Santiago
I fix my collar in the mirror, combing through my hair a final time. "You look sharp, tad bit too classic for my taste." Matteo comes into my room looking at my black suit with a regular white button up.
"Is that what you're wearing?" He nods giving me a 360.
"Closest thing to fancy I'm gonna get." I roll my eyes at him and flick the edge of his hat.
"Come on, Vera will be here in a minute." We are going to Vera's for Thanksgiving. Both of our friends and Matteo are coming. She's been wanting to drive everywhere since I got her that car. It's honestly adorable.
"About that, are you sure I should come. It's not really people I know and definitely not in my age range." Matteo says as we head down the stairs.
"Vera insisted you be there, and I'm glad you're here too. You know I could move you down here so you can be closer." He automatically shakes his head.
"I can't leave mom." I nod knowing he won't budge.
"You know you can still visit anytime though, right?" He smiles right as I get a text from Vera.
"You think I can ride the subway there, never been on one." I raise my eyebrows at him, he's not missing anything, but I let him go anyway.
I get into the car and kiss Vera. She smiles at me and I take in her outfit. I black skirt with a maroon long-sleeve shirt.
"You look gorgeous, amor." She looks over my suit before nodding her head. (Love)
"You don't look to bad yourself." I chuckle as she begins to drive. "Let's play 20 questions, me first, what's your favorite color." I laugh at her giddiness.
"Black. Yours?" She crinkles her nose and I catch the words 'copycat' under her breath.
"Blue, grey, and black. If one had to go, sweatpants or hoodies?" I actually think about it for a moment.
"Hoodies," she gasps and looks at me like I'm crazy. "You still have sweatshirts." She tilts her head in thought before agreeing.
"When did you graduate?" I ask looking over at her.
"High school at 16. College at 18. I started my business at 17 though." She does quotation marks when she says business.
"Why did you do that?" I ask genuinely curious. What she has is a business and a damn good one. She's known all around for helping struggling businesses or helping start one up.
"Because it's not really a business, just a frequent hobby." I shake my head.
"It's not a hobby. It's a business that you should call a business. How did you get into it anyway?" A soft smile forms on her lips.
"My brother and I use to go around random places on the weekends, just to go somewhere. Now that I look back it was probably to get away from our dad, but one day we found Debbie's." Her tone falters when she mentions her dad but it brightens when she remembers Debbie.
"Debbie was a ray of sunshine and Daniel, her husband, was a grump but had a soft spot for her and us. Callum and I talked to them all night, and they told us how they'd have to close down. Cal took some money from our dad and gave it to them, so they could market better and stand on stable ground for a while. Our dad made him pay for it later but he said it was worth seeing them be able to keep their dream alive." I place my hand on her thigh and rub my thumb on her skin. She gives me a sad smile.
"When I lost Callum, they were there for me. I felt like nothing because I had lost my everything. They helped me see that you can have new everything's." She looks over at me and smiles. "And I'm thankful for mine."
I smile back and kiss her forehead. "I'm thankful for mine too."
...
We arrive at her apartment, but before we enter, she hesitates.
"What is it?" She turns to look at me and blows out a breath.
"I'm nervous. I'm meeting your family for an extended period of time. What if they don't like me?" I fight the smile trying to cover my face.
"You're nervous to meet Alex and Cam? Cam is the least serious person I know, and Alex barely talks and Mila and him are together. You were going to meet him eventually anyway. They know about us. They're basically my brothers. Nothing will happen. I promise." Vera looks at me with doe eyes which confuses me.
"You called them your brothers." I roll my eyes. "Yeah it's cheesy, I know. Don't tell them I said that, their heads would get too big." She smiles and lets out one more breath and opens to door. Mila and Alex are sitting on the couch cuddling, and Jasper is looking at Cam with the fire of a thousand suns.
Good to know they're getting along.
"Hey guys, Happy Thanksgiving." Mila says, rising up from Alex's arms. I see a small pout from him, but Mila tilts her head at him and beckons him to greet us too. He does reluctantly. Mila hugs Vera and they start talking about what they're wearing. Alex and I just nod at each other. Mila and Vera's talking comes to a halt.
"You guys don't hug?" Mila asks looking between the two of us.
"No, they're big, bad mafia men." I glare at Vera as she tries to bite back her smile.
"But it's Thanksgiving, give thanks, please." Mila pulls at Alex's arm and his exterior starts to crumble. Jesus, he's whipped. His eyes dart to mine and mine look to Vera. Her eyebrows are raised at me. Fucks sake.
We start inching towards each other and slowly lift our arms. We hug for three seconds pat each other on the back and depart.
"Do you see what pussy has done to my friends. It's a tragedy." Our heads snap to Cam and his eyes go wide. We both charge for him, but he's quicker. He loops around the kitchen island and hides behind Vera and Mila.
"Don't let them kill me, I'm too young." Vera laughs and shakes her head.
"You know they won't be with you all the time, and I'm quite sure the assassin and mafia boss will find time to kill you later." Jasper says with a smirk. He seems to be enjoying this intensely. Cam sticks his tongue out at Jasper and uses the girls as shields for any potentially flying objects.
"My Thanksgiving and only off day this month will not be ruined by your blood on my rug so neither of you will kill him today. Today we will stick to my agenda." I look at Vera, agenda? She nods and mouths 'control freak'.
Mila pulls out a paper labeled agenda. "Okay, first-" Her words die short when Cam snatches the agenda, rips it up, and throws it in the trash.
"Come on Mila, loosen up. Thanksgiving is for food and fun not agendas." Mila looks at him agape.
"Ok, you can kill him now." Cam screams when we start chasing him again.
...
Later Matteo arrives, he talks about how he got lost and this girl from a diner helped him. I could tell by the way he talked about her he liked her.
We played board games and watched movies. Once all the food was done Mila realized she had forgotten the cranberry sauce. She went into a frenzied panic which Jasper and Alex calmed her down.
Jasper volunteered to go look for some. Mila insisted that Cam joined him so they could make sure they didn't overlook it if there was any. Jasper was positive he didn't need help, but eventually he did what Mila asked.
After an hour of searching they found some and we ate. We finished eating and decided it was time we all headed out.
"Thanks for hosting. The food was awesome. We'll have to hang out again sometime." Cam says more to Jasper than anyone else.
"Of course it was nice having you all over and meeting you, Matteo." Mila says smiling at Matteo.
"It was nice meeting you guys too, bye." Matteo says heading out the door, Cam does too. Alex kisses Mila then leaves. I walk up to Vera and kiss her head.
"Good night, mi todo." A smile spreads brightly across her face. A kiss her lips and leave. That was the best Thanksgiving I've ever had. (my everything.)