29. Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Riley
November
Hot Nerd 3
Are you ready to put up Christmas decorations tonight?
Riley
It’s November 1st. Emery will kill us if we put them up before Thanksgiving.
November is Christmas time. We can put them up at my apartment. She’ll never have to know.
Oh no, you’re one of those.
Did you start Christmas music this morning?
You know I did.
I don’t know if this is going to work out.
No need to be such a Scrooge. Come over tonight and let me show you the light side.
You going to fill me with some Christmas cheer? *winking emoji*
Riley Elaine Harrison, are you sending me innuendos while you are supposed to be teaching children?
Maybe.
No funny business, only Christmas spirit.
Warm spices flooded my nose when I opened the door of Matt's apartment. He stood over the crockpot on his counter stirring something and dancing to the music playing over the bluetooth speaker on the bar and wearing a checkered Christmas apron. “Thai curry soup,” he explained when he looked up to me.
“It smells amazing.” I dropped my bag on the table by his door and kicked off my shoes before making my way over to him. “Ready to fill me with some Christmas cheer?”
He laughed and pulled me into his arms. “We have to make the snickerdoodle cookies first and then we’ll get started on the decorations.” He kissed me and I wrapped my arms around his neck pulling him closer. “Hi, sweetheart.”
“Hi. How was your day?”
“I started all my kids on the music for the Christmas concerts today and now I get to see you and decorate for my favorite holiday. It’s been a great day.”
I smoothed my fingers over the creases of his goofy smile and then pulled him in for another kiss. “I’m happy I get to be part of your great day.”
“Every day with you is a great day.”
The song playing changed to It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas and he looped his arms around me swaying me with the music. He moved his mouth lip syncing with the song. My heart swelled watching the happiness on his face.
“You never told me why Christmas is your favorite holiday.”
His smile grew until his eyes were barely open. “It’s my mom’s favorite and growing up she always did everything she could to make it magical for us. The cookies we’re going to make tonight were the ones she always made with us before we put up the decorations. My dad told me once that he was a strong believer in saving Christmas for December until he met my mom. He said he would keep the decorations up all year if she wanted because he loved how happy it made her.”
“My parents always tried to do all the Christmas things with us, but I could always tell how much it stressed them out. It kind of lost the magic for me once I was old enough to notice.” I tucked my head against his shoulder and ran my hands up and down his back.
I pulled away from him and looked over at the stack of totes in the middle of his apartment floor. His fingers brushed my hair back as he gathered it into a messy bun on top of my head. He slid a scrunchie from around his wrist to secure it. He always had a scrunchie ready for me. “Will you let me make it magical for you now?”
“That sounds perfect.” I spun around to beam at him. He held out an apron for me to put on before resuming dancing around the kitchen as he pulled out the cookie ingredients. I wanted to be part of this tradition with him every November 1st for the rest of my life.
If he doesn’t change his mind.
He sang along to the music as we worked our way through the handwritten recipe. The handwriting on the card was a neater version of his and I wonder which things about him came from which of his parents. Clearly, his passion came from his Mom but his unselfish love came from his Dad. I wondered what being loved by him without me putting roadblocks in his way would feel like.
He held up the mixer attachment once the cookies were in the oven. “Want a taste?” He ran a finger over the paddle and licked the raw dough from his finger.
“Matt, there are raw eggs in that.”
He laughed. “It’s actually the raw flour that you need to worry about.” He offered it to me again. “Almost 30 years of this and I haven’t gotten sick yet.”
I shook my head. He shrugged and put the paddle in the sink.
We ate our soup standing over the bar while the cookies baked. Matt pointed to different spots in his apartment walking me through the vision he had for the décor. When we finally started going through the totes, I was blown away by the amount of things he had.
“Are you sure this is all going to fit? I think you might have Emery beat for the gold medal in over-decorating.”
He pulled a Santa hat down over my head, my bun making it stand straight up. “It might take some creative thinking, but we’ll make it work.”
The Christmas tree was so tall it touched the ceiling so we couldn’t put a topper on it. Every inch of his apartment was covered in Christmas when we finished. I nibbled on another snickerdoodle as I watched Matt scratch the back of his head as he took it all in.
“To be fair, I used to live in a house with way more space for all this. I didn’t realize how much stuff I had. I guess it is a lot for this tiny one-bedroom apartment.” He turned to where I sat at the bar, still in my apron and hat. He crossed his arms and ran his eyes over me.
“What?” I asked with a mouthful of cookie.
“I could get used to this sight,” he answered. He joined me at the bar and picked up a cookie. “Thank you for today. It’s been a while since this tradition has felt like this.”
I watched him chew while I waited to see if he would share what that meant. I knew he had spent most of the last two Christmas seasons by himself, coming back home to his parents’ once school let out for the holiday break, but I didn’t know if there was more to it than that. I wondered if his ex had indulged in the tradition with him or if she had given him a hard time.
“Thank you for letting me be a part of it.” Sitting there with him beaming at me I knew that I would do everything I could to make sure he had all the magic he wanted for Christmas. I understood what his dad said about his mom. I’d celebrate Christmas all year long for the rest of my life if he wanted. Getting to see that look on his face made me happier than anything else ever did.
I bit into another cookie to keep the words that were on the tip of my tongue back.