Everyone grabs a seat and Nate ends up sitting diagonal across from me. I start to feel bad when he tilts his head slightly looking disappointed, but the rejection crashes over me.
“Addie, you haven’t said much. Tell us how you and Nate met,” my cousin Stacy says.
I tell the well crafted story that Nate and I have and they all eat it up.
“So it’s going good, huh?” my aunt chimes in.
Glancing to him, I force a smile. “Yep, going good.”
“How’s the s.e.x,” my grandmother spells.
“Grandma,” I yell as everyone laughs.
I feel my face turning red and Nate tries getting my attention.
“I’m just saying if you don’t click in the bedroom you aren’t going to click anywhere.”
“She’s right. I remember when I first met Jake I thought he was amazing, but hell I wasn’t going to settle if we didn’t click in the sack,” Abigail says.
“Can’t keep her off me now,” Jake says with a wink.
Is this happening? It’s Christmas Eve, shouldn’t we be talking about when Santa is coming or listening to Christmas music?
“Addilyn,” Nate says. I glance over at him and he slightly shakes his head. “We need to talk.”
Turning my attention back to the laughter at the table I move the food around my plate. We do need to talk, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to listen to him say the words.
“It’s so wonderful having everyone here,” my mom starts, wiping her eyes. “Charles and I couldn’t be happier than we are right now surrounded by you all.”
“You’d be happier if you were screwing,” my aunt says.
The laughter is loud and I want to crawl under the table.
“Damn right,” my dad says.
“Can’t we talk about something else? It’s Christmas,” I blurt out.
Everyone turns and looks at me. I’m so embarrassed I just stare at them all. What am I going to say? Sorry it’s just I want to have sex with Nate but well he’s not really my boyfriend.
My grandma pats my hand. “Addie, you need to loosen up. Maybe mount that fine stud you brought home.”
Once again the table erupts in laughter. The conversation moves on from sex, but is endless. It’s loud and everyone is trying to talk over each other. I watch on as all the married couples give each other little glances and winks. Touching of hands or small kisses. It’s sweet and makes my heart hurt.
“Addilyn,” Nate says. Turning toward him he nods his head. “We need to go talk.”
“Not now,” I say.
“Right now,” he says, standing up. “Excuse us for a minute. I just need to talk with Addilyn privately.”
He grabs my hand, nearly pulling me up from the chair. Everyone is talking, trying to guess what it is we need to talk about. It’s going to be hell when we have to face them again.
We get to the front door and Nate opens it walking outside and keeps going until we get to his car. “Get in.”
Crossing my arms like a child, I shake my head. “No, you want to talk to me you can do it here.”
“For fuck sake, Addilyn. I can’t win with you,” he says, tossing his hands in the air. “What is going on with you today?”
“What’s wrong with me? Are you kidding?” I yell. “It’s unreal how you’ve got everyone convinced that we are something. It even worked on me and I’m the one who hired you to be my boyfriend.”
