Chapter 5
Chapter Five
CHARLIE
THE BEST LOOKING THING ON MY TREE
“ H ow did I not know you have this many Christmas decorations?” Brooks whines as he sets yet another box down on the living room floor. “I mean, I love Christmas, but you?”
“Stop it.” I swat at him. “You’ve never been with me to decorate.”
Brooks laughs. “Probably because I would’ve been buried under decorations and then hung up on the tree like an ornament.”
I give my best friend a syrupy sweet smile. “You’d be the prettiest ornament on my tree.”
Brooks winks at me before heading up to his room to grab his own décor. Untangling a box of garlands, I watch as Brooks bounds down the stairs.
“That’s all you have?” I’m flabbergasted at the one small, clear tote he brings out. “What happened to everything else?”
Brooks shrugs a shoulder. “It’s all I wanted to keep after the divorce. Everything else we bought together, but this was mine and I couldn’t get rid of it.”
My heart clangs around in my chest for my best friend. Fucking Delia. I hate her. I mean, I’ve always had it out for her because she got Brooks and I didn’t, but seeing the number she did on him?
I hate her.
“We’ll make sure it’s front and center then.” I bump my shoulder against his.
“You’re the best friend I could have ever asked for.”
Brooks’s words warm me from the inside out as he peels the lid off the container. It’s a mishmash of ornaments, knickknacks, and a special collar for Comet, complete with a bow tie.
“And don’t you forget it.”
“How could I?” Brooks’s face lights up. “If you need proof of that, check this out.”
Brooks holds something up for me to see.
“I didn’t know you still had this.”
I grab the frame from his hand, looking at the picture of us from high school. It was maybe our junior year, and the two of us thought it would be a good idea to make our own ugly sweaters to wear to school. With the other’s face on our own sweater.
It’s the faces of two skinny kids, each wearing their best friend’s face proudly on their chest. It was one of my favorite Christmases because I loved that I could be so ridiculous with Brooks and he would never judge me for it.
“It’s one of my favorites,” Brooks tells me, looking at the photo with me. It made me fall that much harder for him back then, and with his clean scent mixing with the fresh pine, my heart speeds up.
I sigh, setting the picture down on the bookshelf.
“Maybe we should make some more ugly sweaters for this year and wear them on Christmas morning. ”
Brooks bursts out laughing. “Yes. We have to. Maybe we can even make one for Comet to wear.”
Comet lifts his head up to see what we’re doing before going back to his bone that I picked up for him.
“Deal.”
The two of us work together, hanging tinsel on the tree that glimmers in the colored lights we hung earlier this morning.
“For someone that loves his tree so much, I’m surprised your ornaments aren’t perfectly matched,” Brooks tells me, hanging an ornament that I hand painted a few years ago.
A merman with a rainbow fin.
“Because,”—I straighten the ornament—“all of them hold special meaning.”
“What meaning does a half-naked mermaid have?” Brooks laughs.
“Mer man ,” I correct, poking him in his muscular abs. “You just wish your abs were as good-looking as this.”
Brooks pulls his hoodie up, flashing me his stomach.
Fuck. Me. I should not have started this. How does Brooks not know the way he has me drooling over him?
“I think they are.”
“These?” I feel around on his stomach against my better judgment as Brooks shies away from me. “I’d need a map to find them.”
“I guess you just have a thing for mermen.”
“Don’t make fun of him.” I push Brooks out of the way with a hip check. “This was a fundraiser night we did at the tavern. Donate five dollars and you get to paint your own ornament. It was a huge success and it helped people in need over the holidays.”
Brooks studies me. “You’re a good person, in case no one has told you that.”
His words make me blush. “Thanks. ”
“And because you’re a good person, please tell me you are going to do that again.”
“Maybe.”
“Pleeeease?” Brooks pleads. “I want to do it. I want to paint a merman and put ridiculous tattoos all over his chest.”
Brooks pokes at the one now hanging on the tree.
“If I say yes, will that mean you won’t paint the merman I already have?”
He nods. “Yes.”
“Then I’ll make it happen.”
“Best. Friend. Ever.”
A furious blush is now creeping up my cheeks even farther.
Get it together, Charlie, I chide myself.
I watch as Brooks hangs ornaments all over the tree. There is no rhyme or reason to it, and it’s why I love my tree so much.
It’s not perfect. Far from it, actually.
But it’s perfect to me. The memories that cling to the pine branches are of all the holidays, trips, and events that mean more to me than anything else.
By the time we’re done, it’s early evening and the sun has already set. The house smells of sugar from the cookies we made plus the scent of the fresh tree now taking up one corner of the living room. It’s like an explosion of Christmas and I love it.
Garlands hang from the fireplace with Brooks’s stocking holders sitting on the mantel. Christmas throw pillows now cover the couch. Knickknacks line the bookshelves. Every single space in the house has something Christmas on it.
With the snow falling outside and Comet happily chewing on a candy cane-shaped bone in front of the fire, it’s the epitome of a magazine spread inside my house.
After making two cups of hot chocolate with a dash of peppermint schnapps, I carry them into the living room and hand one to Brooks .
Before he even takes a sip, he grabs both cups and sets them down onto the coffee table and pulls me into a hug. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over just how good he smells.
“Thank you for this, Charlie.”
“You never have to thank me. I’m always here for you.”
I squeeze Brooks a little tighter, savoring this moment. I know Brooks will eventually move on.
It doesn’t mean I can’t make the most of the time we have together. I’ll give Brooks the perfect holiday he deserves if it’s the last thing I do.
Then move on.
Even if I might break my own heart in the process.