Epilogue
BENJI
(one year later)
After the best year of my life, it was Christmas morning. Finally.
The anticipation of the big day had been killing me. Last year Christmas had been everything, but this year… there was something even more magical about it.
Going to sleep last night had been difficult. Daddy gave me milkies, hoping it would help. He told me stories. He gave me not one but three orgasms. Even then, I still needed a tubby before sleep finally overtook me. Best. Night. Ever.
I woke up snuggled in Daddy’s arms, my favorite place to be. After my tubby, daddy dressed me in my elf Christmas jams. I was adorable, Daddy said so. And now all I wanted to do was run out to the tree, looking like one of Santa's helpers and tear open my gifts. I wouldn’t though.
Instead, I was waiting for it to be a decent hour to wake up.
I didn’t need to look at the clock to know that it wasn’t even close. The sun hadn’t even pretended to cross the horizon yet. I could wait. At least I kept telling myself I could.
It was Christmas and we planned for it to be a 100% Little Christmas.
When I asked Daddy if I could be little all day, I watched him carefully, making sure I wasn’t taking any of the magic of the season away from him with my request. He hugged me so close, telling me it sounded like the perfect plan.
That had been the day after Halloween and I’d been wanting and waiting for this morning ever since.
I promised myself I wouldn’t wake Daddy too soon, that I’d let him sleep… a promise I intended to keep no matter how difficult it was. He’d worked so hard to give me the Christmas he knew I wanted, and rewarding him by waking him up at the ass crack of dawn was no way to repay him.
Last night, we did our big Christmas. We enjoyed a fancy dinner with friends, sang Christmas carols, and opened our big gifts. I got Daddy the watch I saw while passing by the jewelry store and knew immediately it was for him, and he got me a new set of paints, I’d mentioned in passing.
We’d become so domestic over the past year. I flipping loved it.
Unable to stay still any longer, I decided it was best to leave the bed than wake him with my restlessness. I slowly slid out from under his arm and headed to the bathroom, where I cleaned up and took care of business.
I tiptoed into the living room and sat crisscross-applesauce in front of our Christmas tree.
What a difference a year made. Our scraggly little Charlie Brown wannabe tree had been perfect, but this year’s tree belonged on the cover of a magazine.
We’d gone back to the same tree lot and found the biggest, most lush tree there was.
We had to hire someone to bring it back and help get it in the house, it was so big. It was the stuff of dreams.
We decorated it with the standard Christmas ornaments, but this year we added some more traditional, old-school decor, like stringing popcorn Daddy made on the stove.
It reminded me of the time he came over and spoiled me rotten back when we were new, back when I didn’t know if this was going to be forever or not.
Now I knew that we were. There was no one else I’d want to spend my life with other than Daddy.
He took care of me, was my best friend, and my confident. He was my family.
Primal had a little craft night that added the final perfect touches to our tree.
Sure, they were more glitter than substance, but somehow that made them a thousand times better.
I’d seen many trees over the years that had fancy themes.
Ours wasn’t that. It was a mosaic of who we were and perfect.
I was going to be sad when it was finally time to take it down.
I sat there staring at the tree, memorizing each ornament and where it sat, doing my best not to look at all the gifts underneath.
They weren’t there when I went to bed. Santa had shown up after I fell asleep.
The more I noticed them, the more tempted I was to investigate each and every one of them, to try and solve the mystery of what was inside without opening them and being naughty.
I was being such a good boy… being as patient as patient could be, quieter than quiet… and miraculously still.
Despite all that, Daddy still woke up early. It wasn’t even 6:00 a.m. when he came out. “Are you excited about Christmas, my sweet boy?”
“Yes, Daddy, I’m so excited! I was a good boy. I was quiet… so, so quiet and I didn’t touch anything. I wanted to but I waited for you.”
“I can see that. Did you want to do prezzies first, or do you want to eat first?”
I looked up at him, then down to his chest, and back up at his face. “Milkies?”
“Milkies it is.” He took off his shirt and settled on the couch, and I climbed onto his lap, snuggling in close.
I circled his nipple with my tongue before latching on for a long, sweet sip.
Even if this was the only thing we did today, it was already the most perfect Christmas ever.
Sitting there with my daddy in this close, sweet, comforting way that only he could provide was better than anything wrapped under the tree.
I switched sides, Daddy rubbing my back, sweetly telling me all about the wonderful day we were going to have, how he was using the little waffle maker to make me dinosaur-shaped waffles, and how he was going to make me hot chocolate with so much whipped cream that it was almost a meal in itself…
and of course, that would be done with tons of sprinkles on top… fancy Christmas tree shaped sprinkles.
I was starting to fall back asleep in his arms when the Christmas clock struck 6:00 a.m., the first hour it sang each morning. A very electronic sounding “Jingle Bells” rang through the air and I found myself singing along, Daddy joining me.
“Are you ready for breakfast?” He asked when the music had ended.
I shook my head against him. “Santa came! Santa came!”
“Why, yes, he did. How about you open your stocking first, eat breakfast, and then you can—”
“There’s a stocking?” I’d missed that.
I nearly jumped off him. “Can I? Can I? Can I please, Daddy? Please, please, please!”
“Of course, sweet boy.”
He took it down off the mantle, and I sat on the floor and opened the gifts.
They were all small and little, everything from a new pacifier to socks that had little rattles in them.
They jingled when you walked and were shaped like ones elves would wear.
I had a feeling they were designed to be like bells, but the musical part of that noise was missing. I still adored them.
There was also a new Christmas mug that I planned to use for my cocoa, and some fabulous colored pens that were erasable, a Christmas coloring book and some cool crayons that were shaped like Santa, snowmen, candy canes, and other Christmas shapes.
I’d never loved a stocking as much as I loved this one.
Daddy set me up at the table to color as he made breakfast. It was hard to believe that just over a year ago, I’d been alone and stressed and wondering if I’d ever have my happily ever after. And now, here we were, enjoying our Christmas together.
“Come on, sweet boy, let’s go check out your Christmas presents,” he said after we finished eating.
“I already got my best present ever, Daddy. You.”
And really, what better gift was there than that?
Enjoy all the A Little Christmas books in the series.
And for more Christmas fun from Aria and Alex, check out…
A shy baker, a grumpy neighbor, and a dozen holiday stockings. Sometimes a little Christmas cheer can deliver the sweetest surprises.
Corey’s first Christmas in his new apartment isn’t going quite as planned.
Between unpacked boxes and a mountain of cookie orders, the only spark of holiday cheer comes from spying on his mysterious neighbor as he leaves every morning with an ice chest and returns an hour later looking far too handsome for someone so grumpy.
When a shipping mix-up delivers a dozen empty stockings to Corey, he decides to spread a little cheer the old-fashioned way.
Each evening, he fills one with small gifts—brownies, cocoa packets, tiny ornaments—and leaves it by his neighbor’s door.
But when Cliff joins in the game and leaves something surprisingly personal in return, Corey realizes the man next door might just have a secret as tightly-held as his smile.
By the time Christmas arrives, Corey’s wish list has changed. What he wants most isn’t under the tree but living right across the hall.