Mr. Love Queen's Choice: Time Stands Still In Your Arms

Awful Christmas

The entire house was in festive decoration. The girl walked around gawking and craning her neck.

'What happened here? Did some ghosts visit you last night, Mr. Scrooge?' She smirked.

'Very funny.'

'Did you do this all by yourself?'

'Obviously not. I hire a company to do it every year.'

'I never knew you were such a softie.'

'Holidays don't mean anything to me. But... My mother used to spend Christmas here and she always insisted on decorating the house.'

She fell silent.

'This year... I guess I got it done out of habit.'

'I'm glad you did. I know it doesn't mean much to you but I like it a lot.' She smiled.

Just as she said that, something fell and shattered with a loud noise. They both spun around. Awful was climbing up the Christmas tree, kicking off glass ornaments.

'AWFUL!!!' She screamed.

She was about to run and grab the cat when Victor grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.

'Hold your horses, idiot! There is shattered glass everywhere.'

'Oh, you're right. Let's clean that up first.'

She cleared a path through the broken glass and finally got the cat down from the Christmas tree.

'Mr. Awful! You are unspeakably naughty!' She scolded him.

He answered with a tiny meow and nuzzled her face, purring.

'No. Your cuteness won't save you this time. You are getting time-out.'

Victor was still sweeping up pieces of broken glass when she came back.

'I locked him up in the shower cabin.'

A glass shard cut his finger. He hissed.

'Are you hurt?' She hurried over to him.

'It's nothing. Just a small cut.'

'Let me see!' She grabbed his hand.

Those small and soft hands clasped his much bigger hand so gently.

'There's a piece of glass in it.'

She sanitised the wound first. It stung but Victor stood it without a sound. Then she carefully removed the glass and dressed the wound with a Hello Kitty band-aid.

'It wasn't too bad, right?'

'No.'

'I'm glad.' She was almost whispering.

She didn't let go of his hand right away. He had nice hands. Big palms, long, slender fingers, no callouses, groomed nails.

'Your hands are cold.' He grumbled.

'Haha, sorry they are always cold.' She laughed awkwardly and let go of his hand.

'Your circulation must be poor.'

'Probably... I-I'll go check on Awful.' She said and quickly went upstairs.

He sighed. 'Why did I say that?'
...

He was holding a feathery cat toy in one hand and his tablet in his other hand when she arrived in a hurry. She didn't even take off her coat or her shoes.

'At last...' He scoffed.

'What happened? Are you all right?' She was a little out of breath.

'I need the documents on my desk from the study!' He didn't look up from his tablet.