Her smile was nervous, and that was cute as hell. “Sorry about just knocking on your door, but we never exchanged numbers so I didn’t know how else to talk to you. And I just kept expecting to crash into you, but then I didn’t, so.”
She kept fiddling with the hem of her sweatshirt. I loved how casual she looked.
“Right,” I said. “Sorry, we should have traded numbers, but I wasn’t sure if that was part of the deal.” This whole hookup thing was still a mystery to me.
Mal nodded.
“Anyway, I guess… Okay, I’m just going to say it?”
She peered up at me and I realized she wanted me to agree before she continued.
“Go for it,” I told her.
Another glance down and a deep breath before she met my eyes with her own, brown eyes serious.
“I can’t stop thinking about you. I know it was a hookup, but I’d really like to see you again.”
Oh. Oh fuck.
“Yes,” I blurted out before I could even process her words. They were good and I couldn’t believe I was hearing them.
Mal laughed a little, and for the first time, I swore I saw a little bit of blush on her cheeks.
“So we’re both on the same page about that, good.”
“Ideal, really,” I said.
Dandy chose that moment to jump on the couch between us and beg for attention, so we both took a moment to process.
“You can hang out for a little bit. If you want. I was just doing laundry and cleaning my closet and getting rid of some clothes.” My closet had absolutely gotten out of hand and I needed to do a purge.
“I like your decorations,” she said, looking around. While I wasn’t too intense about Christmas, I did like to decorate for it. Every year I picked colors for my ornaments and this year I’d done a lesbian theme, with pink, white, and orange. Subtle, obviously.
I had stockings hung up on the console table that my TV lived on. One for me and one for Dandy. There were also sparkly garlands in the doorways.
“Thanks. I like to feel festive.”
I literally couldn’t remember if she’d had a tree or anything up last week. There had been other things on my mind.
“Are you going anywhere for Christmas?” I asked. We really knew so little about each other. I had no idea if she had a family or siblings or anything. I did know she had freckles on the insides of her thighs though, so that was something.
Mal sighed. “Not this year. My family is going out to visit my sister in Seattle and I was going to go, but I’ve got so much freelance work and things can be kind of chaotic so I decided to stay here this year. They’re not happy about it, but I put my foot down.”
“Yeah, sounds like you made the right decision. So you’ll be here?”
Dandy draped herself in Mal’s lap. I couldn’t blame her. It was a fantastic lap.
“Yup. What about you?”
I let out a breath. “My family doesn’t really do the whole Christmas thing? They don’t really do holidays, period. Birthdays, yes, but I guess my parents are just kind of grumpy about being forced to celebrate holidays? I don’t know. For them it’s just kind of another day, and they’re actually going to be heading to a cabin to get away from it all. I’m invited, of course, but since it’s just the three of us, it can get a little boring. They’ve always enjoyed quiet, and that’s not really… I like color and silly movies and making themed drinks. I was always jealous of the other kids when Santa came to them, so I guess I’m just kind of making up for lost time? Some years I go along with Tally and spend it with her family, but this year I guess I wanted to do my own thing.” That was way too much information, but I couldn’t help myself from babbling.
Mal nodded as if she understood. “Families can be tricky, can’t they?”
“That is the truth.”
Silence fell between us.
“So we’re both going to be here on Christmas,” I said, a plan starting to form in my mind. “This might be out of line, but if you wanted to hang out a little bit with someone, I wouldn’t mind. I’ll be opening presents I bought myself, and the ones Tally and her family sent, and having cocoa and watching movies.”
