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A few weeks later...
“Rise and shine!” Mike said.
“Fuck off,” Charlotte muttered, covering her head with a pillow.
He wasn’t insulted. It was five thirty in the morning on a Saturday, after all.
Time for Plan B.
He grabbed the kraken mug full of coffee that he’d placed on his dresser and waved it under her nose. She perked up a bit but stayed lying down.
“You promised,” he said.
“You’re right. I did.” She sat up, and with an eagerness that still made him laugh, she took the mug from his hand.
“It’s decaf.”
“Don’t fuck with me.”
Nah, he would never bring her decaf coffee at five thirty in the morning.
Once Charlotte had finished her coffee, they headed to his kitchen. He’d already started getting out the ingredients for their turkey dinner, which he was very excited about, even if it meant he had to wake up at an ungodly hour. They’d be eating in the early afternoon, since Julie had to work tonight and Charlotte’s parents were coming in just for the day.
He’d never had the big turkey meal for Thanksgiving as a child, and he’d always wanted one. Thanksgiving was on Monday, but he was hosting it today for Charlotte’s family, as well as Angela and Bailey, who were taking the train down from Ottawa this morning.
So, it would be better than any Thanksgiving turkey meal he could have had as a kid, since it was only with people who were important to him and treated him well.
Most notably, Charlotte.
In his childhood, he’d felt like love was conditional, and he’d never been good enough to earn it, even briefly. But he didn’t have to be perfect to be worthy, and Charlotte loved him for who he was. It was a sign of how far he’d come that he could truly believe that. She’d been a constant in his life when he was younger, and now, he didn’t ever want to let her go.
After her second cup of coffee and a quick bowl of cereal, she started cutting up the vegetables for the dressing. Mason had provided Mike with the recipes he used for dressing and cranberry sauce. Charlotte said cranberry sauce from a can was sufficient, but Mike wanted to make this a holiday to remember, and so he was using his friend’s recipe, which had orange zest and other things in addition to cranberries and sugar.
Once they got the turkey in the oven, only ten minutes behind schedule, Mike placed his hands on Charlotte’s hips and pulled her toward him. She still had sex hair from last night, and there was a small piece of celery in it.
“Hey, beautiful.” He slid one hand to her ass and brought her against him, nuzzling the base of her neck. “I think we can take a little break from the kitchen now.”
“Good idea. I have to run some inversions for work—”
“You didn’t bring your computer with you,” he said, calling her bluff.
And then she dragged him into the bedroom, where they made her sex hair even wilder.
* * *
That afternoon, they all sat around Mike’s dining room table. With seven people, it was a little cramped, but he didn’t mind. Charlotte had just finished carving the turkey, and there was a platter of meat in the center of the table, as well as dressing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, and salad. After their late lunch, there would be pie, coffee, and tea.
“This is so delicious.” Bonnie stuffed a bite of turkey smothered in gravy in her mouth. “Very nice of you to have us over for Thanksgiving, Mike. You are such a good cook.”
“It was a team effort.” He patted Charlotte’s shoulder.
“You’re the one who chose the menu,” she said.
“And you’re the one who got rid of the spider. That was a very important job.”
For the first time since the summer, Mike had found a spider in his apartment, and fortunately, his private spider-removal service had been present when he screamed.
“What kind of spider?” Bailey asked.
“Nothing venomous, don’t worry,” Charlotte said.
Bailey frowned.
“Tough luck, kid,” Angela said, patting her back.
Bailey had recently expanded her interests to include venomous snakes. There was currently a watercolor of a king cobra on Mike’s fridge, which was much better than a spider, even if this cobra could kill an elephant with one bite.
He wondered what sort of interests his and Charlotte’s children would have. He would do his best to encourage them. It was a little way down the road, but he was looking forward to it. To his future with Charlotte.
* * *
After Thanksgiving dinner, Julie Tam sat at the table with her parents, a cup of tea clenched in her hands. Sadly, there was no booze in the tea.
“Isn’t it so amazing?” Mom said. “Like something in a movie! They lived next door to each other as kids, and then they found each other twenty years later and fell in love.”
“And he’s a financial planner. This is a good job.” Dad looked meaningfully at Julie.
Yeah, yeah. Julie’s career—or lack thereof, in her parents’ opinion—wasn’t what they wanted. Plus, she lived with a roommate and didn’t have a boyfriend.
She’d heard it all before.
She glanced toward the kitchen, where Mike was washing dishes and Charlotte was drying. They’d refused to let anyone else help with the clean-up.
Mike splashed water droplets on Charlotte, and she shoved him lightly on the shoulder.
“Don’t you dare,” he said. “I’ll hide your French press.”
“As if you’d ever be stupid enough to do that.”
And now they were kissing each other.
Julie was happy for her sister, even if Charlotte and Mike were sickeningly cute together. It was just that, well, Charlotte had always been the sister who gave their parents what they wanted. Even if some people might consider Charlotte a bit of a grouch, she was the one who’d gotten good grades in school. Her degree was more prestigious—in their parents’ eyes—than Julie’s. Their parents bragged about Charlotte being a self-employed geophysicist.
Now she had the perfect guy, too. Mom and Dad loved Mike, and the feeling was mutual.
Not that Julie’s parents treated her like crap. They weren’t mean people. It had just always been obvious that Charlotte was more accomplished in the ways they wanted. They believed Julie was capable, but she didn’t want the sort of life they envisioned for her.
What would happen at Christmas? They’d probably all be back in Ashton Corners for a few days, and Julie would have to witness too much cuteness between Charlotte and Mike while her parents hinted—not at all subtly—that she should find a better job than working at a cider bar.
Ugh. Julie would need a plan to cope with that.
Perhaps she could surprise everyone by bringing home a neurosurgeon. Her parents would fawn all over him and forget about Julie’s lack of respectable career.
The thought made her chuckle.
But, no.
She didn’t want that to happen, even if it would be fun to see her family’s reaction.
A strait-laced neurosurgeon—or another type of doctor or pharmacist—was the last person she’d date, right?
* * * * *
Thank you for reading His Grumpy Childhood Friend. You can read Julie’s story in the holiday novella Her Pretend Christmas Date. Book 3 in the series should be out in 2021.
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