list this time.”

“Small mercies.” He lifts up a box of Christmas lights. “Speaking of the list, those were definitely not on it.”

“Yeah,” I say. “You’re lucky I walked past a display and remembered we were out.”

He stares at me before he lifts up the box and shakes it. “These are not, like, grapes or eggs. You don’t really run out of Christmas lights.”

“But we did!” I exclaim. “There’s that whole empty patch of wall above the curtain rod.”

“It’s the only empty patch in the whole living room. Maybe we should keep it as an eye-resting spot.”

“Funny stuff. You love the decorations, and you know it.”

He rolls his eyes, but it’s done with affection and a tiny bit of self-deprecation. He does love the holidays, and we both know it. Gabriel complaining that our home looks like a set for a Hoarders Christmas special is just a tradition of ours.

Even I can admit I went a bit overboard this year, though. We usually go to Vermont for the holidays, but this year, since Gabriel’s parents are heading to a cruise and everybody else also made other plans, we’re spending a quiet Christmas with just the two of us, and I’ve been determined to make it perfect. Excess seems to equal perfection in my head.

I can’t help it, though. I’m excited. I love going to Vermont, too, but we finally got the keys to our own apartment last week and have spent these past few days lugging our stuff from our old place to our new home, so I’m a bit exhausted, and also a bit too excited to leave this place right now.

Man, I love the sound of it. Our place. This is our apartment. It’s the best Christmas gift ever.

We’re still in the middle of furnishing, so a lot of it is still empty. But that just means we had space for a kickass Christmas tree.

“Did you find the decorations for the tree?” I ask.

“The box is in the office. I’ll go get it in a minute,” he says with a smile. I get unreasonably excited about decorating the tree, and he knows it and somehow finds it charming. I cried when his family got me my own ornament for the tree last year.

Okay, so technically, it could be said that I cry a lot when we’re with Gabriel’s family overall. No, not cry. I just get emotional here and there, and from time to time those emotions come out through my eyes. In the form of water.

It’s just that I never knew how much I missed having a family, and Gabriel’s has included me in theirs with the kind of ease that it’s impossible to describe what it does to somebody who hasn’t felt included in anything in years.

My grandparents are still in my life. Sort of. We have dinner once a month, and Gabriel and I get invites to events and parties they’re throwing. We had a huge falling out after I told them I was not going to become a lawyer, was dropping out of law school, and had no plan for the future. They gave me the silent treatment for a year and a half, probably thinking I’d come to my senses. I obviously didn’t, but then my grandfather had a heart attack, and we sort of came to a truce. They don’t approve of me quitting law school in favor of getting a degree in social work. I don’t approve that they don’t approve. Gabriel keeps the peace and fills the awkward silences.

Whatever else I’ve done wrong in my life, both my grandmother and grandfather adore Gabriel. He’s everything they wanted from me. Ambitious. Successful. Passionate about law. In short, they love him and keep making hints about marriage. I think they think if we make it official it’ll be more difficult for me to go insane and leave him. Not that there’s any chance of that ever happening.

Arms wrap around me from behind and Gabriel leans his chin on my shoulder.

“Do you want to decorate the tree right now?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I say. “And then I want you to make love to me underneath the tree.”

“Romantic,” he says. “Let’s do this.”

Two hours later, I flop on my back with a groan when Gabriel pulls out of me. We switched the order of things a bit and started with sex.

“That was awesome,” I say sleepily. I burrow closer and throw my thigh over his. “A top five fuck.”

His chest vibrates with laughter. “That’s a step away from the romantic, make love to me narrative you started out with.”

“You make love to me even when you’re fucking me.”

He laughs again and kisses the top of my head before he starts to roll away from me.

“No,” I complain. “Don’t get up yet. I’m pretty sure I have another round in me.”

He grins at me and gets on his feet.

“You’re seriously getting up just when I’m getting up?” I gesture toward my dick.

Gabriel’s eyes are alight with teasing. “Baby, it doesn’t take much to get you up, so I’m sure I can do it again in a bit with little to no effort.”

“I’d argue because I have pride, but this kind of confidence is turning me on like you wouldn’t believe.”

He grins at me, and I turn myself on my back again. I look up toward the ceiling through the branches of the tree.

“Do you think we should decorate it now?”

“Sure,” Gabe calls from the bathroom. “Give me a sec. I’ll get the stuff.”

I push myself up on my feet, grab Gabe’s sweats from the floor, pull them on, and head toward the smaller bedroom we’re planning to use as an office.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go get it,” I say.

“What?” Gabe calls over the sound of water.

I roll my eyes and go to the office, where there’s a box on the desk.

“?” Gabe calls.

“Yeah?” I call out distractedly before I grab the box of decorations.

“Where are you?”

“Office,” I yell over my shoulder.

There’s a moment of silence, and then frantic footsteps that conclude with Gabriel almost running into me as he comes to an abrupt halt in the doorway.

“Oh,” he says. His eyes snap down to the box of decorations and then up at me. “What… What are you doing?”

I lift the box. “I found the decorations.”

“You… That’s great!” His voice has gotten about half an octave higher. “I can take it from here.”

He tries to take the box, which makes me frown.

“Are you under the impression I can’t carry this from one room to another?”

“What? No. No, no. Not that. I’m just excited about doing this. Let’s go. The tree awaits.” He starts… There’s really no better way to say this. He gets behind me and starts herding me out of the room.

“Whoa. That’s really not necessary,” I say.

He lets out a high-pitched squeak. The kind I’ve never heard from him before.

I turn around in the doorway and stare at him. “Are you okay?”

“Just a cough. Come on,” he says.

There’s another one of those squeaks, which is then followed by a light thump. I peer over Gabriel’s shoulder to figure out what was making that noise.

A chocolate brown puppy saunters out from beneath the desk.

My eyes widen as my gaze jumps between Gabriel and the puppy.

“Who’s this?” I ask. I’m on my knees on the floor almost immediately. The puppy tilts its head to the side and looks at me.

Gabriel’s shoulders slump, and he sits down next to me.

“Merry Christmas,” he says. “Surprise. Or not so much of a surprise anymore.”

My mouth falls open. I open and close it for a file. Hope is making my heart beat faster and faster. “You got us a puppy?”

Gabriel chuckles at whatever dazed expression I have on my face and shakes his head affectionately. “Yeah, I got us a puppy for Christmas. She was supposed to wait for you under the Christmas tree tomorrow morning.”

I can barely listen because the puppy is now inching closer, so pretty soon, she’s sniffing my hand, and then she’s suddenly climbing in my lap, and I can’t help but hug her.

When I look up, I find Gabriel looking at me with a wide smile.

“I lover her!” I can almost definitely feel the waterworks approaching again.

It’s only stopped because I get distracted when Gabriel leans toward me and kisses me while our Christmas puppy snuggles against my chest.

“What’s her name?” I ask.

Gabe looks down at the puppy.

“Terror,” he says grimly.

I roll my eyes at him. “Be serious. It’s not.”

“He’s been here six hours, and he’s already destroyed your sneakers and has tried to eat the wallpaper behind the desk.”

“Aww. She’ll figure all this stuff out. And she’s clearly sorry. Just look at this cute little face.”

“She doesn’t have a name yet,” Gabe says. “We can pick one out ourselves. I still vote for Terror.”

“Daisy. Doesn’t she look like a Daisy?” I ask.

Gabriel looks at me dubiously before he nods. “Sure. She’s the daisiest Daisy I’ve ever seen.”

“You’re teasing, but she totally looks like a Daisy.” I hug the puppy again. “I love her,” I repeat. “And I love you,” I add fiercely.

Gabe sends me the softest of soft smiles. The kind I wouldn’t have believed he was capable of producing a few years ago, but now I know better.

“I’ll give you anything that makes you happy,” he says.

I grin back. “Well, that’s you. So… done, I guess?”

He kisses me again until Daisy gets impatient and tries to get in on the action by licking my jaw.

“Come on. Let’s see about that tree now,” Gabriel says. He gets up and reaches out his hand. I take it, and he pulls me to my feet.

For the next hour, we decorate the tree and try and stop Daisy from eating the branches.

And it starts to snow outside.

And it doesn’t get any better than this.