Love Is Ǝvil

48 I'm Not Wishin' To Be Another Fish In The Sea

And he was right, more than four hours later and no answer. Somehow it felt like they were breaking up all over again, just sadder. You gon' break out into a ballad now, little gay looking boy?

He put his phone back into his pocket and stood up from the couch. Whitney was already clamoring down the stairs to open the door. Her best friend Claire was here. He hadn't fully stepped into the hallway yet, and the two girls were already flying past him. "Whoa, careful. No running in the house!", he yelled after them.

Their laughter and a disregarding "'Kay, Dad!" was very telling. Something would be broken at the end of today, hopefully just a glass or some porcelain or whatever. He could do the last Sunday before Christmas without any broken bones, to be frank.

Marshall reached the door and greeted Claire's mother. "Come on in." He took her coat off and hung it on the coatrack. "I get the hunch, we gonna end up doing most of the baking." A hunch he'd had since Whitney asked if her friend could come over.

"Probably so", she agreed with the French accent she had. "Thanks for having us over. Merci. I know you're a busy personne." Blanche smoothed over the cottony dress she was wearing, a black and white pattern with a rather simple cut. Elegant yet understated, a good choice in Marshall's opinion. Of course a fag like you looks at the dress. Check out that ass, that's were it's at. "I'm glad you found the time, the girls surely love it."

He waved the observation aside. "It's nothing." His priority were his daughters. Inviting another family over, so Whitney could have all the fun while baking for her school, of course he said yes. He didn't want to imagine the tears if he'd said no. "Today's all for Christmas preparations, you know, the tree is up and decorated, now baking some cookies, maybe later I can sneak off and wrap the presents, that sorta thing." He lead her through the house toward the kitchen.

"Like I said, you're a very busy personne", she said with warm jest in her voice. "Can I steal a peek? S'il vous plaît? It's one of my favorite things during the holidays, looking at other people's trees and décorations."

"You mean, judging other people's trees", he answered amused. "Only if I can see yours." Let's see something else, homo, get some skin in the game here.

Blanche obliged with a smile on her bright red lips and produced a digital camera from her purse. "Bien sûr, that goes without saying." Possibly an answer to both.

So, Marshall showed her the tree. He even turned the lights on, so it could shine in all its glory: colorful and sparkling, a bit of joyful chaos to it all. "Well, what you think?"

Blanche shot some photos of it. "I expected it to be taller, honnêtement ... But it's very brillant and playful. - Comme toi", she added with an insinuating smile. She weighed her head thinking. "I give it a light to strong eight."

"Why taller? I don't want a tree I need a ladder for." That was more hassle than it was worth.

"Un argument", she agreed with a smile. "A different one is, that you have a high ceiling, why not utilize it?"

"Well, we did one Christmas", Marshall explained, "But it was one hell of a bitch to get the decorations on and off the tree. That takes all the fun out of it." He wanted to enjoy this time of year and not for it to turn into labor. "Now, yours."

She pushed a few buttons on her camera and, standing close, she showed him the display. Her tree was indeed taller and the decorations had a defined color palette, only red and silver. It appeared very orderly.

"Looks like straight out of a magazine", he said. "From an aesthetic point of view it's probably a nine? Yeah, I give it a nine. But from a more fun point of view it loses a lot, you know." He was sure, this tree hadn't been decorated by children, absolutely not.