His Assistant ✅

24. Stepping too Far

Christmas Eve. In many families it was the day that you stayed home and waited for the real fun the next morning but for my family it was the night where we all got together to celebrate since tomorrow was the night of my charity ball. The difference this year was that I had someone to bring; in all the years since Claire and I had broken up I had gone to the festivities alone and had to endure the polite smiles that everyone gave me that exuded sympathy. I hated those smiles.

"I swear you have the best water pressure in the history of showers" Maya says, walking into our bedroom with a towel wrapped around her body. I look away from the closet that I had been zoning out into and chuckle.

"It's our shower sweetheart" I argue and a smile tugs at her lips. "And I'm guessing you enjoyed it" I add with a chuckle and she nods, walking towards me and bumping her hip into mine.

"I didn't hate it" she concedes, looking up into the closet. "But I do hate everything in here" she sighs, rifling through her dresses. "How am I supposed to impress your parents in any of this? I'm pretty sure I actually bought this at Wal-Mart" she complains, pointing to a dark green one.

"Maya-."

"If they know I don't come from money they'll think I'm just like Claire and that is the last thing I want because your money is the last reason I'm with you-."

"Maya" I cut her off, turning to face her and placing my hands on her arms. "You're not Claire and everyone who spends a millisecond with you knows that. You will look stunning in anything you decide to wear and I promise you, no one cares how much is costed, especially me."

She lets out a deep breath and looks back into our closet. "I should take you bargain hunting" she says decisively and I laugh.

"Only if you let me spoil you for once" I argue, kissing her temple. "I'm gonna go pack up the presents. You get dressed."

"Mkay" she hums, leaning up to kiss me before letting me leave the room. I walk down the stairs and find Alison sitting in the center of the living room with wrapping paper sprawled out around her and a stack of presents beside her.

"Wow, you're wrapping early this year" I tease as I reach the bottom of the steps. Usually, Alison waited until Christmas morning to wrap gifts, making everyone stay locked upstairs while she wrapped downstairs. It was one of her most annoying quirks but she was my best friend so I accepted her for the procrastinator that she is.

"Haha" she replies dryly. "Where's your better half?" she asks curiously, looking towards my bedroom.

I scoff. "What? You already like her better than me?"

"Um yea" she replies as if this should be obvious. "She's hot, nice and isn't more concerned with getting into your wallet than your pants. I love her."

I laugh, walking towards the tree and kneeling down to gather all the gifts. I had a rather large family so the presents end up taking three bags to pack up and Maya's eyes bug out of her head when she comes down to join me. "That is a lot of stuff" she comments, staring at the pile.

"I know but it's just because there are a lot of people. By the way, I was thinking we could exchange gifts tomorrow. That okay?"

"Gifts" she repeats slowly. "Oh I uh I didn't-I didn't think. I-."

"Maya it's okay if you didn't get me anything. I just got you something small. Relax."

"But-."

I walk towards her, caressing her cheek and locking my eyes onto hers. "Babe, it's fine. I don't need anything that you haven't already given me." Her lips quirk into a soft smile and my heart swells. I swore there were no words to effectively describe how much I loved this woman. "We should get going before we're late."