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  Month 6: December (Part 1)

  Eli

  The first rain in months came in a sudden explosion, heralding the arrival of winter with considerable aplomb. Gray clouds had settled over the city one night, refused to leave by morning, and by te afternoon they were releasing the full fury of their arsenal. ‘Winter’ is perhaps not the most accurate description of the damp, gray stretch that settled over California from December until February and sometimes extending into March. It didn’t even get that cold, retively speaking. But the desert is seldom equipped to swallow up the surge of rainfall, which often comes in brutal, week-long assaults and leaves the popuce scrambling for higher ground. Thus, the City of Angels becomes akin to a drowning anthill, reliant upon good fortune and God’s mercy to survive until the baking heat of summer comes for us once more.

  All of that is to say: it was raining really hard, and Samantha and I were stuck in the shop by ourselves. The lights were on, but the pce was deserted with an hour left until closing time. We’d already taken inventory and restocked everything and cleaned the breakroom over the past hour, for simple ck of anything whatsoever to do. I’d wound up grabbing a book off the shelf and parsing through it while we sat behind the front desk keeping each other company, my girlfriend working on the first page of her graphic novel.

  It was coming along nicely, by the look of it. A three-panel yout, rectangles stacked atop one another, beginning with a wide, distant shot of an arena wherein two people were jousting, and the second and third panels revealing a severely-burned man with a giant Swiss Army Knife for an arm riding a unicorn in the joust while a young woman in a wedding dress made of cobwebs and armed with a sword made of sharpened bones rode the other. It was all in bck and white, all uninked, and all as fucking perfect as the girl who drew them.

  But hey, I have it on good authority I’m biased.

  She put down her pencil and held her sketchpad aloft. “What do you think?”

  “I love it,” I said automatically, closing my comic and pcing it on my p.

  She squealed and shimmied and smiled a wide, toothy smile. “You mean it?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “You’re not just saying it?”

  “Why would I say it if I didn’t mean it?”

  “I dunno, to get something from me?”

  “Oh, well then you’ve caught me: I said it entirely to make you smile.”

  She gave me a pyful swat on the arm. “Oh, stop it.”

  “Hey, it’s not my fault your smile lights up the whole damn room,” I said.

  She held up her palms and looked up at the ceiling. “Oh God, how could you make one man this corny? Think of what you’ve done to the rest of the world’s corn supplies!”

  “I’ll apologize for nothing,” I said, putting my hands on her hips. “You smile so bright we’d still be able to see even if the power went out-”

  Which, of course, was the exact moment when the power went out.

  I blinked. She blinked. We both blinked at each other.

  “Huh,” I finally said.

  “Did you pn this?”

  “What? No? How would I have pnned this?”

  “Using your electrician training!”

  “You mean that thing I’m terrible at?” I said.

  “... I see the fw in my logic now,” she said.

  “Also, why would I pn this?”

  “I dunno, to get me alone with you?”

  “That’s not actually that hard, given that we work together and we hang out all the time-”

  “Or maybe it was my pn,” Samantha said.

  “Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “Are you threatening my virtue?”

  She put her hand on my belt, fingers plunging into my pants and pressing against my skin. “Depends. Does that make it hotter for you?”

  “... It might,” I said, running my fingers on the underside of her breasts. “Just so we’re clear, though-”

  “Oh, this is an actual power outage, I didn’t do shit,” Samantha said, not letting go of me.

  “Right, right. So, how do we-”

  “Eli, I know you were deprived growing up, but if I have to expin this to you-”

  “No, I meant where do we-”

  “I may or may not have brought a mattress to the apartment upstairs,” she smiled, her fingers dancing across the thin yer of fabric hiding my crotch from the outside world.

  I kissed her neck, then whispered into her ear, “Good girl.”

  “Mmm I like it when you call me that.”

  “Gd to hear it,” I said. “Guess we’re closing early tonight?”

  “I don’t think anyone is driving here in this weather, Eli,” Samantha said. “At least not in the next hour. And I’m not comfortable getting us home-”

  “Didn’t I drive us today?”

  “I’m not comfortable with you driving in this either,” she said, looking out at the deluge of rainfall while the chorus of shattering droplets on pavement underscored her words. “Let’s just wait it out, see if the power comes back on by itself, and if not, we’ll py it by ear. Okay?”

  “Okay,” I nodded.

  “Now then, handsome man, if you’ll accompany me upstairs?” she said, grabbing a handful of my t-shirt.

  “I think that sounds great,” I said.

  She led me by the hand upstairs, to the spot of our first date, I found a bck-sheeted futon mattress spyed across the floor. “Gimme a sec, I wanna get changed,” Samantha said as she headed for the bathroom. “There’s some candles and a matchbook in the cupboard. You mind lighting this pce up a little for us?”

  “I think I can manage,” I said.

  This was it. It was really happening. No false starts, no technicalities, I was gonna lose my v-card. Holy shit, this was really freaking happening. I found the candles and put them in the various candlestick holders she had stored up here, lighting them and letting the pinpricks of luminance pierce through the shadowy veil around the apartment. I wanted to be able to see what I was doing, wanted everything I was about to do to be etched into my memory in perpetuity.

  “Ohhhhh Elijah,” my girlfriend called out in her highest voice. “I’ve got a surprise for you!”

  I set the final candle on the counter, then opened the window a crack to ease the airflow and let the petrichor in. “Yeah? Lemme see it.”

  “Stand still,” she said, her voice drawing nearer, her footsteps sounding louder and louder. From behind, her hands wrapped around my chest, and her lips pressed against the back of my neck. “Now turn around.”

  I pivoted, and I saw her wearing nothing but a long bck t-shirt with a blue, v-shaped bird emblem on the chest. Her long legs, toned from months of continuous walking, smooth from a fresh shave, flowed out of the shirt and guided me up. Her nipples poked through the fabric, her small, round breasts accented by the thin material. Her raven hair, now past her colr, hung freely and was brushed to the side, giving me a view of her smooth neck. Her lips, painted a light pink, had never looked more inviting.

  Pnting my lips on hers, my tongue entering her mouth, I slid my hands under her shirt and brushed my thumb over her nipple. It went hard, and she gave a squeak that I couldn’t help but smile at. “How’s that?” I asked.

  “It’s a good start,” she breathed. “Now, let’s get you out of that shirt-”

  That was when a panicked pounding on the gss door below ruptured the fragile, quiet domestic bliss of our little encounter. I groaned as I looked down and recognized the frigid, diminutive figure of one of our best customers. “Reggie?” I said.

  “Who?”

  “That kid who I made my first sale to,” I said, gesturing down at the soaked teenager shivering in his green hoodie, looking like some kind of lost soul on a pilgrimage. “He was here on Bck Friday as well-”

  “I remember him, just didn’t know his name,” Samantha sighed. “We should let him in, shouldn’t we?”

  “I-”

  “Please let me innnnn!!!” Reggie whined, voice cracking as he sobbed and his tears were washed away. “PLEASE!”

  “Yeah, yeah we should,” I nodded.

  “Dammit,” Samantha said, stomping her foot. “I’ll go put some clothes on.”

  “Right. I’m, uh, gonna need you to open the door, actually.”

  “Why? You’re still dressed.”

  “Look down,” I said with a bitter ugh.

  “Where? Your shoes? You’re still wearing shoes.”

  “Too low.”

  “You’re wearing a shirt, too.”

  “Too high,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “I was more talking about near my middle. Something I was gonna need for tonight’s activities.”

  “What do you- oh. Ohhhh,” she said, eyes drifting towards my crotch. Specifically, the tent it had pitched in my jeans. “OH! Wow, that thing is-”

  “Average size, from what I’m told.”

  “That is not average size,” she said. “I dated a guy with an average sized hog, that is at least modestly above average.”

  “I appreciate the fttery,” I said, sure I was beet-red, “But this is gonna take a few minutes or a bucket of cold water to calm down.”

  “The water is still running in the bathroom,” Samantha said.

  “Cool,” I said. “Go let Reggie in, I’ll be down in a minute, okay?”

  “Fine,” she said. She kissed me again, which was a bit counterproductive, but hey, a man’s gotta keep his woman happy. “We’re continuing this… Conversation ter though.”

  “PLEASE! I have NOWHERE to go!” Reggie bellowed.

  “Sure thing,” I monotoned.

  Samantha pulled on some clothes and rushed downstairs to let our drenched customer in, while I grabbed a gss of water, took off my pants, and dumped the cold water on my crotch. It was… Well, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling, but a man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. Or not do, in this case.

  Dammit.

  I made my way downstairs to find Samantha handing Reggie a towel, letting the young man wipe his face and dab at his soaking natural hair. “Hey there, bud,” I said, “How’s it going?”

  “Not great, man, not great,” he said. “Do y’all have anything I can wear? My scout troop told me hypothermia is a thing, so I’m a little paranoid about it.”

  “Only if you don’t mind wearing a dress,” Samantha said.

  “Uh… Let’s py it by ear on that,” Reggie said awkwardly.

  “Okay, but if things get bad-”

  “Then I’ll man up and wear a dress, yeah,” Reggie said with an awkward ugh.

  “So, Reg, what brings you here, anyway?” I asked. “You didn’t come all the way here in this storm just to buy comics, did you? I mean, I respect the dedication if you did, but-”

  “No, that’s not it,” Reggie said, leaning against the gss door. “I had a fight with my parents. I didn’t know where else to go.”

  “Oh God, I’m so sorry,” Samantha said.

  “Thanks,” he said. “I, uh, well I told them about my new girlfriend, and they didn’t react well to the news.”

  “What?” I said, fists clenching. “Why would they-”

  “Because she’s Korean, and they’re super racist,” Reggie said.

  “Fuck!” I said, surprised by the volume and intensity of my own procmation. “Are you fucking kidding me! What the hell?!”

  “I dunno,” Reggie said, his eyes gzing over. “I always knew they weren’t perfect, but this is just… I’ve never seen them like that before. Never seen them look so angry, so disappointed. It was like I wasn’t even their son anymore.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking,” Samantha said, “Why come here? Why not go to your girlfriend?”

  “Because she’s not told her folks about me yet. Mostly because her parents are racist too,” Reggie said, slipping into a thousand-yard stare. “I was gonna tell mine first, get them on our side in case her folks didn’t take it well. Guess that’s not happening. Also, because this pce is closer.”

  Anger throbbed inside my chest, threatening to choke out my heartbeat. My fists clenched, and my teeth grinded together. “I oughta call them and give them a piece of my mind-”

  “Babe, no,” Samantha said.

  “Yeah, they don’t know you. They’ll just get confused by the whole thing,” Reggie said.

  “Besides, it sounds like a case where this will need to stay on the down-low,” Samantha added. “For the sake of everyone involved.”

  “... Right,” I said, shaking my head. “That was stupid. Sorry. Um… How can I help?”

  “There’s not much-”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “How can I help?”

  “Honestly?” Reggie said. “There is one way.”

  “What?”

  “I can tell them I broke up with my girlfriend, then still go out to see her, but I need a reason to be out of the house,” he said. “Can I tell them I got a job here? And then if they call to check- which they definitely will- can you say that I started a few days ago?”

  I looked over at Samantha, and found her eyes sympathetic and her posture rexed. “Yeah,” she smiled, “we can do that. No problem. I’ll loop my uncle into the whole thing, but I don’t think he’ll mind. When he was a kid he’d pretend he was on the school newspaper to keep his boyfriends a secret from my grandparents.”

  “Paul is gay?” Reggie said, looking genuinely shocked.

  “Bi,” Samantha corrected.

  “Huh. Never would have guessed.”

  “Is that a problem?” Samantha said, stepping forward, hands on her hips.

  “No! No problem! No problem at all! None whatsoever!” Reggie said, holding up his hands and bugging out his eyes.

  I chuckled, trying to force myself to find levity in the situation, no matter how much I didn’t want to, no matter how much I wanted to march to Reggie’s house and punch his parents.

  What the hell was wrong with people?!

  “You should really talk to your girlfriend about all this, though,” Samantha said.

  “Good point!” Reggie said, holding up his index finger.

  “Go back into the breakroom, make the call. We’ll hold down the fort,” I said, pointing towards the back.

  He headed for the breakroom, leaving Samantha and I standing alone in the darkened store, listening to the rain shatter on the pavement. I heaved a heavy sigh and sat on the floor, pressing my back against the door.

  Samantha sat down next to me. “You okay?”

  “Just… Pissed off,” I said, drumming my fingers on my knee.

  “Look, I get it, but you can’t force these things,” Samantha said.

  “It’s just not right!” I said.

  “I agree.”

  “Reggie is a good kid! He should be able to bring his woman to his family and say with pride ‘this is my girlfriend. She’s amazing, and you’re gonna love her just as much as I do!’ And that shouldn’t be complicated! They’re his parents, they should… They should accept who their son wants to be with! They should-”

  “Love him even if they don’t agree with the choices he’s making?” Samantha said.

  “Exactly!” I said, smming my hand on the floor.

  She gave me a bnk look.

  “What?” I said.

  “Eli, we talked about this. Thanksgiving didn’t work out, we can try again at Christmas and hope for the best with your folks-”

  “This isn’t about me!” I said, mildly outraged at the insinuation.

  “You’re right, it’s not,” she replied. “So don’t make it about you. Don’t project your thing with your parents onto Reggie’s thing with his parents. Yeah, it’s simir; I won’t sit here and lie by saying I don’t see the parallels. But you’ve only met this kid a few times, and you can’t and you shouldn’t muscle your way into his life and try to solve his problems for him.”

  I opened my mouth, but the stern expression on her face told me she was being deadly serious. I breathed out, quickly and sharply. “Okay. Okay, point made. I get you.”

  “Good,” she said, then gave me a peck on the cheek. “You’ve a really big heart, Eli. It’s my favorite thing about you. Please don’t let it explode from trying to fix every problem you come across.”

  I put my arm around her, held her tight. “I won’t. Also, it’s your favorite thing about me?”

  “Well, it’s definitely tied. You know, with that other really big organ you’ve got.”

  I smiled wide, brushed back a strand of her hair. “Duly noted. Guess I’ll have to let you get a better look at it. You know, so you can compare and contrast.”

  “I like the sound of that,” she said, clearly undressing me with her eyes.

  She leaned in to give me a kiss on the mouth, only for another loud knocking sound to erupt against the door. Samantha jumped up and screamed, and I turned around with my fists at the ready in case of emergency.

  I lowered them when I saw it was Kelsey on the other side, holding an umbrel that the raging wind was threatening to rob her of, her mascara running down her face from something I assumed wasn’t the rain. I exhaled again, then opened the door for her.

  “Hey, fam,” I said. “Everything alright?”

  “Yeah, seriously, Kel, what’s going on?” Samantha asked.

  She dropped her umbrel and hugged us both, squeezing the pair of us WAY too tight and letting the tears flow freely once more. “Need to breathe,” I managed to choke out.

  “Sorry, sorry,” she said, pulling away. I brushed my shoulder, noticing a bck mascara stain on my shirt. “I just… Just…”

  “Just what?” I asked.

  She let the river of tears flow once more, wailing at the top of her lungs.

  Samantha and I exchanged another look. “I’ll go get another towel,” Samantha said.

  When she came back, Reggie came with her, along with the towel and a chair from the breakroom. Kelsey rubbed her face dry, but the result smeared her makeup all over her visage. I didn’t want to ugh, and I just barely managed not to, but I’d just never seen Kelsey like this.

  “Walk us through what happened?” I said.

  Kelsey nodded, still trembling. “I was out with Bethany and she was… Was compining.”

  “About what?” I asked, dreading the answer.

  “About how all the good ones are taken. About you, Eli. About how she’s happy, really happy, for you and Samantha, because she cares about you both a lot, but she’s frustrated because she feels like every time she meets someone she finds cool or hot or interesting they wind up with someone else and I… I just got so mad, and so hurt, and guilty about feeling that way that I just… Ran away.”

  “Y-you ran away?” Samantha said, disbelief evident in her tone. “In this storm?”

  “It wasn’t raining when I left,” came Kelsey’s reply.

  “Okay, but how far did you go, exactly?”

  “I was… I was in Inglewood.”

  “You walked here from Inglewood?!”

  “I… Yeah, yeah I did.”

  “Good God,” Samantha said.

  “Okay, hold up,” I said, “Lemme make sure I’m grokking all this. Bethany told you that everyone she’s interested in is taken, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you are interested in her, romantically and/or sexually, yes?”

  “A-also yes,” Kelsey said. “I thought that was obvious.”

  “It is to us, yeah,” Samantha said. “But I don’t think Bethany has any clue.”

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  I rubbed my temples and continued, “And you just ran off without saying anything at all to her, yes?”

  “Y… Yes.”

  “So, not only did you run away, you ran away while your best friend- who is also the object of your affections- was in the middle of a personal crisis and left her all alone to deal with it, and you did so without bothering to tell her what’s on your mind? Do I have that right?”

  “Y… Yeah.”

  “So you’re gonna call her now and apologize and tell the truth, right?” I said, leaning forward eagerly.

  “No, that’s a bad idea,” she said.

  I threw my hands up in frustration. “Oh for- how is that a bad idea?”

  “I mean, I shouldn’t tell her over the phone!”

  “But you admit that telling her in general is a good idea, right?” Samantha said. Oh thank God, someone else with common sense.

  “It’s not that simple!”

  “How the hell is not that simple?” Reggie said as he came out from the break room, crooking his neck in confusion while still toweling himself off.

  “THANK YOU!” I said, gesturing to him, to Samantha, all around me really.

  Kelsey went on the defensive: “It’s just not, okay? When you’ve been best friends with someone for so long, the idea of messing with that, complicating it, is… It’s an anathema! You can’t just do that!”

  Samantha and I exchanged disbelieving looks, then interlocked our fingers and held our joined hands aloft. “Excuse you?” Samantha said.

  “I can personally extol the benefits of just saying what you mean in this situation,” I added. “At length, if necessary.”

  “Also, I don’t think you’re using the word ‘anathema’ correctly,” Reggie said.

  Kelsey ignored the kid and said, “It’s different. You two were friends a couple months before things escated. Bethany and I have known each other since elementary school. We went through puberty together. Therefore, anathema.”

  “Eli and I have known each other since we were in middle school,” Samantha said.

  “And again, I really don’t think that’s quite what ‘anathema’ means,” Reggie said.

  “What are you, an English major?” Kelsey gred.

  “Actually, I’m still in high school, but I would like to major in-”

  I cpped him on the shoulder. “Read the room, bud.”

  “... Right. Sorry.”

  “Look, I get what you guys are telling me,” Kelsey said, “I really do. But I don’t think it’s quite the same, and I really don’t think it’s a good idea for me to tell Bethany-”

  Another hand smmed on the blurred, fogged up gss. A face covered in runny paint stood in the torrential downpour, and shouted, “Tell me what?!”

  We all screamed. It was loud. High-pitched. Embarrassing. All of the things. Especially once we realized it was Bethany. We let her in, and Samantha spared some makeup wipes and another towel. Damn, my girl came prepared.

  “Oh-em-gee, Kelsey! How could you just run away like that!?” Bethany said, stomping her feet. She was still wearing high heels- how the fuck…?

  Kelsey stammered,“I just- I just-”

  “And you made me chase after you on foot!”

  “Wait, you walked here from Inglewood too?” Samantha said, incredulous.

  “Yeah-huh,” Bethany nodded.

  “In those shoes?” Samantha gestured to Bethany’s stilt-like, sky-high spike heels.

  “Of course I did,” Bethany said.

  “How?!” Samantha said. “HOW?!”

  I rubbed my temples again, wondering what was happening with my life that I’d become the sane, sensible person in my friend group. Samantha was down to earth, that made sense for her, but me? What the hell? “Look, Beth, Kel, you two need to talk to each other.”

  Kelsey started, “But-”

  “KELSEY,” I moaned.

  “Seriously, girl,” Samantha seconded.

  “I don’t even know you and I’m in agreement,” Reggie said.

  “Seriously, Kels, what’s going on with you?” Bethany said, reaching out and putting her hand on her friend’s shoulder.

  Kelsey gulped, broke off eye-contact, and slowly, reluctantly nodded.

  We wound up letting Bethany and Kelsey talk in the breakroom, and Reggie kept browsing the shelves in the back of the shop. Samantha and I resumed sitting behind the front desk, looking at each other with a mixture of bemusement and frustration.

  “We’re not gonna get to have sex tonight, are we?” I muttered.

  “The odds are not looking good,” Samantha said.

  “Dammit.”

  “Maybe that can be part of the Christmas present too,” Samantha said, running her fingers up and down my forearm.

  “Oh yeah?” I said, feeling something start to rise once more. Thank God I was behind the desk.

  “If we don’t get the opportunity before then, I mean,” Samantha said. “Probably not tonight, tho.”

  “Okay,” I said, kissing her cheek. She squealed- God, I loved when she made that sound. Couldn’t wait to hear some other sounds from her, too.

  “I mean it, though,” Samantha said. “I can do Christmas. I’ll be there. Come what may, we’ll face it together.”

  I put my arm around her, holding her tight, feeling her breath on my neck. “Sounds good, Samantha. Sounds good.”

  She put a hand on my chest, and another under my chin. I moved in to kiss her, but we were interrupted by the return of Kelsey and Bethany from the back. Kelsey looked like the gss house of her emotions had been shattered by a tidal wave of bricks, while Bethany wore a pained, guilt-ridden expression.

  Oh, boy.

  “We, uh, we talked,” Bethany said.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “And we agreed we shouldn’t try to be more than friends,” Kelsey said. She looked like she was stabbing herself in the heart by saying that.

  “I see,” Samantha said.

  Bethany continued, “We were wondering, though…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Since the storm is still raging, and we can’t really leave just yet…”

  “Do you have anything to drink?” Kelsey said. “Anything in the way of hard liquor, preferably?”

  “Not on me, no,” I said, only for Samantha to hold up a finger and scamper off upstairs.

  She came back with a handle of whiskey. Seriously, the dy thought of everything, was generally the best person ever, and she wanted my narrow ass for some reason? God, this was frustrating. But also, my friends were hurting, and there wasn’t much I could do besides…

  Well, get drunk with my buddies and wait out the storm.

  We five went upstairs, sitting on the uncarpeted hardwood floor around the circle of lit candles, and my girlfriend poured us each a shot. Well, four of us.

  “Why don’t I get any?” Reggie whined.

  “Because you’re like twelve, dude,” Kelsey said.

  “I’m sixteen!”

  “Still a minor.”

  “But you’re all underage!”

  “I’m twenty-one,” Bethany corrected.

  “And the rest of us are all legal adults, if nothing else,” Samantha said. “Besides, you’re in high school. If you find a way to score booze, you’ll inevitably tell all your friends about it to win popurity points and then suddenly my shop is in a whole mess of legal trouble.”

  “That’s not-”

  Samantha gave him a ft look.

  “... Okay, fine,” Reggie said.

  “Good d,” Samantha said. “There’s my second favorite employee.”

  “Second?”

  “My boyfriend is first,” Samantha said. “What were you expecting?”

  “... Fair enough.”

  Kelsey knocked back a shot, and so did Bethany. Samantha and I followed suit without hesitation. Reggie sulked, but wound up sitting there clearly amused as we all got drunker and drunker. Evidently, that was his whole pn: wait for us all to get too buzzed to stop him and then grab a swig from the bottle.

  I stole it out of his grasp when he reached for it. Bethan and Kelsey were both giggling drunk, while Samantha was busy clinging to me, barely conscious. I downed a massive gulp of the sweet-burning Irish nectar, then shook my head at the young man.

  “You’re only two years older than me, you know,” he said.

  I shrugged, which made the room spin. I took a gulp of water to anchor myself, then said, “You’ve got me. The secret’s out. I’m not that much more mature than you.”

  “Then why-”

  “Becausssssse my girlfriend said ssssso, and it’s her ssssstore,” I slurred. “Look, one piece of adviccce I can give you, that I think I’ve earned?”

  “Go ahead,” Reggie said, clearly curious.

  “Wwwwhen your wwwwoman sets a boundary, you fuckin’ respect it,” I said. “You don’t try to negotiate dowwwwn or up, you jussssst take it at face value and wwwwwork wwwwwith you’ve got. If she wwwwants to amend it ter, that’s entirely her prerogative. You get me?”

  “Yeah, that makes sense. And you’re fucking pstered, so you’re probably telling the truth.”

  “Damn right!” I said. “You and your girl, howwww long ‘ave your been together?”

  “A couple weeks.”

  “You like her?”

  “I really like her, yeah,” Reggie said, the smile on his face telling enough of a story to fill an entire novel.

  “Then cherish her,” I said, “Let her knowwww she’s beautiful and amazing and that she’s your favorite freaking person in the whole wwworld.”

  “What if that stops being true?”

  “Then that’s that,” I said simply. “But is she right now?”

  “Fuck yeah, she is!” Reggie said. “She’s awesome! She’s the fucking best!”

  “Good,” I told him. “Then you’re already doing great.”

  The lights flickered back on, and I looked outside to find the rain, while it was still falling, was quite a bit less torrential.

  “Yay!!” Kelsey said. “I can go home and cry now!”

  “Kels,” Bethany said.

  “I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding,” my drunk cssmate said, nearly stumbling as she stood up. Bethany caught her, took her by the hand as she led them both over to hug me. I didn’t know what was gonna happen with these two, but it was obvious there was still a lot of mutual affection going on.

  “You two okay to get home?” I asked.

  “My older sister is coming to pick us up,” Bethany smiled.

  “Good,” I said. “You got a ride home, Reg?”

  “No, but it’s a short walk. And I need to face the music.”

  “Okay,” I nodded. “Let us know if you need anything, yeah?”

  “Yeah. Thanks, Eli,” Reggie said. “And you too, Samantha.”

  My girlfriend murmured, only half awake. I wasn’t doing much better myself- the spins weren’t really going anywhere, no matter how much water I tried to bance out my whiskey intake with.

  Our friends wandered off down the stairs, and I watched them leave the building through the window. I sat back down next to Samantha, who immediately grabbed me and started straddling my chest.

  “Thank God, they’re finally gone. They’re great, but also, thank God,” she said, practically purring with desire.

  I sprang to attention within seconds, burying my tongue in her mouth, ready to get down to business… Only for the smell of alcohol on her breath to hit me. I pulled away, though I couldn’t get her to stop nuzzling my shoulder. “Uh, Samantha? Maybe we shouldn’t tonight? We’re both pretty hammered and-”

  I didn’t need to finish- she’d already passed out again. I chuckled to myself, then pulled her over to the mattress on the floor and id down with her. I pulled the covers over the both of us, and kissed her on the forehead as we cuddled together.

  “Christmas,” I reminded myself under my breath.

  “Hmm?” Samantha murmured.

  “Nothing, babe,” I said. “Go back to sleep. For right now, this is good. More than enough.”