Page 93 of Oar Than Friends

‘She’s coming, she went to find a notepad.’

Tugging me onto the couch and his lap, I startled slightly when Martha the housekeeper arrived, seemingly from nowhere. I might have gotten used to the size of this house, but I was still working on the fact that anything I wanted was fetched for me within minutes. Eventhings I didn’t realize I wanted, like this steaming cup of coffee and bacon sandwich. I was trying hard not to get used to it. But I was definitely going to need to take a batch of the croissants back with me.

‘Thank you,’ I smiled.

‘Thanks Martha, Happy Christmas.’

‘You’re welcome, and Happy Christmas to you.’ She returned Oz’s smile, ‘Can I get anything else?’

‘No, we’re good thanks,’ he replied, and she walked out.

Oz’s arms wrapped around me and he nodded outside to the petrol-blue skies streaked with the orange of the sunrise. It was so pretty. ‘Sorry we couldn’t bring any snow for you.’

‘Are you kidding, with all this?’ I waved my hands around, ‘I think I’ll manage.’

‘What’s it like back in America?’

‘When I spoke to my mom yesterday, she said it’s snowing, but we don’t get the thick snow like they do in Vermont, we’re too close to the salty ocean air so it never sticks. It sludges.’

‘What do you normally do for Christmas?’ asked Hector, glancing up from his phone for the first time since I’d walked in.

‘Um … well, my dad is a fisherman, and every morning he’s out on the boat with a small crew, and they’re usually finished by mid-morning. So our Christmas Day tends to start a little later, and we see friends.’

‘Do you have a big turkey?’

I shook my head, ‘No, we do turkey on Thanksgiving, so we usually have lobster or steak, something like that.’

‘Nice.’ Hector’s eyes lit up.

‘Yeah, it is. It’s been quieter the past few years though, since my brother died.’

Oz’s arms tightened around me.

Hector’s eyes flashed from mine, to Oz behind me, then back again. ‘Your brother died?’

I nodded, ‘Yeah, his name was Jake. One morning he just didn’t wake up. He’d had an underlying heart condition we didn’t know about, and his heart stopped in the night.’

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Our Christmas is different this year too,’ Alex started quietly, ‘our dad’s normally here.’

I smiled softly as Oz tensed, even Hector and Phoebe had gone quiet, and were paying more attention to Alex than they had been previously.

‘I’m sure you miss him.’

‘Actually,’ Alex bit his lip and I could see his fists balling at his sides as he considered his answer, ‘I don’t. I thought I would, and I didn’t realize at first but there’s no tension in the house now he’s not here. It’s way more chilled, even with Phoebe’s shit music.’

‘Hey!’ Phoebe prodded him hard in the ribs with her toes, making him squeal. ‘Take that back, my music is classic.’

‘It’s shit!’ he reinstated loudly, which only caused Phoebe to launch herself at him and pin him to the ground. She tickled him until he cried for a yield, banging his hand on the floor, but by this point me, Hector and Oz were all howling with laughter, tears pouring down our faces, especially when the dogs joined in.

It was right when Oz’s mom made an appearance, shaking her head with a wry smile at two of her kids wrestling on the floor.

‘What’s going on?’

Phoebe turned to find her mom walking across the hall and jumped off Alex. ‘Oh good, you’re back. Present time!’

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