St. James

CHAPTER 51

In the blink of an eye it was almost Christmas time and I began getting more and more excited for the season the closer it got. I went crazy with one of my recent paychecks and bought a 4 foot Christmas tree for our condo, complete with lights, ornaments and garland then bought more lights for wrapping around the banister going upstairs to our bedroom. Rushing home after all my purchases I began decorating furiously, wanting the condo to be all decked out in Christmas spirits when Brian got home.

Amazingly enough I got all the decorations and the tree up in enough time that I was able to start dinner for us before Brian finally walked through the door, tired and worn out looking but smiling happily as he took in the Christmas décor I had up. "Wow babe it looks really good in here" he stated with a smile as he leaned down to kiss my forehead before cracking open the beer I had in hand for him. "So...how did the studio work go?" I asked as I worked on dinner while Brian leaned against a wall nearby. "Good...tedious but good. I just hope this album we're working on goes somewhere. We're putting everything we have into it which isn't a lot financial wise and if it bombs then I think we'll be officially screwed" he mumbled under his breath before taking another swig of beer. "Do you have any completed songs done yet? I'd love to hear something you guys have done" I stated with a smile as I stirred the spaghetti sauce evenly. Brian smiled brightly me and nodded his head "Actually I do have a copy of one of our songs...it's a rough cut yet but it's done for the most part" he trailed off as he walked over to the small radio I had on the kitchen counter and popped in the CD. "I think we're calling it 'Beast and the Harlot'" he said over his shoulder as the music started up.

While you could definitely tell that it was still in the rough stages of studio editing I couldn't help but get right into the amazing riffs, tones and rhythm the guys had created with their voices, instruments and background fill ins. "Wow baby this is really good!" I exclaimed loudly over the music, smiling at him as I listened and finished off dinner. The song faded off after a couple more minutes and Brian pulled the CD while I dished out dinner "It really has great potential babe, honest." Brian gave me a hopeful smile and crossed his fingers before shoveling food into his mouth; they obviously hadn't eaten all day while in the studio.

-TWO DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS-

"BABE COME ON! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" I yelled cheerfully up the stairs to Brian as I hoisted my purse up over my shoulder "I SWEAR YOU'RE THE GIRL IN THIS RELATIONSHIP!" I teased back a minute later after Brian still remained upstairs. Brian finally emerged from the bedroom and flipped me off with a smirk as he came down the stairs "Shut up baby, it takes a lot of time to look this good" he teased with comfortable cockiness. "Babe you always look amazing, no matter what" I gushed quietly, wrapping my arms around his waist and craning my neck up to him, batting my eyes as I did so. Brian smirked down at me before leaning down to peck my lips softly a few times and rubbing my biceps briskly with both hands. "Come on angel, let's go get our pup" he stated with childlike happiness before taking my hand and tugging me out the door.

Brian and I decided for Christmas we would get a puppy and make that a present for the both of us since we didn't have a lot of money to splurge on each other. I had found a few ads in the paper for different breeds of puppies and Brian and I struggled over finding the right kind of breed for us before finally settling on a few different breeds. Yesterday we went and looked at lab puppies and while they were cute and cuddly Brian wasn't really keen on the idea of how big they would get. "If we go on the road I want something we can bring with us babe" he stated after we left the breeders house empty handed. This morning we were going to a breeder who was breeding both toy poodles and Maltese puppies so secretly I was hoping Brian would like one of these two breeds...they were small, travel size and easier to take care of than a larger dog.