Bent (27 page)

There was a knock on the door as Julia was pulling on her boots. "Yeah," she called out.

"Hey baby, you coming down soon?" Micah asked as he joined her on the bed.

Julia laughed, "You know, I will never understand you people. Carly barges into the bathroom while I'm taking a shower but you knock before walking into your own bedroom. And yes, I'm coming right now."

Micah blocked the door. When she reached for the doorknob, he pulled her to his chest. "Before you go downstairs, I have a favor to ask," he said nervously.

Why were the only two people she had talked to this morning to acting so weird? They knew better than to do this before coffee. "Okay?" Julia asked nervously.

"I want you to remember how much I love you," he said softly. While he waited for her response, Micah trailed gentle kisses along her jaw.

Julia narrowed her eyes, "What have you done now?"

He silently led Julia out of the bedroom. As they walked down the stairs, the scent of pine drifted to meet her. Turning the corner into the living room, Julia couldn't believe her eyes. A seven foot tall Christmas tree stood proudly in front of the window. The decorations were simple and coordinated in Julia's favorite colors. Every light on the tree was white. Julia was in heaven.

She threw herself into Micah's arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. "Baby, it's perfect," she squealed in delight.

That's when she saw it... perched on top of the tree was the angel Julia bought the first Christmas after her mother left. She couldn't bring herself to use any of the decorations her mom loved so her father had given her a modest budget to buy replacements. The blond angel with her rose colored gown and crocheted overlay called to Julia from the store shelf. It was so far from anything Marcia Sanders would have allowed on her tree that Julia knew it had to come home with her.

She turned to Micah in amazement, "Where did you get all of this? Where did you find my angel? When did you do this? How did you do this?" She wished she was speechless, it would be an improvement over the verbal diarrhea she was experiencing.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her off the ground, "Morning, sis," Adam laughed. His presence explained the angel but what about everything else? There was no way Micah had time to go shopping before she woke up. She knew he didn't already have decorations because it was on the list for their abandoned shopping trip the night before.

"Can I tell you something?" Micah asked, suddenly serious.

"You can, but remember I haven't had any coffee yet," Julia warned. She didn't like the look on his face. He was worrying his bottom lip the way he did when he was getting ready to confess something to her.

Micah took a deep breath, "I lied to you yesterday. I wasn't emailing someone about work. I needed Adam's help. Seeing how excited you were about helping set up the lights downtown reminded me what a freak you can be about Christmas. I made him go shopping for me late last night. Everyone got here bright and early to help out."

When Julia looked around, Annie and Carly were standing in the doorway laughing at her reaction. She noticed the mantle with six stockings hung from pewter monogram hangers. "Nice stockings," she chuckled reading the names on each one. How did they manage to have stockings embroidered on short notice? "Don't you three have your own homes for Santa to visit? I'm pretty sure that if he asks me, I'm telling Santa that you're all on the naughty list."

Adam shrugged, "Well, someone," he said pointing towards Micah, "thinks we should all spend Christmas together too. I'm telling you, they're meeting later today to revoke his man card over all of this." The girls broke out laughing again.

Caleb walked into the living room carrying a new snowman latte mug. She fell into the sofa trying to take in everything they had done for her. The mantle was filled with snowmen. There was a small Christmas village set up on the bookcase. Angels adorned the side table in the foyer. Everything was perfect.

This was the Christmas she could never have in their dingy apartment in New York. There wasn't room and she wasn't about to carry a tree up five flights of stairs. "Looks like we're flying out again next month," she said to Carly, who nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, baby. I love it. I love you," she cooed to Micah.

It was, by far, the best Thanksgiving Julia could remember. Instead of spending the day in an crowded house with her former in-laws, she relaxed with people she enjoyed spending time with. Flanked by her two best friends, Julia finished cooking for the night's festivities while Micah, Adam and Caleb strung lights from the gutters.

As much as she hated mall shopping, Julia caved to Annie's pleading for a Black Friday girls' day. Carly pointed out that it would be easier to get her shopping done now rather than wait until they came back right before Christmas. Knowing it would be a long night followed by an early morning, the three women settled into the sectional sofa for a nap.

Unable to sleep and not wanting to wake Annie and Carly, Julia joined the men outside. The front of the house was dripping with white light icicles and the bushes were draped in blue LED bulbs. "Looks good, guys," she approved. "Are you getting hungry?"

Micah slid his arms along Julia's sides lacing his fingers against her stomach. "Glad you like it," he whispered, trailing soft kisses along her neck. "We could probably all use something to eat."

"Keys," Julia said holding her hand out. When Micah cocked his head, she answered his unspoken question. "The oven and stove are filled to capacity, so I'm going to run and get something."

After grabbing her messenger bag, Julia hoisted herself into the truck and backed out of the driveway. She leaned her head against the window for a minute when she reached the strip mall. It was amazing how different everything felt today.

She laughed at Micah's apology for hiding the truth from her. He really thought she would be upset. As funny as it was, it made her sad too. She didn't like that they were in a place where he'd feel like putting together a surprise constituted lying.

She wondered how much input he'd had into everything. It wouldn't be hard for Adam to know what she liked but if Micah had told him what to buy, that was truly impressive. She hated to admit that she wouldn't have been able to pull off a surprise like that after so many years apart.

Julia hurried into the sub shop as snow started to fall in large, distinct flakes. She loved watching the snow tumble to the ground on days like this when the flakes were big enough to see the shape of each one. She reminded herself to enjoy the little things and deal with the rest later.

Shortly after five, everyone piled into vehicles to watch the annual tree lighting ceremony. It made Julia remember standing in front of the tree with her high school choir, singing Christmas classics before the mayor flipped the switch to illuminate the downtown decorations.

They didn't have the most spectacular light display in the area but this was a tradition. It was something she loved as a child and that love hadn't faded while she'd been running. She leaned into Micah, taking in every second of the activities.

Once the crowd began to disperse, Julia and Micah opened their home to whoever wanted to stop by. They dubbed it an anti-holiday gathering with no expectations and no formality. Slowly, the house filled with laughter as friends and Micah's employees wandered from room to room.

If Julia did move back here, she decided this would have to become a holiday tradition. She loved entertaining but she hated pretenses, so this was the ideal situation. She figured it would also be nice for everyone to have a place to unwind after spending the day with family.

It was after midnight when Micah ushered out the last guests and grabbed Julia's hand leading her to the bedroom. "Thank you," he purred into her ear as she washed her face.

"Shouldn't I be the one thanking you," she said, turning into his embrace. "That was really something, I love it. All of it."

"Damn, I'm going to miss you," Micah sulked.

Julia pressed her index finger against his lips, "No. We promised we weren't going to think about Monday until Monday." She stood on her toes to kiss him. "I love you. Let's go to bed." She left him alone in the bathroom and cocooned herself in the down comforter. She purred softly when Micah slid into the bed and pulled her tight against his chest. She didn't want to tell him that the thought of leaving was already tearing her apart.

It seemed like she had barely fallen asleep when her cell phone rang. She thought about ignoring it and then cursed Annie when she remembered that she had agreed to get up at this ridiculous hour. Sometimes, she really questioned her own sanity.

"Yeah," she grumbled into the phone.

"Hey, I'll be there in fifteen," Annie chirped. "Be ready."

Julia rolled out of the bed and muttered incoherently about physically hurting Annie if she insisted on being perky. Micah rolled over to see what was going on.

"Everything okay?" he asked rubbing his eyes. When he saw Julia pulling on her boots, he shot up in the bed. "Jules, what's going on?" His voice was panicked.

"Go back to sleep," Julia mumbled, "In a moment of weakness, I agreed to go shopping with the girls this morning. I blame you for putting me into a deliriously good mood yesterday morning," she joked as she pressed her lips to his.

"Okay," he said without breaking their kiss. "Don't scare me like that."

Julia sighed, "I already told you I'm not going anywhere. Except for right now I'm going to the damned mall to deal with the mobs. Why did I agree to this?"

Micah laughed, "Because you miss your friends. And because I made you deliriously happy. I'll take the blame any day if your happiness causes you to do goofy things like agree to go shopping in the middle of the night."

Just before Julia left the room, Micah sat up again. "Hang on," he said getting out of the warm bed. He reached into the jeans he'd hung over a chair in the corner of the room. "Take this. You spent enough money getting out here and you're doing it again next month, so today's on me."

"Micah," Julia huffed, "I don't need your credit card. I do have my own money, you know." She knew it was a nice gesture but part of her resented him spending as much as he already had trying to make her happy. It felt like he was trying to buy her way back to Wisconsin.

"Baby, I'm not saying you don't have your own money," Micah said, frustrated, "I'm saying I like being able to spend money on you. It's not going to change, so get used to it. Now please, go be deliriously happy again today."

Knowing it was a losing battle and that Annie would soon be outside, Julia took the card. Things were going well between them and she decided it was just easier to accept his kindness.

Much to her surprise, Julia had a great time as they inched their way through the frantic crowds. It wasn't the type of thing she would go out of her way to do again but it was definitely an experience to behold.

She bought so much that she had to make two trips from Annie's car when they got back to the house. Every gift she would give to her Wisconsin family was purchased and ready to wrap.

That evening, she snuck into her office and wrapped the gifts for Micah and Caleb. Once they were safely covered in shimmering snowflake paper, she invited Micah to join her at the makeshift wrapping station. It felt natural to be standing there together wrapping and marking gifts for their loved ones.

With the air clear between them, everything felt right and Julia once again started to question why she was so determined to live a life on her own in New York.

The last two days of her vacation flew by much too fast. Not wanting to waste a minute of the time they had to spend together, Julia was reluctant to leave the house for any reason. Her guys agreed and they spent much of the weekend curled on the sectional watching movies. Sunday evening, Micah announced that he had to take care of something and excused himself, leaving Julia and Caleb alone in the silence.

"PS3?" Julia asked. Without waiting for his response, she stood and brought the game system to life. It had become part of their routine to spend time fighting zombies and talking smack each night. Julia never expected to enjoy the games as much as she did. It was another little thing she would miss when she flew home.

Once they were both relaxed, Julia spoke. "Hey, can I ask you something?" She was hesitant to bring it up but she knew this would be her last chance for a while.

Caleb shrugged, "Sure." He kept his eyes on the television across the room.

Julia took in a deep breath, "Did you tell your mom's counselor something about me being more of a mom to you than she is?"

For the first time in nearly an hour, Caleb looked away from the game. "Who told you that?" he asked. He was upset and looked ready to bolt from the room.

"Your mom did," Julia admitted. "I think it hurt her that you said that."

Caleb slumped against the back of the couch. "Yeah, I said it. And who cares if it hurt her." His voice raised in agitation. "Sometimes the truth hurts."

She didn't know what she hoped to gain by confronting him about this, so it took her a minute to figure out where to go next.