2
Dallas
Marshall and the rest of the team talk about supermodels they wish were strippers while I laugh at their stupid remarks.
“She would get all my money. Hands down I would be broke.” Alex says about some celebrity I’ve never heard of before. Yet everyone seems to agree with him. I check the time on my phone, three minutes until midnight, and throw back the rest of my beer.
“Boys, it’s been a great one, but I’m out of here. You all drive safely and be careful,” I stand up and point at Marshall, who has his short red hair tied into a frayed ponytail at the top of his head. “Don’t even think about driving yourself home or you’ll never be able to see another woman naked again.” Marshall laughs harder than the rest of them and waves me off. Alex assures me that he’s got Marshall taken care of yet he’s not much better off. I stop by my desk on the way out and drop off my award. I’ll make it look nice when I get back to work next week. The company is closed for five days for Christmas. Jonathan and James are big family people and pay their employees to be as well. Mom and Dad live a few streets over from me, so I don’t need all the time off. But it’s nice to relax and get paid to sit at home and do nothing.
I reach my dark blue Toyota Tundra and slide into the driver's seat before loosening up my tie. While my car heats up, I think about fucking Eve in the bathroom while everyone else is just steps away. The thought of her body under my control begins to arouse me again. The faint taste of her lips and the sound of her moaning my name. I take out my phone and send her another message, even though she never replied to the first one.
Me: Five days without you is going to be unbearable. Please don’t make me wait to taste you again.
I put my truck into drive and pull out of the parking lot. The radio station predicts a large snowfall overnight and it makes me imagine the fun Eve and I would have if she was snowed in at my place. Bare roads and green lights make the drive home faster than usual. I pull into the garage and hear the sound of Tucker barking in the living room. When I open the door to the kitchen he jumps up and his tail goes a mile a minute. I lean down and rough house with him for a few seconds before letting him out back to use the bathroom. Tucker loves snow and, if I let him, he’ll be out there for hours trying to catch the flakes in his mouth.
I flip on the lights as I walk through the house until I reach my bedroom. The perfectly made bed haunts me with the bed set that Eve picked out the couple of months she was staying here. She claimed the house needed a woman’s touch, but I’m still convinced she was just trying to distract herself from what was really happening. Vince had left her and she had finally given herself permission to try and move on. Our lives were perfect for a while before he came back and tried to backpedal over everything he said. I wanted to talk her out of going back to him, but she said she needed to do everything she could to make her marriage work. Then, if it still didn’t work, she would know that she would be making the right choice.
I sit on the corner of my bed and rub my face with my hands before taking my shoes off and putting them away in the closet. My shirt and pants make it into the hamper and my blazer gets hung back up. I slide on some gray sweatpants and let Tucker back into the house. His dark brown and tan fur is covered in snow for a few seconds before the heat melts it. We play for about half an hour before he retreats to his dog bed by the couch and I return to my room and lay down. I check my phone for a message from Eve but receive nothing. A part of me understands since she is at home and Vince is there. But the other part of me is selfish and doesn’t care wishing she would just come back and give up listening to his bullshit lies.
Starting at the ceiling I try to drift off to sleep without thinking too hard about what Eve is doing at home. My phone buzzes and I jump out of my skin to grab it. An email from Home Depot about their Christmas sale on shovels is my only notification. I lock the phone and lay back down, falling into my sheets and drifting off.
****
I wake up to the bright snow illuminating my room and Tucker sleeping at the end of my bed. I squint and rub my eyes hard before adjusting my dick to suppress my morning wood. A hot shower becomes my best friend as I wash off the alcohol from last night and the remainder of our bathroom session. While drying off, I hear the front door open and then someone is letting Tucker outside. Wishful thinking makes me hope it’s Eve when I know it isn’t. I slide on some basketball shorts before walking out to the kitchen and seeing my Mom and Dad setting some grocery bags on the counter.
“Mom, I have groceries. You didn’t need to bring any over,” I say as I hug her from the side and kiss the top of her head. She’s a foot shorter than me and Dad but could wrestle a bear to the ground if she needed to.
“You have groceries for yourself and your friends. Christmas Eve dinner isn’t going to be tortilla chips, salsa, and beer. Now move out of my way,” she says as she waves me on and moves past me towards the fridge.
“Don’t fight her son, she doesn’t mess around with Christmas Eve dinner; you know that.” I laugh and hug my dad before letting Tucker back inside. He jumps up on my Dad and they play fight for a few seconds before Mom scolds them to get away from the food.
“I brought a few chairs and a small round table from home so we could all sit comfortably tonight,” Mom says as she starts to unpack the grocery bags. “ Your brother and Hazel will be here around 4:45 with the kids. And then Uncle Mark and Aunt Silver will be here around 5:15.” She moves around making my kitchen her own and I check the time on the back of the stove.
“Ma, it’s only 9:45, why are you rushing to start cooking now?” She turns and gives me the evil eye before motioning to everything in front of her. Mom loves the holidays and never misses a chance to get us all together. My brother Conner is in the Air Force and doesn’t always get to be here. His wife Hazel still brings the kids around when he’s not here, but it’s never the same without him and we all know it.
“Son, just let your mother work her magic. No need to stress her out.” Dad calls from the couch as he begins to search through the channels for something to watch. The doorbell rings and I make my way over to the door before realizing I’m shirtless and it’s only 31 degrees outside. I open the door and the cold smacks me in the chest. I’m greeted by a delivery boy no older than twenty holding a coffee shop bag in his hand.
“Are you Dallas Reed?” He says as his large Adam's apple jumps in his throat.
“That’s me, kid,” I confirm as he hands me the bag and tells me Merry Christmas. I bring the bag inside and set it on the counter. I pull out the medium dark roast coffee and a freshly baked blueberry muffin.
“Son, you really shouldn’t order in when you could save money by cooking at home.” My mom says as she steals a small piece of the muffin top.
“I didn’t order this for myself, it was sent to me by my boss. They’re generous people. Also, I cook every meal I eat, except for special occasions; that’s your job.” I take a bite of the muffin before reading the side of the bag while sipping my coffee.
Bailey’s Bakery
638 Hall Street
Seattle, Washington
Pick-up Method: Delivery
1 Medium Dark Roast - 2 SGR, No CRM
1 Blueberry Muffin w/ Sugar crystals
Special Instructions/Notes: I'll see you before you know it. XX - Evelyn
“What’s with the giant smile kid?” Dad teases from the couch, moving his head around acting like he’s trying to get a better look at the bag. I crumple the paper bag and toss it into the trash before Mom gets the chance to look.
“Like I said, just really generous people.” I pick up the coffee and muffin before kissing the side of Mom's head again and head back into my room to get changed for the day. I usually get in a quick workout when I wake up, but today is a family day and Mom is strict on those. After getting semi-ready, I join Dad on the couch and watch a few movies before Mom calls me into the kitchen to help prepare vegetables. Family members start to show up as mom finishes dinner. Conner and I set up the extra table and place settings once he and his family arrive.
“Is the girl you were telling me about coming tonight?” Conner asks as he lays out placemats and decorations. I wrote him letters while he was gone around the time that Eve was staying here. An ache rises in my chest and for a second it’s hard to breathe.
“No, she’s not.” He senses the pain in my voice and drops the subject.
“So how’s work then? Design any monuments or strip clubs?” He jokes as he adjusts some of the chairs to fit better around the smaller table.
“Won designer of the year yesterday. But no, no strip clubs or monuments,” Conner slaps down on my shoulder with a large grin on his face.
“That’s what I’m talking about Dallas! That’s huge, man. Congratulations, really I’ve seen your work and you deserve it.” The feeling of someone close to me being proud will never get old. Knowing that my family supports my career makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing. Dad wasn’t always supportive of the idea that I wanted to draw for a living, but after he saw a few of my first designs he came around. When I bought my house they didn’t question if I could afford it, they just wanted to know when I would start filling it with grandkids. To keep them off my ass about when I was having kids, I offered to host all of our holiday dinners here since I had the space. It had been working up until earlier this year when Mom started getting curious about why I was choosing to be single. Little did she know, I wasn’t single when she had asked. I had met the girl of my dreams and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. The only problem was that she had already vowed to do that with someone else. Someone who never has and never will deserve her.
“Alright, everyone! Let’s eat!” Mom calls from the kitchen. She set up all of the food around the island in the middle of the room buffet style. Plates, napkins, plastic biodegradable cups, and utensils are stacked on one end of the counter. The family gathers around and grabs their plates of food before finding a spot to sit around the table in the dining room. Dad says grace before we eat and then the room fills with the hum of conversations about jobs, kids, and the future.
After dinner, we have dessert and talk about the next holiday dinner we will have together. Then the drunken adults start planning a vacation that will more than likely never happen. By 10:00 pm everyone is gone and the place is cleaned like no one was here. Mom always stays back and cleans up instead of ditching me with the mess. The house is quiet except for Tucker’s snores that loudly echo through the living room from his bed. Before Eve he used to sleep on the floor or the couch. But she demanded that a dog needs a bed of his own and that it was only right that Tucker had the highest quality dog bed, so that’s what he got. I make it back into my bedroom and slide back on the same gray sweatpants from last night before crawling back into my unmade bed and staring at the ceiling. It's only Tuesday night and the office isn’t open again until Monday morning. I start to think of ways to keep myself busy over the next week. Working out in the morning, working on new designs, and old holiday movies should keep me busy. And if they don’t, I'll just have to get over it.