Page 71 of Skating the Blue Line
Chloe looks at me and then looks over at the living room covered in decorations again.
A minute passes before she says anything.
“Did you just buy all of this?” she asks, picking up a stuffed dove that I picked out through a computer screen.
I nod even though her back is turned to me. “I did. I don’t decorate, since I’m usually not home during this time of year, so I bought everything that I thought that we needed.”
She turns to look at me, that smile of hers growing. “You didn’t have to do that.”
I give her a shrug. “I wanted to. Besides, if it wasn’t for me, you would be dancing right about now or on the way to your family.”
“It takes two people to have a baby and I’m the one that didn’t rest when she needed to.” She argues, putting down the dove and picking up a dancing Santa.
She’s still beating herself up about her trip to the hospital.
I quickly move the conversation back to where it was.
“I still wanted to do this though. Bring some color into the place even if it is for a little bit.”
And if it has Chloe’s touch it will look great and possibly convince to decorate next year. Baby’s first Christmas and all.
Will the baby even be here for Christmas or will Chloe take them with her out of state to visit her family for the holiday?
I guess I should add that to the list of things we need to talk about when the baby gets here.
“If you don’t decorate, does that mean that you don’t celebrate Christmas?” She asks, walking over to the couch, to pick up the garland I had the people at the store pick out.
“I celebrate, I just usually go to my parents house for a few days. I’m an only child so I try to go home whenever I get the chance. Usually I have three days before I have to come back for a game.” I say to her.
My eyes follow her as she moves through the room picking up random Christmas decorations. I try hard to keep my eyes from traveling down her ass but it’s starting to become hard.
“Do you celebrate Christmas?” I ask, trying to get back into the conversation before I do something stupid like go across the room and sit her down on my lap.
“I do, but I don’t celebrate on Christmas day. We celebrate on Christmas Eve and then spend all of Christmas day sleeping and eating leftovers,” she turns to me, giving me another smile.
“Nochebuena, right?”
Chloe looks at me like she is shocked that I know that and her smile gets bigger.
Points for Liam.
“Yeah, how did you know that?”
“Christian, one of my teammates, he’s Mexican and his family celebrates on Christmas Eve. I’ve gone with him a few times.”
“Did you enjoy yourself?”
I give her a nod. “It was a fun time. Lots of good food, so I can see why you would spend a whole day eating leftovers.”
“The leftovers are the best part.” She beams.
“Maybe I can ask him to get us his mom’s tamale recipe and we can make some this year.” I suggest.
“Oh we don’t need a recipe, I know my mom’s by heart. We just need to take a trip to the grocery store and we will be eating tamales until new years.” I can see her already making a list in her head and I fucking love it.
Just as much as I love seeing her happy.
“We can go tomorrow if you’d like.” I offer, not wanting to live in excitement as much as I can.
