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“You help by being there, and looking at him the same despite what happened. Most people in town act like he’s a damned pariah,” I reminded him.
Rocco’s mood only darkened. “I hate that.”
“I know. But…” I trailed off, not sure what I could say to make him feel better. “Alright, there’s no good response here. But you know I’m not going anywhere, right?”
He flashed me a ghost of a smile. “I know.” His hand landed on mine, still on his thigh, and squeezed it lightly.
We didn’t trade, “I love you”s, though I was fairly confident that we did love each other.
We had never so much as broached the topic of a physical relationship since the time we’d made out, sticking with the platonic mating I’d wanted when we met.
I… wasn’t sure I still wanted that.
In fact, I was pretty sure I wanted to be un-platonic mates with him.
But I also didn’t want to risk screwing things up between us, which put me in an impossible position, because I wasn’t a risk taker.
So once again, I didn’t bring up my feelings for him, and he didn’t bring up his feelings for me. And instead, we talked about how good the food his mom made had been, and how entertaining the white elephant gift exchange was.
Rocco parked the truck in the garage, and we headed into the house together. He carried the bag of presents we’d won, and the gift cards his parents had given us.
We hadn’t exchanged gifts before heading over that morning, so I headed to the tree, crouching down and grabbing the small, wrapped rectangular box that held my gift for him. I’d spent hours debating how to buy a present that wouldn’t be too intimate, or not intimate enough, for our currently-platonic relationship, and then settled on a silly gift when I couldn’t come up with anything.
Rocco grabbed his own large box for me from under the tree, and we both dropped to the couch together.
“You first,” I said, handing him the box.
He set his down with a grin, taking the rectangular present and ripping the paper off. I bit my lip as he revealed the glasses-case.
His grin widened as he opened the case up, and his laughter boomed through the room as he pulled out the non-prescription glasses.
“Perfect,” he declared, still grinning widely.
“Now you can be the nerdy teacher you’re supposed to be,” I pointed out, still biting back a full-out grin of my own.
He slipped them onto his face and pursed his lips toward me.
I busted up with laughter, and he laughed with me, pulling me in for a massive hug. We hugged each other a bit longer than we should’ve, before Rocco cleared his throat and released me.
“You’re up next,” he told me, still grinning and wearing those damned glasses as he handed me my own present.
Somehow, he was even sexier with the freakin’ glasses on.
“This better not be a whoopee cushion,” I warned, tearing the wrapping paper off.
“It’s not.” His grin had widened though.
I wrestled the big box open, and blinked.
Sitting inside it, was a small, square box.
My lips parted a bit, and I looked back up at Rocco, without picking up the box.
He lifted his hands up by his head. “It’s for both of us.”
My fingers shook a bit as I reached in and grabbed the fancy black box. It took me a minute, but I managed to open the smaller one up.
And then I blinked at it, shock tearing through me.
