Chapter 25 #2
Dec appears in the doorway. “Okay?” he asks and then frowns to himself.
“Of course you’re not.” Shaking his head, he pads over and takes the empty glass from my hand before swathing me with his body.
He doesn’t say anything more, just holds me until I start to feel guilty for tearing him away from Albi.
“I’m good,” I say, gently easing out of his hold, despite wanting to stay in it forever. “Has he peed his pants yet?”
“Multiple times.” He reaches for a drawer by the sink and pulls out a roll of binbags. “It looks like a bomb’s gone off in a wrapping paper factory.”
Laughing lightly, I take his offered hand and let him lead me back to the lounge.
Blaine is building something—I don’t know what—and April’s on her hands and knees reaching for various ripped bits of wrapping paper, dragging them into one pile.
Albi tears into another gift and holds up a box. “More Lego!”
“Fuck my life,” Dec says over a sigh. “April?”
“What?” she asks, totally coy. “He loves Lego.”
“You can build it with him then.”
“Camryn, look!” Albi leaps over a pile of paper and grabs a bag, thrusting it at me. “I’ll be a fireman!”
“So cool,” I say, taking the binbags from Dec and ripping one off, starting to fill it. “What else did you get from Father Christmas?”
He grins. “I know he doesn’t bring me all the presents. Thank you, Daddy!” He throws his arms around Dec’s legs before coming at me too. “Thank you, Camryn.”
Huh? Oh my. “Oh, baby, I didn’t—”
“Welcome, fella,” Dec says, eyeballing me. And it’s in this moment it occurs to me that I’ve not got any gifts to give. And I’m fucking horrified, more so when April reaches under the tree and holds out a box to me. Oh my God. “April, I—”
“It’s nothing, really. And it’s for both of you.”
“But I—”
“Take it.”
I look at Dec, feeling one hundred percent mortified as he takes the box from April, passing it to me. And now they’re going to see my embarrassment multiply as they all watch me open it.
“What’s Father Christmas brought you?” Albi asks, inspecting the box.
“I don’t know. Want to help me open it?” Yes, I’m using the child as a shield, hoping to deflect some attention.
“Yeah!”
I lower to the couch and Albi clambers onto my knee, and I slowly peel the paper away, revealing a black box inscribed with Dec’s name. And mine.
DEC & CAMRYN
There’s a date too. I breathe in my surprise and glance at April. She shrugs, nonchalant. I turn my eyes back onto the box.
December 1st
“What’s that say?” Albi asks, his fingertip following some scripted gold font.
“That says Daddy’s name,” I say, pointing at it. “D E C.”
“Dec.”
“And that says my name.”
“Camryn.”
“That’s right. And that’s the date I met your daddy.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.” And I’m intrigued, as is Dec, since he’s joined us on the couch to see.
I pull the lid off and find a little gold card on top of a pile of cream envelopes, all with cards in. The gold card read:
A Year of Dates.
“One a week,” April says. “You each take it in turns to choose a date each week. Every Friday. Date night. Blaine and I will have Albi.”
What? “April,” I breathe, “That’s—”
“Every Friday night?” Dec asks, interested, taking the box from my hand. “And you’ll have Albi? Overnight?”
“I can’t come?” Albi asks, sullen. “That’s not fair. I want to come on date night with you and Camryn.”
“Hush now, fella, I’m striking a deal.”
“Are you busting balls, Daddy?”
“You got it. So, overnight?”
I chuckle, hugging Albi close. “We can do date night too.”
“Yay!”
“Overnight,” April confirms.
Dec looks at me with high, thrilled eyebrows. “I get to choose first.”
“Oh? And what are we doing?”
He puts his palms over Albi’s ears and brings his mouth close to mine. “We’re going to have endless sex without being disturbed,” he whispers.
I snort as Albi bats his dad’s hands away.
“How long until Friday?” Dec asks.
“It’s Christmas Day!” Albi sings, jumping off my lap and wading through the piles of toys, claiming one of the endless boxes of Lego. “Daddy, can we build the police car?”
I smile my thanks to April and Blaine, who both wave off my appreciation as Dec tucks our Year of Dates behind a vase on the mantelpiece. “In the kitchen,” he orders Albi gently. “You need some breakfast, and I’ve got to peel some spuds.”
“I’ve had breakfast,” Albi declares, holding up a selection box with three chocolate bars missing from the moulded tray.
“Jesus Christ, you’ll be hyper.”
“What’s hyper?”
“You,” Dec says over a laugh, scooping him up from the floor and throwing him over his shoulder. “No more chocolate.”
As I watch Dec cart Albi out of the lounge, I remember something. But it’s not wrapped. “Mind if I steal this?” I say, grabbing a piece of paper.
“Um, sure.”
“Thank you.” I jump up and hurry out of the lounge, racing up the stairs to find my bag. I pull out the snow globe first and admire it for a few moments. He saw me looking at it when we were out on the anniversary of Noah’s death. He knew it symbolised something.
I place it on the bedside table and dip back into my bag, pulling out the desktop calendar.
I could read it again right now. All his thoughts and words over the past few weeks, but I can’t.
I put it next to the globe and return to my bag, rummaging through and pulling out the Spitfire.
Improvisation is my friend right now. Dropping to my knees, I flatten the paper and execute some impressive origami skills that I haven’t utilised since—
The memory catches me off guard, but rather than fight it off, I let it take me, breathing through the pictures in my mind, of Noah and me making paper planes and launching them from the patio to see how far down the lawn they flew.
His won. Always. I made sure of it. He declared himself a pilot in training that day.
I smile to myself.
What would you have become, my darling boy? A pilot, a doctor, an adventurist?
I ponder that as I wrap the Spitfire without the help of tape, lifting and inspecting my handy work.
“I think Mummy did okay,” I murmur as I stand and take it downstairs.
“I have something for you.” I disturb Albi from tipping out the pieces of his Lego onto the counter.
“Well, it’s actually from Mr. Percival. He gave it to me to give to you. ”
“What is it?” he asks, as Dec turns away from the fridge, a carton of orange juice tipped at his lips.
“Open it.”
Albi tears the paper off and gasps his surprise.
“Oh my gosh,” he whispers, turning the plane around in his little hands to look at it from all angles.
“It’s an actual Spitfire from the war!” His Lego is forgotten, and he sets the plane down and gets onto his knees on the stool to inspect it closely. “This is the best Christmas ever!”
“Shall we build that Lego?” Dec asks.
“I want to play with my Spitfire.”
He looks to the ceiling in silent gratitude.
“It’s very special,” I tell him. “And very old. You must look after it, like Mr. Percival has looked after it for many years.”
“I will,” he says, captivated, gently touching the wing with a fingertip. “Can I fly it?”
Huh?
“You’re not fitting in that cockpit, fella.” Dec says over a laugh, as he sets out some breakfast things—croissants, jam, and cereals.
“What’s a cockpit?”
“Where the pilot sits in a plane to fly it.”
“No, silly!” He takes the plane and hops down off the stool, holding it in the air and starting to run around the island. “Like this!”
“Oh, silly Daddy,” Dec murmurs, shaking his head.
I’m held in another moment, caught off guard, as Albi races around the island, gliding the plane high and low, swooping it in circles, all the while providing sound effects. I force the vision of Noah away, trying not to imagine him in Albi’s place.
“Camryn?”
I blink, coming back into the room on a small jump.
“Sorry, I—” I what? I was imaging your son was my son?
I was wishing it was? Not that Albi wasn’t here but Noah was, just wishing he could be here too?
I push the tips off my fingers together, and Dec nods.
“I’m just going to get some fresh air,” I say, motioning to the sliding doors past the table and chairs.
“Of course.” He leans over the counter and hands me a croissant. “Please eat this.”
I smile my thanks and accept, taking a small nibble in demonstration before leaving him with a semi-content mild smile, that’s more than laced with concern.
“There’s a hoodie on the back of the chair and my slippers are by the door.”
“Slippers?” I parrot in surprise. “I never had you down as a slippers kinda guy.” I never had him down as a daddy kinda guy either, and yet here I am with Dec the Daddy. And what a wonderful daddy he is too.
As I take myself away, I wonder if he’s regretting this. Having to keep an eye on me in case I have a wobble. Stealing his time away from Albi to make sure I’m okay.
I set my croissant on the table and pull on his khaki hoodie, which I imagine makes his grey eyes pop beautifully, before shoving my feet into a huge pair of tan suede moccasin slippers and claiming my croissant.
“Sexy,” I murmur, looking back at Dec. He raises his eyebrows, amused, as Albi continues to tear around the island, swooping his Spitfire.