December 24th, 2009

“I told you, Matt. If she’s coming, I’m not staying. I gotta visit my folks anyway. Christmas is the perfect opportunity, right?” Val was packing a bag for the holiday as Matt watched her moves from the threshold, disappointed.

He didn’t like that scene at all. By the amount of things she was taking along with her, it felt like she was leaving for good. His heart was beating weirdly fast somehow, like he could predict her thoughts.

“Why do you act like this is all my fault?” his dark tone made her stop packing for a while and just take a deep breath.

“I don’t know, Matt. I just…” she shook her head, her back still facing him. “I can’t stand watch you all clap your hands to everything she does. He needs to stay here with us, his friends since forever, we can help him way more than she can. She can’t just steal him away like that. I’m tired of acting like I’m blind, okay? I can’t keep pretending I’m okay with this. I’m sorry, Matt.”

Matt crossed his arms as he heard her speech and she went back to pack her stuff. Now he knew she was definitely taking more than she’d need for those two days. A twinge in his stomach said this was probably the end if he wasn’t the one to stop this. Did he want to stop her?

“What do you want me to do, Val? Cancel the whole thing tonight? Quit the band? Just say it.” he was sick of arguing. He was giving up.

She closed her full bag with difficulty and finally turned to face him. Their eyes locked and as his eyes begged for answers and explanations, her shoulders moved slowly, shrugging, and her eyes blinked. Her head shook at last.

He knew her body language too well not to see it. She was using Jimmy’s departure as an excuse to leave him too. But the real reason, he could feel it in the air. He could read it in her eyes for some time now. He could feel it in her skin when he tried to touch her last night and she just turned her back to his inviting arms.

There was no more love in that room. From neither of them.

She tried to move her bag but Matt noticed how heavy it was so he walked to it and took it downstairs for her.

“So... I’ll see you next week.” He said very quietly as opening the door to her.

“Yeah, I’ll call you later tonight.”

He took her bag straight to her car trunk and as he closed it, he gazed inside her eyes one more time to answer.

“No, you won’t.” He saw those words inside her irises.

She didn’t reply. She just let her eyes fall to the ground and got inside the car. She waved him
goodbye, set her sunglasses on and left without looking back.

He closed the door to his house, sat on his couch to give a loud deep breath and felt very alone. As alone as he ever remembered he had felt. And the party would still happen in his place in a few hours so he just felt like canceling the whole thing. But he knew he couldn’t disappoint his friends, especially Zack who had special plans for that night.

It will be the worst Christmas ever...

---

Later that night

The table was set, full of different foods everyone brought in for the Christmas feast. It all looked very colorful and tasty. Matt’s house was beautifully decorated and crowded but some of them were feeling very alone inside. Some of them were happy. Some of them wished that day would just end right now. That was Brian’s case, who started drinking his scotch way earlier than everybody else. His plan was to be wasted by the time Jimmy would propose to Emily. So he didn’t have to watch or remember how coward he is not to stop this.

He looked over the couples spread around at the living room in front of him, Emily and Jimmy, Zack and Jess, Johnny and Lacey, Jason and some girl, Matt and some girl, and rolled his eyes at how sweet that scene tasted like. He could vomit if he stayed there one more minute.
So he just stood up and walked towards the kitchen. Matt was there with the same helpless face he had and a glass of whisky as full as his. He smirked. Finally someone as miserable as him in that place.

“Hey my friend! I know why I’m drinking my liver away tonight. But you… what’s up with that face?”

“Do you see Val anywhere around here?” Matt answered with that same expressionless face.

Brian frowned, thinking a little. He didn’t even notice she hadn’t appeared yet. Relief for him, he hated her anyway. And Michelle did said she was spending the holidays with her family this time and refused his invitation to come to Matt’s house with him. They were having that family reunion crap apparently? Or just running away from those two men for their own reasons?

“Oohh… I see… You two are… no good?”

“No good? We’re not even close of no good. She packed enough stuff to stay at her parents for a whole year. I don’t think she’s coming back this time.”

“Wow… Man, I’m sorry. You must be feeling terrible with… you know, Zack’s proposing and…” he paused a little, almost spitting something he shouldn’t. Matt noticed that and moved his gaze from the ground to his friend’s eyes. “and… everything.”

“With what else should I be feeling bad, Brian?” Matt asked suspicious.

“Oh I… No, I mean, just Zack’s proposal. I’m feeling like crap about it so…”

“Why would I be feeling bad about my own friend’s happiness? It’s not because my engagement didn’t work out that his won’t either. Why are you sad about it?”

Brian realized he had spoken too much already and puffed air, taking a seat beside Matt’s chair.

“Nothing really… It’s just… I see all of you settling down, making plans to get married, having kids, you know… And I just wished I wasn’t alone tonight. It’s pretty much jealousy…”

“Brian… I lost count of how many glasses you had so far, and it’s not even ten yet. It’s not just jealousy. What’s up, bro? Go ahead, you can tell me.”

Brian thought a million times before finally deciding it was best to just tell him what has been suffocating him lately and then he would help him shut up about it. Yeah, that was a good plan. He didn’t know for sure until when he could handle being shut about losing the woman he loved for good.

“It’s Jimmy…” he kept his tone quiet. “He told me he’s proposing her tonight too. And it’s killing me, man…” he gasped desperate air.

“Oh so this is obviously about Emily again…” Matt grumbled. “Jimmy’s proposing?? Wow, I had no idea… Why didn’t he tell us?”

“He said he didn’t want bad luck, that’s why he only told me. He kinda asked me permission for it. It was weird… What was I supposed to say, right? No, you can’t marry the woman I love?”
Brian let out a chuckle and shook his head.

Matt frowned big.

“Wait a minute. You’re in love with her?” his voice was full of surprise.

“Yeah, man, I just… I just can’t move on. I can’t get her out of my mind, as hard as I try.” Brian brushed his eyes and massaged his temples, trying hard to find a way out of that dilemma.

“You should talk to him, Brian. He should know how you feel about her.”

“He knows, Matt… But he has the woman right in the palm of his hand. Why would he let her go? To send her to me? No, he’d never do that. I’d never do that.”

“Did you tell him with all those big words and with that intensity, exactly like you just told me?” Matt had a point. Brian hadn’t been that truthful to Jimmy before, he just presumed he knew about his feelings.

Brian pursed his lips.

“No… but still… I’m not gonna mess up with his life again. I’m not gonna put myself first anymore. She’s with him now, she made a choice, and I have to respect that.” He drank a sip, trying to gulp those words along. “Just… don’t let me do anything stupid, okay? I feel like spitting the whole thing to Emily every time I look at her so… please, try to keep me away from her.”

“I have to be your baby sitter now?” Matt grumbled again.

“Yes! Cause you don’t wanna see this stupid calm night turning into a nightmare inside your house, do you?”

“It’s been a nightmare since we’re back. How worse can it get…” Matt seemed very depressed.

“Believe me, it can get a lot worse if you just don’t keep me the hell away from Emily.”

“Okay man, alright… I’ll keep an eye on you.”

At the same time Matt answered his friend, someone entered through the kitchen door and Matt’s eyes fell exclusively on her, ignoring completely the existence of that previous conversation and other people around him.

He was stunned. She was stunning.

“Good evening, guys! Having a private meeting here?” Kim asked as she walked in front of them, swaying her hips as much as she could, and checking over her shoulder quickly just to see if they were watching her butt even for a second.

Of course they were.

“Wow, Kim! Is that you?” Matt asked without even noticing how that sentence would sound like to her ears. It was out very spontaneously.

She turned to Matt after grabbing the wine from the table and pouring on her glass with wide eyes followed by a smirk.

“Ouch, that hurts!” she complained jokingly and she could see Matt’s cheeks getting flustered. “Of course it’s me. And my favorite dress.” Her tone was low and seductive, but much disguised for ears of someone who had no idea about her crush on the muscled and broken-hearted man in front of her.

But someone did noticed. Brian made one of his typical faces, showed his glass to Matt and winked, encouraging him to move on from Val, before leaving the room to somewhere else quieter and lonelier, where he could live his misery and feel sorry for himself in peace. Away from Emily. Away from all the damn happy couples that insisted on appear that night.

Back at the kitchen, Matt and Kim joined in a very long and enlightening conversation about how he ended up totally dumped and alone at Christmas night. In the meantime, he was checking her cleavage. Kim was getting very confused about those mixed signals.

They had a bond. She started to feel it again by the moment they shared that beautiful afternoon walking throughout Huntington Park. But now all he could do was yammer and yammer about Val and her heartless way of leaving him that day. She enjoyed being his confidant friend and all but now that was getting very annoying, since she could see Val was completely out of the picture.

“The question is… do you still love her?” Kim had that well-known therapist tone on her voice. And at the same time, she really wanted to know where he was standing then.

“Love just doesn’t disappear. You know that. But… we’ve change. And maybe back then, when I asked her to marry me, we were right for each other. Right now, we just aren’t anymore. That’s what I feel at least.”

“So there is your answer. Bad timing is always a game-changer…”

“Yeah… you’re right.” He breathed heavily. “But I don’t wanna talk about this anymore. Not tonight…”

Kim thanked god inside her head and the smile spread back across her lips. She was interested to know about other things now. Like if he read the last chapter they had posted this morning. With a lot of spicy scenes as usual in that story.

But now that she knew he was reading it and he knew she was writing it, she was much more excited to write. It was like she was writing especially for him from that day on. Kim even regretted she couldn’t change her character’s pair to Matt instead of Brian.

“You make a face like you want to ask me something very dirty.” Matt’s voice appeared out of nowhere inside Kim’s head and she widened her eyes with a chuckle. He had the most beautiful smirk on earth.

“Oh… I… well, I do want to ask you something. But not dirty. Well, maybe… technically…” she was stumbling on thoughts and words, still chuckling.

“Just hit me!”

“Alright… did you… read it?” she was biting her middle finger nail, staring pointedly at his eyes. Curiosity smothering her.

He only nodded, his lips pursing and softening slowly, then his tongue travelling around his lips too sexily for her taste. He was teasing her to the bone. She wondered if he knew that.

“You know, Kim… I read every single word you and your friend wrote on that story and… you keep getting better at that… explicit content department, you know.” He was smiling while pronouncing those last words and she couldn’t hold her laughter.

“You mean, the smut department.” She had to correct him, seductively, even though she knew damn well what he meant.

“Oh yeah… that.” She wasn’t sure, but maybe his cheeks reddened a little.

He shouldn’t be shy talking about that. She wasn’t.

“Thank you for that compliment. Gonna tell my friend as soon as I find her again.” She drank her wine with a smile. “But Matt… be honest with me. Are you shy talking about that? I never imagined a man like you would be…”

“No! I’m far from shy!” he cut her, trying to stick up for himself. “It’s just…” he shook his head, drinking his scotch to lose the tension that grew on his shoulders.

“It’s just…?” she had that hypnotizing look again, but much more visible now. Matt couldn’t run away from her blue pair. Not even if he wanted.

“I… never thought women could write… sex like that. Know what I mean?” their gazes got more intense when neither of them would back out. “That’s what caught my attention in the first place.”

“Oh wow… You’re sooo way behind, Sanders!!” she shook her head several times, making that tsk sound no one likes to hear. “Women like sex either, you know…”

“C’mon, of course I know that. What I mean is that… not every woman is comfortable talking or writing about her sexuality like this. And it makes me really glad some of you are…” he arched his both brows two times with a naughty gaze. Her smile enlarged.

“It’s just art, Matt. Sex is art between two human beings. Writing about it is like…” it was her time to lick her lips. She was coming up with a very good explanation now, worth of a Grammy or something if it was a song. “It’s like mental masturbation mixed with a little bit of poetry. Every woman should have the right to tell her man what she wants and what she would like to do with him. So why just not write it out of you? We spent centuries and centuries hiding our sexuality. Now hiding just shouldn’t be allowed anymore. Don’t you agree?”

Matt felt the intensity of her words on every bit of her speech. It was beautiful the way she described her art. If he was attracted to her before, now it definitely increased. Or even better, changed it all into a very turning-on state.

“I agree completely, Kim...” His smirk came back to his lips in a rush with the thoughts he was having with her. Val disappeared from his mind like smoke.

If she writes sex like that, he wondered what she had to offer outside the fictional world to a man. He wondered too much.

They kept staring at each other, trying to read each other’s thoughts for a few seconds until Kim broke the spell. She had more to say.

“Oh and since we’re being opened up about our thoughts, I… I just want to tell you I never thought a man would appreciate and value my writing like you do. I’m very thankful, Matt, really.”

Their gazes locked for one last time and they both knew exactly what was going on now. They could see the sparks coming out of their eyes, hearts and private parts. Their breaths got slightly accelerated. The tension took over them.

Matt felt like the perfect time to show her upstairs.

---

Thirty minutes before midnight

Brian searched around nervously as he filled his cup and no signs of Matt there for hours. The only person that could stop him from doing the most terrible thing with his friend’s life and yet the right thing for his.

He saw Emily finally alone. Jimmy was out of sight as well. He closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to stop himself. But when her eyes found his desperate ones, he knew what he had to do. He had to start acting like a man. He had to go after what he wanted and fight for it until he had officially lost the war. And this war wasn’t over yet. Not until she says I do.

He let his legs take him to where she was standing and spoke directly to her, quickly and short as possible. He was even out of breath, as anxious as he was.

Where’s Matt… Where’s freaking Matt!!!

“Hey, can I have a word with you? It’s important.” Brian looked at both sides expecting Jimmy to appear any time now, but it was all clear. Then he went back to Emily’s frown.

“Hmm… okay… I guess…” at her first sign of agreement, even though she looked kinda worried about his acting, he just dragged her outside by her arm almost in a running pace.

The only person who seemed to notice what had just happened was Mei, seating in the couch, waiting for Jimmy with drinks for her and Emily. But she didn’t mention anything to him. She wasn’t the one to meddle on something that wasn’t her business.

Outside of Matt’s house, in his front porch, Brian finally stopped dragging Emily forcefully and turned her to stand in front of him. Her frown was bigger.

“Brian, how much have you drunk?” she looked down at his glass and there was only one gulp of scotch left in there.

“No! Don’t start with me! I’m fine! I’m in perfect condition and very conscious to tell you that this couldn’t be more wrong. You’ll never be happy with him. Just, please... hear me out. This is wrong!”

“Wait… wait a minute. What the hell are you talking about?”

He brushed his eyes in nervousness. Emily could see his hands trembling. She never saw him more disturbed than now.

“You’re scaring me, Brian! What’s wrong?” her tone was softer now. She was concerned.

“God… He prepared everything and… he asked me for permission and I said it was okay. I just
lied to him again. It’s not okay. It will never be okay!!”

“HEY! You’re not making any sense here!” she had to grab his both arms and force him to face her.

He stared at her for several seconds and his eyes began to water.

“Just… just say no, okay?” he whispered almost soundlessly.

“No to what??!!”

He finally closed his eyes and noticed it was too late to back out now. No one stopped him, not even his own heavy conscious. All his will was driven by his obsessive need of her only.

---

Upstairs

“What are we doing?” she mumbled those words in his lips when he finally stopped their kiss to breathe for a second, which made him instantly regret of that act. Breathing seemed the stupidest thing right now.

Kim had her back against his giant bathroom wall as he was cornering her with his strong body from lips to toes. She never saw more assurance on those green eyes than now. She knew he wanted her. But what about that silver ring stuck on his finger? That surely was a deal-breaker.

“I’m gonna show you what we are doing. We are doing this...”

Suddenly he took his hands out of her body and turned to the bathroom counter, which it was all filled with innumerous facial and hair products that probably belonged to Val, and with only one drag of his arm it all went down to the floor.

Her eyes opened wide.

“And this...” He came back to her, carried her out by her waist which made her let out a tiny scream and sat her on top of the counter, making her stay at the best height for him.

“And what about this?” She entwined her fingers on his left hand and brought his ring finger to his sight, to bring him some sense.

He stared at her lustful gaze for what seemed like an eternity, making her think he was completely backing out now and she would lose the shot with the man of her dreams. But when she was about to tell him it was okay, he just took the ring out of his finger in one push and tossed it in the toilet.

Now Kim’s mouth went open wide.

“Do you get what we are doing now?” He spoke as seductively as she ever thought she could hear and she attacked his mouth right away, to pick up where they had left of.

“Definitely!” She mumbled again as her eager hands slid down from his chest to his pants in milliseconds.

His belt was gone and then his trousers in the floor, along with his phone that just started to buzz. Val just wanted to wish him Merry Christmas. And Matt would never hear it in between their moans.

It was close to midnight. Some fireworks started to explode outside even if New Year’s Eve was in a week. They couldn’t care less about the world right now. They only cared about undressing each other.

That’s gotta be the best Christmas ever!!!

---

“He’s gonna ask you to marry him, Em. Tonight.”

Notes

Where's Brian's baby sitter when needed...
Ooopsss Matt screwed uuu-uupp... literally =p

Shame on you Kim!! Diverting the man's attention huh? =3

Liked Christmas so far?? let me know!! ;)
More of it next!! Stay tuuuneeeddd <3