Chapter Twenty-Eight
Finn
Waking up with Aaron on Christmas morning was a dream come true. When we were kids, we were both forced to stay in our own homes Christmas Eve night so our parents could pretend we were a family. Of course it only lasted a half hour before I was able to escape to my bedroom every year. And Aaron would sneak in through my window shortly after that so we could spend the holiday together. I honestly didn’t even remember how old we were when we first started that tradition, but I knew we were in elementary school.
Once we’d reached high school, we’d always talk about how nice it would be to wake up together and forget about our ignorant families. We’d just never had the opportunity.
Until now.
I woke up before Aaron did, and I decided to let him sleep. So I stayed in bed and watched him snooze away. I ran my fingers over his cheeks and in his hair, mesmerized by him. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, and so young that he reminded me of how he’d looked when we were only sixteen.
I knew Aaron was awake before he even opened his eyes or spoke a word because a smile slowly spread across his lips. He hummed in contentment before scooting into me and nuzzling into my neck.
I pulled him to me and held him tight, then whispered into his hair, “Merry Christmas, Romeo.”
I felt him smile against my skin. “Merry Christmas, Muffin.”
For some reason it still made me stifle a laugh every time he called me that. That was probably why he continued doing it. “You ready to see what I got you?”
He chuckled. “You know I love a good surprise.”
“Oh, so you admit to it now, huh?”
He snorted out a laugh and kissed my neck. “I know you’re just as curious about what I got you. I’m surprised you didn’t wake me up at four a.m. by jumping on the bed.”
“I thought about it.”
He leaned back and looked at me with a huge smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I leaned in for a soft kiss.
“Come on, I know you’re dying of anticipation.” He kissed my cheek and started to pull me out of bed, though I didn’t need much coaxing. I really was dying of anticipation. Christmas was my favorite holiday, and I was extremely excited that Aaron was here in my apartment with me. Normally I had to wait for Layla and Griffin to get here before I could really celebrate.
We made a pit stop at the bathroom, then Aaron led me into the living room with a huge smile on his face. He pulled me down on the floor in only our pajama pants—commando, baby—in front of the Christmas tree and immediately passed me this big box wrapped in Christmas paper.
“What the heck did you get me?” I asked, smiling like a nerd. I’d seen him put the big gift under the tree last night, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was.
He grinned. “Open it.”
I grinned back and tore open the present. When I ripped half the paper off and realized what it was, I gasped, then I started chuckling. “Oh my god! Aar! I can’t believe you got me one!”
He was smiling pretty big. “You always wanted one growing up, and I know you never got one.”
I stared in awe at the Easy Bake Oven in my lap and had to fight back my emotions. I’d asked Santa for one every single Christmas until I’d turned eleven and realized that my absent parents were never actually going to buy me one. I’d cried when I was seven and Santa didn’t get me what I’d asked for, even though I’d been good.
I looked up at Aaron and leaned across my gift so I could kiss him hard on the lips. “Thank you so much, Romeo. This is amazing.”
“You’re welcome.” He pointed over at the kitchen. “There’s a gift bag in there with some extras for it. I don’t know, refill mixes or something.” He shrugged. “There’s a bunch of different recipes and stuff.”
“You’re gonna let me cook you something with my Easy Bake Oven.”
“Pshh. I demand it.”
I chuckled at that. “Thank you, Aar. I love it.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Here,” I said as I passed him a small rectangular gift, “your turn.”
Aaron grinned at me, then opened the small package. He looked it over once he pulled it out of the box, then slowly lifted his eyes to mine. “You kept all of these?”
I shrugged, a little embarrassed. “Yeah, I have a… shoe box of stuff. I thought that maybe you could put it in your new place.” I shrugged awkwardly.
He nodded and looked back down at the shadowbox I’d made him. It had a picture of the two of us by the lake that I’d taken with a disposable camera. It was off-center and grainy, but we were laughing with our faces squished together. It was one of my favorite pictures of us. I’d surrounded the photo with some ticket stubs from movies we’d seen, along with the keychain that Aaron had kept on his backpack all through high school. He’d given it to me the day we’d said goodbye. So now I was passing it back to him.
“I can’t believe you kept it,” he whispered.
I knew what he meant, so I whispered back, “I kept it on my backpack in college.”
He set the shadowbox to the side, then reached over and grabbed my neck, pulling me to him so he could kiss me like I was his air. When I pulled away to catch my breath, I realized that I was somehow in his lap. He’d been so all-consuming that I didn’t even know how I’d ended up there.
He smiled at me and rubbed my cheeks with his thumbs, then he leaned up to kiss my forehead, so I kissed his nose.
He kept rubbing my cheeks as he whispered, “I have one more thing for you.”
I rubbed his hair at the nape of his neck. “I have another one for you too.” Instead of getting up, I just turned in his lap and leaned back against him after I grabbed the box with his gift inside. “It’s nothing much,” I told him as I passed it over.
I leaned to the side so he could open it. Once he pulled it out, he said, “Holy shit, Finn. Did you make this?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged, embarrassed again.
“It looks so real! I love it!” he exclaimed while staring at the mountain lion—his favorite animal—that I’d sculpted for him. “This is amazing, baby. You are so fucking talented. I seriously don’t know how you make it look so real… I mean, the details… damn. Thank you.” He kissed my cheek, then set the mountain lion on the coffee table beside us.
“I’m glad you like it,” I whispered.
“You didn’t have to go to all the trouble of making me stuff… I have everything I want right here.” He squeezed me tight.
I chuckled. “You and the corny.”
“Eh… still true, Muffin.”
I chuckled and leaned back to kiss him. “I love all your corny lines.”
He grinned. “I know. Why do you think I keep saying them?”
I huffed out a laugh, kissed him, then settled back into him.
“Here,” he grabbed a package that looked like a toddler had wrapped it, “open your other one.”
I took it from him—it was squishy, like a shirt or something—and unwrapped it. At first I thought it was a shirt, but as I lifted it, I realized it was a black apron… with Muffin stitched across the front in blue letters. I chuckled. “You’re an idiot.” I reached back and rubbed his stubble. “But I love it.”
“You have to wear it while you cook with your Easy Bake Oven.” I could hear the smile in his voice.
A laugh bubbled out of me. “Seriously, you’re a dork.”
“But you love me anyway,” he said with a little squeeze around my waist.
“But I love you anyway,” I agreed before leaning back and kissing him. “Thank you, Romeo.” I turned back around in his lap, straddled his hips and kissed him for a long time, rubbing my hands over his chest, arms, neck, and tugging on his hair… until there was a knock on my door.