Chapter 22 #2
“Sure thing.” Emmy gets up to gather everyone who isn’t already in the living room while I head to the front door.
I open it to find Griffin’s smiling face.
He’s in dark-gray joggers and a black sweater, but it’s the backward baseball cap and the way he’s leaning against the wall that sends my stomach fluttering.
I get what all the social media girlies meant about the effects of that combination on the female population.
It should be illegal to look that good, to be able to cause that instant attraction.
But then again, Griffin’s always had this effect on me.
“Are you going to let me inside?” He shoots me his tilted grin. The one just for me. That thought sends the butterflies fluttering again.
I nod, stepping aside so he can come in.
Once Griffin has greeted everyone in the living room and I’ve introduced him to Austin, we sit down on the couch together.
With how packed our cozy space is, I end up with my booty half on Griffin and half on the couch.
He reaches around my lower back and pulls me fully onto his lap, wrapping his arms around my middle. My legs tangle with his.
If this were happening just a week ago, I would’ve either jumped right back up or faked a smile for the sake of our audience. But today, I lean into Griffin’s touch, resting my head against his. In his arms, I feel safe. Secure. And—dare I say—loved. It’s scary, but also invigorating.
His thumb brushes across my stomach where my sweater has slid up. I feel that small touch across my entire body. Griffin makes every nerve ending come alive.
When I look at him, I see the same passion and desire mirrored in his eyes.
“If you two lovebirds are done making eyes at each other, we can get started.” Kelsey stands in front of the television and crosses her arms, though a smirk pulls at her lips.
I shoot her a thumbs-up while Griffin laughs into my shoulder. She hands each team a whiteboard, marker, and tissue.
“My mom made a slideshow with all the questions and answers. She literally just texted it to me, so everything is fair and square.” Alyssa connects her phone to the TV, showing the timestamp of the email from her mom as proof, even though I know she’s not the kind to cheat. “Let’s get this trivia night started.”
We answer questions about generic winter traditions first. Griffin and I successfully guessed that eggnog came from England and that candy canes were shaped to resemble a shepherd’s staff, among other questions.
“Next up is Christmas music,” Alyssa announces, flipping to the next slide.
I tilt my head back to look at Griffin. “We’re going to crush this.”
And we do. I mean, who doesn’t know that the best-selling Christmas song of all time is “White Christmas” or that Frosty the Snowman’s nose is made out of a button rather than the traditional carrot?
All the teams suffer through the winter sports round, except for Alyssa and Austin, thanks to his extensive sports knowledge.
“We are now entering the basic winter fun facts,” Shayna reads aloud. “Starting with…” She flips to the next slide. “What is the shortest day of the year called?”
As everyone else starts whispering to their partner, I murmur in Griffin’s ear, “It’s the winter something.”
He laughs and squeezes my side. “I think what you’re looking for is Winter Solstice.”
“See, I was half right.” I write down the answer on our whiteboard. I’m extra thankful he’s on my team when everyone else answers that question correctly. I would’ve looked ridiculous if I had just written down winter.
The next slide asks how many sides a snowflake has. I immediately write down six.
“How do you know?” Griffin’s breath against my skin causes all the hairs on my neck to stand. “Is it something you taught your students?”
“Yeah,” I lie. Even with where our relationship is at right now, there’s no way I’m telling him that I looked up everything I could about snowflakes after we kissed outside with perfect flurries falling around us.
I thought if I learned everything I could about snowflakes, it would help me to focus on those facts rather than the magic of the moment I had surrounded by them with his lips pressed to mine.
Spoiler alert: It didn’t work. I don’t think there are enough facts in the world to make me forget the feelings I had when Griffin kissed me, but at least knowing this random fact guarantees us another point.
We’re the only ones to get the correct answer.
Griffin leans in, kissing my temple. “That’s my smart girl.”
Normally, I’d roll my eyes if I ever heard anyone say that to their significant other. But I beam under Griffin’s compliment. Maybe I’m more of the relationship type than I thought. It just took the right guy coming along for me to realize it.
I nuzzle into him, and he hums happily.
“Y’all are the cutest.” Emmy looks at us, doe-eyed.
“Adorable,” Shayna agrees.
Alyssa grins. “Totally goals.”
“Gross,” Connor mutters.
I stick my tongue out at him. “Maybe you wouldn’t think it was gross if you ever decided to talk to a woman.”
“So, I guess you haven’t been on any dates lately, man?” Griffin asks with a casual laugh, completely unaware of Connor’s nonexistent dating history. He never even took a girl to prom or homecoming. I honestly don’t know if he talks to females aside from the ones in our family.
“No.” Connor’s answer is short and gruff.
Griffin purses his lips, looking at me with confused eyes. I decide to step in and save him, but Shayna beats me to it.
“There’s no shame in that.” Shayna glances briefly at Connor before readjusting her headband and dropping her gaze.
“I haven’t been on any dates in a while either.
The dating apps are awful, and the only guys I meet when I’m working at the flower shop are there to buy flowers for their significant other. ”
“Yeah, it’s rough out there,” Alyssa agrees. “You’re saving yourself a lot of heartache, Connor.”
Austin laughs and nudges Alyssa with his elbow. “This girl has enough disastrous first date stories for all of us.”
“Says the guy who could get anyone he wanted with the snap of a finger,” she shoots back at him.
He shakes his head. “I have to be extra careful.” Austin turns to look at Griffin. “I’m sure you understand, dude. Most of the women looking to date us are looking for the fame associated with our name, not because they actually like us.”
“Right on, man.” Griffin nods. “That’s why you have to meet someone before you’re famous or someone who actually doesn’t give a rip about it.” He squeezes my middle.
“Exactly.”
Tess clears her throat. “Sorry to be a buzzkill, but I need to leave in ten minutes to relieve my babysitter.”
“Right, sorry.” Kelsey turns the whiteboard with our scores around. “Going into the final round, in last place, we have Shayna and Tess with seven points.”
Both girls smile good-naturedly.
“Maybe I should just go home now,” Tess teases.
“In fourth place, we have Emmy and Connor with ten points. Tyler and I are currently rounding out third place with eleven points. Mallory and Griffin are in second place with thirteen points. And, with a whopping fourteen points, our current leaders are Alyssa and Austin.”
Alyssa switches the slide on the TV. “For the final theme, can I get a drumroll, please?” We all pat our legs as she clicks to the next slide. “Winter movies.”
“Boo.” Emmy throws a piece of popcorn at the television.
“We know which team is winning now,” Kelsey says.
The whole room looks at me and Griffin. He holds up his hands, and I immediately miss his grounding touch. “Hey, I haven’t been in any Christmas movies. You all still have a chance.”
“Yeah, like we ever had a shot.” Tess leans back into the couch, laughing with Shayna. At least they’re in good spirits about being in last place.
Despite Griffin saying everyone else had a chance, we don’t miss a single question in the round. He answers the ones correctly about The Santa Clause and It’s a Wonderful Life, while I get the responses related to The Holiday and Love Hard.
“All right, that was the final question.” Kelsey looks at the scoreboard.
“And we have a tie between Alyssa and Austin and Mallory and Griffin.” She pulls out her phone.
“That means we need a tiebreaker question.” She takes a minute, tapping on her screen and scrolling.
“Okay, for the win, what was the highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time?”
Griffin and I look at each other with a knowing smile. It has to be the greatest one of all time—the very one we watched together last night. I write down Home Alone and hold the whiteboard to my chest, ready to win this thing.
When the minute is up, we flip over our whiteboard at the same time as Alyssa and Austin. They wrote down Elf.
“We’ve got this in the bag, beautiful.” Griffin hugs me.
Kelsey looks between our whiteboards and smiles. “The correct answer is…Home Alone. That makes our winners Mallory and Griffin.”
I hop up from his lap, jumping like we just won a real award rather than the trivia champions of our friend group.
But Griffin matches my energy. He pops up from the couch and lifts me into the air, placing my butt on his left shoulder.
I duck to avoid hitting my head on the ceiling as everyone congratulates us. He carefully puts me back on my feet.
I’m in a daze, overflowing with the adrenaline of his closeness all night.
Everyone says good night and heads out, but my steps are slow toward the front door as I walk Griffin to his car.
“Thanks for a fun night. I couldn’t have won it without you,” I say, trying to delay him leaving.
It’s crazy how only a few weeks ago I could barely stand listening to him talk for five minutes, and now I’m sad that he’s leaving when I’ve seen him the past four days in a row.
But we don’t have any plans together again until New Year’s Eve.
“I’m glad I could help you get the win, but I like spending time with you more.”
A bitter wind rustles my hair, and he brushes the curl flying into my face back.
“I’ve actually been meaning to ask you something.” He pulls his hand back, rubbing it along the scruff on his chin. “It’s kind of last minute, but I’m flying to LA in a week for an influencer event for Accidentally in Matrimony.”
“That sounds fun.” I swallow down the sadness threatening to take over at the thought of him leaving for LA again. This isn’t like the last time. I know he’s coming back, but it still stings.
“It would mean a lot to me to have you there.”
I blink. “Oh, right. I forgot that attending a more public event was in our contract.”
Griffin steps closer, cupping my cheeks with his hands.
His palms feel warm and strong against my skin.
“I don’t want you there because of a stupid contract.
I want you there because I can’t imagine enjoying the night without you.
” He tilts my head back, making me meet his eyes.
“I want to show you off to the world, so every single person in it knows you’re mine. ”
It’s official. I’m a gooey, melted puddle on the floor, because what kind of man says things like that? It’s no wonder his latest movie did so well. I think I need to watch it now. For research purposes only, of course.
“When would we be gone?” I ask. “School starts back up on the sixth.”
“The premiere is on the fourth, so I thought we could fly in on the third and fly back on the fifth.” He runs his hand along my hair. “I understand if that cuts it too close to school—”
“No,” I cut him off. “I’d love to go support you.”
Griffin’s mouth tilts up into the lopsided grin I’ve come to love. “I’ll arrange a dress shopping trip for you in LA on the third, then.”
My eyes go wide. “Oh, you don’t need to do that.”
“Let me spoil you, beautiful,” he croons, his voice as silky and smooth as the hot chocolate he made me last night.
There he goes, melting my heart again. “If you insist.”
“I do.”
As I lie in bed that night, those words seem to stick with me for reasons I’m not ready to think about just yet.