Nope.None of the above.And while it’d been hard to tell with the club lights so low, every time James cast his memory back he could have sworn Cillian was blushing as pink as his kiss-reddened lips.Which was a thought best saved for a time when an erection wouldn’t draw unwanted attention from anyone, but…
But Cillian.Cillian hardly ever took anything seriously.He could have already slotted it away in his head as “joke, comforting friend,” and who’d know?Not James, who tapped the click-top pen he’d gotten from a waitress against the back of his paper placemat, making little starburst doodles.As much as he wanted to tackle Cillian from across the table and demand a clear answer, they had a job to do.He gestured at his speckled paper.“So where do we start?”
Cillian had gotten a coffee by means of smiling extra pretty at the waitress, and he blew a cloud of steam away from the rim before sipping and answering, “Phone calls?”
“Hmm… no.All the sane people are asleep right now, and all the business people hopefully have better sense than to answer at this hour.”
Cillian snorted.“Fair enough.I figure the most basic, and I don’t mean like ‘basic bitch’ kind of basic, but basic necessities --”
James leaned back in the booth, too amused to sit still, and coincidentally happening to get a better view of Cillian’s face.“With you so far.Basics of Christmas, as far as I can tell: food, lots of it, and decorations.”
“Lots of those too.”Cillian stole James’ pen to use as a pointer.He flipped it right way around and started to scribble across all the dot doodles.“Let’s see.We can go traditional turkey, or even goose -- no, scratch that, goose is too greasy -- and cranberry sauce and all that, but you hate cranberries so that’s out.”He scratched his forehead with the wrong end of the pen.“And now I come to think of it you’re more of a beef guy than a fowl friend.”
“Nicely punned.”
Cillian saluted him with his coffee.“I thought so myself, thanks.So let’s ditch the birds and the berries and go with what we like.It still needs to be technically Christmas-type stuff, though, so where does that leave us?”
James stole Cillian’s coffee in exchange for the pen, because fair was fair, sipped, and considered.“Beef Wellington,” he said after a pause.“Sautéed root vegetables.Chocolate cake -- no, better.Red velvet cake with white chocolate ganache on top.”
Cillian blinked.
James cocked his head.“What?I’m no Gordon Ramsey, but I watch a lot of Food Network and I can follow a damn recipe.Shouldn’t be too hard.”
“I’m torn between asking why, if you can make all that shit, you mostly live on protein shakes, and saying out loud that you are so damn hot right now.”Cillian stole his coffee back before James could object or ask what the flaming hell he’d meant bythatlittle nugget.“You can seriously cook the fancy stuff?”
“I’m not saying it’s going to be edible.”James raised both hands.“But yeah, I can at least give it a try.”
Their nachos landed on the table, a beer on either side, and the waitress who’d dropped their nachos off disappeared in a whisk of order notepad and a scuff of comfortable sneakers, without a single word to interrupt their flow.
“Well, hot damn,” Cillian murmured, taking one chip off the top of the steaming stack.“All right, then I’d better bring my A game for the decorations.Can’t just nip down to the local pet store and ask for a few bales of alfalfa straw to strew about.”He lipped the chip fully into his mouth, leaving James choking mildly on nothing but air but unnoticed as Cillian bent over the placemat.“Twinkly lights,” he muttered after a few moments’ scribbling.“For the windows and all.Candles, because if we’re having a fancy-ass dinner we’re going to do it right.Tablecloth.”
“You don’t have to go that far.”
“Wrong.I do.You put in the effort, I put in the effort.”Cillian jabbed at the air between them.“Eat those chips before they go cold.”He shoved a neat stack of three into his mouth and made them disappear.“Wreath?If I can find one.”
Mistletoe?James wanted to suggest but didn’t.
“And a Christmas tree.”Cillian tapped the placemat emphatically.“That’s the most important bit.It’s not Christmas without a tree.You reckon we can find anything that doesn’t look like it escaped from a Charlie Brown cartoon?”
“I think that this close to Christmas, no matter what time it is we can find an open lot trying to sell the last of their inventory.”
“And you never know what kind of hidden gems you’ll come across.”Cillian almost sparkled with excitement, which should have looked odd on a man his age and shoulder-breadth, but was instead just damn cute.At least in James’ eyes.The light spray of tortilla crumbs on Cillian’s cheek, just by his lips, didn’t hurt.
Hand to heaven, James couldn’t help himself.He reached across the table to thumb the debris away -- and it wasn’t as if he’d never done it before.Crumbs happened to even the deftest eaters.He swiped the dust off Cillian’s skin and withdrew.
Or -- at least that was what he’d intended.Didn’t quite work out that way.His thumb lingered without permission, caressing the corner of Cillian’s lips for one second.Two seconds.Three seconds.Cillian had frozen somewhere in there, gaze locked on James’, mouth slightly open --
Wait.Is he nervous?Surely not.Cillian doesn’tdonervous.So then why…
But this was so not the place.James pulled his hand back and cleared his throat.“Let’s get this boxed up to go,” he suggested, “and let’s get moving.The night’s not getting any younger and neither are we.”
Cillian blinked a few times, then seemed to come back online.“Right.Right!First stop, tree lot.”He became a flurry of motion, wiggling into the jacket he’d discarded, waving politely at the waitress to bring her back to their table.Somewhere in the middle of the hustle and bustle, he found his usual rogue’s grin and aimed it at James.“This is how Christmas should be.”
“Huh?”James asked, genuinely nonplussed.“Rushed and slapdash?”
“I -- I mean -- not so regimented.Fun.Trying things we haven’t tried and not calling it the end of the world if they don’t quite work out.Celebrating if they do.”Red touched Cillian’s cheeks.“Oh, balls, you know what I mean, you just like giving me shit.”
James chuckled quietly.“Guilty.”
