Never Fall in Love with the Fisher Boys

32- Merry Christmas

Apparently, Christmas wasn’t a big deal in the Fisher house. I mean, it was for the two younger boys but other than those two, everybody else just slept in until they were good and ready to wake up. Ace and Alijah had already opened all of their presents with Tom and were investigating the half-eaten chocolate chip cookies on the coffee table for proof of Santa’s existence when Carter and I made our way downstairs.

We had cereal for breakfast because Hastings didn’t work on Christmas and nobody else knew how to really cook anything. I almost offered to make pancakes or something but I had already offered to take charge of Christmas dinner since nobody else know how to do it and I didn’t feel like cooking all day.

So after eating, Anthony, Andy, and Will had made their way downstairs too but Tommy wasn’t going to be here because he had taken Anna to some resort in Jamaica as his Christmas present to her and they left last night.

“Finally, it’s time for presents. I still haven’t been able to figure out what you got me,” Carter told me impatiently as we all gathered in the living room but they lacked the Christmas spirit that I had kind of expected around here. I mean, when it was just me and my mom, we’d celebrate Christmas with a foot tall plastic tree and a few cheap presents back and forth and then she’d drink away the rest of the holiday but here, with a huge family, I had kind of assumed that they’d make a bigger deal out of the holiday. At least here, there was a real Christmas tree and it was really decorated (I helped Ace and Alijah decorate it along with forcing Carter and Andy to help a few days ago) and there were a lot of presents hiding under the pine needles of the tree.

That was the only clue that it was Christmas in the entire house. No other decorations or Christmas music or anything. Much to my disappointment.

“You’re so impatient,” I told my boyfriend as we all grab our presents from under the tree, which takes a while to sort out considering there’s a lot of us but Ace and Alijah help out a bit. I’d only gotten two presents because I’d told the Fishers not to get me a present because I couldn’t afford to buy presents for all of them so I was only exchanging gifts with Carter and Tom since he refused to not get me anything.

“I get to go first,” Carter decided, holding the envelope that contained my present to him. I rolled my eyes at him but nodded and as everybody opened their presents, I eagerly watched as Carter ripped open the envelope. Inside, there was a cheesy Christmas card and then inside, there were four tickets to an LA Lakers game. “Merry Christmas, Carter.”

During one of the many conversations I’d had while getting to know Carter, I’d learned that the Lakers were his favorite team but he’d never been able to get tickets. Which was how I decided that getting him those tickets would be the best present ever. One of the nicest one of my mom’s exes, Marty, works as one of the team’s publicist and he was in Indiana once to see a sick aunt for a few weeks, which was when he had a fling with my mother but he got out quick, saved himself. He did, however, give me his card and tell me to call if I ever needed anything. Marty could tell that my mom kind of treated me like shit so I think he just wanted to make sure that I was okay but when I called him for the tickets, he was happy to oblige with floor seats.

When Carter realized what was in the envelope, his eyes widened. “No way. These aren’t real. How’d you get these?”

I shrugged with a small laugh. “I know a guy.”

“What are they?” Will wondered curiously, leaning over Carter’s shoulder to see the tickets. “Whoa. Way to go, you’ve been wanting those Lakers tickets forever now.”

“Are they…” Anthony took the tickets out of Carter’s hand to examine them before squinting at them like an old man before continuing, “Are they floor seats?”