Fifteen

Steve

I woke up surrounded by Garrett’s warmth and waited for the feeling to hit me to get the fuck out of there. Number one, I never stayed the night with anyone. Even if we did fall asleep together, I usually found a way to leave before the sun came up. Not this time. And number two, there weren’t that many people I even wanted to see more than once, but Garrett pulled me in more every time we spoke.

Thoughts I didn’t recognize ran through my mind. I plotted how I could put another Little Debbie’s cake on his truck later today, and wondered if I should get him a small gift for Christmas. Thanksgiving was a few days away and after that it would be full on to Christmas, so I didn’t want to wait, but I didn’t want to make him feel like I expected anything—and I was officially overthinking it.

“What are you thinking on so hard?” Garrett whispered from behind me while kissing me lightly on the shoulder.

“Just thinking how much I don’t want to leave this bed, but I know I need to go home before I start work,” I said, and rolled over to face him.

“You can get dressed here if you want. I don’t mind you using some of my clothes,” he said, with a shrug. “It’s a lot closer, and we can eat before we go to work.”

“Are you sure? I have plenty of time to go home before I have to work,” I said.

“I know, but I’m not ready for you to leave. Do you really want to go?” he asked, and his eyes held no judgment or expectations, instead all I saw was desire and that same curiosity he was so full of.

“No, I don’t. Which is weird,” I said without thinking as usual.

“Why is it weird?” He grinned and scooted even closer, so we were nearly nose to nose.

“Well, you might have noticed, I’m not the friendliest person. I really don’t people very well.” I opened my eyes wide and stared at him, making him laugh.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re one of the most honest people I’ve ever met. You say you don’t like people and while I can understand that I think you actually like them more than you realize. I’ve watched you handle the line for Santa, and you’re amazing,” Garrett said.

My face heated at his words. It was just a stupid, nothing job but it was so different to what I had been doing that somewhere along the line I’d started to take it seriously. “I think it’s the kids, they’re so serious about seeing and actually getting to meet Santa.”

“Do you remember doing that as a kid?” he asked.

“Oh yeah, me and Dale used to go yearly. I’m sure my parents were tired of it by the time we decided we were too old and too mature to keep going. But it was a lot of fun, and like I told you that day at the mall, it was always a tradition and even if it was stressful for the adults, we didn’t really know that until we got older.”

“I bet you were very serious when you met with him,” Garrett said with a grin.

“There were a few years I may have taken a very well planned out list of what I wanted based on what was popular versus what I actually wanted.” He didn’t need to know it was as close to a spreadsheet as a kid could get.

“We used to get the newspaper on Thanksgiving Day and go through all the sales. My parents would usually put a limit on how many gifts we could put on our lists because we’d both go a little crazy.” He smiled and his eyes held a faraway look. It was obvious how much he loved the holidays, and I never wanted to be the reason for him not enjoying it. I thought back to our earlier Christmases and how much fun we’d all had. Because it was always fun, and now, they were still enjoying it while I dug my heels in and forced myself to stay away.

“Do you all still have a gift exchange?” I asked and hoped he didn’t ask more about me.

“Yeah, but it’s not as big. We usually only give one gift each, and then we play the white elephant game with gag gifts. It’s a lot of fun, and honestly the gag gifts are almost more fun than the actual gifts. We all try to outdo each other, and my parents have gotten downright obsessed about it. They work on it all year.”

“I’ve been to Christmas parties where they’ve played that, but I never joined in.”

“Never?” he asked and leaned up on his elbow.

“Nope. I’ve worked very hard to avoid all things Christmas,” I said and decided I wouldn’t try to hide it anymore. I needed him to know exactly who I was, and I wanted to know him.

“Well, we might have to change that,” he said without any more detail and continued to grin at me while he brushed his thumb along my cheek.

“I might be convinced to try,” I said, making him laugh and kiss me.

“Well, I have nothing but time to convince you. Now come on, let’s go eat so we can get ready for work.” He walked me to the bathroom, and told me to go ahead and shower, while he went to the kitchen.

“Good morning, Teddy,” I heard him say making me smile.

I didn’t think to question him, I just did as he directed, which was nice. He wasn’t pushy or forcing me to do anything, he just seemed to want to take care of me, and I knew I could get used to that really fast.