Chapter Forty-Six
December 2nd
“A little higher, boy.” I’m enjoying the hell out of this. Sitting back on the sofa and sipping my Macallan while Elliot decorates our “personal” tree that’s set up in the den.
He’s naked, natch.
Well, except for Duck, his day collar, and his leather collar.
He holds the ornament up against the tree. “There, Sir?”
“That’s perfect.” They’re mostly my ornaments, which I brought over from the storage unit. Ornaments Mimi and I put up for years, along with ornaments I added during my years with Leo. I feel badly that Leo’s not decorating his apartment this year, but that’s okay. We’re flying out to visit his parents for a long weekend while Elliot entertains his family here.
Not here-here, of course. They’re attending a Christmas Eve mass at the National Cathedral, and then they’ll be here in the residence only for Christmas Day dinner. Which will be prepared by staff.
I offered to stay and cook for everyone, but Elliot gently said no. That he wanted me and Leo to have this holiday together.
Partly because I know he feels badly that I was alone last year.
Partly because I know it’ll make him nervous as fuck if I’m around his family.
I don’t like leaving him alone with his parents, and especially with Stella, but I agreed to let Leo make the final call in this situation. After talking to Elliot about it, he thought it over for a day then reluctantly sided with Elliot.
Stella isn’t happy she’s not being allowed to bring a guest, though. She’s been hammering me to add someone to the list and I started ignoring her about two weeks ago after giving her an unyielding no.
Probably another reason Elliot said no to me staying, because he’s reasonably sure she’ll pick a fight with me, trying to get me fired—which obviously won’t happen—and he’ll already feel tense enough as it is.
He prepares to hang another ornament, glancing my way to see if I approve of the placement before he hooks it on a branch. This is an artificial tree—one Mimi and I had. It’s an eight-footer, and needs to be beefy because of the sheer weight of the ornaments.
I have to say, this method of tree decorating is a lot more…interesting than it was when I did it with Mimi.
Elliot is the one who suggested it.
Can I say that it warmed my heart more than a little when he did? That it means so much to him for us to have things to do together as a couple?
I decorated the rest of his residence myself. Well, with help from staff.AndI once again oversaw the White House Christmas decorations, something I missed doing last year.
Call me Mr. Multi-Tasker.
What IwishI was doing i planning a presidential wedding.
Except Elliot’s obvious anxiety over his family converging on him for Christmas is additional proof he’s not yet ready to take that step. Trying to coax him to come out and publicly own his relationship with Leo?
Not a chance right now. In fact, I would go so far as to gouge out my own pancreas and sacrifice a Nubian goat with my bare hands to keep from using the wordsLeoandpress releasein the same sentence when talking to Elliot right now. He’s stressed out enough as it is over the campaign.
Adding a coming out and wedding to that stress would quite possibly break him.
I have Elliot’s robe draped over the end of the couch in case I need to put it on him. But I’ve got all the curtains closed downstairs so no one can see inside, and the front door’s locked. Leo’s due to arrive soon and will let himself in with his key. He’ll spend tonight with us because the president is taking tomorrow off.
I take another sip of my drink and set it aside so I can join Elliot at the tree. The ornament in his hand is a blown-glass mermaid, with bluish green sparkles all over her scales.
“This is adorable,” he says.
“This is my favorite ornament,” I tell him. “Mimi gave it to me the first Christmas I lived with her full-time. I saw it in a store and loved it, and she bought it for me. My parents never would have given me a mermaid ornament. Are you kidding? I wouldn’t have even been able to say how much I liked it in the store without them berating me about it.”
I learned that lesson early on and folded it in with the rest of my disguise. Anything “girly” couldn’t be commented on in a way to make my parents think I wanted it. There was a rainbow unicorn ornament I once saw when at the store with my mom. It was a dollar store, and the ornament was only four dollars. I had that much in my pocket and was going to pay for it with my own money. But when I turned and showed it to her, before I could even get the words out, she made a disgusted sound.
“Ugh. Yeah, those are ridiculous. Too bad they don’t have more boy ornaments.”
