Hide Your Fires

27: Come On

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no."

"And I said please."

"Tate, there's no way that I'm going to do that," I tell him, shaking my head as I'm wrapping up a build your own roller coaster thing that I'm giving Jude for Christmas. I kind of procrastinated wrapping presents to the last minute so Matt oh-so kindly took Jude to build snowmen in the park down the road so that I can wrap the presents and this is one of those wonderful times that having a boyfriend comes in handy because I'm making Tate help me wrap them too.

"Oh come on, it won't be so bad," He assures me, finishing up the present that he's wrapping, which is a new pair of shoes for Matt but they're not just a pair of shoes, they're really special, really expensive that Tate had told me that he wanted (because ever since Jude broke his arm, Matt won't let me spend any money on him at all so he wouldn't tell me what he wanted for Christmas). "You'll love my mom, she's great."

"She sounds awful," I tell him bluntly, starting on the next present. Christmas is in two days so I don't have that much time and these are the presents that "Santa" is going to bring Matt and Jude (because I force Matt to believe in Santa for Jude's sake) so I'll have to put them under the tree in the middle of the night on Christmas. Another perk of having a boyfriend: He can put up a Christmas tree with Matt while I offer some really inspirational moral support from the sidelines. "She turned you over to the police for trying to defend her. That's so awful."

"Okay, so she's unexplainably faithful to her rotten boyfriend but he isn't going to be there. It's just going to be me and my mom and when it's just me and her, everything is so awkward after the incident with her boyfriend. And she wants to meet you, so it's a win-win."

"It's a win-win-lose, because I'm the one losing," I point out stubbornly. He's going to dinner tonight with his mother because she'll be going to Jamaica with her boyfriend for Christmas (gag) and so she wants to have dinner with him before she leaves and Tate obviously wants me to go with him but I obviously don't want to go. Ever since Tate told me what happened between him and his mom, I can't really get myself to like the lady. I mean, her boyfriend attacked her but when Tate tries to intervene and do something about it, she strikes out against Tate like it was his fault? Tate is so caring and wonderful and it really makes me angry that his mother used those amazing qualities against him.

"I'm also terrible with parents," I pipe as another reason as to why I shouldn't go tonight.

"I know that's a lie," He says with a small laugh. "I saw you handle all of the parents at Jude's birthday party and you were like a total professional. Look, I know that I haven't really painted a pretty picture in your mind of my mother but I will pinky promise you that she isn't terrible. We have our differences about her boyfriend but other than that, it won't be so bad."

"I have so much to do though," I continue, now running out of reasons to say no. It's not only that I really don't like the woman, it's also that I don't know how to have dinner with a boyfriend's parents. Considering Tate is my first and only boyfriend ever and although I've met his father, he's never really around so I've never had dinner with him. I see him at Tate's house sometimes but I'm rarely ever over there and it's just a polite 'hello-goodbye' thing. A full dinner though, I can't do that.

"What do you have to do other than wrap these presents?" He wonders with raised eyebrows. "Your last day of work until after the New Year was yesterday and everything is ready for Christmas to happen- even the Christmas dinner that you've got so planned out is as prepared as it's going to get until Christmas actually comes. I know that you don't have any good excuses right now and I know that you don't really want to do it but please, Hallie? Think of it as my Christmas present."