Runaway // Matthew Espinosa

Chapter 39

"Zoe! Wake up!" Matt called from the living room.

What could he possibly want at 8 am on a Saturday? I groaned, stretching, and then lifting myself into an upright position. I rubbed my eyes, trying to force myself to wake up.

I got up and used the restroom, washed my face, and went to go see what Matt was on about. My eyes widened after seeing that Matt
had gotten us a Christmas tree. I smiled and ran into his arms.

"Thank you so much, I can't wait to decorate this." I clapped my hands together.

I had gathered up several ornaments together overtime, preparing for this moment to arrive.

"What about breakfast first?" Matt offered, patting his stomach.

"Oh yeah." I sighed, but went straight towards the kitchen to find something for both of us to eat.

I decided on making us a a bowl of yogurt with fruits in it. I filled it with some berries and mango, then handed Matt his bowl. We sat at the table and I was rambling on and on about how excited I was for Christmas.

Breakfast was over within 10 minutes and I felt bad because Matt was trying to keep up with how fast I was eating. Matt began coughing. Shit his food had gone down the wrong way.

Maybe he was excited as much as I was about decorating. What the hell Zoe, help him!

I got some water for him and he drank it. I rubbed his back, hoping that he would stop coughing. It was actually kind of funny. I start to quietly giggle. Matt had stopped coughing and I attempted to stop my laughter.

I was silent for a good 10 seconds, before bursting out into little giggles.

Matt frowned at me.

"What the hell Zoe?! This is not funny!" Matt protested and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it." I tried to stay serious as I said that to show how sorry I was, but accidentally cracked a smile.

Matt broke into a small smile and pulled me into his arms. His cologne from yesterday was still stained onto his skin. It was very nice as well as the fact that he was shirtless. I hugged him back and we then focused back onto the Christmas tree.

I got out the boxes of ornaments. I put the ornaments on the bottom half of the tree and Matt did the top half, since I was so short. While Matt was putting up his set of ornaments, I left mine to go put on some Spotify.

I came back and Matt had finished his ornaments. He watched me as I finished placing mine on the tree. We had finished and all that left was the star. I was insisting on Matt putting the star on the tree but he wanted me to.

"How am I supposed to get up there?" I asked him, since I had no idea if we had even owned a ladder.

Matt bent down and let me get on this shoulders. This was actually quite scary, because he could drop me in a matter of seconds. He got close enough to the tree and I put the star up there. Matt kept me on his shoulders and he moved back.

Matt hit the remote that turned on the fairy lights attached to the tree. I got down from his shoulders and stood beside him. I wrapped my arms around his torso and we admired the tree. It looked stunning for our first Christmas.

"It looks beautiful." I beamed, in love with our work.

"It does babe." Matt said and kissed the side of my head.