Shameless

Christmas is all Around- Part 1

Stevie looked around the room, satisfied at the outcome. She certainly knew how to throw a good party. Pretty much every guest had arrived: family,  friends, exes, exes current  wives, artists, managers and producers. The champagne flowed freely: For her an important component of a good party. Just one guest hadn’t arrived yet. He’d promised he would come, which meant a lot to her. She knew he hated these sort of things, much preferring time alone over what in his mind probably was an overcrowded waste of time and energy. Other than a secret phone call now and then, they hadn’t seen each other since their last show before Christmas break, and though it had only been under a week, she missed him. She blushed thinking of their goodbye. It had been quite…intense. Problem was, it only left her craving more. Even so, more than just the physical, she needed to see him, talk to him, laugh with him. Knowing they weren’t even close to halfway until the tour started again, she knew it would only get worse.

Stevie stood in the middle of a group consisting of both friends and exes as Don Henley, incidentally fitting both descriptions, joined: “Stevie!”  He gave her a quick hug before continuing “And almost the entire Mac, usual suspect missing. Trouble?”  Feigning  exasperation, Stevie still tried to make a point: “Why does everyone always assume that we must be fighting no matter what?  Looked at each other: must be fighting. Didn’t look at at  each other: must be fighting. Not here yet:  Someone’s  pissed off!”. Not derailed, Don kept on: “Seriously Stevie, I think that’s your own fault, really. I mean, is it really an irrational assumption when something is right nine out of ten times?”.  Everyone, even Stevie, laughed at the truth of that one, as her eyes instinctively were drawn to the door. Dark pants, shirt and a blazer, no tie. No one could ever make him wear a tie. Frankly, getting him to wear something other than jeans these days were, mildly put, difficult. He hadn’t seen her yet she noted, as she absentmindedly traced her fingers along her collarbone, smiling, as he scanned the room and finally laid eyes on her. “Stevie?” “What?”. Don smiled: “I said you’ve wandered under the mistletoe” Stevie looked up and realized she had just that. He gave her a quick peck on the lips, and she jokingly rolled her eyes, taking a step forward, away from the mistletoe. Her eyes quickly found Lindsey again, who at that point had been trapped and seemed to be in deep conversation with another group. He was looking in her direction though, and pointedly raised his brow. She shrugged, and couldn’t help but smile a little. Old possessive Lindsey was an ass. Aware, but still jealous Lindsey was cute. She saw him as he managed to excuse himself, and walked in her direction. Stevie pretended to listen to the conversation surrounding her, all the while aware of his every step. He joined the group, and gave her a hug hello, before greeting the others. ”“Not sick of us yet?” Mick bellowed as he approached. “Not all of you” he grinned, still keeping his eyes planted on Stevie, as Mick kept on: “All alone tonight?” “Yeah, they’re with her family, she told me she would try to stop by later”, turning to Stevie  “Sorry I’m late” he said, looking apologetically at  her. She knew the 'sorry' part had nothing to do with being late.  She smirked and took a step back: “Guess you’ll just have to be extra festive to make up for it”, pointedly signaling upwards to the mistletoe now above her once more. Lindsey glanced at Don, too quick for anyone else to pick up on, “Fair enough, as long as 'festive’ doesn’t involve me singing Rudolph” he grinned as he closed the distance between them, and with his hands on her waist, bent down for a gentle kiss. Lips a little too familiar, a little too lingering ,and a little too parted to be considered platonic by anyone. “Merry Christmas babe” he whispered and gave her a quick kiss on the nose for good measure. Both trying not to look too pleased, turned their attention back to the others. Stevie thought to herself that, sometimes, it came in handy that most who knew them accepted that everything they did was on a separate scale for normality from anyone. Everyone simply filing it under 'behavior normal only for Stevie and Lindsey’.

*Thanks for reading! Turns out I love writing :) Had to split this chapter, and this ended up the definitive shorter of the two. The next will be posted within the next day or so, depending on how busy I am (It will also be significally more 'late at night'). In the meantime: I'm not a native English speaker. I get that I will always make mistakes here and there, but if there's something I do wrong, more systematically, feel free to let me know, either in the comments or PM.. I think my speling and vocabulary is ok(?), but can't help but think my own grammatical structure sometimes takes precedence over the actual English one . Can't learn until I know what I do wrong :). I will not get hurt over constructive criticism, promise!*