The Hopeful, The Hardheaded and the Homework

Chapter Twenty-Six : Christmas and Cousins : Olive

To say that Olive was giddy for the rest of the night would be an understatement to say the least. She had been so afraid that he wouldn't like it, or he would make some sarcastic comment about her giving him a Christmas present that she'd almost chickened out of giving it to him altogether. His face had given nothing away when he opened it, it rarely did, but he'd actually thanked her and even put it on and that was more than enough for Olive. Never would she have expected a present from him and for a moment, before he'd opened it, she knew Enoch was thinking that. They hadn't really been going out for very long, and Enoch was...well...Enoch after all.

But something had been newer still and different from the moment she'd arrived. Enoch had stared at her like he'd never seen her before all of a sudden, he'd hardly been subtle about it so she couldn't help but notice. It was almost the same way she had, embarrassingly, found herself staring at him after walking in on him getting dressed. That kiss that left her lips tingling every time she thought about it was needy and awkward in a wonderful way and then the impossible had happened.

Enoch did have a smile somewhere under the surly, unamused exterior. It wasn't quite full and with his eyes half closed, she couldn't have said it fully reached them but it was a smile none the less and almost transformed his whole face before she'd just kissed him again.

She'd kissed him goodnight when Enoch left first, which, in front of everyone else, Enoch hadn't responded quite as keenly about and only glared over her shoulder at the others before leaving. His guard shot right back up when anyone else was in the room but she didn't mind so much, it made her feel like she knew him better.

Why Enoch was so against relaxing a little bit and having what everyone else considered fun, let along griping about having a little Christmas spirit all the time, Olive still didn't know. She lost the nerve to ask him every time she wanted to. He would only have answered with a grunt and a non-committal word or two that wasn't really an answer. She knew very well there was a lot more going on in Enoch's mind than he ever wanted to let out.

Olive loved Christmas, though Christmas morning always saw more people in their house than probably should have been able to fit in the smallish living area even without the Christmas tree taking up a whole corner. With Olive's grandparents, aunt and uncle and two blonde curled cousins, in addition to her parents and herself, it was always crowded by the time dinner came around.

Dinner was always as decadent as a typical Christmas meal with everything from ham to turkey, mince pies, roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce and then pudding to finish. Christmas crackers were lined up between the plates on the fancy china that was only used on special occasions, and by the time everyone served, almost everyone at the table would cheerfully be wearing a crepe paper crown and laughing about something or other.

"And what about you, Olive dear?"

Olive looked up from helping her youngest cousin, little Claire, serve up some turkey and across the table where her grandparents were beaming over at her. "Sorry?"

"How's school going for you?"

"Oh...fine, thank you! Very well this year actually..."

"That's good! Give you a nice leg up for university in a few years."

"And how about a boyfriend, Olive? Anything to...fill us in on there?"

"Oh don't harass the poor girl, Deidre." Olive's grandfather interrupted, shaking his head down at his plate while Olive caught her father frown down at his plate slightly and her aunt just laughed.

"Actually..." Her cheeks turned slightly pink and she couldn't help but smile to herself as she prodded a roast potato with her fork, "Yes I do now. He's from a few of my classes at school. His name is Enoch O'Connor."