“The Grinch,” Ben said with a mischievous smile because he already planned on calling me a Grinch.
“Can’t wait.” I frowned, giving my grinchiest expression.
Ben laughed, smiling the entire ride home and all night while decorating. I had to redo the strings three times becauseBenjimansaid I kept covering the tree’s smile. I spent more time telekinetically levitating Ben than I did actually decorating the tree. If it were up to me, the tree would’ve been good after one box of ornaments, but Ben insisted we shower the tree with joy.
It was pretty morbid, decorating the corpse of a tree we chose to have killed and displayed at home. I grinned a little. That was probably the only part of this holiday I enjoyed. Very goth in its way.
“Stop sitting around.” Ben pointed to the top of the tree. “It needs a star.”
“Okay, okay.” I lifted Ben up, raising him high enough to place the final touch on the tree.
We basked in his hard work. We weren’t the only ones. Carlie and Charlie came over, sniffing the tree and curiously eyeing the ornaments.
“Don’t even think about it.” I pointed to Charlie, whose eyes had turned into giant saucers. He was a moment from pouncing on the smiling tree.
After a moment, I returned to studying the tree, finding a photo taped to the star at the top. It was a silly selfie Milo had taken of the three of us. Ben making a goofy face, Milo grinning from ear to ear, and me frowning. They were probably being annoying right before the photo, but I honestly couldn’t recall.
Still, I couldn’t help but smile now, loving how Ben chose to celebrate with his new family, his extended family. We’d never replace his parents, but I was glad he was finding joy with us despite all the losses he’d suffered.
“Not done yet. We gotta decorate the rest of the house now,” Ben insisted, retrieving some stockings Milo and him had designed the other day.
“Ugh,” I groaned, dragging my feet to followBenjiman, the Christmas enforcer.
They were hideous stockings, covered in sparkly sequins and glitter and splotchy paint and random cutout pictures glued to the sock. But Ben had fun making them. Milo did, too. He was basically an overgrown child himself.
“All right, all right, I’m on my way.”
By the time Ben and I finished decorating the living room, I collapsed onto the couch. He continued working on things, placing shiny stars in the dining room along with reindeer and snowman cutouts.
I was starting to think his father wasn’t exhausted from his battle with the tree he would tie to the car but more drained from the grueling labor of meeting Benjiman’s decorative expectations. Seriously, he was a little perfectionist when it came to Christmas. Thank goodness he didn’t care this much about the other holidays.
Halloween, he was a bit picky when it came to landing the costume he wanted, but mostly he just wanted a bunch of candyso he could spend all of November crashing out from sugar comas.
By the time Ben finished, I handed him the controller and let him deal with the movie setup. All I wanted was to lie on the couch. Admittedly, watching the Grinch torment those annoying little whothingies was entertaining. They absolutely deserved it.
Unfortunately, Ben’s thoughts twisted into a sulk the more we watched. The jokes made him giggle, and the plot kept him entertained even if he’d seen it a dozen times before. The problem came with the snow. It taunted him, teased him, and reminded him he still hadn’t had a snowy Christmas despite all his wishes.
The problem was snow required just the right temperature and Chicago remained unseasonably warm this winter or would drop to below freezing with no in between. As such, it remained outside the perfect temperature bubble for a snow day.
Sheamus barked.
I ignored it, same as Ben.
He continued yapping, scratching at the sliding door.
Goddammit. Did he want to go on another walk?
I sighed.
“If you have to use the bathroom, just open the door,” I shouted, sinking into the couch.
Milo bought Sheamus those potty grass pads and put them out on the balcony. The whole benefit of adopting an untethered familiar was that they were clever enough to use their magic and open the sliding door.
Still, he continued barking, running over to the couch and whining.
“What’s wrong?” Ben paused the movie.
When he sat up, his eyes practically popped out of his head, and his thoughts whirled with excitement.
