A Christmas to Remember

9: Jack

How could she just move on like that? Like not sleeping with anyone for an entire year was nothing? I haven’t done that since I lost my virginity at sixteen. Sure, being in the Navy I went a long time without when I was on tour, but still. It was never a f*****g year.

Looking at Emmeline Slater, you would think she could get whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it, and now she was okay with withholding that part of her life for an entire year, just to make sure it wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass. It only seemed fair that I would do the same then…

Fuck me. Why did I have to do that? She even said it wasn’t a problem that I didn’t, that I could just go out and do whatever I wanted - and I didn’t exactly have a lack of options in that department. But just thinking about this twenty-year-old withholding that, and then me going out and having fun… it didn’t seem right, it didn’t seem fair. I would be an even bigger i***t if I did that. So solidarity I guess.

Just watching that barista appreciating her, I could see just how little trouble she would have finding what she needed. I was sure that every man on the goddamn planet wanted just a night with her, hell just an hour if that was all they could get.

“So,” she started, after letting me just sit with this bomb cruising through my mind for a few moments, “I understand we’re celebrating Christmas in Vermont?”

Right, of course, Mrs. Smith would have briefed her about that too. I was relieved that she had apparently told her about the no-love match too, making it easier for me to just be natural with her. It made my heartbeat spike when she mentioned it. Totally fair of her to also set up some rules, I couldn’t really blame her for wanting to protect herself in that kind of way. Not wanting us to be affectionate with each other unless it was out in public, where we actually needed to convince people of what we were. I could also appreciate the total honest policy, something I valued in the people I surrounded myself with. It was hard always trying to decipher whatever people meant when they were around me, but with Em I wouldn’t have to worry about that.

“We are,” I answered, nodding to show her just how true that statement was. “My family has a place up here, and we always travel up there to celebrate Christmas away from the stress of the city.”

“I can appreciate that,” she smiled kindly at me, only making me feel so much more comfortable in this new situation I found myself in. Like it was her job to make me feel good about this, and not just do what the contract demanded of her. “I’ve actually never been, I’m not from around these parts.”

I would have asked her about that last statement if I hadn’t seen the sadness in her eyes. Feeling like it was maybe a little too soon to dive into personal problems and issues. I guess I trusted her to tell me if I needed to know about it.

“It’s beautiful,” I smiled, reminiscing about the many Christmases we had spent up there, just trying to be together and remember the true spirit of what Christmas was really about. “So much snow everywhere, and my mother is just trying to keep peace and quiet for as long as possible. It has become harder and harder for her, the more and more people we become,” I said with a small chuckle, that made Em smile even wider at me.

“How many are you gathering?” she asked, as she took another sip of her hot chocolate. She hadn’t lied when she told me it was good. Normally, I wouldn’t be the type to drink that stuff. However, it was incredibly delicious here. Sure, my motivation to actually get the hot chocolate was only to piss off the barista even more, but I hadn’t been disappointed.

“It’s my parents, of course,” I started, waving my hand while I talked. “My two younger sisters and their husbands too, Carrie has two kids too, and Maggie is pregnant with her first.” I couldn’t help the feeling of pride talking about my sisters, they were incredible people, who always knew just how to make me feel better. “Christian is seven and Celine is only four,” I smiled.

“Good ages,” Em stated, a grin protruding on her full lips. “Do you have pictures?”

“Do I?” I chuckled, which made her giggle in return. Immediately, I started showing her different pictures of my niece and nephew, proudly telling her the stories behind the photos.

“They’re gorgeous,” she smiled into the phone, looking at the Halloween pictures I took last year, showcasing Celine as a bear and Christian as Batman. “You must be a proud uncle then,” she gave me a little glance, before looking down at the screen again, scrutinizing the different stages of their young lives.

“I am,” I affirmed, “they are my favorite people. You can always count on Celine to tell you the hard truths and then Christian rolling his eyes at his little sister trying to soften the blow afterward, like he is already some type of middle-aged man embarrassed by his family,” I chuckled.

“Then they’re off to a good start,” she smiled, almost as if she was reminiscing. “A big brother always has to balance the line of embarrassment and protectiveness for his little sister, and trust me, we’re good at eliciting both.”

“You have a big brother?” I asked her, the photos on my phone forgotten, because this was the first piece of information she had given me about her family.

“Two, in fact,” she smiled, “they’re both a little older than me, both married and everything.” She seemed to drift away to memory lane, as if she was trying to remember an important piece of information. “I think Oscar has gotten his first by now, but I’m not really sure.”

I nodded, not wanting to pry into her private family business. “Being a big brother myself, I can relate to your thought process of both being embarrassed and protective,” I smiled, trying to lighten the mood again.

A small giggle erupted from her lips, a sound that sounded almost holy, like it should belong behind the gates of heaven and not some random café in the middle of godforsaken New York. “Well, if he’s already embarrassed by her, then it’ll only get better with age.”

“I hope so,” I smiled, tucking my phone away again. “But yeah, Christmas with the family in Vermont.”

“When are we leaving?” she asked, as if we both just needed to get back to safer ground, somewhere where we both could be comfortable and feel like we had our guards up.

“We’ll leave Sunday the twenty-second, and we’ll be back again Friday the twenty-seventh,” I answered, and watched as she pulled out her phone, putting it on the table and freely opening up her calendar to put in the dates and reserve them as Christmas in Vermont. “I’ll drive us up there and drive you back home again.”

“That sounds perfect,” she smiled, while she was typing in her calendar. “Do you have any other dates I should mark down?”

“New Year's Eve?” I asked her, not wanting to monopolize all of her time. “If you’re not busy that night, then I have an invitation to a celebration.”

“I’ll mark New Year’s too, then,” she smiled, immediately typing it into her calendar as well.

“If you have other plans-”

“I don’t have any plans, Jack,” she gave me an encouraging smile, as if to calm my nerves about this whole thing. “Sure, there might be a party thrown by someone at school, but I don’t have to go to that, I would rather celebrate with you.” She threw that out there like it was nothing, like we hadn’t just met an hour and a half ago. “Anything else?”

“This Friday, I have a benefit I need to attend. Maybe that could be our first outing?”

“Sure,” she typed that in too. “What kind of attire?”

“Black tie and formal,” I answered, pulling out my checkbook. “How much do you need for a dress?” I asked.

Her eyes widened as she looked at my checkbook. “I don’t need that, Jack, I can pay for my own dresses,” she tried to reassure me.

“It’s me forcing you to those events, I’ll pay for the attire you need for those, you just save your money for something else,” I stated, not really leaving it up for discussion. “I’ll get you a card instead, but I’m sure you’re already late with getting a dress, so this-” I wrote a check for $10.000, and ripped it off the checkbook “-will have to do for now, if you need more don’t hesitate to ask.”

“I’m not going to be able to convince you I don’t need this, am I?” she asked, holding up the check.

“I’m afraid not,” I shrugged. “This might just be a contract, Em, but something you should know about me is that I don’t support women, I spoil them, and you will be no exception to that.”

A little hint of pink surged into her cheeks, as she nodded and folded the check before putting it into her purse. “Alright then, but then you should know that I don’t handle getting spoiled well, and that I’ll fight you on everything.”

I couldn’t help the grin that came onto my lips. Could she be more perfect? “I wouldn’t accept any less.”

She cleared her throat, shifting a little in her seat as she crossed her legs underneath the table. “Anything else you’ll need me for next weekend?”

I knew as soon as I showed up with her that Friday, that my entire family would start trying to get to meet her. I hadn’t brought a date to an event since before my army days, mostly because it meant too much to the women I brought. For them, it meant a possibility, a possibility of more than just a date.

My mother would practically salivate to meet Em, she would already start planning the wedding after seeing the pictures of us. My father would want to see why Em was better than the many women he had tried to pry on me. My sisters would want to get to know her, would want to meet her and see if she could fit into our trusted little circle. I knew she would, I knew Em would fit right in next to Carrie and Maggie.

“I think we should ease you into meeting my family, and I think the safest people to start with are my sisters,” I explained, while she nodded along, agreeing with my assessment. “So, if we could meet for brunch on Sunday?”

“What time?”

“10?” I asked. When do you eat brunch?