Malarie (Mal) is a 21 year old, city raised woman who works at a Waffle House in central California who so desperately wants to live in a small town. She is an early gen Z and feels like she doesn't fit in with her surroundings, she would love to ju...
I wake up to the sound of a squealing Alice running down the hall past the bedroom. I shift a little bit, just now realizing that Harry is tight against the curve of my back. His arm draped over my waste, hand over my stomach, the side of his face rests on the pillow and I can feel his breath fan over the back of my neck. This position was accidental but it's definitely comfy.
I shift again and that seems to wake him up a bit. I turn to face him and his arm retreats from my waste to above his head in a stretch before placing it behind his head. "Merry Christmas" I say with a smile. He exhales a small laugh "Merry Christmas love".
Without warning Alice comes storming into the bedroom screeching for us to wake up. "Alice you can't go in there-" is what Gemma says as she scoops her up and then looks to us in the bed. We both sit up quickly as if we were caught doing something we shouldn't. "Good morning you two" she says with a coy, knowing smile. She turns around and shuts the door.
She definitely thinks we fucked...
A little while later Harry and I come down stairs.... separately, we all meet around the kitchen island the adults having coffee and Alice drinking juice. We're all in matching pj's and we are truly a sight for sore eyes.
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Once we are all sufficiently caffeinated, we follow Alice's bouncing pigtails into the living room where the cookies have been eaten and the milk has been drunk. She stares at the coffee table for a while, inspecting it and then turns her attention to the gifts under the tree.
I run into the kitchen quickly to grab his gift bag out of the freezer to put it under the tree, it's a good thing no one questioned it.
We all watch Alice opening her gifts from her grandma, dad, uncle and aunt and it's beautiful watching her face light up every time another one is handed to her. Sometimes she gets distracted by the colourful wrapping paper and just be excited over it rather than the thing that's inside. So far she has gotten a new princess dress, Barbie's and a mini karaoke station. Complete with a microphone a screen that displays lyrics for what ever song you plug into it. Harry leans into me saying "we are definitely taking that for a spin before we leave" to which I laugh.
Once she's finished opening her gifts it's time for the adults. I watch as anne starts to open her gifts from her kids. Harry got her a book she has really wanted and a designer book mark. Gemma got her an electric blanket and a canister of her favourite tea. And then lastly Matt got her some candles. "Oh there's one more under there for you Mum" Gemma says. "Who's it from?" Gemma asks "Mal? You got me a gift?" Anne says surprised and then everyone is looking at me. "Oh yeah it's nothing too big" I say waving my hand as if to say don't worry about it. "Oh honey you didn't have to do that!" And I shrug my shoulders. Anne leans over and gives me a hug then starts to open it. Harry puts his arm around me and squeezes my side. I look up at him and he's grinning, dimples and all.
She removes the tissue paper, dropping it to the floor than pulls the blanket out. She lays it across her lap and smiles the same smile as Harry's. "Oh Mal this is beautiful! I love it". She says and looks at me then she looks at Harry. They share a glance, I don't know what it means but all I know is that they have such a good connection.