Just Friends

Chapter 32

It was Christmas eve, Maria was prepping the vegetables for tomorrows dinner. Colm had gone to the shops to get a few things. As she finished chopping the carrots her phone rang. 

"Hello?"

"Hey girly, how are you? You haven't killed Colm yet have you?"

Maria laughed at her mam, if only she knew....she'd probably want to kill Colm if she found out they had kissed and spent the night sleeping in the same bed the other night. 

"No Ma, he's still alive...hopefully I can say the same thing tomorrow after I've made dinner for us" 

"Oh stop, you're a good cook. You always made food at home and we're all still alive to tell the tale."

"Eh yeah...but never a full turkey....on my own."

Her mam laughed, it was a lovely sound and she realised how much she missed her. 

"So, how's Da? Still hobbling along?"

"Oh yeah, you know him. He's good but it's still quite sore. We're hoping to get home before new year but we can't be certain." 

They chatted for another few minutes and near the end of the call James said hello. She loved her Dad so much but he was never one for chatting on the phone. You'd be lucky to even get a hello out of him. 

Colm returned from the shops just as Maria was saying goodbye. 

"Oooh something smells good" He was sniffing the air.

"I'm making a cottage pie" she paused what she was doing "you like that...don't you?"

"I'll eat whatever you make, you're an amazing cook"

Maria laughed "I hope you're saying that tomorrow after I'd poisoned you by serving raw turkey" 

They spent the rest of the day getting stuff ready for tomorrow and tidying up the small apartment. When it was all done they sat down in front of the tv and Colm poured 2 glasses of wine for them to enjoy with their cottage pie. 

Maria thought back to the other morning, she woke up on her side, Colm was behind her with his arm around her. His body molded perfectly into hers. It felt so good to wake up with him beside her, it felt so right. She knew the moment he woke up, he cuddled into her at first then he stiffened and he moved away. The places he had been touching instantly grew cold. 

They got up and had coffee and breakfast, things had been slightly awkward for the first half an hour then Colm trapped his hand in the pull out bed as he was putting it away and that took their minds off their night together. Neither of them had mentioned it since and Colm went back to sleeping on the sofa bed. 

"How's your Da?" Colm's voice broke through her thoughts.

"Oh he's good thanks, you know him though. He's always grand, he probably wouldn't have even gone in to the hospital when he fell if it wasn't for my Ma forcing him to." 

Colm laughed "Yeah, he probably would have tried to walk it off" 

They both burst out laughing. Maria loved the relationship that Colm had with her dad, she wasn't sure how they had met but she was glad they did. Her life would have been very different without Colm in it...she wasn't sure if it would have been better or worse but she knew she was glad that she never had to find out. He was in her life for good now. He promised he wasn't going anywhere. 

**Apologies for the shorter chapter but there's going to be a bit of a time jump and I'm finished with this part of their story....for now"