Wrapped Up In You

What Do You Think?

"Well...that was...fun," Vix said cheerfully as Zacky waved one more time at Brian and Lucy who were pulling away.

Zacky gave a vague smile. "It was good to see them. I never realize how much I miss them till I'm away for while."

"That's beautiful," Vix said with just a hint of sarcasm.

"Fuck you," Zacky replied with a chuckle moving toward the Christmas tree.

"So, so many jokes I could run with there," she replied.

"But you won't," he said from behind the tree. "Cause you enjoyed it too much. How does it look here?" He motioned to the tree.

"Oh wow...modest aren't we?"she laughed a little too hysterically. He was right but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of agreeing.  "Put it over there."

"Here?" he said moving over a few inches.

"No...no...no..the other side, next to the window...yeah, right there." she replied "Wait, wait... Let's get some mood music going." She stood and connected her phone to the stereo aux cord.

And he couldn't hide his groan when "All I Want for Christmas Is You" came blasting out.

"That's messed up," he said. He picked up a few boxes of lights and began to pull them. "You have the worst fucking taste in music."

She didn't listen to him.

 "Oh no...Vix! Really? Do you have to?" He grimaced as she turned the volume up a little louder just to piss him off, an evil glint in her eye.  

"Blah, blah, blah,"she said moving to help him but she lost her balance.

"Hey,"he  said softly moving to her side immediately "Hey...take it easy....I know you still haven't recovered from yesterday."

She turned to glare. "You weren't that amazing."

He laughed softly leading her with an arm around her waist to the couch. "I wasn't talking about that but if we're being honest, I thought it was pretty amazing." 

Her breath hitched in her throat. She knew he could hear it. "Yeah well..you would."

"I meant the whole fall in the river/hypothermia thing," he said covering her with the woolen throw before moving to string the lights around the tree.

"I knew what you meant," she mumbled getting warm and comfy watching him make his way around the tree and then stop to make sure each section was covered. "You're friends are really nice."

He looked at her with a cocked eyebrow. "They can be. Well...Lucy is always nice."

"She's an adorable mess," Vix observed.

Zacky's eyebrows crashed together in confusion "She's a mess? How do you know that?"

"It's obvious," she said.

"It is?" he asked confusion clear in his green eyes and the wrinkle between his eyebrows became more pronounced.

"To me, it is but she actually told me."

"She told you..that she's a mess?" he asked turning back to the tree.

"She's on the fence about the wedding."

He dropped the lights. "She doesn't want to get married?"

"Oh yeah, she totally does. She just wants it to be intimate. Not the big disaster wedding her fiance wants it to be," she explained.

"And she just...told you that?" 

"I was a bartender for a few months back in 2005," she said by way of explanation.

He just laughed. "Has she told Matt?"

"Nope," she said giving emphasis to the pop sound in the p.

"Wow...poor Matt."

"Poor Matt? He hasn't yet picked up on her cues. More like poor Lucy."

"She's given cues?" he scoffed "Probably completely vague ones that would take a CIA agent to figure out."

"Doesn't the fact that she wants nothing to do with planning tell him something? At least enough to demand a real talk instead of trying to convince her that she should just proceed?"

"Is that what's he's doing?"

"I'm guessing so...that's kinda the impression I got," she shrugged.

"I'm glad that you're totally involved in my best friend's marriage drama," he said grabbing a box of ornament and a small packet of hooks and handed them to her. "Here make yourself useful."

She frowned before taking them from him. She studied him closely while he moved deftly around the tree stringing the last sets of lights.

He broke her concentration when he spoke. "So are we going to talk about last night?"

She looked down and pretended to be focused on the pack of tangled hooks. "Last night was good."

"Just good?" he prodded.

"Last night was great," she amended softly.  "Really great."

Zacky waited for more but she clammed up and continued to unravel the hooks. "I'm glad. Cause I've been thinking about it..you know with us both staying here at least until after New Years....where do we go from here? I mean, we can move on and decide not to sleep together again. Keep things less complicated, right?"

Her head bobbed up and down as she fastened hooks through the loops of the ornaments. "Right."

"Or we can continue."

"Continue?" she asked arching her own eyebrow but it probably wasn't as cool as him doing it.

"To have sex."

"Ahh I see."

"So what you do you think?" he said plugging in the lights finally.

"Looks good...you have a small gap on the right side," she said pointing to the section missing lights.

"I wasn't talking about the tree," he said getting on his knees to fix the lightless area. 

"Oh...think about what?" she asked stupidly.

His green eyes looked from the tree to her practically burning a hole in her face. "Are you going to answer the question?

"What was the question?" she said trying to suppress a grin.

"Nevermind," he said turning back to the tree exasperated.

She sighed deeply and tried to analyze her emotions. Despite her many protests, she did have them but could she keep 'em reigned in. Couldn't she handle it? She knew enough about herself and about the situation to know that a guy like him and a girl like her could never be together like that. They'd be friends and he'd help her get rid of the sexual frustration that she'd been carrying around. She didn't have false expectations. She wanted him in her bed, wanted to take what she could for the short time and at least have the great memories. She was safe because she had no illusions of this going any further after New Year's Day....but they could have fun while it lasted

She chuckled at his pout. "Zacky?"

"What?" he said not turning to face her.

"I vote for sex."