Page 23 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend
“I know,” Alexander said. “But it's still Christmas, and you deserve to enjoy it.”
nine
“I’m home!”I called as we took off our jackets. “And… I’ve got a surprise!”
“A surprise?” Florence yelled. She came running down the hall from the kitchen, sliding into her socks. “Hi, Alexander!”
“Easy, Flo!” I said. She tried to stop as she reached me but ended up barreling straight into Alexander's legs. Her head collided with his stomach, knocking the breath out of him. A second later, they both dissolved into laughter.
“You all right, Flo-Flo?” Alexander asked.
“Yeah,” she giggled. She grabbed his hand and started pulling him into the house. “Come on. We're making cookies!”
As Alexander got pulled away, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along with them. I stumbled a little but didn't let go. We walked into the kitchen on this train, with Flo leading the way. My mom was sitting at the edge of the kitchen table, with Charlie and Carter on one side and Benjamin and an empty chair on the other that was probably reserved for Florence.
Mom was wearing a white apron with a red J embroidered on the pocket that I'd gifted her for Christmas a few years ago. Her long, brown hair was pulled back into a tidy bun, and she had asmear of flour on her face that made it obvious she'd been the one baking the dough.
She smiled happily at us when we walked in.
“Well, if it isn't Alexander Rigby!” She said. She stood up and walked over to us. Flo seemed to lose interest, and she dropped Alexander's hand to sit at the table again. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, Penny and I were thinking of watching a Christmas movie,” Alexander said.
“Oh, that sounds lovely!” Mom said. She tilted her head. “I didn't know you two were friends. Francine is going to be thrilled.”
Francine was Alexander's mom and my mom's best friend. They'd met in college and stayed close since then, to the point of being each other's maid of honour, trying to have kids around the same time so we would be the same age, and spending every holiday together.
“I think she'll be more than thrilled,” Alexander said. He held up our interlocked hands. “Because we're not just friends.”
“Oh, my goodness!” Mom's hands flew to her mouth, and she looked at us with tears in her eyes. “Oh, this is great! Have you told your mom yet, Alex?”
Very few people in the world were allowed to call him Alex, and my mom was one of them.
“Not yet,” Alexander said. “You're welcome to if you want, though.”
“Of course, I want to!” Mom said. “Sit down! Help the kids decorate cookies before you watch your movie.”
She ushered us into the empty seats at the opposite end of the table and then ran upstairs.
“She won't be down for hours,” I said. When Mom and Francine got to talking, there was almost nothing that could end the conversation.
Alexander snorted. “Trust me, I know.”
Carter passed us some cookie dough and cutters. We quickly got to work, with Alexander rolling out dough and using the cookie cutter. We kept doing that for about twenty minutes, laughing along with the kids as they joked around. I loved how much Alexander got along with my siblings. If there was ever a time that Elliot, Charlie, and I couldn’t do something for them, Alexander always stepped up to the plate. Last December, he went with my mom to take the kids to meet Santa, he came over on snow days to keep them entertained, and he often helped my dad and Elliot leave Santa’s “Tracks” for the kids to find on Christmas morning. He was already like a part of the family — no wonder my mom was so excited by the idea of us being together.
“How did I let you talk me into watching this?” I asked. It was an hour after we'd gotten to my house, and we were sitting on the couch, watching some Christmas movie I'd never heard of before.
“The Santa Clause is a classic!” Alexander said. He took a handful of popcorn from the tub on my lap. I'd been planning to just make microwave popcorn, but Mom had my sister on using our popcorn machine. She'd gotten it years ago, even though Dad said we'd never use it, and she brought it out whenever she had the chance. “Honestly, I can't believe you've never seen it. What other movies haven’t you seen?”
I shrugged. “Probably a lot. We rewatch the same five movies every year.”
“Oh, man.” Alexander shook his head. “I’ve got some work to do, then. You need to see all the Christmas classics.”
“We don’t have the time,” I said. “There’s only what… two weeks to Christmas?”
“Sounds like we need to do a Christmas movie marathon, then,” he said.
“A marathon?”
