"Am I ready? Ready for what? What are you doing here, Arsen?"
I folded my arms across my chest and shifted on my feet. My initial irritation at seeing him standing in my doorway was quickly waning and began to transform into utter embarrassment as it dawned on me that I wasn't in the usual pristine state he usually saw me in.
As if the sweatpants weren't bad enough, I had barely done anything to the bird's nest on my hair after my dad killed my mood. I looked disgusting, and it would be quite a miracle if he wanted to continue seeing me.
"I'm here to take you to my house," he brushed past me, waltzing into my house as if I had invited him in. "You would have known that if you picked up my phone call after you so rudely hung up on me."
"I thought I made it clear that I had no plans of taking you up on your invitation," I said, patting a section of my wild hair down.
"Red, I'm not going to let you stew in your own misery alone on Christmas Day," he shrugged. "I'm just not. So stop being stubborn and let's go. Everyone's waiting for you, and let me tell you the longer the kids have to wait for the uglier they become. They don't mess around with their presents."
"You told them I was coming over?" I asked, absolutely exasperated. "Arsen!"
"Well, I had to ask my mom if it was okay, and she told me that if I didn't bring you over she would come herself," he gave me a pretty serious look. "You really don't want it to come down to that. Trust me."
I shook my head slowly and looked up at the ceiling. "You know, I really just want to be alone."
"Do you? Honestly?"
A deep sigh parts my lips and my eyes drop from the ceiling to his expectant face. It was unbelievably annoying when he was right, which happened to be most, if not all, the time. After a moment of deliberating whether or not I should flat out lie, I shook my head in resignation.
"That's what I thought. Now put on your shoes and let's go."
"Um, do I look like I can just go?" I asked, motioning to the horrific state I was in.
"What?" He looked me over. "What's wrong? You look good."
"I look good? What about me looks good? The fact that I am wearing sweatpants that do nothing for my figure, or the fact that that my hair looks like it hasn't seen a comb in ten years?"
"Juliet, you've never looked sexier in my opinion."
My body's first response was to send all the blood it had stored right up to my face. That was just automatic. Then, I rolled my eyes because I had a very heavy suspicion he was just humoring me.
"Right. Well, I'm still going to change. Wait here."
"Can you please be quick?" Arsen asked to my retreating back. "We're opening presents not attending a fashion show."
I waved a dismissive hand and disappeared into my bedroom.
Personally, I didn't think I took too long. In fact, I spent a significantly shorter amount of time then I usually did to get ready, skipping over multiple important steps I normally couldn't do without.
So, I found that Arsen's whole impatient demeanor as he waited sprawled out on one of the living room couches to be a tad bit dramatic.
"Oh, just stop it. I wasn't up there for that long," I said, planting my hands on my hips.
"It is going onto forty five minu-," he stopped short mid-complaint, and his eyes widened as they very obviously traveled up and down the length of my body. Multiple times. "Wow."
It took every fiber of my being to not grin like an absolute fool. My stomach curled in excitement as I glanced down at the short red cocktail dress I was donning. I ran my fingers over the tight bodice slightly flared skirt made entirely out of satin.
"What do you think?" I asked innocently as if his initial reaction didn't tell me everything I needed to know about my outfit. "Cute right?"
"Umm...uhh...yeah," he cleared his throat, removing his eyes from my legs so he could look at my face. An action that seemed to be quite forced. "Cute...that's one word. Do you- could you twirl for me? Just so I can see every angle. Give you a well thought out opinion."
I cracked a small smile and did a quick twirl, to which he shook his head.
"A little more slowly," he requested, standing up.
I laughed, shaking my head and turned once more, making sure my movements were exaggeratedly slow. His hum of appreciation sent tingles down my spine.
"And your well thought out opinion?" I asked once I was facing him again.
"Ravishing. You look absolutely ravishing."
"Hmmm, ravishing," I beamed as he closed the space between us to grab my waist. "I like that."
"I like this dress," he said, continuing to eye me like he had never seen a dress before in his life. "I really like this dress. Is it appropriate though for a holiday like Christmas?"
"Oh, Arsen, everything is covered," I giggled as his hands began to trail dangerously low.
"Sure. Just make sure you don't bend over," he placed a light kiss on my neck, just below my ear, which automatically made me tremble and squirm away. He grinned. "Sensitive spot? Good to know."
I began to protest, but a kiss planted on my lips prevented me from doing so, and then he was pulling me along to the front door.
"Come on, come on. No time to waste."
The drive to Arsen's house was quick. Much quicker than it usually was, all in thanks to his speeding. When we walked through the door we were met with a collective yell of relief and immediately pulled into the circle the family had formed in the living room. Among the group of usual faces were Rebecca, her husband Rick, and Brandon.
"Finally!" Olivia cried, she raked a hand through her dark hair, which she must have been doing quite a bit as her hair was all over the place. A great contrast from its usual perfectly in place state. "What took you so long?"
"Juliet was primping," Arsen shrugged, settling into his spot on the floor beside me.
"I couldn't just waltz in here looking any old way," I said defensively, looking around at the accusatory faces. "Is it so wrong to want to look presentable?"
"No offense, Jules, but we wouldn't care if you walked in here wearing a trash bag," Liam said, fidgeting with his fingers as he stared at the heaping piles of gifts. "Today's focus is solely on presents."
I shook my head and smiled over at Monica and Gary who were the only ones seated on the couch. "Thank you for having me over. I don't mean to intrude on your family time. Really-"
"Stop doing that," Gary said sternly, rubbing baby Lucas's back. "You are welcomed in this house any day, any time. You're like the seventh daughter I never had and don't need to pay for. Which actually makes you the favorite."
"Oh, that's nice, Dad," Rebecca rolled her eyes, leaning against Rick's legs. "Very nice."
"So while you two were off, taking your sweet old time, we decided to organize the presents into respective piles," Mia stated, motioning around to the gifts that scattered the floor. "Can you believe we have enough presents to do piles? For each of us?"
"We really hit the jackpot this year," Noah noted. His eyes were bright with excitement, but the usual calculating glint that seemed to always be present was as clear as any day as he glanced over to his parents who were seated on the couch. "Mom? Dad? Did you win the lottery and forget to tell us? Don't you usually just buy us one present each?"
I pursed my lips together as I was hit with the realization that I probably shouldn't be here. Aside from the fact that it was majorly intrusive (no matter what any of them had to say about it), I was about to get majorly chewed out by Arsen when the gifts were unwrapped and he found out I had purchased thousands of dollars worth of gifts for not just him but his entire family.
And he would find out. There was no doubt in my mind he would find out. Two and two would be put together as soon as he saw the first MacBook.
"Don't be silly, Noah!" Taylor laughed, rolling around the floor in what had to be anticipation. Something he had been doing since I walked in. "They didn't buy us anything. Santa must have been really happy about how good we were this year! So he gave us extra presents!"
"Santa Claus isn't re-"
Brandon abruptly grabbed his younger brother and yanked the hood from his sweatshirt over his head to stop him from finishing the sentence. At the same exact time, Mia slapped his thigh and gave him a withering look.
"Ow," Noah whined, trying to squirm away from Brandon's hold. "Come on!"
"Noah, do not go there," Gary warned him. He sounded incredibly exasperated as if they had a few conversations centered around the whole Santa Claus topic before.
"Santa Claus isn't what?" Isabella asked, looking around with wide eyes of confusion.
"Oh, don't mind him, Bells," Olivia waved a hand. "You know, Noah fails to make sense most of the time."
"Funny you should bring up fail," Noah said breathlessly, finally managing to shake Brandon off. "Miss Forty-Seven on my Pre-Algebra Exam."
"Excuse me?" Monica whipped around to look at her daughter, eyes widening. "You got a what on your exam!? Olivia!"
Olivia looked slightly panicked as she tugged on a strand of her hair.
"Mom, I- honestly, it wasn't my fault. It was such a hard exam, and you know everyone failed. It wasn't just me."
"We are going to talk about this later, young lady," she promised her, sitting back with a frown on her face.
"I am going to murder you in your sleep," Olivia hissed at Noah who was smiling smugly.
"Can we open presents now?" Ryan begged, looking like he was mere moments from combusting.
"Well, we have everyone here. Go at it," Gary nodded with a smile.
The words were barely out of his mouth before wrapping paper started flying every which way.
"Guys, guys, guys! Please try to be neat," Monica begged.
"OHMYGOD!" Olivia suddenly screamed, jumping up as if the floor had burned her. She stared at her unwrapped present in pure shock. "OH MY- GET OUT OF HERE! THE NEW IPHONE!? I GOT THE NEW IPHONE!?"
"I got it too!" Mia shrieked, her eyes widening as she stared at the white box in her hand like it was a block of solid gold.
"A MacBook?" Liam's eyes darted from the box in his hand to his parents in disbelief. "You're joking, right? This is a joke? If this is a joke it's not funny."
"I got an iPhone and a MacBook!" Noah laughed, kicking his feet.
"Wait a min- I did too!"
"I got AirPods?"
"An Apple Watch!?"
"LEGOS!!!!"
The more presents that were unwrapped, the louder the screaming became. It was quite the sight and I probably would've been dying of laughter at everything unfolding before me if I hadn't felt a particular pair of green eyes burning a hole into the side of my skull.
I was determined not to look at him and instead focused all my attention on Ryan who had stopped unwrapping presents altogether the moment he came across the Harry Potter Lego set.
"This is so cool, Ryan," I commented, helping him pry open the rather large box he had been struggling with. "You must have been a really good boy this year if Santa is giving you something like this. I hear these are top of the line products."
"I was a really good boy," Ryan beamed up at him. "This is so amazing! I'm so happy! I'm going to write Santa a thank you card, so that he knows how happy I am!"
I cooed and ruffled his hair, my heart melting at how adorable he was. "I think that's a great idea. He'll really appreciate that."
"I'm sure he would," Arsen suddenly spoke up. "Santa was very generous this year. More generous then he usually is. It's funny because I know that things are usually pretty tight for Santa up at the North Pole. Especially during the holiday season. It's hard for him to make so much...stuff."
I chanced a glance over at him and snapped my head away just as quickly when I met his searing eyes.
"Amy, do you need help with that?" I asked, busying myself with helping the little girl unwrap what was a brand new baby doll. Something she very much appreciated given the way she squealed.
"Well, you know, Arsen," Monica smiled easily with a shrug. She exchanged a look with Gary, who looked like he was about to burst into hysterics at any moment. "He has a lot of help. From the elves and such."
"Well, you won't hear me complaining," Liam laughed, shaking his head as he helped Ava get her Barbie doll out of the box it was strapped in. It was a bit of a struggle because he refused to put down the Beats headphones in his hand.
"Nor will I," Rebecca piped up, her eyes looked up from the pair of pricey boots she was staring at to stare at me with a knowing look. "But we'll have to find some way to pay him back."
"There's no such thing as paying Santa back," I smiled sweetly. "But you know what? I'm sure he knows how grateful you are."
"Juliet-"
"You know what? I'm so thirsty," I stood up, cutting across the beginnings of Arsen's statement. "Is it okay if I get myself something to drink?"
"Of course," Gary nodded. "Take whatever you want."
"Thank you so much."
"Can you get me a hot chocolate?" Noah asked, mesmerized by the Nintendo in his hands.
"Noah, you can't ask guests to prepare you drinks," Brandon slapped the back of his head.
"Ow," he whined, glaring at his older brother. "Well, if she's already going in there! And does she really count as a guest when she's here every day?"
"Oh, Noah," Monica gave her a son a very disapproving look.
"No, no it's fine," I choked back a laugh. "In fact, I'll make one for everybody. I know where everything is anyway."
I rushed into the kitchen before I could hear the further protest and threw myself into making the hot chocolate.
Now I wasn't that great of a cook, and when I said I wasn't that great I meant I couldn't cook to save my life. It wasn't like I could be blamed for being less than adequate in those skills. When had I ever been presented with a situation where I needed to know how to cook? I was rich. I paid people to do that for me. If I could pay someone to breathe for me I probably would.
That was coming back to bite me in the ass though because making hot chocolate was more than a bit of a struggle.
I knew I was in trouble when the first batch I made, quite hastily, tasted disgustingly sour.
I made a face as I dumped the contents of the pot into the sink. How I managed to make it taste sour was probably a question that would go unanswered.
"This is ridiculous," I muttered to myself, skimming over the directions on the container of Hershey's Cocoa. "How does Inez make this look so easy...?"
"You could start by using milk instead of tap water."
I jumped violently and spun around to see Arsen leaning against the doorframe. Much to my annoyance, he had a rather amused look on his face that told me he had been standing there in silence for a while.
Well, I'm glad he found my ordeal so hilarious.
"You guys don't have any skim milk," I said, a little defensively. "You know whole milk is practically poison for the body."
He hummed and walked over to me, taking the container of powdered chocolate from my hands.
"How long have you been standing there?" I asked, my irritation melting ever so slightly at his close proximity.
"Long enough to confirm I was right in coming in here to make sure you don't burn down my kitchen," he said in a very annoying matter-of-fact tone, setting the container down on the counter.
"Hahaha..."
Suddenly his arms were on either side of me, effectively trapping me against the counter. I tried to meet his measured gaze with an innocent one of my own, but with the way the silence stretched on I was going to go ahead and assume it wasn't working.
I sighed and mentally prepared myself to defend myself against the accusations that were about to be hurled at me when his lips enveloped mine.
The initial shock of the unprovoked kiss was gone the second it came. It was just an automatic reaction to melt against him instantly and wind my arms around his neck to pull him closer to my body so there was not a single thing separating us.
It was in kissing Arsen that I realized I had never been truly kissed before. I mean, of course technically I had been kissed before. Many, many times before, but all those kisses from all those people were truly insignificant
I wondered if this feeling would ever get old. If I would ever be able to get used to the feeling of tremors that ran up and down my body at his mere touch. The way my heart felt like it was just moments away from exploding or the tingles of pleasure when his warm, soft lips caressed my own that somehow made it all the way down to the bottoms of my stomach.
I could only hope not because this intoxicating feeling was definitely something I could see myself chasing for as long as I possibly could.
Arsen pulled away far too soon for my liking and the pout that pushed out my slightly swollen lip was involuntary.
"You are something else," he stated, planting a soft kiss on the tip of my nose. "You truly are. What am I going to do with you?"
"Adore me," I supplied with a shrug, smiling brightly.
Something flickered across his eyes. Something I didn't quite catch. The look had came and went so quickly I was completely sure I hadn't imagined it. Then the serious mask he wore cracked as he gave me a brilliant smile.
"If only you knew," his hands trailed down my body to my waist, his touch sending shocks and chills down my spine. "How much I truly adore you."
I hummed, feeling delight and a couple of other things swirl in my belly. I don't know what it was but the way his hands seemed unable to stop touching me and the implications the short statement carried as well as the intentness in his gaze was beginning to make me feel incredibly lightheaded.
I reached up to give him one more long, sweet kiss, tightening my hold around his neck. Probably not the best way to avoid passing out, seeing as his kisses made functioning properly impossible, but this was a hill I was more than willing to die on.
Before I could fully immerse myself in the way his hold tightened around, or the way his tongue had begun to caress my mouth the kitchen door banging up and a retching noise had me shoving him away.
"EUGGH!" Noah screamed, his face scrunched up as if he smelled something vile. "That's disgusting! This is what you're doing instead of making me my hot chocolate!?"
"Noah," Arsen began, but his little brother was already racing out of the kitchen.
"You guys! Get a load of this!"
I covered my mouth and glanced at Arsen. I was unsure whether or not I should laugh. I certainly felt it.
"Hmm...," I managed to choke out.
Arsen sighed and shook his head. "Well, that wasn't how I wanted to tell my family we were dating."
"Really? That not how you wanted to do it?" I arched my eyebrows, smiling.
He chuckled, kissing my cheek. "Surprisingly enough. Come on, let's finish these drinks. It can act as a peace offering."
"Sounds like a plan," I turned my attention back to the ingredients before. "But maybe I should be more of an observer..."
"That's a good idea," he chuckled, grabbing the container of chocolate.