Impress Me Not: The Architect

Chapter 41

"Oh, I'm acting like a mom?" Lou asked. "Alright, then. Let's get some more light into your room."

"No, Lou, don't!"

It was too late. There wasn't barely any light outside since it was winter, but that didn't stop his asshole brother. He turned on his bedroom lights, making his eyes burn as they desperately tried to adjust.

"Get up, lazy ass!" Lou laughed. "Don't make me use force!"

"I'm up, I'm up!" he laughed with him, covering his eyes. "No need to fucking blind me!"

"Oh, there's very much a need, Salty," he argued. "I should just call up your boyfriend right now and tell him to get you up!"

"He's got a boyfriend?" Noel asked from down the hall.

"He's joining us for dinner," Lou answered for him. Valentino was slowly getting up, dreading the conversation he was going to have to have with his father. He told Lou that he would be alright with spending Christmas with him, even though he still hated him for what he did. It was the least he could do for his brother. Lou always wanted to see their dad. Valentino understood, but didn't at the same time.

Personally, he wanted to punch him in the face.

"Well dang," Noel chuckled. "I shoulda gotten another present or something."

"It's okay," Valentino said as he walked out into the kitchen. "You don't have to."

"I'm more surprised you didn't react to the boyfriend part," Lou said, getting a thousand ingredients out.

"Nah," Noel waved the thought off. "I had a hunch that he could have wound up that way. I never cared about grandchildren anyway. I'm too old to be a grandfather for the first time."

Valentino rolled his eyes at the two of them. They talked so comfortably. He didn't get it. He would never understand how you could let something like what he had done go and be laughing and joking as if it didn't happen at all.

He really hoped Casimir came early. He needed some kind of ground if he had to deal with biting his tongue all day.

It wasn't too much prep work. They had gotten most of it done the night before. Once the ham was in the oven, they cleaned up and made sure that everything else was still looking good. The only thing that they hadn't made was the dessert. Lou and him might make some good food, but baking was its own kind of hellish skill to learn. He remembered when Lou tried to make a cake from scratch for him one time and almost burnt the kitchen down.

Man, that was hilarious. His whole face was singed beyond belief.

"Well, since we have some time," Noel said. The man was sitting down in the living room. "I wanted to give you guys something."

He didn't look that bad, Valentino would say that for the man. Lou and him got their looks from their father. That was why they looked so similar, even when they had different mothers. Noel had shorter hair than them, but he had the same eyes and just about the same build. They were all made to be skinny, no matter how much beer they drank or fatty food they ate. Although Valentino wasn't one to test that.

"Are we doing the gift exchange early?" Lou asked, settling down on a chair. He had probably been up since the crack of dawn making sure that everything was all going to be perfect for tonight.

"Well, I was thinking about it," Noel said. "But I'm not sure now that I was told last minute that someone else is coming."

"You were more of a last-minute thing than him," Valentino rolled his eyes again.