James sighed quietly and eased his car into a space in front of their apartment building. The last day of school before the holiday break was fun and filled with all sorts of activities and james smiled to himself at the memory of the happy faces that he'd said goodbye to that afternoon. He leaned over to pick up his bag from the floorboard and he giggled when his hair flopped over his forehead sending a shower of glitter onto the passenger seat. Some of the holiday activities had been rather messy. He looked down at his shirt. There was paste on one sleeve, paint on the cuffs, and he was pretty sure he was going to have to wash everything twice to get the glitter out.
This time of day on a Friday, James would normally expect Christian to be dressed and ready for a busy night shift at the restaurant, but Christian had said that they'd given him Friday and Saturday off since he was going to be working on Christmas. Because he was the most recent hire to their management team, he usually got stuck with most of the grunt work, but he didn't seem to mind. He loved his job, loved his coworkers, loved most everything about it. It just sucked that he had to work holidays.
James was coming to terms with this Christmas being just the two of them. It would be fun, he was sure, but he was still nervous about it. It seemed like such a couple thing to do, and he was actually thankful that Christian had to work, because otherwise they'd practically be together twenty-four hours a day over the holiday and James was already having trouble keeping his feelings hidden.
As soon as James opened the door, he could hear Christians' phone ringing. It sounded like it was coming from the kitchen. He hung his keys on the rack and dropped his bag on the couch, shrugged his coat off and turned around just in time to watch Christian come barrelling down the hallway, in sweatpants tucked into socks and no shirt. He slid the last few feet and bumped into James chest, knocking some more glitter loose, then ran into the kitchen to try to catch his phone before it stopped ringing.
James shook his head fondly and wandered down the hall to his room. He carefully pulled off his button down shirt, wrapped it up inside his undershirt, and put it on top of the rest of the clothes in his hamper so that the glitter wouldn't get everywhere. He headed back out to the kitchen in just his underwear—it was too warm in their apartment to bother putting on much else—and grabbed a beer while he watched Christian.
He was still on the phone, not saying much other than the occasional hum of agreement, but he looked worried.
"Right. Yeah, it's no problem. See you in a bit, then." He hung up and stared at his phone for a few seconds before looking up at James.
"Where are you going?" James tipped his beer back and took a long swallow. Friday night and Christian wasn't working, so maybe he planned to go out and find someone to take him home. 'Tis the season and all that.
"The restaurant." Christian huffed and walked out of the kitchen. James followed him to his room. "The owners decided that they don't want to be open on Christmas after all." He dug around in his closet until he found a clean button-up shirt. "They apparently finally took a look at the numbers from last year and it was so dead that they lost money, so they're closing tomorrow. It's all hands on deck tonight, so I'm going in." He hopped a bit while he pulled up his trousers, and James took the opportunity to enjoy the view of his ass bouncing. He managed to look away before Christian turned back around.
"Wait, so you're off for Christmas?"
"I'm off from tomorrow until Wednesday. They decided to just close until then." Christian shoved his feet into his shoes and walked out of his room with James right behind him, but just a few steps down the hall, he stopped so suddenly that James stumbled into his back. "Fuck."
"What?"
"Fuck. I... I have to go home now. My mom will kick my ass if I don't. Fuck."
"What? I thought you wanted to go home. You said you—Oh." James tried to stop his laughter from escaping with his hand, but it was no use. When he finally got rid of his giggles and caught his breath, Christian was halfway out the door, so James called after him, "Your mom is going to love your new fake boyfriend!"
Christian flipped him off and slammed the door behind him and James burst out laughing again.
