35. Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Five
Margot
“I’m picking this time,” Alex says, using the remote to scroll through the streaming apps that Danika downloaded onto our TV. It takes him about ten minutes to find something for us to watch and when he finally lands on one, I sigh loudly.
“ Role Models ? Again?”
“If you can watch Pride and Prejudice over and over, I can watch Role Models as much as I want ,” Alex counters, pulling me into his side as the movie starts. I’ve seen this movie now more than a handful of times with him and while I do find it occasionally hilarious, it’s never my go-to movie night option.
Just as Seann William Scott pulls up in a giant medieval cow suit, Danika bursts from her room.
“The dicks are going to Vermont.”
Alex pauses the movie as we both stare up at her.
“Excuse me?”
“My family,” she huffs, sitting in the chair by the TV. “They’re making us go to Vermont for Thanksgiving. My mom got an Airbnb for all of us.”
“What’s so bad about that?” Alex asks.
“I don’t want to go to Vermont. I want to go to South Carolina. I want to be home for Thanksgiving. And it means I have to stay up there for my birthday, too.”
“Well, we’re definitely celebrating your birthday when we get back anyway. And if it makes you feel any better, I’m not going home either,” I say, shrugging my shoulders.
“You’re not?” Alex turns, looking right at me.
Danika sighs. “This sucks,” she groans, heading back into her room and closing the door.
“Why aren’t you going home for Thanksgiving?”
I go to unpause the movie, but Alex holds the remote out of my grasp. “Just can’t swing the ticket this year. It’s not a big deal.”
“Sunshine, if you want to I can—”
I lift my hand to cover his mouth. “Don’t even think about finishing that sentence. I don’t need any money from you.”
Alex kisses the hand covering his mouth and then pulls it off gently. “Of course, I just wanted to help you if I could.”
“And I appreciate that, but Thanksgiving really isn’t a big deal to my family. I just saw my brother when he visited. I’ll see everyone else at Christmas.” I shrug, hopping off the couch to grab some water and a snack. Alex follows me into the kitchen.
“So, what are you going to do instead? Stay here alone?”
“Yeah. I’ve got so much work to catch up on. I’ve fallen way behind with the podcast and everything,” I reply, grabbing two water bottles and a family size bag of chips from the cabinet.
“You should come with me,” he says.
“Come with you where?”
“To Thanksgiving. At my house.”
I halt in my tracks. “Come to Thanksgiving dinner. At the Prescott house.”
Alex hesitates. “Um, yes? Yes, come. Please, come.”
“Are you asking or begging?”
Alex smiles. “I’m not above begging if that’ll get you to say yes.”
I narrow my eyes at him for a moment before moving around him and landing back on the couch. “Are you sure? I don’t want to impose…”
“Yes, I’m positive. In fact, the more I think about it, the more positive I feel. This would be a perfect time to introduce you to my family. I want you to meet my baby brother.” Alex kisses the top of my head before sitting down next to me on the couch. At the very least say you’ll think about it.”
“No,” I reply, popping a chip in my mouth.
Alex draws back a fraction of an inch. “No, you won’t think about it or no, you won’t come.”
“No, I don’t need to think about it. Clearly it’s important to you and I want to meet your family so yes, of course, I’d love to come.”
Alex lunges across the couch and plants his lips on mine. I can’t stop the giggle that bursts through my lips. It’s like I just told him his favorite basketball player was coming to teach him some pointers on free throw shooting.
Once he settles back on the other side of the couch, I still can’t get that grin off my face. I’m just lucky his face matches mine completely.
The ride to Alex’s house is much shorter than I thought it would be. If I lived this close to campus, I would be home visiting my family almost every weekend. Shoot, I might even stay home and save money on an apartment. But I know why Alex chose not to stay home for college and it had less to do with being a Kappa Alpha and everything to do with his father.
From what he’s told me about Oliver so far, I’m expecting to show up, have a pie smashed in my face and get booted right out the door. And if my life were a sit-com, that would probably happen but unfortunately my life isn’t split up into hilarious twenty minute vignettes. Nope, instead I’m going to have to sit through a Thanksgiving meal where a grown man talks down to his adult and teenage sons, pressuring them to commit to a life they don’t want to live, a future they don’t want to have.
When I look over to the driver’s seat, Alex’s face is stoic, as if he’s thinking about the same exact thing as me. Reaching over, I grab his hand, setting it in my lap and squeezing tightly. If there was anyone I would subject myself to an uncomfortable meal for, it was Alex Prescott, the amazing man who has been showing me that, at least, my life can be what I make it, even if his can’t be.