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Christopher
“Yousignedusupfor breakfast duty.” I grabbed the flier at the entrance of the grocery store. If we were buying a shitton of food, then I wanted to make sure we took advantage of the sales. Buying for a ton of people was going to be way different than just buying for myself. “I’ve never cooked for a crowd, despite what my spaghetti portions look like.”
“I have. We had to take turns when I was… away. And teenage wolves eat a lot.”
We had driven a couple of towns over to the full-sized store. At least that was what we used as our excuse. In reality, the extra time in the car was what we were after. I wasn’t ready to go back to family—his or ours. It had been so long since I’d seen him, I wanted him all to myself, and even being around all these people in the store was grating on my nerves.
I loved how easy things were with us already. We just picked up right where we were. Sure, there were going to be some things to work through. We weren’t kids anymore. We had real jobs and adult responsibilities. But the feelings—they were even stronger than I remembered and I was basking in the joy of it.
“I signed up for breakfast because I wanted your mom to like me.” He pulled the cart from the stack. “I know that’s silly, but… you don’t mind, do you?”
“No. I was just surprised. I’d half been thinking I would see if I could grab last night’s hotel room for another night or two.” I took the cart from him and started to move, a line forming behind him.
“You stayed in a hotel?” We walked through the double doors and into the produce section.
“Yeah. I wasn’t ready to be back here. I arrived in town late and I wasn’t ready for any conversations. I also just didn’t want to see your house. I thought it might break me. But that wasn’t what I was thinking for tonight. I mean… unless I’m jumping ahead.” Great. Of all the places to have this conversation, I picked the produce aisle. The only thing I needed to make it completely embarrassing would be to stand next to the eggplants.
“Not jumping ahead.” He reached in front of me and grabbed a bunch of bananas. Maybe the eggplants weren’t the most problematic item in this area. “For breakfast.” He set them in the basket with a wink. “And I’d like that too. Everyone and their brother is staying at my house tonight.”
“Same. And my aunt has three pseudo-grandbabies with her. Triplets. They are amazing, but it makes things extra crowded.” And loud and intense. They were basically a live version of birth control.
I went on to tell him about the three darlings as we gathered the fruit for our planned fruit salad, nothing really decided yet, but it was out there and that was a start.
“Other than fruit, what are you thinking? There will be at least twelve people. I’m not sure who else may or may not be coming. I didn’t really talk to my mom a lot about it after my uncle cancelled.”
“Egg bakes, baked French toast, and quiche are pretty much the easiest, I think. We don’t want to be flipping pancakes all morning. And cereal, of course, for anyone who doesn’t like anything else. Or just can’t live without it.” He winked at me, and my stomach fluttered.
“We can do both an egg bake and French toast. Then there is something for everyone.”
“And a smoothie bar.” He pointed to a stack of clearance blenders. “Does your mom have a good blender? They’re reasonable enough today.”
“Better grab one, in case. We can use it if she doesn’t need it.” I took it from the display and it hit me what I’d just said. I was grabbing an appliance for us. There were so many details to be worked out, but I was comfortable enough in this to have it be expected.
We’d live together one way or another. There was no way I was going to separate myself from him.
“I like that. Our first appliance.” And he had caught it, too. “And back to what you said before… I’d like that… getting a place for just us tonight.”
“I would too.”
He put his hands up. “No expectations. I just want to be where you are without prying eyes and lots of questions. Unless those questions come from you. I’m happy to answer those.”
“I think that sounds amazing.”
The smoothie bar meant back to the produce aisle we went. It would be easier doing smoothies than a fruit salad as far as work went, but we had to grab some more berries and some greens for those who wanted to be healthier.
We wandered the aisle and gathered different foods we might need, the cart filling quickly. I wasn’t even sure my mom had room for all of it, but it was cold enough that things like the produce for smoothies could hang out in the garage if need be.
“Do we need anything here?” I tilted my head in the direction of the family planning shelf. I didn’t want to be presumptuous, but I didn’t want to be unprepared either.
“Probably, at least until we figure out the details of everything.”
“Until… as in you want to… never mind.” I threw a box of condoms into the cart and started to push it out of the aisle.
Nicholas stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “Not never mind.” He rested his chin on my shoulder. “I do mean that with you, I want everything, including a family. A child between the two of us would be a dream come true for me. The ultimate fantasy I never let myself have.”
“I want everything with you,” I said.
“Then that’s what you’ll have. Starting with an amazing Christmas brunch.”
