Dirty Gold ✓ [bxb]

Chapter 36 - The Storm Comes

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Warning - Very dramatic and shit brewing chapter.
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Song - Ride - Lana Del Rey (because she's the queen)

I woke up with my nose stuffed in Axel's hair. Or rather it was precisely why I'd woken up since the ends were tickling my nostrils forcing me to wake up. He'd slept with his face in my neck which I might have considered cute if his entire hand was not crushing my stomach.

"Axel." I whispered. He didn't move.

Counting to three, I pushed his off my stomach which resulted in a groan from him. I froze, thinking I'd woken him but he steadied himself on his pillow and remained asleep much to my immense relief. It was the second day of our stay in Sacrmento. Due to the jetlag we experienced, we stayed awake with my Mom and Paul until yesterday, when we slept quite soundly after it wore off.

Axel had turned on his charm quite quickly on Paul and my mother. It would have been amusing to watch if I didn't know how badly he wanted them to like him also. Paul was thoroughly impressed and didn't forget to say it over and over again. He enjoyed asking Axel so much about business and the UK economy compared to the US and all the boring details I didn't bother listening to. They got along quite well.

In fact, if he wasn't straight, dating my mom and about 20 years older than my boyfriend, I might have been a little worried.

But of course, I wasn't.

I could obviously see them forming a wonderful bromance in the near future.

Mom, on the other hand, was a bit harder to read. She did seem impressed by him but wasn't as enthusiastic as Paul. She was very much interested in his family and background a lot and went there constantly. It was only after she'd asked about his mom and he said that she was dead, did the interrogation stop.

After that it was just awkward silence until all we went to bed.

Then here it was, Christmas morning, after Axel and I had slept for half of Christmas Eve until this morning when our jet lag wore off.

It felt a bit different from all the other times though, growing up. After my dad died, Christmas had turned into a dreary affair. He was the one who enjoyed the holiday more than any of us. After his death, it had been a dull hole in the calender neither of us looked forward to. Neither mom nor I had any Christmas traditions to observe. Mara was away at college and usually got away with spending the holiday with her friends or at with her boyfriend Ivan.

I knew that this Christmas would be so much different. Mostly because of Mom's request that we were going to our grandparents Christmas party this year and of course what was about to go down.

This was going to be a very memorable one.

I stretched and admired Axel's sleeping form before grabbing a robe and going downstairs. The aroma of pancakes and bacon permeated through the entire house which meant that Mom was awake and cooking already. I checked the time on my phone. It was around 7:39 am. My mom was always the early bird in the house.

She was humming Judy Garland's Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas while mixing the batter for her next batch of pancakes.

"Merry Christmas Mom." I said kissing her cheek.

She startled a little but smiled at me "Merry Christmas darling. Where's Axel?"

"He's still sleeping. Poor thing doesn't do too well when he's tired." I replied sitting down at the kitchen table. I didn't add the fact that he had remained grim right before he went to bed because he was so convinced that my Mom didn't like him. I tried to comfort my baby but I really couldn't use the words he wanted to hear since I also didn't really know her state of mind about Axel.