the kissing gate | simanda ✓

6. christmas

Simon knocked on Amanda's front door on Christmas afternoon. He had his son, Eric, holding his right hand and he carried gifts for Amanda and her daughters in his left arm.

Amanda came to the door when she heard Simon knock and let him into the house.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," Simon replied. "I brought gifts for you and the girls even though you told me I didn't have to."

"You never listen," Amanda spoke, rolling her eyes. Simon grinned at her and she brought him into the living room of her house. Amanda introduced Simon to her parents and her sister and her sister's wife.

×

Simon meeting Amanda's parents went over well, more so than what he would have thought. Simon had been thinking that Amanda's parents would assume he was dating their daughter but they never said a word about it.

"When are you going to date, Mandy?" Debbie, Amanda's sister asked her during dinner.

"I don't know. Maybe never," Amanda replied. "Knowing me, I'll probably try finding a replacement for Chris and try to replicate my relationship with him."

"Have you started dating since you announced your break up with your ex, Simon?" Tanya, Debbie's wife asked, to Simon. "That was a nasty break up in the press."

"The press also lies. It wasn't that nasty of a break up as the magazines led it on to be," Simon replied, avoiding Tanya's question.

"Have you started dating again?" Tanya inquired again.

"I've been looking," Simon said and then looked down at his food. It was a half truth. He was looking for a new girlfriend but he had his eyes on Amanda and he knew she didn't want to date anyone, preferring to stay single since Chris passed away a year and a half ago.

"Found any luck yet?" Debbie asked.

"Not too much because I'm particular about my women even though I've got so many fans because of how famous I am," Simon replied, chuckling a bit at the end of his sentence.

Amanda snorted. She saw many of the women who were interested in Simon and many of them were elderly women that lined up to see Simon and get a hug from him.

"And over half of those fans are old women," Amanda retorted.

Simon laughed and Amanda's parents looked at each other. Amanda and Simon's interactions had been awkward the entire time Simon had been at her house today and now they finally seemed to be nearing their normal interactions. Amanda hadn't told her parents or sister about the one night stand with Simon because it was the cause of why they were acting so awkwardly around each other.

Amanda and Simon had talked last night, on Christmas Eve, through text and she asked him how their one night stand was going to change their friendship. He answered that he didn't know how it would but they were going to try and make an effort to make their relationship appear normal, like they hadn't gotten drunk with each other and then shagged.

Even Lexi and Hollie, Amanda's two daughters, had noticed the change in Simon and Amanda's interactions yesterday when Simon was at Amanda's house. Amanda explained what she and Simon had done the night before to Lexi because she was old enough to understand it but she didn't tell Hollie much of why Simon was at the house in the morning.

Amanda got up from the table, having finished her food and she brought it into the kitchen. She took the kids' plates and they ran into the living room to the Christmas tree. There was still presents under the tree as it was tradition to not open them until night time after everyone was done eating. The girls only opened a couple of presents in the morning that were from Santa and got to open their stockings.

"No opening any presents until after dinner!" Amanda called into the living room.

"Why do we have to wait until everyone is finished, Mum?" Lexi asked. "You make us wait every year."

"Because it's tradition," Amanda replied. "Its been done since I was a child."

×

"There's something going on with you and Simon, Mandy, and you're not telling your little sister," Debbie said as she and Amanda washed the dishes after dinner, making the children wait to open presents for a little longer.

"There's nothing going on," Amanda lied.

"There's something going on," Debbie persisted. "Come on, tell me!"

"Alright. Simon and I had a one night stand on the twenty-third. We were both drunk and didn't realize what we were doing to our friendship until yesterday. That's why there's something going on between us," Amanda explained, whispering it to Debbie.

"I knew that you and Simon did something!" Debbie crowed quietly. "So now you think it's changed your friendship with Simon?"

"It has. I wish we didn't have that one night stand at all," Amanda whispered back. She scrubbed at a dish and rinsed it off to put it into the dishwasher. She put the scrubbed plates into the dishwasher. "I hate that it's changed our friendship but I also wish that we weren't drunk when we had it so I could remember it."

"You want to remember Simon Cowell fucking you?" Debbie asked, her voice dropping even lower. "Do you like him or something, 'Manda?"

"I think I do like him but I'm not sure if I want to act on it. I'm still hurting from Chris' death," Amanda replied. "Just, please, don't tell anyone what I've told you, Debbie."

"My lips are locked," Debbie responded. "I won't even tell Tanya even though it'll kill me that I can't but I'll keep it a secret."

"Thank you," Amanda said and then joked, "I think we've keep the kids waiting long enough."

The two women walked into the living room and the children were practically bouncing off the walls. The presents for them were piled in front of them and Amanda had made sure yesterday that Eric was going to have a small pile of presents for himself.

She sat on the couch next to Simon and said, "alright. Go ahead and open the presents."

The kids tore into their first gift, wrapping paper flying around in the air.

[_] hey guys! This chapter was so much fun to write because of the kids and Simon and Amanda's reactions to being around each other. Do you think that their relationship is going to change because of their one night stand? What did you guys like about this chapter and what do you think is going to happen next? Bye until the next chapter!