10. Will
Chapter 10
Will
“Chai latte!” a girl behind the counter calls.
Stepping up, I grab my drink and take the first sip to prepare for the heavy snow that’s been falling for days now.
“Oh, excuse me, sir?” The girl behind the counter walks back up with a bag in her hand.
“Yeah?” She blushes as I turn and face her.
“You’re friends with Callie Reyer, right? You live in the same building?”
“Uh, yeah…we do.” I’m not sure if I should be alarmed by these questions. I’m used to being recognized, but not exactly for my affiliation with a fiery red head.
“Great! She called in a ginger tea, but our delivery guy just left and forgot her order. Could I trust you to bring this to her? I sealed it up and gave her a coupon for next time. I could wait for him to come back. I didn’t want her?—”
“I'll take it to her,” I say, cutting her off. I probably should’ve hesitated, given I’ve been avoiding Callie over these past few weeks. After our…hug…moment on Thanksgiving, things have been a little awkward.
We ran into each other in the hallway the next day and we tried to have a conversation, but it was like neither of us knew what to say. She’s my teammate's little sister. My neighbor and co-worker. And that’s all we will be, so my first plan in making sure it stays that way was avoiding her. But here I am again bringing her this tea because I can’t stand the idea of her having to travel out in the snow to get it or hell, waiting on the delivery guy to come back.
Taking the bag from the girl she thanks me incessantly, which isn’t necessary. She doesn’t realize that she asked me to do the one thing I’ve been dying to do for three weeks now—take care of Callie…as her friend.
The walk back to the apartment only confirms my decision to bring this drink to her. I know if they would have called and asked if she wanted to wait, she would have tried to walk in this mess. Thick snowflakes have been falling all morning. It’s actually kind of beautiful, that is until the wind chill hits. I can hear her now saying she’s freezing her freckles off. I can’t have that.
As I reach her door, I can hear the Christmas music playing so I knock a little louder to make sure she hears me.
I hear some shuffling around, then the music turns down a bit, then more shuffling right before I hear, “Shit!”
“Callie?”
She opens the door with her hair piled up in a bun and freckles not covered up by any makeup. This is my reward in itself.
“Hey, Will. What’s up?” Her voice sounds off as she favors her right leg.
“You okay?”
Scrunching her nose, she pouts. “I just rammed my toe into my coffee table.” She stands up straighter trying to come off strong. “I’ll survive though. Is everything okay? I was kind of hoping you were my ginger tea.”
I hold up her bag. “This one?”
Her eyebrow quirks as she takes the bag and walks back into her apartment leaving the door open for me to come in. “Was the multi-million-dollar contract not enough? Had to take a job as a delivery man?”
I chuckle. “Only for you.” That came off stronger than I intended. “I was at Spilled Tea this morning and the girl behind the counter knew we were friends so she asked me to bring it to you. Apparently, the delivery guy forgot yours.”
That soft smile tugs at her lips. “You went to Spilled Tea?”
“I like the chai lattes, okay?” I admit. “You were right, it’s better than coffee.”
She lets her smile grow slightly before taking her first sip.
Not wanting to stare, I look around her place and notice the absolute disaster state it’s in. “What the hell is going on here?”
It looks like Santa threw up and didn’t stick around to clean it up. There are tangles of lights piled on the floor, three boxes of what looks like different sets of ornaments, a box of stuffed Christmas decor, then one long box which I’m assuming is the tree.
“Okay, I know it looks like a mess.” Callie walks to the edge of her living room looking at everything on the floor. “I’m going to get it all up, I just got a little overwhelmed with the lights being in a giant knot. But now that I have my tea to start my day properly, I can try again.”
“Do you need any help?”
She turns to me with a look on her face that’s hard to read.
“I…um…” This is a bit of how our conversation a few weeks ago went. Started out normal then sputtered out about halfway in. Already preparing to leave, I’m taken back when she says, “Yeah, actually, I do.”
Thank fuck.
“Okay, what’s up first?”
Callie looks at me and my heart clenches in my chest. Back in Seattle I only knew her as overly positive from a far, but now, I see that when she’s around crowds or strangers. And right now, in the comfort of her own home, I’m seeing her soft smile with genuine excitement in her eyes.
“The Christmas tree!”
Callie walks in her living room and gestures to the box. “You should have seen me dragging this thing in yesterday. Adam didn’t answer his phone, so I decided to lug everything in myself. While the feminist in me was proud, I’m positive the surveillance footage is highly comical.”
I snort a laugh at my situation. I thought my pull to be around Callie came from the desire to take care of someone again. But at the same time, I like that she’s independent.
“Well, since you did all the heavy lifting to get it up here, why don’t I put it together?”
Callie takes a sip of her tea. “I’m going to take you up on that, but I would like to acknowledge that I can do it.” She laughs.
I set my drink down and pull off my coat. “I know you can, Blaze, but let’s not let the fire get out of control when dealing with flammables.”
Callie scoffs like she’s offended but there’s a touch of her true smile there. “We never joke about fire safety, William.”
I can’t help but let a full laugh escape. I don’t remember the last time I did that with anyone but my family.
After assembling her plastic tree, I join her on the floor to help untangle the giant ball of lights. We’ve made small progress and have it separated into two parts.
“Callie, please tell me when you thrifted this giant mess of lights, that you made sure they worked.”
Biting her lip, she hums. “Well…”
“Cal—”
“Hear me out, okay?” She shoots up on her knees dropping the tangle that was in her lap so she can use her hands as she explains herself. “It was one giant ball, and I didn’t know where each and every end stopped and started.”
Knowing she’s not done defending her thinking, I rest my head on my hand, listening intently. I should probably tell her she doesn’t have to explain herself, but I let her continue.
“But!” She holds her finger up ready to dive into the full story. “I did find one end, so I plugged it in, and one strand definitely lit up. I also asked the nice little old lady working there and she said that they were a new donation. So, I was hoping that maybe it was the knot that made the people throw them out because, I mean, look at it, I might have thrown them away too.”
“And we can’t throw them away now because…?”
Rolling her eyes, she huffs, “Because if they do work then I got a bunch of lights for five dollars and that’s a bargain!”
I try to hold back my laugh, I really do.
“Will! Stop laughing! Here, look we got some more ends out at least, why don’t we test those now?”
“Oh, let’s.” Standing I take mine over to an outlet on the wall. “And so help me, if even one of these doesn’t work, I’m going out and buying you all new Christmas lights.”
She scoffs as she stands bringing her tangle with her. “You will not.”
“I most certainly will. I’ll even buy the most expensive ones just to spite you.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen because they are all going to work.” Callie shoves her bundle against my chest. “Go on, light ‘em up.”
I’m pretty sure something has already been lit by Callie Reyer, but I can’t tell if it’s going to go out or fully ignite anytime soon.
Kneeling down by the outlet, I plug the first one in and it immediately lights up with a warm glow.
“Ha!” Callie claps her hands in excitement.
“Okay, that was one. You’ve got three more to go.”
“Yeah, yeah, hurry up. You’re wasting detangling time.”
Plugging in the next one Callie does another small victory dance when it lights up the same as the first. Her dance gets a little bigger at the third, but as I reach for the last plug, I can already tell it’s a different plug from the others. Oh, please God let this one be a dud so I can buy her non-knotted ones.
I plug it in, and it immediately lights up…in multicolor.
“Alright, I win. I’m going to get new ones.” I stand back up ready to head for the door, but Callie shoots in front of me.
“You are not! You didn’t win! Excuse me, but that looks like it’s working to me.” Callie gestures back to the multicolor strand on the floor.
“I can see that, but it’s a completely different type of light, Callie. Those two colors are probably all mixed together, so half of them you won’t even use.” I try to step around her, but she follows me.
“Who says I won’t use both! Maybe I want to mismatch the lights. Have you looked around my place before?! It’s all mismatched! And just so we’re clear, you said that you would buy new lights if one of them didn’t work and they all do.”
“Callie, they’re in a giant knot. Will you please let me buy you new ones?”
And here we are again, every emotion shown on her face. Her smile disappears and the light in her eyes dim. “No, I bought these. I’m going to use them. You don’t have to help me. I can do hard things, Will.”
She steps to the side and walks back over to pick up her lights before plopping down on her couch with a sigh.
Well, shit. I know she can do hard things, but what’s the harm in me taking care of something so small like buying her new lights?
I guess that’s not really the point though. Didn’t I just say I liked her independence too?
Sitting on the opposite end, I hold out my hand. “Give me one.”
Looking up, she wants to argue, I can see it. “But you?—”
“Callie, if I can’t do it for you, then I’m going to help you, so give me one.”
“Okay,” she mumbles, tossing one to me.
She looks down at the mess, starting to unknot what she can then huffs. “Look, I get that this is annoying to undo, and I know that I should just buy new ones, but I like the challenge. I like that these are something I bought, and I don’t know, it feels like it’s more fun this way.”
“You don’t have to ex?—”
“But I want to.” She shifts facing me on the couch with her legs crossed. “I want to explain. All my life, Christmas was done for me. People came in and decorated the whole house with these extravagant lights and fancy decor that I was never allowed to touch. Our Christmas trees were quite literally perfect, nothing out of place. No ugly ornaments that we made in school, only classical Christmas music, and never ever did we have mismatched lights. So, yeah, this might be annoying, and it might not look amazing, but it’s mine. I did it. And that’s why I want to sit here and fight these damn knots.”
Well, I think I fucked up here. “Callie, I’m sorry.”
Shrugging, she leans back on the arm rest. “It’s okay, I get what you were trying to do. It’s just…Christmas is also my birthday, and I guess I’ve always resented it a little.”
“Hold on. Your birthday is on Christmas?”
“Yuppp, it kind of sucks, honestly. My parents always said we would ‘float’ my birthday out so I could have a party when it wasn’t the holidays, but that never really happened. I guess I just thought since I’m not going back home this year, I could try to reclaim both. That’s why if you look under the box with the snowman and reindeer pillows there’s also old curtains that I want to DIY into streamers. And I picked up a bag of balloons from the dollar store next to my thrift shop. So, I know I didn’t mean to buy multi-color lights but it kind of works.”
Oh, so I hate her parents. “So, let me get this straight. You never got to decorate for Christmas and then you never had an actual birthday?”
She shakes her head. “Nope.”
“And Adam never said anything growing up?”
“What was he supposed to say? We were both stuck at those miserable parties. At least he would actually tell me ‘Happy birthday,’ but there was nothing else he could have done.”
That’s the part I don’t get. I would never let my sister’s birthdays pass without doing something. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”
Letting out a breath, Callie pulls out one whole strand from the pile in her lap with a smile. “I could look at it that way, I guess. Adam had his own stuff with our parents, and it affects him more than he lets on. But I can’t change what happened. What I can do is decorate my living room in the tackiest Christmas-slash-birthday party combo you’ve ever seen.”
“And I’ll help.”