Katie and I adjusted to this idea of “us” over the next few weeks. After Thanksgiving, December just seemed to tumble forward, without caring to slow down for anything or anybody. She frequently met me at the bar, and I introduced her to the rest of the guys, who welcomed her into the fold with open arms.
“Ace never introduces the rest of us to his, well, his girlfriends,” Haley explained to Katie when Katie expressed surprise at the warm welcome she was receiving.
“Is that so?” Katie raised an eyebrow at me. “Well, I’m happy to be the first.” It warmed my heart that she didn’t dispute the “girlfriend” designation.
But I got nervous the closer we got to the holidays, Brody bringing the battered tinsel and artificial tree out of storage to decorate the bar. Katie never mentioned, the multiple times we were together, about leaving Rio Seco, but I never really wanted to ask her, either. I was just living in each moment, thankful to enjoy her presence.
About a week before Christmas, though, I broke. I had to. I had to know if we might be spending the holiday together. It was a thought that alternately thrilled and terrified me. I’d never dated anyone this long, let alone looked forward to spending a holiday as stressful as Christmas with them.
We were at my apartment, getting in a little post-coital relaxation, when I popped the question, as it was.
“Can I ask you something kind of cheesy?” I wondered aloud, tentatively, quietly, hoping that Katie wouldn’t hear me, even though I wanted to ask her. God, I was stupid.
“You know my feelings on cheese,” she said, looking away from the TV. We’d flipped it on just to have some noise and flashing lights in the background. It had been my idea, since I was a coward. It wasn’t that silence was unbearable with Katie. We were perfectly comfortable in each other’s presence. It was just that, in the silence, I felt things that I didn’t quite have names for, futures I was afraid would never come to pass.
“How long do you think you’ll be in Rio Seco?” I asked her gently. It wasn’t something that had ever come up in conversation before. As each day passed, I was just grateful I could spend even a portion of it with her. That was something people missed a lot of the time. They got so caught up with worrying about the future that they forgot to be thankful for the present. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to hear the question answered, but I needed at least some indication so I could ask a follow-up question or two.
Before, Katie had been waggling her foot as she propped it up on the opposite knee, leaning up against me on the couch, eyes at half-mast, perhaps considering a nap as she watched the flickering images on the screen in front of us. Now, though, the foot had stilled, and her eyes were fully open.
The question had made her uncomfortable.
“I’m not sure,” she said, the tone careful.
“I didn’t mean anything by asking you,” I said. “I was just curious, is all.”
“You ready for me to leave already?”
“You know I’m not.”
I thumbed her cheek as the corners of her mouth quirked up into a smile. “You want me to stay forever?”
I laughed. “I want you to do whatever you want to do. All I’m wondering is what your plans are for Christmas.”
“I don’t have any plans for Christmas,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just another day.”
“Christmas can be hard when you’re grown,” I agreed. “Your parents still alive?”
“Yeah, but we don’t talk much anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
She lifted her shoulder. “Nothing to be sorry about.” She angled her head up so she could study me. “You still have your parents?”
“I do. They live in Texas.”
“You going to spend Christmas with them?”
I shook my head. “They’re not crazy about the whole Horizon thing, and I think if I did visit them in person, they’d slip something in my drink so they could give me a shave and haircut when I passed out.”
Katie laughed. “They miss their clean-cut son?”
“I haven’t been clean-cut since I figured out I could grow hair on my face,” I said. “They don’t miss me. I embarrass them when I roar through their seniors-only neighborhood on my bike. I talk to them on the phone regularly. It’s enough for them.”
“That’s sweet.”
“What is?”
“That you call them sometimes.”
“More like every other day.”
“You’re melting my heart over here.” She stretched so she could brush her lips against my cheek. “I was afraid, for a moment, that you were going to propose to take me along with you to family Christmas.”
“Well, not exactly…”
Katie grimaced. “I don’t know that I’m up for a road trip to Texas.”
“We’re not going on a road trip to Texas; though, if you ever wanted to, I could show you some sights you wouldn’t forget. West Texas, Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains, Hill Country in the spring…”
“This is just a ploy to introduce me to your parents, isn’t it?”
I smiled at her, playing along. “They wouldn’t let either of us out of the house until you promised to marry me,” I said. “They’d detain us until they got their minister to come to perform an emergency matrimony.”
“What, am I not the usual kind of girl you bring home?”
“If you mean ‘usual girl’ as ‘never bring a girl home,’ then yes.” I pulled her a little closer to me. “What I really wanted to know is if you wanted to go to a Christmas party with me.”
“I like parties,” she said cautiously. “What’s the catch?”
“There isn’t a catch,” I said. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to come with me. It sucks being alone on Christmas. That is, if you’re still going to be in town during Christmas.”
“Where’s the party?”
“At the bar.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “That’s the catch.”
“What?” I was so confused. “There wasn’t meant to be a catch.”
“It’s a club party, isn’t it?”
“Well, all of the guys are going to be there, if that’s what you mean by ‘club party.’ But we open the bar on Christmas anyway, just to give people a place to go who wouldn’t have one otherwise.”
“So, less a holiday party and more of a pity party?”
“Too much booze and revelry and games to be anything pitiful.”
Katie squinted at me. “Games?”
I practiced a faux nonchalance. “You’ll have to come and see for yourself to find out.” God, I really wanted her to come to the party.
“If I’m still in town on Christmas, I’ll come to your Christmas party.”
“Christmas is next week, Katie.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Do you know how long you’re planning on being on vacation?” I’d stopped believing she was actually on vacation a long time ago, but I hadn’t had the courage to really probe the issue. I was just operating on the assumption that Katie, like so many other people who blew into Rio Seco, was running from something.
We were all running from something, whether we realized it or not. Expectations. Failures. Nightmares. I only wondered which category the thing she fled from fell under. Wondered if she might find the same kind of solace in Rio Seco as I did. Maybe even solace with me.
“The situation is…flexible.”
“Your job isn’t angling to have you back yet?”
“I had some time saved up, same as you,” she said. “Are you sure you really want me at this Christmas party? I haven’t really met your friends.”
“They know you.” Oops.
She grinned. “You talk about me to your friends, you mean.”
“Not exactly. They just…took notice of you. You coming in to the bar. And, you know. Rejecting me so flatly. They thought it was funny.”
Katie looked at me blankly for a moment before exploding into laughter. “I think I like your friends. I can anticipate having a lot of fun at your expense at this party.”
“Hey, as long as it means you’re coming to it, I’m thrilled.” And I was.
“No presents, though, okay?” Katie asked, wincing. “I hate presents.”
“Who hates presents?”
“Yours truly. Seriously. Please. If you care about me even a little bit, you won’t get me anything. Because I’m telling you right now that I’m not getting you anything, and if you get me something in spite of that, it will be so awkward. I warned you.”
“My present to you is no present,” I recited, putting my hand up.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Christmas at the Horizon bar was popular to begin with, probably owing to the fact that we had an open bar and a volunteer taxi driver who was on duty all night to shepherd people to wherever they needed to go once they’d decided they were done drinking. It helped that it was the only bar in town, too, and certainly the only one open for the holidays.
Even so, Katie looked a little like a deer caught in the headlights at all of the lusty cheers from everyone as we walked into the bar together.
“Why is everyone so happy to see us?” she asked.
“I’m their favorite bartender, of course,” I said. “And you’re so beautiful that the property value just went up.”
“They’re exchanging money. Wait, no. They’re giving that big guy all the money.”
I heaved a sigh, took her hand, and walked over to the booth. “Okay. What was the bet?”
“You don’t want to know the particulars,” Sloan assured me.
“I bet that you two would come together to the Christmas party,” Chuck said happily, waving the bills at us. “First round’s on me, you guys.”
“Sorry,” I told Katie, dragging her into the booth with me. “These guys bet on anything and everything.”
“That’s good to know,” she said, diplomatic.
“Hey, he’d be in on it, too, if it wasn’t about him,” Brody said, squeezing my shoulder. “He’s not an angel.”
“I know he’s not an angel,” Katie said, and her leer silenced the table, then ignited it with hoots and hollers.
“Oh, you’re a good one,” Chuck said, clapping his hands. “Oh, Ace, I like her.”
“Thanks, bud,” I said. “I like her, too.”
Katie smiled at me and gave me a peck on the cheek.
“The booth is a little crowded tonight, don’t you think?” Jack asked. “Let’s find another place to spread out.”
“Oh, I can sit at the bar,” Katie said quickly. “I know this is y’all’s table.”
“Don’t go,” Brody begged. “You’re a breath of fresh air.”
“Don’t be weird,” I told him. “You all know where to find us.”
It was fun to perch at the bar and watch all the various shenanigans. Another bet was made discreetly, with Chuck as the target, and the rest of the guys manipulated the situation until Chuck got up to say something to Haley, who was dressed festively in a red sweater. Behind Chuck’s back, the rest of the guys sprang into action, Sloan circling around, his hand in his pocket.
It all became clear when Sloan took his hand out of his pocket, a bit of greenery between his fingers. All the guys broke character, though Chuck looked like he wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole.
Haley heaved a sigh. “There’s mistletoe over us, isn’t there?”
Chuck looked up. “Yep.”
She leveled a look at Sloan, who was guffawing. “You all just aren’t going to stop until I give Chuck some sugar, are you?”
Jack took pity on the two of them. “I’ll get them to stop, if it’s pissing you off.”
“You guys don’t piss me off,” she clarified. “Do I think you all should get out a little more, maybe develop some hobbies? Yes.”
With that, she grabbed Chuck by the face and kissed him square on the mouth, leaving a smear of red lipstick over his lips while everyone clapped and hollered.
“You got what you wanted,” Haley said while Chuck just sat there and blinked, looking a little dazed. “Go find someone else to pick on.”
I resisted a shudder as, one by one, everyone turned to look at Katie and me.
“Believe me, I don’t need an excuse like mistletoe to kiss her,” I said, puckering up. Katie laughed and kissed me back, game when I dipped her dramatically, and the rest of the guys sort of lost interest, drifting away and joining conversations with some of the regulars who’d turned up for the annual event.
Many drinks and laughs later, and we were all hovering over the booth, talking.
“I was told there would be games tonight,” Katie said, her eyebrows raised expectantly, during a lull in conversation.
“Oh my God, we haven’t done the game yet,” Jack said, slapping himself in the forehead.
At this point, all the regulars had been driven home by the volunteer taxi driver, who’d returned home herself. All of us Horizon guys plus Haley and Katie were the last ones standing, and we pushed a couple of tables together, forgoing the booth we’d been occupying for most of the night to make sure everyone had a seat and was comfortable.
“We could sit on the floor,” Brody suggested as Jack rooted around behind the bar.
“Not without mopping it first,” Haley said flatly. “This is my nice black dress, and I’m not going to be putting it where the undersides of people’s shoes have been stomping all night.”
“The game gets pretty intense, though,” Brody said, looking worried as Sloan caught a pair of oven mitts Jack pitched over to him. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“Wow, what exactly are we playing?” Katie asked, her eyes sparkling. “This sounds a lot more interesting than anything I’ve ever heard of.”
“It’s as intense as you make it,” Jack said, returning to the table with a pair of dice and a package completely encased in duct tape.
I groaned. “I see you’re intent on making it super intense this year.”
“Last year’s game didn’t last as long as I thought it would,” Jack said. “This year is going to be more of a challenge.”
“Can you explain to me exactly what we’re going to be doing, here, please?” Katie asked. “I’m starting to get nervous.”
Haley held out her nails, painted red to match her lips. “Please tell me this game isn’t aggressive enough to break my nails.”
“Goodbye, nails,” Chuck said sadly. “Tell them goodbye, Haley.”
“I’m out,” she said, holding her hands up.
“You might want to stay in until you hear the rules,” Sloan said. “Jack, is the prize for the winner the same as last year’s?”
“Oh, no,” he said. “It’s even better.”
“What was last year’s prize?” Haley asked, her curiosity piqued.
“I won last year,” Brody said, puffing his chest out. “Five hundred bucks.”
Haley and Katie’s mouths dropped open.
“See why it can get a little intense, now?” I asked.
“Five hundred dollars would buy me new nails,” Haley said faintly. “Lots of new nails. I could lose these ones for five hundred dollars.”
“It’s a different prize this year,” Jack reminded her.
“As good as five hundred dollars?” she asked.
“Remains to be seen, once the winner of the game is determined.” Jack sat at the table. “Are we ready?”
“You’re going to tell us how to play, aren’t you?” Haley demanded. “Don’t you dare start without telling me how I’m going to win whatever’s in that box.”
“We each keep taking turns rolling the dice,” Jack said, rattling the pair in his clasped hands. “When someone rolls doubles, that person pops the oven mitts on and starts to open the gift. The next person who rolls doubles take the oven mitts and has at the gift. And so on. Until the gift is opened.”
“But…this box is completely covered with duct tape.” Haley looked at it in despair. “It’s never getting open, especially if we have oven mitts on.”
Jack laughed. “That’s kind of the fun of it.”
“I’m ready,” Katie said. “And I feel good about this.”
“Good feeling?” Jack turned his attention on her. “You’re feeling lucky, Katie?” He smiled easily. “You should roll first.”
“Thanks,” she said, taking the dice from him.
“Good luck,” he said, smile fading a couple of watts. “Start rolling.” I wondered about the shift in mood, then dismissed it as Jack just being tired, becoming quickly absorbed in the game.
It took us an entire fruitless round around the table before Haley got a pair of fours.
“Give me the mitts!” she shrieked, her fingers scrambling against the box.
“You have to wait until the mitts are on before you get to have a go at the box,” Jack reminded her. “And no teeth. hands only.”
Haley struggled to find the edge of a seam of tape, the mitts comically large on her hands, as Chuck laughed at the doggedly focused expression on her face.
“Keep rolling, keep rolling,” Katie urged me, elbowing me in the side.
“Ha!” I exclaimed, coming up with a pair of twos. “Give those oven mitts over, Haley!”
She cursed bitterly, but passed them to me, and I started the same scrabbling struggle against the tape.
“This tape is the worst,” I laughed, trying to bash the edge of the box against the table. “We’re going to be here all night with this thing.”
“No fair trying to bash it,” Sloan complained.
“Not in the rules,” I retorted. “I’m using my hands. This falls within parameters.”
“Snake eyes!” Katie screamed, ripping the mitts off my hands and having a go against the box, following my lead of working to smash the structure instead of grappling with the tape.
“Hurry, hurry,” Brody chanted.
“Damn.” Chuck looked on as Katie managed to knock a hole in the box. “Maybe we should just stop rolling, resign ourselves to the fact that she’s got that box open.”
“Just because she has the box open doesn’t mean she’s won, yet,” Jack said.
“I’ve almost got this,” Katie argued, jamming one of her thumbs into the hole she’d created. “I told you I was feeling lucky.”
“Not as lucky as you might’ve thought,” he told her.
“What shit!” There was another, slightly smaller, much more tightly wrapped box within the first. “This is so unfair!”
“Sixes!” Sloan cried, holding his hands out for the mitts. Katie only very reluctantly gave them up.
“That was almost cruel, bud,” I told Jack.
He laughed. “All in good fun, Ace.”
When a third box was revealed, after much effort, we all groaned in unison while Jack just laughed.
“Worst Christmas ever,” Brody remarked.
“Depends on your perspective,” Jack said. “I’d be awfully careful, though, from now on. No more bashing the box.”
“That’s not in the rules,” Sloan said. “You can’t just make up new rules in the middle of the game.”
“I mean, smash away, if you really want to,” Jack said. “I’m just saying you might ruin what’s inside if you do.”
“Is it a diamond necklace?” Haley asked, starry-eyed. “Please tell me it’s a diamond necklace.”
“I’d keep your fingers crossed on that one, if I were you,” Jack recommended, just as he rolled a pair of threes. “Excellent. Mitts to me.”
What followed could only be described as a travesty of terrible luck. We all had unlucky rolls, one right after the other, and Jack, who’d wrapped the package to begin with, started taking his time with getting into it, toying with us.
“What why aren’t you hurrying?” Haley demanded. “What do you know?”
“That it’s not worth harming whatever’s inside of this box to get to it,” Jack said. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“I’d rather be a winner,” I remarked, wincing as I rolled a four and a five. “So close.”
“Is it a kitten?” Katie asked, realization dawning on her face with a good dose of horror thrown in. “Please tell me there’s nothing alive in that box.”
“Of course there’s not,” Jack said. “I’m a little offended you would suggest that, honestly.”
“I had to be sure.”
“It’s fragile, is all,” he said. “You’ll all understand if I can manage to open this thing.”
“If you can are you cheating?” Chuck demanded. “Is there a way to cheat at this game? How are you so certain that you’re going to be the winner?”
“If these dice are loaded…” Brody’s threat trailed off as he passed the dice to Sloan.
“Can’t take a little competition?” Jack asked, miraculously finding the end of the tape, which had rolled up in the struggle to get the box open.
“None of us can roll doubles,” Haley groused, passing the dice on.
“That’s not my problem.” He continued to unwind the tape, the sound making everyone jitter with excitement, quicken the pace of the rolling.
“Is that the last box, or is there another one after it?” Katie asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Jack just smiled at her.
“I think everyone would like to know,” I said. “So we can figure out just what degree of urgency we should be operating under.”
Everyone groaned and complained as soon as the box was opened and a pretty little bottle of clear liquid was revealed.
“I win,” Jack announced.
“What even is that?” I asked, peering at the bottle.
“It’s a limited edition, very high-end bottle of vodka,” Jack said. “Its value is on par with our prize last year.”
Haley gaped. “Are you meaning to tell us that you’re holding a 500-dollar bottle of booze?”
Jack grinned and nodded.
“Damn,” Brody remarked. “That better be bottle unicorn tears, for 500 bucks. Bottled unicorn tears that make whoever drinks them immortal, or sprout wings, or something.”
“That thing’s pretty exorbitant,” Sloan said. “You’ve kind of outdone yourself.”
“Why not just slip another wad of cash in there again this year?” I asked. “Or do you want me to make some 500-dollar screwdrivers for everyone? Maybe some 500-dollar Red Bull vodkas?”
“Sometimes we should treat ourselves,” Jack reasoned. “And no, you don’t use mixers with 500-dollar vodkas. Ever.”
“I will make a notation of that in my bartender’s bible,” I vowed.
“But you could’ve had 500 dollars, and now you’re stuck with a bottle of vodka,” Haley said, dismayed. “Do you even like vodka?”
“I like that it’s Christmas, and everyone I love is sitting right here,” Jack said. “Yeah, maybe it’s nice to have 500 dollars just lying around, waiting to be spent, but I like that we have this vodka here, now. We can all share it and figure out if it’s really worth its price tag. We can spoil ourselves, because it’s Christmas, and because we’re family.”
I inadvertently caught Katie’s eye and she smiled at me. We all toasted each other with surprisingly delicious vodka, and made our way to our respective homes.
“Sorry that my family Christmases are so crazy,” I said, shutting and locking the door behind me.
“The only thing I’m sorry about was that I didn’t win that crazy game,” she said, smiling warmly at me. “I would’ve pawned that bottle of vodka.” I laughed. “Do you think it was really 500 bucks?”
“Jack doesn’t do things halfway,” I said. “It was the nicest vodka I’ve ever tasted, that much is for sure.”
Katie touched her lips. “I know. It was good. I don’t even like vodka but I liked that.” Her face darkened a little. “I don't think Jack likes me very much.”
“What? That’s not true. Jack likes everyone.”
She shrugged. “I just get a bad vibe from him.”
“Really? He’s a good guy. He’s one of my…well, he is my best friend.”
“I don’t really care whether he likes me or not,” she said. “I know I can be abrasive.”
“I would like it if the woman I loved and my best friend got along,” I said. “I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Ace, it was just a careless comment. An observation.” She wound her arms around me. “Forget about it.”
“I’m going to talk to him about it.”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“It’s not stupid to want you two to get along.” I kissed the crown of her head, smelling the flowery shampoo she used to wash her red hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”
“Later. Think about all that later. Think about…the spirit of Christmas, now.”
She squeezed my butt in the guise of a hug and I laughed. “I don’t think the spirit of Christmas means sex.”
“Okay. Pick something else that does include sex.”
“I don’t need an excuse to be with you.”
“Just trying to be festive.”
“I’ll show you festive.”
We left a trail of clothes to the bedroom, breathing for each other, neither of us willing to surface for air that didn’t include the other. The wind rattled the windows, reminding me that it was cold outside, and that made the heat the two of us generated even more delicious. It might’ve been cold out there, but in here, we could provide each other with the comfort we needed.
I could taste the vodka we’d sampled as a faint trace on Katie’s lips, and it flavored our kisses. We fell into bed together, the frame squeaking in protest, and I realized that the greatest present of all was Katie.
“Can I give you one gift?” I asked, and she rolled her eyes at me.
“What did I tell you?”
“You’re going to really, really like this gift,” I said, trailing my kissed downward suggestively.
“Oh I well, that gift is just fine, thank you very much.”
“I knew you’d like it.”
I loved the way she tasted, the way she responded to my tongue laving her, sampling her from every angle. And when she dragged me back up her body and kissed me, tasting herself on my lips, I loved that, too, and we made short work of things from there.
“This was the best Christmas I’ve ever had,” Katie said, her chest heaving.
“You know, I have to agree with you,” I said, drawing her close to me again, kissing her sweaty neck. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.”