𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐍 , mike schmidt

19. fire

"Merry Christmas Eve!" my mom cheered over the Facetime call. My parents had facetimed my sister and I as they were showing us around the hotel they were staying at in Germany. We had also opened presents that my parents shipped to us. It was sad not having family with me for Christmas, but I knew my parents deserved this long trip after throwing themselves in Siena's for years. My sister was just obsessed with her rich boyfriend and his family, so she insisted that staying in San Diego for Christmas was the right thing to do. Anything for that ring, right?

"Miles, tell us again what you're doing for Christmas." asked my Mom.

"I'm celebrating with my friend and his sister."

"His? Is this a boyfriend?" my mom asked, with a smile on her face.

My sister, Capri, looked unamused at the question as my Dad began listening intently.

"I don't know. We're just..figuring things out, I guess."

"It's a boyfriend." My dad said in a protective tone.

"No, no. I don't know what it is. He's nice though, don't worry Dad."

After the hour long Facetime call, I laid down on my bed and began thinking about the question. Was Mike my boyfriend? We hadn't really defined anything, but I was sure he wasn't seeing anyone else. If we weren't seeing each other, we were calling or texting. But, still - I did want him to be my boyfriend because he already felt like it.

A few hours later, I was running out the door to get to Mike's house. He had ordered Chinese food for the three of us and we were going to watch his favorite Christmas movie, Elf.

Once getting there, I walked in the familiar door with a few gift bags in hand and two bottles of wine. I had gotten Mike something, figuring he had to have gotten me something since he invited me over for Christmas. And of course, I had gotten Abby something. 

Placing the presents under the neatly decorated tree, I gave Abby a hug and Mike a peck on the lips. 

Christmas music was playing throughout the house as Abby was drawing Christmas trees and elves in her notebook. 

"Food should be here in five minutes or so." Mike said, taking my hand and wrapped his arms around me. I felt his warm body squeeze me as I looked up into his eyes and felt his looking into mine. 

The food arrived and we were sitting at the kitchen table with the sound of Christmas music blaring behind us. 

The egg rolls were gone in what felt like an instant as the three of us were talking about old Christmas stories. I loved hearing about Mike and Abby's previous Christmas' and even hearing about what Christmas was like for Mike when his parents had still been around. 

The wine I had poured for Mike and I ended up having more alcohol in it than I knew. After two glasses with my food, I was feeling a bit tipsy. I could see it in his eyes that he was feeling it too - but he had also had a glass of whiskey before I arrived, so he may have been feeling a bit more tipsy than me.

I had cleaned up the dishes from the table as Mike was preparing a special ice cream sundae for Abby. It was a tradition they had. Abby loved vanilla ice cream with candy canes and whipped cream every Christmas Eve.

I could tell he was drunk when we walked over to the couch to watch Elf and I felt his hand grab my ass. My eyes widened as I turned around and looked at him. Luckily, Abby was focused completely on the sundae in front of her and didn't notice. He gave me a small smirk and we both sat down. 

As the movie began, Mike had his arm around me and I laid my head on his shoulder. Within the first thirty minutes, Abby had fallen asleep. Mike let out a laugh as he looked beside him and saw her knocked out.

"I'm going to put her to bed." he whispered, standing up and picking her up. He was gone for about five minutes until he came back out and plopped right beside me. 

"I have something special for us." he whispered, planting a kiss to my cheek.

"What do you mean?" I asked, watching Mike stand up and turn on the fireplace. He walked over and grabbed the bottle of wine and placed it on the coffee table. He disappeared again and came back outside of his room with giant blankets and pillows. I watched him start to set up a makeshift bed with the blankets and pillows.

"I wanted to make a little bed for us here in front of the fireplace." he said, grabbing my hand and leading me off the couch onto the blankets.

"This is so cute," I laughed, sitting beside him and seeing a present in his hand.

"This is for you. It's just one of the presents I got you, but I wanted to give it to you tonight." he said, handing the neatly wrapped box to me. 

The fireplace felt amazing as we both sat next to each other and the only light in the room was the flames. I looked down at the present and unwrapped the green wrapping paper. Once it was unwrapped, a black box was revealed. It looked like a jewelry box as I opened it up and smiled when I saw the gold "M" necklace staring back at me.

"Mike, this is so sweet." I said, smiling over at him.

"The M is for Mike, but I guess you can also consider it to be for Miles too." he teased, taking the necklace out of the box and wrapped it around my neck. He placed a sweet kiss on my shoulder after clasping the necklace.

I turned around and gave him a peck on the lips. 

"I saved up for this after seeing it on Main Street two weeks ago."

"I love it, it's perfect." I said.

"I love you, Miles." he said, taking my hands holding eye contact with me so I would know he really meant the three words that had came out of his mouth. There were three words I had been searching for from men for years, and I finally heard it from the only man that had really mattered to me.

"I love you too." I said with zero hesitation. Before anything else could be said, his lips crashed into mine and he was on top of me as he slowly made out with me. He paused for a moment and looked down at me.

"You're mine right? My girlfriend?"

"I've always been yours." I whispered, staring up into his brown eyes as a smile fell from his lips. He slowly leaned back down and began kissing me. 

Before I knew it, we were both naked and connected with each other once again in front of the fire.