Make Christmas Your Bitch

Chapter 72

"Let's do this," Lexa said, and she set a big bowl of popcorn on the coffee table and settled onto the couch next to Clarke and it was like the past folded over onto the present, because they laughed, recited movie lines at each other, and shared exclamations like "oh, shit," and "Mathias is such a douche" and "that's it, kick his ass" and by the time the credits rolled, Clarke had fallen a little more in love. Maybe she'd been doing that since they had met.

"It's almost midnight," Lexa said.

"Shit, what time is it?"

"Quarter 'til."

Clarke switched the channel to one of the countdowns and the camera panned across the thousands of people crammed into Times Square. "Oh, that guy," she said, pointing randomly at the screen. "He was on the train with me."

Lexa laughed and they watched in silence for a while, huddled close. "Almost time," Lexa said and she got up and went and got their coats and she also picked up Clarke's boots and brought them to her.

She looked at her, surprised, but started putting her boots on as Lexa went into her bedroom. Clarke stood and put her coat on so when Lexa emerged wearing sneakers, she was ready for whatever Lexa had decided to do.

Lexa put her coat on and took Clarke's hand and led her to the kitchen. She pushed the table aside and unlocked and raised the window wide enough for her to straddle the sill and slip through to the fire escape.

Clarke followed, and Lexa stood near, to keep her from accidentally smacking her head on the window. Once she was on the fire escape, Lexa closed the window almost all the way, leaving it open a crack to make it easy to open from this side.

"I forgot how great the view is from out here," Clarke said softly, the night air cold on her face.

"Not bad for a cityscape." Lexa smiled and they stood together at the railing, looking slightly north, toward the location of Times Square.

"It would make a really cool photo." She thought about another series of paintings or maybe lithographs of New York, though other cities would be great additions to a series like that.

"You know what else would make a really cool photo?" Lexa held her phone up and pulled Clarke in with her free arm and took a selfie, the city in the background.

"You'd better send that to me, Woods," Clarke said as she kissed her.

"Already done. Also, thirty seconds to the new year."

She smiled and hugged her closer. "I'm exactly where I want to be."

"So am I." Lexa smiled and fuck, that combined with the look in her eyes made her weak in all kinds of ways.

"Fifteen seconds," Lexa said softly, showing the countdown on her phone. At ten seconds left, they both counted down aloud and as they said "one" together, the neighborhood around them erupted in cheers. A distant roar emanated from the area of Times Square and Clarke thought she heard "Auld Lang Syne" playing somewhere but she was too busy kissing Lexa to care.

She pulled away a few minutes later because she wanted to do a whole lot more than just kiss. "I'd say we definitely made New Year's our bitch."

"New Year's Eve, anyway. We now have to make New Year's Day our bitch."

"I'm assuming you have some ideas about that."

"Maybe a few," she said and she raised an eyebrow. "They require going inside."

"Sounds like they're the kind of ideas I might have, too."

Lexa flashed her another smile and raised the window. "I like how we're on the same page so much." She motioned for Clarke to precede her and once they were both in, Lexa closed and locked the window and moved the table back. She took her coat off and Clarke carried it out of the kitchen and hung it up along with hers. She left her boots at the front door while Lexa turned the TV off and took the empty popcorn bowl to the kitchen.