IX
Adversity
"I really am sorry about your car, Lukey." I picked at the bandage my mother had wrapped around my wrist, worried about what I would find in Lucas's eyes.
He sat down beside me in the living room, slinging his arm over my shoulders. "I told you yesterday that it's okay." He bumped into me playfully. "My insurance covers snow accidents. And I wanted a new car, anyway."
I laughed in exasperation. "Your car was basically new."
He shrugged. "I'm just glad you're safe." He smiled softly at me. "You had us all scared shitless." His smile fell. "Especially me."
"I'm sorry I worried you." I laid my head against his shoulder. "Sometimes, or a lot of the time, I just feel like my life is going nowhere. Sometimes the feeling overwhelms me and all I can do is escape."
He rested his head atop mine. "I know what you mean, to feel stuck."
" You ?" I scoffed. "You have a job and money. You have a purpose."
"You think I'm happy just because I make a decent wage?"
I didn't reply.
"I'm just as alone and lost as you are, ‘cuz." At that moment everyone came into the living room, Viktor last to enter. "Now, let's change the subject to something happier, shall we?" Lucas sang, moving away so that I could sit up.
I grinned. "Like what, your fluffy steering wheel cover?"
Viktor chuckled, along with Dad and Uncle Andy.
"Hey! My steering wheel gets cold!" He whacked my arm playfully.
"Don't lie, Lukey; we all know you like how it feels." Viktor dropped down on the other side of me, his shoulder leaning firmly against mine.
Lucas crossed his arms. "Fine, I like it! And I will be putting it in my new car when I get one."
My cheeks heated as all eyes fell on me.
"Your pink convertible?" Viktor grinned.
I looked at him appreciatively for taking the attention away from me.
Aunt Olivia clapped her hands together. "Now, I have something exciting planned for after dinner tonight!"
"Oh, god," Lucas whined. "Please don't tell me it has something to do with those boxes I saw on the counter today."
"It has everything to do with those boxes, Lucas. Don't be a spoilsport."
" No," he whined again, dragging out the word.
"We're going to have a gingerbread house competition!"
"Oh, god," I echoed Lucas.
"I could only get my hands on three kits, so we'll have to team up. Meridith and Nick will be a team, Andy and I, and then you kids can be a team of three."
"A team of three seems unfair to me," Lucas chimed in. "How about Viktor and Callie can be a team, and I'll sit this one out."
"You have to join in on the fun," Aunt Olivia crossed her arms. She knew that Lucas wasn't sitting it out for the kind gesture.
"Oooor," Lucas pursed his lips, "I'll be the judge. Someone has to decide who wins."
Aunt Olivia glowered at her son. "Fine, but you have to sit there the whole time."
"Fine, but I'll complain the whole time."
And that was how we all ended up sitting around the dining table covered in royal icing and arguing about building the best structure well into the night.
The first half of the competition was quiet as each team worked out their game plan. Viktor wanted to draw the gingerbread house on a piece of paper to work out where the structural support needed to be. I didn't want to put that much effort into it. Viktor sighed when I vetoed that, but didn't argue. Smart man .
"Five minutes left," Lucas sing-songed, never taking his eyes from his phone, which he had been scrolling through the whole time.
"Shit," I squeaked, trying to hold the roof piece on with my one good hand while Lukas squeezed icing on to secure the piece.
"Don't move it before it dries," he barked, his brows furrowed as if it took all of his concentration.
I dropped my hand, leaving him to hold it there while I reached for the candy pieces used to decorate it. "Just leave the building, it's no hope." I pressed a gumdrop onto the still-wet icing. "We need to distract them with decorating."
"I said don't move it!" Viktor growled through his teeth as the roof piece slipped slightly.
"Just start sticking on candy!" I growled back.
Viktor threw his hands up in the air. Was I getting on his nerves?
"Fuck it," his voice softened. He held the icing packet in one hand, squeezing blobs of icing in random places, using his other hand to stick pieces of candy to the gingerbread without method.
"That's more like it!" I grinned. I grabbed the second packet of icing and squeezed the whole lot to the surface of the board we were building the house on. Ignoring the pain in my wrist and the bandage covering my hand, I used both hands to spread it out, covering any blank space.
A loud chuckle blurted out of Viktor, distracting me momentarily. I looked up at him with wide eyes, my grin falling. I lifted my fingers, rubbing at an invisible spot on my cheek as I watched him. His laughter stole my breath.
"Five, four, three," Lucas counted down.
I snapped back into gear, grabbed handfuls of candy, and dumped them into the wet icing, spreading it out. My hands were sticky, my face was sticky, my bandage was ruined, and my grin had returned.
"Two, ONE!" Lucas stood from his perch at the table, finally lifting his eyes from his phone. "Time is up."
I didn't realize I was breathing so hard – exerted by the final countdown – until I stopped to admire our masterpiece.
"It's beautiful," I covered my laugh with my hand.
Viktor scratched his hair. "It's definitely something."
For the first time since the competition began, I looked at my parents' gingerbread house, and then my Aunt and Uncles. My grin only grew. Theirs were well-planned, well-built, and decorated perfectly. Ours was a mess; barely held together, dripping icing, with clumps of candy here and there.
"Let's line the gingerbread houses up," Aunt Olivia said, pushing theirs across the table to be closer to the middle.
"Because seeing our disaster side-by-side with that will sway Lukey's vote." I crossed my arms while I looked between the three houses.
Viktor placed ours beside the others, standing at my side as we gathered around the table. He crossed his arms, his face a mask. He knew ours was shit and he knew it was because I refused to plan. I wanted to say that I thought planning would take up valuable building time, but it was more the fact that I hadn't cared about the structure. It was fun and I got to do it with the man I was pining over.
"Hmm," Lucas pursed his lip, placing his hand on his chin as he looked between the three gingerbread houses. "Great lines," he said, scrutinizing Mom and Dad's house.
"Don't be a dick," I laughed, noting his sarcasm.
He raised his eyebrows, a small smile playing on his lips.
"Yes, yes, beautifully decorated," he nodded to his parent’s house.
"Rigged," I whispered to Viktor, elbowing him in the ribs to gain his attention.
"Obviously rigged," he agreed.
Lucas continued to hmm and ah as he looked between them. Then he stopped before ours. He was silent for some time, the corner of his mouth twitching as if he were trying not to laugh at our atrocity. As if right on cue, a panel of gingerbread fell from the roof, taking down a wall with it.
At that he did laugh, his shoulders shaking from the effort to contain it. I bit my lip to stop myself from joining in. Viktor shifted beside me, drawing my attention. My eyes widened as they fell on to Viktor's mouth. The corners twitched as he smiled, clearly trying to stifle a laugh. But he didn't hide it this time, his chest rumbled as he chuckled along with Lucas. I had to tear my eyes from him before I threw myself at his feet.
"And the winner is..." Lucas dragged it out way longer than necessary. He pointed at each gingerbread house, his mouth pouted in thought.
"Stop being so dramatic," I whined, wanting the torture over.
"Don't interrupt me, now I have to think all over again."
"God!" I crossed my arms.
"And the winner is...Callie and Viktor!"
I uncrossed my arms, my mouth falling open. "What?"
" What?!" Mom practically yelled. "It's falling apart."
Aunt Olivia and Uncle Andy said nothing, simply smiling as they watched on in amusement.
"Points for creativity," Lucas said. "The others were boring gingerbread houses, but this looks like modern art."
I did laugh then, a loud ha bursting from me. "You're full of shit."
He pretended to stumble as if I had shot him. "Always wounding me with your words." He held his hand to his chest. "But you're still the winner." He lifted a glass of whiskey I hadn't noticed he had on the table beside him. "Congrats." He down the whiskey, before leaving the room, no doubt to refill his glass.
My parents continued to grumble about our win, which I didn't blame them for, as they followed Aunt Olivia and Uncle Andy out to the living room.
I stood there, unsure what to do or say to Viktor. His eyes bore into mine as he snapped off a piece of gingerbread from our collapsed build and bit it. I ran my tongue along the crease of my lips as I watched him chew, watched his throat bob as he swallowed. His eyes never left mine. He slid his thumb into his mouth, sucking the icing from his skin. I gulped, my panties instantly soaked.
"We make a great team, Cal," he sucked on another finger. "God help them all if we teamed up again." Another finger. He smiled seductively, his eyes growing dark, and then he was gone, disappearing outside.