***
December 22nd was a spectacularly terrible day for Katelyn Eubanks. She and her boyfriend, Tyler, had broken up a few days before. Which was fine. Tyler was an investment banker who exclusively talked about investment banking. He was kind of bulky with decent shoulders and nice abs and a meatloaf face that would have bothered Katelyn if it weren't for the aforementioned decent shoulders and nice abs. He was kind of bland but otherwise "okay." So the breakup was fine, or at least would have been, if it weren't for Katelyn's overbearing mother.
On the 22nd, Katelyn woke up to the incessant ringing of her cellphone. "G'morning?" she yawned into the phone.
"Katelyn! Are you still asleep?! Shouldn't you be getting ready for work?" Martha Eubanks barked into the phone. Whenever Martha spoke to her daughter on the phone, she did so loudly, as though on some level she believed her voice had to travel from Kansas City to Chicago without the aid of any technology at all.
"No," Katelyn muttered, stumbling out of bed and turning off the alarm clock that wasn't set to go off for another hour.
"What!? Why not!? Did you get fired again? JON! JON! Katy got fired again!"
In the background, Katelyn heard her father shout, "I'll move the elliptical to the basement!" with the enthusiasm of a true empty nester. "Mom!" Katelyn sighed, "I did not get fired. I have an interview at Delores White's! So, I took the evening shift at the--" but her mother wasn't listening any more. Instead, she was busy insisting to her husband that their daughter might not have to move back in with them because "she's got that new boyfriend" she might be moving in with.
Suddenly, Martha turned her attention back to her daughter. "You're bringing that boy with you when you come tomorrow, right?"
"Right, about that," Katelyn exhaled, turning on her bathroom light and blinking at her reflection. Immediately, her mother started lecturing Katelyn on her inevitable spinsterhood if she let this new guy slip away. As we all know, both staring intently into your own reflective eyes and talking to your relatives about your non-existent love life have the power to inspire astronomically stupid ideas. But doing both at once? That's a sure fire way to drive a level-headed, logical person into dressing a cow up like a lion and joining the circus. So, Katelyn, armed with an aggressively idiotic idea, interrupted her mother, "Mom. Calm down. He'll be there."
"Oh! Good. What time will you be in?"
"Uh, I'm not sure yet. Let me... I'll text you when we leave." Katelyn said, still staring into the mirror, reflecting with her reflection. Katelyn was twenty-four, nowhere near old enough to legitimately fear spinsterhood. She had green eyes, auburn waves, and a spattering of freckles bursting from her right temple. In other words, she was hella cute. But, for some reason, dating had never been her game.
"Hey mom," she said suddenly, "I have to hop off the phone now. Sorry! I'll see you tomorrow. Love you!" And with that, she hung up the phone.
We're going to skip forward a bit now. Katelyn went to her interview with Delores White. The highly successful event coordinator Delores White. With the really prominent and pertinent event coordinating firm. Delores White is an intelligent, beautiful, and charismatic, part Haitian, part Nigerian, Berkley graduate with a Marilyn Monroe style beauty mark on her cheek. And, since this was a "tell me about your work experience" interview and not a "tell me about your boyfriend" gabfest, including the details of this conversation could help us pass the Bechdel test and provide some much needed diversity in our cast. But alas. We're going to skip past that and only acknowledge it through, like, a silent montage. Maybe. We might scrap the entire thing during post-production. I will say, though, that the interview went pretty well, but Katelyn was very nervous about it, and she saw some of the other ladies interviewing for the position and they were... well, tough competitors, to say the least. So, she walked out feeling anxious, and not at all like she nailed it.
***
"You did what!?!" Alexis laughed. Alexis was remarkably tall with rich tan skin, long black hair, and one green eye. I mean, she had two eyes, but the other one was brown. I should have made that more clear. Let me try again. Alexis was remarkably tall with rich tan skin, long black hair, one brown eye, and one green one. It doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? But at least this time you don't think she's a cyclops. Anyway. Her body was almost entirely devoid of curves, and Katelyn suggested that her best friend become a model with such regularity that now no one could even mention modeling without Alexis hearing it in Katelyn's enthusiastic and affectionate tone.
"I told my mother that Tyler would be there," Katleyn repeated, matter-of-factly as she wiped down the counter in the diner where they both worked.
"So what are you going to do tomorrow when you arrive sans-Tyler? Say he had some sort of financial planner emergency?"
"Investment banker. And, no, I was thinking I could get a Tyler impersonator."
"By tomorrow?" Alexis laughed. "Oh! You know who you should ask? Dylan!" As she spoke, Alexis nodded towards the new guy. He was tall. The kind of tall where he hunched his shoulders slightly with a subconscious desire to blend in with his peers. And he was handsome. Not in a new money, GQ model sort of way. But, handsome in that... well, quirky best friend from that sitcom you really like sort of way. Like... Chandler Bing. Only with a warm honey complexion and jet black hair and glasses with oversized plastic frames.
"I-I, I can't ask Dylan," Katelyn laughed nervously. "I know Dylan. But I don't actually know him. You know? Like, how are you even supposed to be around people that you know but aren't super close with? You can't. You just have to hide." Katelyn spoke quickly now, shaking her head vigorously. After a pause she said, "You're right this is stupid. I'll go home tomorrow sans-Tyler and just tell my mom that... I caught Tyler cheating on me or something. She couldn't possibly blame me for that."
"No, I'm really fond of this Dylan/Tyler thing, now," Alexis determined. "Hey, Dylan!" She called, and Dylan scurried over. "Katelyn has something to ask you."
"Oh, yeah?" Dylan asked with a smile. It was a very good smile. Wide, and white. Very white. Which is why when she finally spoke Katelyn said:
"Wh-wh-who is your dentist?"
"My dad. Thanks. Oh. I mean. Why? I mean. Cool. Yeah, my dad. His name's, um, Dr. Kim. Kim, is, of course, our last name. I don't know if you knew that. I didn't want you to think that my dad was, why? You have nice teeth." Dylan stammered.
"Oh my word!" Alexis squealed. "I'm such a fan of this. No, Katelyn was wondering what your plans for the holidays are."
"I, oh, well, I'm working. Um, I'm the new guy. So, I got the short end of the stick. It's fine, though, my family doesn't really celebrate Christmas or anything. Um, and, oh, well, my dad he's actually, uh, in Oregon. I'm from Oregon. I'm sorry, I guess I'll maybe need to get a different dentist, I can't, I'm sorry, I can't believe that I was just like, 'yeah, here's my solid dentist recommendation he's five million miles away but yeah', that's, just, I forgot. I mean, I didn't forget, but, you know."
You would think all of this stammering would put Katelyn at ease. After all, he was clearly more nervous around her than she was around him, right? Besides, she liked nervous people. She understood nervous people. Nervous people were her proverbial jam. But it didn't put her at ease. For some undetermined (yet for an outsider totally obvious) reason, his nervous made her more nervous.
"Katelyn. Do you want jump in at some point?" Alexis asked. Katelyn stared at her, silently. "Okay. Guess not. Look, Dylan, we have a proposition for you. Katelyn here needs someone to go with her to her family's house for the holidays and pretend to be her ex-boyfriend Travis."
"Tyler," Katelyn quietly corrected.
"Whatever. Would you be willing to pretend to be Trevor? I will cover your shifts here and you can have both of our tips for tonight," Alexis offered.
"That sounds, um, irregular. But okay." Dylan shrugged.
After a moment of processing, Katelyn asked, "Really?"
"Yeah, sure, why not? I'm assuming there will be food and lodging, right? And your parents' place probably has the heat turned on, which makes it a better deal than my apartment. Plus, who wants to work over the holidays? And I bet with your tips I could buy a space heater for my apartment when I get back," Dylan shrugged.
All of that was true. Dylan wanted food that wasn't leftovers he snagged from the diner or canned tomato soup. Heating in his apartment sucked, so he was perpetually cold. He didn't really want to work over the holidays despite not being from a Christmas-celebratory household. And he knew that the girls made better tips than he did, and he could use the cash. But the real reason he agreed was because he liked Katelyn. Not necessarily in a "let's hold hands and talk about our feelings" kind of way but in a "you seem nice and cool and I don't know anyone so please hang out with me" kind of way. So he'd gladly pretend to be her boyfriend if it meant a chance at being her actual friend.
***
"Sorry, it's a long drive, but, you can control the radio," Katelyn finally said, the next morning, after they had driven about an hour in awkward silence.
"Sure. Maybe you should tell me about the guy, though, that I'm pretending to be," Dylan offered. He'd started getting nervous when he woke up that morning. He knew absolutely nothing about Katelyn's ex-boyfriend. He didn't even know that she had an ex-boyfriend until the night before. And what if he blew the charade and Katelyn hated him forever?
"Oh. Right. Um, well, I don't actually do a lot of talking when I talk to my parents. So, they don't know all that much about him. So, most of the time you can just talk about yourself and we can pretend it's true for him, too. Um, they know that his name is 'Tyler' and that he's an investment banker. I think I mentioned that on our first date we went to an Italian restaurant. So, I guess, I mean, do you like Italian food? Because if not I guess you should just pretend for a few days. I doubt they'd, like, serve any, or anything."
"Everybody likes Italian food. It's like... carbs and butter and garlic. So, like, maybe Dracula doesn't like Italian food. Or I guess anyone allergic to gluten might not be to keen on it. But, otherwise."
"Right. Good. Okay," Katelyn nodded. They promptly relapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Dylan tried fiddling with the radio but every time he paused on a station he thought he might like, he got suddenly self-conscience that it would be the kind of music Katelyn would hate but that she wouldn't say anything and instead just sit there silently judging him.
Later during their drive, Dylan asked, suddenly as though he just thought of it when in reality he had been practicing the words in his head since the evening before, "Oh, hey, how was that interview?"
"What--oh! The--yesterday?" Katelyn stammered. Dylan nodded, so she continued, "It was... good, maybe. I'm not sure. I was really nervous."
"What, uh, what's it for? I mean, I knew that it existed because I heard Alexis ask you about it. But, I, uh, didn't... what's it for?"
"Oh, um, Delores White's firm. She's a really big name in event planning. I got a BFA in visual arts, um, which, you know, you can't do a whole lot with. But I really like putting stuff together. The way I see it, events are just interactive works of art," Katelyn explained. "Anyway, I saw some of the other people she was interviewing and honestly I don't think I stand a chance, really."
"No, what? You're definitely going to get it. That sounds so cool," Dylan said with the enthusiasm of somebody who genuinely believed what he was saying. Immediately afterwards he realized that he didn't really have any reason to genuinely believe that she would get the job. He didn't know Katelyn's event planning abilities or anything that might show up on her resume to qualify her for the job. But, still, he really believed she was well suited for the job and deserving of it.
For a moment, Katelyn blushed and looked away. "Okay, tell me some stuff about you."
"Oh, uh, okay. Oh, I don't know. What, uh, what do you want to know? I grew up in Oregon. It was just me and my dad. My parents were, like, teenagers when I was born. I see my mom some, but she had, like, dreams to pursue that I didn't really fit into. It's cool, though. My dad and I are super tight. It's like Gilmore Girls all up in there. Only, erm, more like Kim Men, I guess. Anyway, I went to school in Portland, so, like, pretty close to where I grew up, you know? But then I moved here because I got this killer job making minimum wage at a diner two blocks from a heatless apartment complex that only costs slightly more than I can afford to live in." After a beat he quickly added, "No, I, uh, I moved here to be near Second City and all these comedy clubs. Um, it's hard on my dad. I mean, I think he's okay with me pursuing comedy and stuff, I just think he wishes I was still, like, close, you know?"
"Yeah, I think my dad wishes I was closer, too, and I only moved one state over. I mean, I guess it's not necessarily that he wishes I was closer. But I have an older sister and a younger brother and they both moved a ways away, too. So, I think he just misses us."
"Yeah. It's weird, all those years you think about moving away and getting to live life and meet new people and whatever, you don't really think about your parents having to stay behind missing you."
It was at this point that Katelyn pulled into a forest green bay and gable house with tan trim and a brick driveway. "Welp, we're here," She said as she put the car in "park." For a moment, she sat still and exhaled. She exhaled way more than a normal person with normal lung capacity should be able to exhale.
"Hey, uh, Katy?" Dylan asked quietly. "Are we going to get out of the car now?"
"No, this is a stupid idea. A stupid, stupid, stupid idea. As soon as we get out of the car we'll be in too far," She muttered.
"We drove eight hours here. We're already in too far," Dylan pointed out. "Plus..." he said as he nodded to the doorway. Martha Eubanks was barreling out the front door and towards her daughter's car.
"So, we're doing this?" Dylan asked, with a reassuring tone.
"Yeah, I guess we're doing this," Katelyn said, once again she exhaled, and then flung the door open. "Mom!"
"Katy, dear, we thought you'd never make it here. Your brother and that new wife of his got snowed in," Martha exclaimed.
"Yes, well, my brother and that new wife of his live in Connecticut. So, it's quite a bit snowier there, I hear," Katelyn explained.
But Martha was too busy to process her daughter's sass. She had found her way over towards Dylan and was affectionately grasping his wrists. "This must be Tyler! Oh, it's so good to meet you." She pulled him into a hug and, with tears glistening in her eyes, repeated, "It's so good to meet you." Then, quickly she, led him into the house, leaving Katelyn to lug the luggage in from the car.
Each family member smiled, or waved as their name was listed off. Dylan nodded at each one as Martha dragged him up a stairwell. Behind them, he could hear Katelyn huffing greetings to her family. She caught up with them in a bedroom, fairly small compared to the other rooms they'd been through. It had gray walls, a framed poster of The Cure, a queen-sized bed with a red comforter, and a bookshelf, stuffed to the brim with books and littered with picture frames.
"This will be where you and Katy are staying," Martha was saying as Katelyn walked in.
"Mom," she hissed indignantly.
"Oh, it's okay, honey," Martha said, patting her daughter's shoulder. "I'll leave you two kids to get settled."
Katelyn watched her mother leave and then sunk to the floor and buried her face in her open palms. When she peeked out from behind her fingers, she saw Dylan almost convulsing in silent laughter. "She just assumed," he shrugged when he regained his poise. "How long did you date Tyler anyway?"
"Only, like, two months," Katelyn signed, exasperated. "And she would've been wrong about her assumption there, too. So, maybe it's a good thing I'm here with you, and not him, because there's a chance this set up would have been more awkward."
Katelyn blushed. "Um..."
"But he isn't the guy you told me about," Elizabeth whispered. "When you told me about him before, you said Tyler was a workaholic. And today, he hasn't looked at his phone once. You also said you weren't so sure he was that into you, and yet here he is, hardly able to take his eyes off of you. You ALSO said that he had broad shoulders and a kind of bland face. And yet..." Elizabeth nodded at Dylan as he passed through the kitchen. Narrow shoulders. Narrow everything. A real stretch of a guy. And an incredibly handsome face. All cheekbones and angles and chocolate colored eyes.
Katelyn buried her face in her hands. "When we devised this plan, I kind of forgot how much I'd already told you about Tyler."
"So what's going on? Who's this guy?" Elizabeth asked, conspiratorially.
"Dylan. We work together," Katelyn explained.
"How long have you been seeing him?" Elizabeth asked and then quickly added, "And why is he okay with pretending to be Tyler?"
"Technically I'm not seeing him. We're just friends. Kind of. He's a new guy at work. I like him well enough. Anyway. Tyler and I broke up a little while ago. Which is fine because Tyler sucks. But I didn't want it to be, like, a THING with Mom so I accidentally promised that Tyler would be coming even though we'd broken up. And then Dylan agreed to help me out by, you know, pretending to be my boyfriend."
Elizabeth shrugged. "I like him."
Katelyn got really quiet for a second, smiled a little, and then said, "So do I, I think."
That evening, Dylan joined in with Katelyn's family as they decorated the trees. He happily accepted every cookie Sapphire brought him as she ran from the plate of cookies to an attendee, holding out her offering. He listened to Katelyn and Elizabeth reminisce about childhood Christmases. He gladly drank coffee with Jon and Daniel and gave a shrug of acceptance as Daniel offered to spike his drink with some fireball whiskey.
There was so much laughter and merriment and for a moment Dylan wondered if this was what his Christmases would be like from then on out. Not just him and his father sitting in their living room exchanging sweaters, but surrounded by voices and cheer, warmed with coffee and whiskey, provided a never-ending supply of sugar cookies at the hands of a toddler. He pictured bringing his father here. He pictured his dad sitting across from Katelyn's, each one showing the other pictures of their children as children. That's when he remembered that Katelyn wasn't really his girlfriend. This wasn't really the life he'd be getting. This was just a life he was peering in at.
He looked at Katelyn, and she looked back at him. She held his gaze for a moment, and smiled. But she seemed to notice something, a quiet sadness, that had crept into his eyes despite the grin he forced. Her smile faltered for a second but she regained her composure quickly.
"Well, I don't know about D--Tyler, but, today's got me totally beat. So, I think we should probably call it a night," she laughed.
He exhaled quickly, quietly.
"No!" Martha protested. "We've been having so much fun getting to know your new beau!" She insisted.
"Sorry, Martha," Dylan laughed. "Um, I'm pretty tired too. But, I promise, there will be more of me to get to know tomorrow."
Katelyn laughed. She stood and reached out a pale, freckled hand toward Dylan. He accepted it, stood, and followed her back up the stairs.
"I like him," Martha grinned. "I bet she'll marry him."
"A ring by spring, I'd say," Jon laughed.
Elizabeth grinned, but then remembered, and her smile twitched nervously. "We'll see, I suppose."
"A ring by spring?" Martha giggled. "I imagine she'll be getting one this weekend."
Later during their drive, Dylan asked, suddenly as though he just thought of it when in reality he had been practicing the words in his head since the evening before, "Oh, hey, how was that interview?"
"What--oh! The--yesterday?" Katelyn stammered. Dylan nodded, so she continued, "It was... good, maybe. I'm not sure. I was really nervous."
"What, uh, what's it for? I mean, I knew that it existed because I heard Alexis ask you about it. But, I, uh, didn't... what's it for?"
"Oh, um, Delores White's firm. She's a really big name in event planning. I got a BFA in visual arts, um, which, you know, you can't do a whole lot with. But I really like putting stuff together. The way I see it, events are just interactive works of art," Katelyn explained. "Anyway, I saw some of the other people she was interviewing and honestly I don't think I stand a chance, really."
"No, what? You're definitely going to get it. That sounds so cool," Dylan said with the enthusiasm of somebody who genuinely believed what he was saying. Immediately afterwards he realized that he didn't really have any reason to genuinely believe that she would get the job. He didn't know Katelyn's event planning abilities or anything that might show up on her resume to qualify her for the job. But, still, he really believed she was well suited for the job and deserving of it.
For a moment, Katelyn blushed and looked away. "Okay, tell me some stuff about you."
"Oh, uh, okay. Oh, I don't know. What, uh, what do you want to know? I grew up in Oregon. It was just me and my dad. My parents were, like, teenagers when I was born. I see my mom some, but she had, like, dreams to pursue that I didn't really fit into. It's cool, though. My dad and I are super tight. It's like Gilmore Girls all up in there. Only, erm, more like Kim Men, I guess. Anyway, I went to school in Portland, so, like, pretty close to where I grew up, you know? But then I moved here because I got this killer job making minimum wage at a diner two blocks from a heatless apartment complex that only costs slightly more than I can afford to live in." After a beat he quickly added, "No, I, uh, I moved here to be near Second City and all these comedy clubs. Um, it's hard on my dad. I mean, I think he's okay with me pursuing comedy and stuff, I just think he wishes I was still, like, close, you know?"
"Yeah, I think my dad wishes I was closer, too, and I only moved one state over. I mean, I guess it's not necessarily that he wishes I was closer. But I have an older sister and a younger brother and they both moved a ways away, too. So, I think he just misses us."
"Yeah. It's weird, all those years you think about moving away and getting to live life and meet new people and whatever, you don't really think about your parents having to stay behind missing you."
It was at this point that Katelyn pulled into a forest green bay and gable house with tan trim and a brick driveway. "Welp, we're here," She said as she put the car in "park." For a moment, she sat still and exhaled. She exhaled way more than a normal person with normal lung capacity should be able to exhale.
"Hey, uh, Katy?" Dylan asked quietly. "Are we going to get out of the car now?"
"No, this is a stupid idea. A stupid, stupid, stupid idea. As soon as we get out of the car we'll be in too far," She muttered.
"We drove eight hours here. We're already in too far," Dylan pointed out. "Plus..." he said as he nodded to the doorway. Martha Eubanks was barreling out the front door and towards her daughter's car.
"So, we're doing this?" Dylan asked, with a reassuring tone.
"Yeah, I guess we're doing this," Katelyn said, once again she exhaled, and then flung the door open. "Mom!"
"Katy, dear, we thought you'd never make it here. Your brother and that new wife of his got snowed in," Martha exclaimed.
"Yes, well, my brother and that new wife of his live in Connecticut. So, it's quite a bit snowier there, I hear," Katelyn explained.
But Martha was too busy to process her daughter's sass. She had found her way over towards Dylan and was affectionately grasping his wrists. "This must be Tyler! Oh, it's so good to meet you." She pulled him into a hug and, with tears glistening in her eyes, repeated, "It's so good to meet you." Then, quickly she, led him into the house, leaving Katelyn to lug the luggage in from the car.
***
The inside of the Eubanks' house was spacious and clean. Tan walls, wooden floors, and an almost overwhelming scent of sugar, almond extract, and citrus. Martha led Dylan throughout the house and provided easy introductions. She pointed at a tall man with dark hair, graying at the temples, and said, "Tyler this is Katy's father, Jon." She pointed at a curvy woman, early thirties, with dark hair piled on top of her head, "This is Katy's sister, Elizabeth." She took a breath, looked around, and gestured to a well-built black man holding a small girl in his arms and said, "Elizabeth's husband Daniel and their daughter, Sapphire."
Each family member smiled, or waved as their name was listed off. Dylan nodded at each one as Martha dragged him up a stairwell. Behind them, he could hear Katelyn huffing greetings to her family. She caught up with them in a bedroom, fairly small compared to the other rooms they'd been through. It had gray walls, a framed poster of The Cure, a queen-sized bed with a red comforter, and a bookshelf, stuffed to the brim with books and littered with picture frames.
"This will be where you and Katy are staying," Martha was saying as Katelyn walked in.
"Mom," she hissed indignantly.
"Oh, it's okay, honey," Martha said, patting her daughter's shoulder. "I'll leave you two kids to get settled."
Katelyn watched her mother leave and then sunk to the floor and buried her face in her open palms. When she peeked out from behind her fingers, she saw Dylan almost convulsing in silent laughter. "She just assumed," he shrugged when he regained his poise. "How long did you date Tyler anyway?"
"Only, like, two months," Katelyn signed, exasperated. "And she would've been wrong about her assumption there, too. So, maybe it's a good thing I'm here with you, and not him, because there's a chance this set up would have been more awkward."
***
Martha Eubanks went all out for the holidays. Christmas music filled the house--mostly Bing Crosby, James Taylor, and Michael Buble. Her husband and son-in-law brought in three trees at Martha's request, and positioned them throughout the living room. Plates of various homemade cookies sat out on nearly ever surface. The living and dining rooms were filled with candles. There was a nativity set displayed on the top of a bookshelf. The entire house was coated in garland and lights. The dining room table was full of food. You could try pointing out to her that December 23rd isn't really a holiday, but Martha probably wouldn't listen. The table was filled with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, ham, stuffing, cranberry sauce, baked carrots and pecan pie.
"So," Dylan whispered to Katelyn as they wandered into the dining room, "What will be for actual Christmas dinner?"
"Tacos," she said with a quiet shrug. "It's like... a Eubanks' family tradition or something."
"Cool," Dylan said with a shrug.
Martha smiled warmly at the couple and then called into the living room, "All right, it's time for dinner!"
Dylan pulled out a chair for Katelyn. She looked over and held his gaze for a few seconds. He wore a checkered green button down shirt and he had combed back his hair, carelessly, with his fingertips. He tapped the back of the chair nervously. "Oh, sorry," Katelyn laughed after a moment. She sat down and he slid the chair in to the table before taking the seat next to her.
He leaned over and whispered, "That was, yeah that was weird wasn't it? I don't know, it's like, my dad, he's always saying that, like, chivalry is a thing and that, like, chivalry is the biggest... I mean, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to be weird."
Katelyn smiled, wide and earnest. Dylan's nervousness was somehow putting her at ease. "No, it's okay," she whispered, "I appreciated it. It just caught me off guard." Tyler, the real Tyler, was never the sort of person to pull out chairs. He was the sort of person to sit down and pull out his phone.
The rest of the seats were quickly filled out. On one end of the table sat Martha, on the other sat Jon. Across from Dylan and Katelyn sat Elizabeth and Daniel. Sapphire crawled into her mother's lap and then reached for her father. As soon as Daniel would take her, she'd reach back for Elizabeth. It was either adorable or obnoxious depending on who you were at the table and how long it went on for.
"So, Tyler," Jon said after a minute or so.
Dylan kept his eyes on his plate until Katelyn gently nudged him. "What? Yeah. Sorry. What?"
Katelyn stifled a giggle as Jon continued. "So, Tyler, your family didn't want you home for the holidays?"
"Oh, um, well, I guess my dad probably wants me home all the time, really. But he lives in Portland and it wasn't really... feasible for... um, oh, I mean, we were talking about going to visit him over New Years. Right, dear?" Dylan rambled.
Katelyn laughed. "Yeah, we were talking about it. It kind of depends on work."
"Oh, dear, that would be so wonderful," Martha cooed. Martha always seemed to be cooing.
"So," Dylan whispered to Katelyn as they wandered into the dining room, "What will be for actual Christmas dinner?"
"Tacos," she said with a quiet shrug. "It's like... a Eubanks' family tradition or something."
"Cool," Dylan said with a shrug.
Martha smiled warmly at the couple and then called into the living room, "All right, it's time for dinner!"
Dylan pulled out a chair for Katelyn. She looked over and held his gaze for a few seconds. He wore a checkered green button down shirt and he had combed back his hair, carelessly, with his fingertips. He tapped the back of the chair nervously. "Oh, sorry," Katelyn laughed after a moment. She sat down and he slid the chair in to the table before taking the seat next to her.
He leaned over and whispered, "That was, yeah that was weird wasn't it? I don't know, it's like, my dad, he's always saying that, like, chivalry is a thing and that, like, chivalry is the biggest... I mean, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to be weird."
Katelyn smiled, wide and earnest. Dylan's nervousness was somehow putting her at ease. "No, it's okay," she whispered, "I appreciated it. It just caught me off guard." Tyler, the real Tyler, was never the sort of person to pull out chairs. He was the sort of person to sit down and pull out his phone.
The rest of the seats were quickly filled out. On one end of the table sat Martha, on the other sat Jon. Across from Dylan and Katelyn sat Elizabeth and Daniel. Sapphire crawled into her mother's lap and then reached for her father. As soon as Daniel would take her, she'd reach back for Elizabeth. It was either adorable or obnoxious depending on who you were at the table and how long it went on for.
"So, Tyler," Jon said after a minute or so.
Dylan kept his eyes on his plate until Katelyn gently nudged him. "What? Yeah. Sorry. What?"
Katelyn stifled a giggle as Jon continued. "So, Tyler, your family didn't want you home for the holidays?"
"Oh, um, well, I guess my dad probably wants me home all the time, really. But he lives in Portland and it wasn't really... feasible for... um, oh, I mean, we were talking about going to visit him over New Years. Right, dear?" Dylan rambled.
Katelyn laughed. "Yeah, we were talking about it. It kind of depends on work."
"Oh, dear, that would be so wonderful," Martha cooed. Martha always seemed to be cooing.
***
After dinner, Dylan dutifully helped Martha clear off the table and clean up the kitchen. Daniel, Jon, and Sapphire had meandered into the living room where they started unpacking ornaments and decorating the trees. Elizabeth wandered into the kitchen and then returned, setting a mug of hot chocolate down in front of her sister. "So, this guy is pretty special, huh?" Elizabeth asked.
Katelyn blushed. "Um..."
"But he isn't the guy you told me about," Elizabeth whispered. "When you told me about him before, you said Tyler was a workaholic. And today, he hasn't looked at his phone once. You also said you weren't so sure he was that into you, and yet here he is, hardly able to take his eyes off of you. You ALSO said that he had broad shoulders and a kind of bland face. And yet..." Elizabeth nodded at Dylan as he passed through the kitchen. Narrow shoulders. Narrow everything. A real stretch of a guy. And an incredibly handsome face. All cheekbones and angles and chocolate colored eyes.
Katelyn buried her face in her hands. "When we devised this plan, I kind of forgot how much I'd already told you about Tyler."
"So what's going on? Who's this guy?" Elizabeth asked, conspiratorially.
"Dylan. We work together," Katelyn explained.
"How long have you been seeing him?" Elizabeth asked and then quickly added, "And why is he okay with pretending to be Tyler?"
"Technically I'm not seeing him. We're just friends. Kind of. He's a new guy at work. I like him well enough. Anyway. Tyler and I broke up a little while ago. Which is fine because Tyler sucks. But I didn't want it to be, like, a THING with Mom so I accidentally promised that Tyler would be coming even though we'd broken up. And then Dylan agreed to help me out by, you know, pretending to be my boyfriend."
Elizabeth shrugged. "I like him."
Katelyn got really quiet for a second, smiled a little, and then said, "So do I, I think."
That evening, Dylan joined in with Katelyn's family as they decorated the trees. He happily accepted every cookie Sapphire brought him as she ran from the plate of cookies to an attendee, holding out her offering. He listened to Katelyn and Elizabeth reminisce about childhood Christmases. He gladly drank coffee with Jon and Daniel and gave a shrug of acceptance as Daniel offered to spike his drink with some fireball whiskey.
There was so much laughter and merriment and for a moment Dylan wondered if this was what his Christmases would be like from then on out. Not just him and his father sitting in their living room exchanging sweaters, but surrounded by voices and cheer, warmed with coffee and whiskey, provided a never-ending supply of sugar cookies at the hands of a toddler. He pictured bringing his father here. He pictured his dad sitting across from Katelyn's, each one showing the other pictures of their children as children. That's when he remembered that Katelyn wasn't really his girlfriend. This wasn't really the life he'd be getting. This was just a life he was peering in at.
He looked at Katelyn, and she looked back at him. She held his gaze for a moment, and smiled. But she seemed to notice something, a quiet sadness, that had crept into his eyes despite the grin he forced. Her smile faltered for a second but she regained her composure quickly.
"Well, I don't know about D--Tyler, but, today's got me totally beat. So, I think we should probably call it a night," she laughed.
He exhaled quickly, quietly.
"No!" Martha protested. "We've been having so much fun getting to know your new beau!" She insisted.
"Sorry, Martha," Dylan laughed. "Um, I'm pretty tired too. But, I promise, there will be more of me to get to know tomorrow."
Katelyn laughed. She stood and reached out a pale, freckled hand toward Dylan. He accepted it, stood, and followed her back up the stairs.
"I like him," Martha grinned. "I bet she'll marry him."
"A ring by spring, I'd say," Jon laughed.
Elizabeth grinned, but then remembered, and her smile twitched nervously. "We'll see, I suppose."
"A ring by spring?" Martha giggled. "I imagine she'll be getting one this weekend."
***
"My family loves you," Katelyn said as she shut the door to her bedroom behind her.
"You mean Tyler," Dylan corrected.
"No," Katelyn said, shaking her head. "I don't think they'd've loved Tyler. I mean, my mom would probably like any guy who seemed even remotely interested in me. But, honestly, Tyler was boring. You're, like, six thousand times more fun than he was."
"Yes, well, that's my strategy with girls. Just... be more fun than an investment banker."
Katelyn laughed and playfully threw a pillow at him. She stooped at her suitcase pulled out some leggings and an over-sized sweatshirt that read, "Stay Cool, Little Red." She glanced around and after a moment of consideration, she said, "Don't look, okay?"
Dylan nodded. He turned to face the wall, and then, just to be safe, he closed his eyes and buried his face in his palms.
He didn't look. Not even a peek. It wouldn't have surprised any of us if he had. Usually in this sort of situation the guy does, right? He peeks. Just a little. Enough to see shoulder blades or the unclasping of a bra or a bit of lace around a waist. But Dylan didn't look because he wasn't the sort of guy who did anything, even look, without explicit consent.
"Okay. I'm clothed," Katelyn said after a moment.
"Little Red? Because of your hair?" Dylan asked, pointing at her sweatshirt.
Katelyn looked down, reddened a bit, just beneath her eyes. She'd made the sweatshirt herself with iron-ons. She shook her head twice, her hair falling around her collarbone. "No, it's a quote," she said. "From one of my favorite books. Fangirl? By Rainbow Rowell?" Dylan did a half shrug in response to confess his ignorance. "Oh, I mean, yeah, so, I mean, it's basically just something Levi, he's like the male romantic lead, says to Cath, who is the actual lead. Anyway. I just like it, I guess." Katelyn was flustered and, furthermore, she was a little irritated at feeling flustered because she had really felt like she'd gathered her composure and regained her cool earlier in the evening. Apparently not.
Dylan grinned. "Cool," he said. He looked at her and then at the bed. He colored a bit and then said, "So, um, I can take the floor."
Katelyn rolled her eyes, "No. I suppose it's fine. Just... don't... try... anything."
He wouldn't. He didn't. But he also couldn't really sleep. He tried for a bit, but whenever Katelyn would stir (which she apparently did a lot) a different bit of her would brush against him. Her arm would knock against his or her hair would tickle his shoulder. Sometimes, she wouldn't touch him at all, but there was something about her warmth and her scent and just her general presence near him that made him a little anxious. After awhile, he slipped out of the bed, and meandered around her room. He stared at her bookshelf for awhile, it was brimming with books, and then he saw it, the one she'd mentioned just a few hours before. Fangirl.
It's a pretty easy read. One that you can fall into quickly. Characters who are captivating. A quick pace. On top of that, Dylan is a freakishly fast reader. It's a shame he didn't get a degree in literature or history or philosophy or something that would have made real use of that skill. He sat down and opened the book. A few hours later, mostly finished, he tiptoed downstairs and flopped down on the couch in the living room.
That's where Katelyn found him, obscenely early, the next morning. He'd drifted to sleep shortly after he finished. She poked his shoulder a few times.
"Hmm?" He muttered.
"What are you doing down here?" Katelyn whispered.
"Sleeping," he replied. But, since he was still asleep, it sounded more like, "sleephink."
"Okay but can you come back upstairs for that? My parents will think something's amiss if they find you down here," she whispered.
"Mmkay," he mumbled. Drowsily, he stood, and let her lead him back upstairs. He collapsed on her bed and she tiptoed back downstairs.
Katelyn loved mornings at her parents' house. They were quiet and all her own. She liked sitting crossed legged in her pajama pants on the living room floor, eating chocolate cereal and watching cartoons like she was still a little girl. She liked sketching little comics without anyone trying to peer into her sketch book. She liked when Geordi, her parents' black lab, would come out from hiding and rest his face on her leg.
She managed about an hour of that before Daniel crept in the room, carrying Sapphire. "Could you watch her for a bit?" He whispered. Katelyn nodded. Daniel sat down his daughter next to her aunt, nodded graciously, and crept back upstairs to rejoin his wife. It was one of the things Katelyn loved most about her brother-in-law, his ability to recognize her need for quiet and solitude. His willingness to keep an exchange pointed without an excess of small talk or pleasantries. He was handsome and funny, he completely adored her sister and was always willing to help a person move. But best of all: he recognized the need for space, in a person's life, in a person's brain.
A little while later, Katelyn heard footsteps on the stairs. It wasn't even 8:00 yet and the rest of the Eubanks tended to sleep in a little bit. So she shouldn't have been as surprised as she was when she heard Dylan's voice, low and hoarse from the morning, asking, "Where did that come from?"
Katelyn glanced down at her niece who had crawled into her lap and was busy cheerfully grabbing at her cheeks. "My sister?" She laughed.
Dylan rolled his eyes as he stooped to be pet the black lab beside her.
"Oh, Geordi doesn't really... huh..." Katelyn whispered pensively. "Geordi doesn't... usually... like strangers." But the excited thumping of the dog's tail betrayed him. "You seem to be an exception," Katelyn laughed.
"I read your book," Dylan whispered as he sat down next to the dog.
"My book?"
"Yeah. Your... book," he nodded at her sweatshirt.
"Fangirl? When!?" Katelyn laughed.
"No," Katelyn said, shaking her head. "I don't think they'd've loved Tyler. I mean, my mom would probably like any guy who seemed even remotely interested in me. But, honestly, Tyler was boring. You're, like, six thousand times more fun than he was."
"Yes, well, that's my strategy with girls. Just... be more fun than an investment banker."
Katelyn laughed and playfully threw a pillow at him. She stooped at her suitcase pulled out some leggings and an over-sized sweatshirt that read, "Stay Cool, Little Red." She glanced around and after a moment of consideration, she said, "Don't look, okay?"
Dylan nodded. He turned to face the wall, and then, just to be safe, he closed his eyes and buried his face in his palms.
He didn't look. Not even a peek. It wouldn't have surprised any of us if he had. Usually in this sort of situation the guy does, right? He peeks. Just a little. Enough to see shoulder blades or the unclasping of a bra or a bit of lace around a waist. But Dylan didn't look because he wasn't the sort of guy who did anything, even look, without explicit consent.
"Okay. I'm clothed," Katelyn said after a moment.
"Little Red? Because of your hair?" Dylan asked, pointing at her sweatshirt.
Katelyn looked down, reddened a bit, just beneath her eyes. She'd made the sweatshirt herself with iron-ons. She shook her head twice, her hair falling around her collarbone. "No, it's a quote," she said. "From one of my favorite books. Fangirl? By Rainbow Rowell?" Dylan did a half shrug in response to confess his ignorance. "Oh, I mean, yeah, so, I mean, it's basically just something Levi, he's like the male romantic lead, says to Cath, who is the actual lead. Anyway. I just like it, I guess." Katelyn was flustered and, furthermore, she was a little irritated at feeling flustered because she had really felt like she'd gathered her composure and regained her cool earlier in the evening. Apparently not.
Dylan grinned. "Cool," he said. He looked at her and then at the bed. He colored a bit and then said, "So, um, I can take the floor."
Katelyn rolled her eyes, "No. I suppose it's fine. Just... don't... try... anything."
He wouldn't. He didn't. But he also couldn't really sleep. He tried for a bit, but whenever Katelyn would stir (which she apparently did a lot) a different bit of her would brush against him. Her arm would knock against his or her hair would tickle his shoulder. Sometimes, she wouldn't touch him at all, but there was something about her warmth and her scent and just her general presence near him that made him a little anxious. After awhile, he slipped out of the bed, and meandered around her room. He stared at her bookshelf for awhile, it was brimming with books, and then he saw it, the one she'd mentioned just a few hours before. Fangirl.
It's a pretty easy read. One that you can fall into quickly. Characters who are captivating. A quick pace. On top of that, Dylan is a freakishly fast reader. It's a shame he didn't get a degree in literature or history or philosophy or something that would have made real use of that skill. He sat down and opened the book. A few hours later, mostly finished, he tiptoed downstairs and flopped down on the couch in the living room.
That's where Katelyn found him, obscenely early, the next morning. He'd drifted to sleep shortly after he finished. She poked his shoulder a few times.
"Hmm?" He muttered.
"What are you doing down here?" Katelyn whispered.
"Sleeping," he replied. But, since he was still asleep, it sounded more like, "sleephink."
"Okay but can you come back upstairs for that? My parents will think something's amiss if they find you down here," she whispered.
"Mmkay," he mumbled. Drowsily, he stood, and let her lead him back upstairs. He collapsed on her bed and she tiptoed back downstairs.
Katelyn loved mornings at her parents' house. They were quiet and all her own. She liked sitting crossed legged in her pajama pants on the living room floor, eating chocolate cereal and watching cartoons like she was still a little girl. She liked sketching little comics without anyone trying to peer into her sketch book. She liked when Geordi, her parents' black lab, would come out from hiding and rest his face on her leg.
She managed about an hour of that before Daniel crept in the room, carrying Sapphire. "Could you watch her for a bit?" He whispered. Katelyn nodded. Daniel sat down his daughter next to her aunt, nodded graciously, and crept back upstairs to rejoin his wife. It was one of the things Katelyn loved most about her brother-in-law, his ability to recognize her need for quiet and solitude. His willingness to keep an exchange pointed without an excess of small talk or pleasantries. He was handsome and funny, he completely adored her sister and was always willing to help a person move. But best of all: he recognized the need for space, in a person's life, in a person's brain.
A little while later, Katelyn heard footsteps on the stairs. It wasn't even 8:00 yet and the rest of the Eubanks tended to sleep in a little bit. So she shouldn't have been as surprised as she was when she heard Dylan's voice, low and hoarse from the morning, asking, "Where did that come from?"
Katelyn glanced down at her niece who had crawled into her lap and was busy cheerfully grabbing at her cheeks. "My sister?" She laughed.
Dylan rolled his eyes as he stooped to be pet the black lab beside her.
"Oh, Geordi doesn't really... huh..." Katelyn whispered pensively. "Geordi doesn't... usually... like strangers." But the excited thumping of the dog's tail betrayed him. "You seem to be an exception," Katelyn laughed.
"I read your book," Dylan whispered as he sat down next to the dog.
"My book?"
"Yeah. Your... book," he nodded at her sweatshirt.
"Fangirl? When!?" Katelyn laughed.
"Last night," he yawned. "I couldn't sleep. I'm not good at sleeping
with girls, I guess." Katelyn shot him a look of surprise. "No, I don't
mean..." Color shot into his cheeks and flushed his neck. He spoke clearly, "I'm just saying
that... I am not used to sleeping with other people. Or in a real bed
for that matter," he laughed. "Since I left for college I've just been crashing on a lumpy mattress on the ground. I don't even have a set of box springs."
Katelyn laughed. "Guys are so weird."
Dylan shrugged. After a few quiet moments passed, he continued, "So, anyway, I read your book. I liked it. But why was that Levi guy so dumb?"
"What do you mean?" Katelyn asked, a twinge of offense in her voice.
"I mean... okay, so, he likes this girl, right? He puts all this effort into getting her to like him and hang out with him and all of that. And finally he gets it, right? She reads him a book and they make out and you would think that'd be that. But, no, instead he insists on kissing some other girl like the very next night."
"Yeah, but, to his defense, he didn't really know what was going on with Cath. And he felt like she pulled back so he was probably feeling a little bit hurt and confused."
"Yeah, maybe," Dylan said. "But I think you give him too much credit."
"I dunno. I guess the thing is I haven't really been in either of their positions to know how I would respond so it doesn't feel right to judge either of them."
Dylan smiled. She was disagreeing with him but she was doing it so nicely and so convincingly and with such genuine compassion (for, admittedly, fictional characters, but still) that it felt like a moment. A moment of something. He wasn't quite sure what that something was. But definitely something.
They lapsed into silence again, but an easy and comfortable kind of silence. What amazed Katelyn was that Dylan was sitting there, next to her, occasionally watching her, but she didn't feel the discomfort or intrusion she normally did when people joined her for her mornings in solitude. Sapphire crawled off of her lap and waddled over to Dylan. She sat on one of his legs and busied herself stretching the flesh of his face away from the bone and then releasing it.
When the rest of the household woke up and made their way downstairs, they found Katelyn and Dylan in the kitchen, fixing pancakes while Sapphire sat on the counter, playing with flour.
"Good morning, darling," Martha said, grabbing Katelyn around her shoulder and kissing her left cheek. Katelyn wasn't fond of this sort of display of affection but she tried to accommodate, knowing that her mother seemed to thrive off of physical affection. "Katy-Dear," Martha whispered, her arm still wrapped around Katelyn's back, as soon as Dylan carried a plate of pancakes into the dining area. "Is there something... going on... between you and Tyler?"
"What do you mean?" Katelyn asked, wriggling free from her mother's grip.
"Well, you just don't seem... very affectionate," Martha chose her words carefully.
Katelyn rolled her eyes. Her mom had this same complaint even with the guys Katelyn was actually dating. "Mom, you know, I'm just not very comfortable with public displays of affec--"
Martha held up her hand defiantly. "If we never see any affection, how do we know that you're actually happy, huh?"
Katelyn was about to respond when Dylan bounced into the kitchen. "Hey, Kate? Daniel was saying that he and Elizabeth were going to take Sapphire downtown to see the lights and that there was going to be this whole big thing this afternoon with like a petting zoo and I was wondering if we could go."
Katelyn grinned. There was something so charming and boyish about Dylan right then. Genuine and happy. "Yeah, of course, that sounds fun," she laughed.
Martha looked at her daughter and raised her eyebrows expectantly. Katelyn rolled her eyes, slowly, like she did when she was sixteen. She tried to telepathically send Dylan the message "just roll with it" but (no matter how often she tried to send silent, subliminal messages to Alexis) she didn't really believe in telepathy. She reached out, took Dylan by the wrist, and then stood on her tiptoes. She kissed him. Gently. Lightly. Quickly. Mostly on his bottom lip.
Whether the moment took him by surprise or not she couldn't say, but when she fell back to her heels, he tilted his face down, stooped his shoulders, brought his free hand to lift up her chin, and kissed her again. Still gently and lightly, but a little more slowly and with a little more purpose.
For just a moment, it felt like it was just them. Then, Martha broke up the moment by clasping her hands together, quickly, and squeaking a little. "See, Katelyn, this is what I mean."
Katelyn broke away, looked back at her mother, rolled her eyes again, and then, looked back at Dylan. "Let's go eat some pancakes."
"For sure," he grinned.
"You're really pretty," Dylan said, compulsively and, at least in part, accidentally, as Katelyn tugged a red, plaid coat over her arms.
Katelyn colored a bit at the apples of her cheeks, and then colored a deeper crimson when she realized she was blushing. "Thank you," she said after a moment. Dylan wore faded jeans, a black sweater, and a grey pea coat that made him feel like kind of a poser. Katelyn bounced her shoulder in his side as she walked past him, "You don't look so bad yourself."
"Are you guys READY?" Elizabeth called from the foyer. "I swear our TODDLER gets ready faster than you," Elizabeth scolded Katelyn as she approached.
"Sorry, Sis," Katelyn shrugged.
It took about forty minutes to drive from where the Eubanks lived in South Kansas City to the small town suburb that was hosting the Christmas Festival. "I thought you said this was downtown," Dylan mused, watching out the window as they moved further from the city.
"Yeah, but I didn't say which downtown, did I?" Daniel asked, amused.
The Christmas Festival, despite being in a fairly small town's downtown, was a pretty big blow out. There was a giant candy cane striped tent with a sign that read "Lunch with Santa!" in the front, there was a bouncy house designed to look like a gingerbread house, and giant Ferris wheel. At every turn was a person dressed up like an elf, painting children's faces, selling hot chocolate out of a stand, or making reindeer out of balloons.
Dylan was automatically overstimulated. "What do we do first?" He asked Katelyn excitedly.
She laughed. "I thought you wanted to go to the petting zoo."
"Yeah!" He exclaimed.
"Then come on," she laughed again, holding out her hand to him. He accepted it and followed her as she called back to her sister, "We're going to the petting zoo."
Elizabeth nodded. "We're going to get Sapphire turned into a snow fairy or something," she called back.
We could talk about each moment of the Christmas Festival in detail but this isn't an assignment for English Class and I'm not trying to meet a page limit requirement so it seems like unnecessary padding, really. Perhaps it would be best to preview it as a series of moments. Dylan and Katelyn feeding reindeer. Sapphire dressed as a sugar plum fairy, holding on to one of Dylan's hands and one of Katelyn's. Katelyn excitedly tugging Dylan over towards the Ferris wheel as he reluctantly followed. And, finally, Elizabeth whispering, "Be careful with this one," to her sister as Daniel and Dylan brought hot chocolates back to the girls.
When they returned to the Eubanks' home they were laughing and coated in snow. "What happened to you?" Martha asked, mock disapproval in her voice.
"Snowball fight!" Sapphire giggled. Of course, Sapphire hardly knew words, let alone anything about enunciation, so it sounded more like "nopah fy."
"Well get cleaned up for dinner. And be fast about it, we don't want to be late for Christmas Eve service."
"Got it, Mom," Katelyn laughed.
Martha watched as the snow-drenched brigade jogged up the stairs. This is what she'd always wanted for her children. Love and happiness.
"Hey, Katelyn?" He said.
"Yeah?" She asked, not looking up.
"I wanted to apologize."
"For what?" Now, she turned to look at him as she spoke.
"I kissed you."
"I kissed you first."
"Yeah, but you only kind of kissed me, and it was probably to appease your mother."
Katelyn stood and cocked her head to the side. "Whereas?"
"Whereas I... kissed you because I wanted to."
"Oh," Katelyn said. After a moment, she crossed the room, leaned up, and kissed him again. When she pulled away, she smiled. "I have to go get changed."
Dylan and Tyler sat alone at the kitchen table, listening to murmurs from the other room. Every now and then, they would hear something. "He really does have a meatloaf face. Why didn't I notice that before?" or "Are you really wondering whether I think you should pursue a relationship with the banker who has never lied to me or the waiter who just spent two days lying to me?" or "Mooooom." or "Nathan, honey, I really don't think I should be here for this, I'm very uncomfortable."
After awhile, Daniel joined the other guys in the kitchen, holding his daughter and grinning. "I'm rooting for you," he said with a nod.
"Thanks," both guys said simultaneously.
Daniel's eyes slid into slits. "Yeah, I'm definitely talking to fake-Tyler. Sorry, real Tyler, I just don't know you. And I like being the muscle in this family," he cracked.
"It's Dylan," Dylan said, dejectedly. "I keep thinking I should leave, though. I wasn't ever her boyfriend to begin with, you know? But, like, she drove me here. And it's snowing. And I've never been to Kansas City before. So, I wouldn't really know where to go or what to do if I left."
Daniel clamped a hand on Dylan's shoulder. "Hold in there, kid," he advised.
Suddenly, Katelyn came storming in the kitchen. "Can we talk?"
"Sure!" Both guys replied, eagerly and, once again, simultaneously.
"They're really good at that!" Daniel grinned.
"Uh, I mean, Tyler. Can we talk?" She glanced apologetically back at Dylan as Tyler followed her to the foyer. Dylan, try as he might, could not figure out what her glance was supposed to indicate.
"So, who exactly are you?" Nathan asked, appearing in the doorway.
"This is Dylan. He's cool. You'll like him," Daniel said, knowingly, as Dylan dropped his head into his palms. "I guess he's a friend of Katelyn's from work or something and after she and real-Tyler broke up she didn't want to confess to your mom so he said he'd help her out."
"Elizabeth tell you that?" Nathan asked. Daniel nodded in reply.
Dylan peered up, "You knew this whole time?" Again, Daniel nodded in reply.
He passed by "accidentally" (AKA totally on purpose) just in time to see Tyler stoop down and kiss Katelyn. Everyone, it seems, has to stoop down when kissing Katelyn. He, however, did not stay to watch as Katelyn pushed Tyler away. He wasn't standing nearby to hear her say, "Listen, I think you were right before when you broke things off. I never really... felt like I was me in our relationship. Or valuable, really. I think we have different values and different priorities. I get how you're feeling panicked, wanting a relationship and everything. But I think you're looking in the wrong place." He'd already made it upstairs, to Katelyn's bedroom, to retrieve his stuff by the time she was telling Tyler, "And besides, I've found someone else, who I'm more myself around, more comfortable around, and just happier with. I'm sorry, I know that isn't great to hear or whatever, and that it's kind of a bummer that you came all the way out here and everything, but honestly, it's pretty weird that you're here, right? Because we already broke up."
By that point in Katelyn and Tyler's second breakup (re-breakup? continued breakup?), Dylan was standing in the hallway outside of Katelyn's bedroom with his bag slung over his shoulder. Jon met him in the hallway, clasped a hand over his shoulder and said, "Well, we're not going to throw you out in the snow, now are we?" Jon walked, leading Dylan down the hallway. "It's Dylan, right? Well, kid, I don't know about lying to me and my wife and my daughter and my son-in-law and my granddaughter. I mean, that's a bunch of people that I love that you spent the past day and a half lying to. But I respect that you were trying to help out Katy, and, to be perfectly honest, I prefer you over that bulldozer downstairs. Anyway, here's the guest room. I'm sorry about, well, everything."
Jonathan Eubanks was a pretty welcoming guy. He would lend you his sweater and invite you to stay for dinner and help you move if you needed someone to help you move. He did not like being stern or uninviting. He liked this kid: kind of quiet, very polite, willing to help clean up after a meal. He could tell that Dylan had a genuine love and respect for his own father and Jon always liked people who treated their families with love, respect, and reverence. He hated the idea of this kid feeling uncomfortable or embarrassed. He especially hated the thought of this kid feeling unwelcome in his house.
"Thanks," Dylan said, sheepishly.
The guest room was larger than Katelyn's. It had a soft, queen sized bed covered with a green comforter and blue pillows. There was a dresser and a night stand and a small bookshelf with mostly theological books. One wall was covered in family photographs with gold frames. He looked at the wall for awhile like it was a museum. Daniel and Elizabeth on their wedding day, young twenty-somethings, grinning widely at each other. Katelyn as a toddler pushing a baby Nathan into a sitting position. Nathan, in a suit, inexplicably holding a pineapple. Jon and Martha on their wedding day, looking young and lovely despite Jon's perm and Martha's excessive use of blush. Katelyn, turned to a canvas, paintbrush in hand, looking over her shoulder at the camera.
He let out a drawn out sigh, flung himself on the bed, and answered as soon as his phone started ringing.
"Merry Christmas, Son!" His dad called into his phone.
"Hey Dad," Dylan sighed.
"What's wrong?"
"It's kind of a long story."
"About a girl?"
"Unfortunately," he groaned.
Katelyn laughed. "Guys are so weird."
Dylan shrugged. After a few quiet moments passed, he continued, "So, anyway, I read your book. I liked it. But why was that Levi guy so dumb?"
"What do you mean?" Katelyn asked, a twinge of offense in her voice.
"I mean... okay, so, he likes this girl, right? He puts all this effort into getting her to like him and hang out with him and all of that. And finally he gets it, right? She reads him a book and they make out and you would think that'd be that. But, no, instead he insists on kissing some other girl like the very next night."
"Yeah, but, to his defense, he didn't really know what was going on with Cath. And he felt like she pulled back so he was probably feeling a little bit hurt and confused."
"Yeah, maybe," Dylan said. "But I think you give him too much credit."
"I dunno. I guess the thing is I haven't really been in either of their positions to know how I would respond so it doesn't feel right to judge either of them."
Dylan smiled. She was disagreeing with him but she was doing it so nicely and so convincingly and with such genuine compassion (for, admittedly, fictional characters, but still) that it felt like a moment. A moment of something. He wasn't quite sure what that something was. But definitely something.
They lapsed into silence again, but an easy and comfortable kind of silence. What amazed Katelyn was that Dylan was sitting there, next to her, occasionally watching her, but she didn't feel the discomfort or intrusion she normally did when people joined her for her mornings in solitude. Sapphire crawled off of her lap and waddled over to Dylan. She sat on one of his legs and busied herself stretching the flesh of his face away from the bone and then releasing it.
When the rest of the household woke up and made their way downstairs, they found Katelyn and Dylan in the kitchen, fixing pancakes while Sapphire sat on the counter, playing with flour.
"Good morning, darling," Martha said, grabbing Katelyn around her shoulder and kissing her left cheek. Katelyn wasn't fond of this sort of display of affection but she tried to accommodate, knowing that her mother seemed to thrive off of physical affection. "Katy-Dear," Martha whispered, her arm still wrapped around Katelyn's back, as soon as Dylan carried a plate of pancakes into the dining area. "Is there something... going on... between you and Tyler?"
"What do you mean?" Katelyn asked, wriggling free from her mother's grip.
"Well, you just don't seem... very affectionate," Martha chose her words carefully.
Katelyn rolled her eyes. Her mom had this same complaint even with the guys Katelyn was actually dating. "Mom, you know, I'm just not very comfortable with public displays of affec--"
Martha held up her hand defiantly. "If we never see any affection, how do we know that you're actually happy, huh?"
Katelyn was about to respond when Dylan bounced into the kitchen. "Hey, Kate? Daniel was saying that he and Elizabeth were going to take Sapphire downtown to see the lights and that there was going to be this whole big thing this afternoon with like a petting zoo and I was wondering if we could go."
Katelyn grinned. There was something so charming and boyish about Dylan right then. Genuine and happy. "Yeah, of course, that sounds fun," she laughed.
Martha looked at her daughter and raised her eyebrows expectantly. Katelyn rolled her eyes, slowly, like she did when she was sixteen. She tried to telepathically send Dylan the message "just roll with it" but (no matter how often she tried to send silent, subliminal messages to Alexis) she didn't really believe in telepathy. She reached out, took Dylan by the wrist, and then stood on her tiptoes. She kissed him. Gently. Lightly. Quickly. Mostly on his bottom lip.
Whether the moment took him by surprise or not she couldn't say, but when she fell back to her heels, he tilted his face down, stooped his shoulders, brought his free hand to lift up her chin, and kissed her again. Still gently and lightly, but a little more slowly and with a little more purpose.
For just a moment, it felt like it was just them. Then, Martha broke up the moment by clasping her hands together, quickly, and squeaking a little. "See, Katelyn, this is what I mean."
Katelyn broke away, looked back at her mother, rolled her eyes again, and then, looked back at Dylan. "Let's go eat some pancakes."
"For sure," he grinned.
***
Katelyn had wide hips and thighs that loose pants would cling awkwardly to so she preferred the intentionally fitted style. She wore dark jeans, knee-high brown boots, and a white cable-knit sweater topped with a green scarf. Her auburn hair was pulled into a tidy topknot at the top of her head.
"You're really pretty," Dylan said, compulsively and, at least in part, accidentally, as Katelyn tugged a red, plaid coat over her arms.
Katelyn colored a bit at the apples of her cheeks, and then colored a deeper crimson when she realized she was blushing. "Thank you," she said after a moment. Dylan wore faded jeans, a black sweater, and a grey pea coat that made him feel like kind of a poser. Katelyn bounced her shoulder in his side as she walked past him, "You don't look so bad yourself."
"Are you guys READY?" Elizabeth called from the foyer. "I swear our TODDLER gets ready faster than you," Elizabeth scolded Katelyn as she approached.
"Sorry, Sis," Katelyn shrugged.
It took about forty minutes to drive from where the Eubanks lived in South Kansas City to the small town suburb that was hosting the Christmas Festival. "I thought you said this was downtown," Dylan mused, watching out the window as they moved further from the city.
"Yeah, but I didn't say which downtown, did I?" Daniel asked, amused.
The Christmas Festival, despite being in a fairly small town's downtown, was a pretty big blow out. There was a giant candy cane striped tent with a sign that read "Lunch with Santa!" in the front, there was a bouncy house designed to look like a gingerbread house, and giant Ferris wheel. At every turn was a person dressed up like an elf, painting children's faces, selling hot chocolate out of a stand, or making reindeer out of balloons.
Dylan was automatically overstimulated. "What do we do first?" He asked Katelyn excitedly.
She laughed. "I thought you wanted to go to the petting zoo."
"Yeah!" He exclaimed.
"Then come on," she laughed again, holding out her hand to him. He accepted it and followed her as she called back to her sister, "We're going to the petting zoo."
Elizabeth nodded. "We're going to get Sapphire turned into a snow fairy or something," she called back.
We could talk about each moment of the Christmas Festival in detail but this isn't an assignment for English Class and I'm not trying to meet a page limit requirement so it seems like unnecessary padding, really. Perhaps it would be best to preview it as a series of moments. Dylan and Katelyn feeding reindeer. Sapphire dressed as a sugar plum fairy, holding on to one of Dylan's hands and one of Katelyn's. Katelyn excitedly tugging Dylan over towards the Ferris wheel as he reluctantly followed. And, finally, Elizabeth whispering, "Be careful with this one," to her sister as Daniel and Dylan brought hot chocolates back to the girls.
When they returned to the Eubanks' home they were laughing and coated in snow. "What happened to you?" Martha asked, mock disapproval in her voice.
"Snowball fight!" Sapphire giggled. Of course, Sapphire hardly knew words, let alone anything about enunciation, so it sounded more like "nopah fy."
"Well get cleaned up for dinner. And be fast about it, we don't want to be late for Christmas Eve service."
"Got it, Mom," Katelyn laughed.
Martha watched as the snow-drenched brigade jogged up the stairs. This is what she'd always wanted for her children. Love and happiness.
***
Dylan turned in to Katelyn's room and watched as she rifled through her suitcase once more. Her auburn curls had fallen around her face, her skin was flush from the cold. He smiled, unable to stop himself, and then remembered the agreement that had brought him there and grew suddenly solemn.
"Hey, Katelyn?" He said.
"Yeah?" She asked, not looking up.
"I wanted to apologize."
"For what?" Now, she turned to look at him as she spoke.
"I kissed you."
"I kissed you first."
"Yeah, but you only kind of kissed me, and it was probably to appease your mother."
Katelyn stood and cocked her head to the side. "Whereas?"
"Whereas I... kissed you because I wanted to."
"Oh," Katelyn said. After a moment, she crossed the room, leaned up, and kissed him again. When she pulled away, she smiled. "I have to go get changed."
***
Something between Dylan and Katelyn shifted when she kissed
him. There was an ease in tension and he started feeling like he
actually belonged there. Like he fit and the slot he fin into was one
that was somehow meant for him, rather than one shaped slightly
differently that he was just desperately struggling to cover.
Martha had fixed soup and homemade bread for supper. Everyone at the table seemed to be
dressed in cranberry or cream or evergreen. Candles flickered at the
center of the table on either side of a glass bowl filled with
pine-cones. It looked like Christmas. It smelled like Christmas.
After dinner, Katelyn and Dylan stood at the sink in the kitchen, rinsing dishes. She wore a knee-length, cranberry colored dress and a cream colored cardigan. Her hair fell in loose waves around her collarbone and there was a cranberry colored ribbon tied in her hair. Her eyelashes were darkened, her cheeks blushed, and lips reddened. Dylan glanced down at his evergreen sweater (a loan from Katelyn's father) and his khaki pants. "I feel like I've fallen into a Hallmark movie," he laughed.
"Hey, now, I freaking love those movies," Katelyn asserted.
You know that desperately idiotic moment you have when you find out something dumb about someone and you think, "I really like that about you" and then you feel like there isn't anything you will ever find out about this person that you wouldn't like? Well that's exactly the moment Dylan experienced right then.
From the foyer, Martha called, "All right, kids, we're leaving. You're going to meet us at the church, right?"
"Yeah, Mom!" Katelyn called. "Right behind you!"
The church Katelyn grew up in was warm and wooden. There were crimson fabrics draped about and nearly every pew was full. A man in a black cloak motioned for the congregation to rise and, in unison, they began singing "O Holy Night." Martha leaned over to her youngest daughter and whispered, "Pastor Clark is over there, in case there's anything you want to see him about." Katelyn shot her mother a scolding look but then dropped her gaze to the ground and smiled a bit.
"What?" Dylan whispered when he noticed her expression. She shook her head and rolled her eyes as if to say, "Nothing."
"Oooh, kay," Katelyn drew out her words sardonically. "I mean, technically that's true, but I feel like Chet probably misrepresented the information there and also you probably shouldn't listen to anything Chet has to say and also Chet's name is "Chad" so what I meant was: you shouldn't listen to anything CHAD has to say."
"Chad!" Dylan cried out in recognition. "So anyway, what's the story?"
"There was a little cat stuck on the roof. I don't know how it got there. But these big ol' crows were swoopin' it and it was freaking out. So, I climbed onto the roof to save a cat. It was super noble. I still have that cat, too. Alexis is looking after her this weekend. Her name's Julia and she's afraid of everything."
Dylan laughed. Seriously. He was almost entirely convinced that he would never learn anything about Katelyn that he didn't like.
The amusement stopped when they pulled up to the Eubanks' house and saw a large group gathered in a circle outside of the front door.
"I wonder what's going on," Katelyn murmured as she slid out of her car. Dylan followed closely behind. As they approached the group, Katelyn eased for a moment, "Oh, Nathan's here!" Nathan had dark hair, swept back from his face, cheerful green eyes, and a pretty decent build. He was a little on the short side, but his wife, Madison, a chipper blond with straight hair and round cheeks, was even shorter.
"Hey, brother!" Katelyn called out. "What are you guys doing outside?"
"Talking to your boyfriend?" Nathan called back.
Katelyn glanced at Dylan, perplexed, and glanced back to her brother. "What d'you m--" that's when she noticed the other figure with them. Tall, wide shoulders, and the general shape of an elongated trapezoid.
"Tyler," she said, dismayed.
"Hey, babe!" He called out.
"What... are... you doing... here?" Katelyn stammered.
"Well, you invited me."
"We broke up?"
"Yeah, but, you did invite me. And I was thinking about it, you know? And, like, I'm almost thirty. I can't be making the same mistakes I did when I was twenty, you know? And, well, I really care about you. So, I came here to, and, here in front of your friends and family seems like an appropriate time and place for this--" (Sidebar here, readers, you and I both know that this is NOT an appropriate time or place for whatever this is, don't we? So don't you go off making the same kind of impetuous, foolish, and obnoxious decision Tyler is in the midst of, okay?) Tyler dropped to one knee, held out a ring, and asked, "Will you marry me?"
"No!" Katelyn said. "It's actually super weird that you're here at all. What are you doing?"
"Is that not obvious?" Nathan whispered.
Martha laughed, awkwardly. "Family meeting."
After dinner, Katelyn and Dylan stood at the sink in the kitchen, rinsing dishes. She wore a knee-length, cranberry colored dress and a cream colored cardigan. Her hair fell in loose waves around her collarbone and there was a cranberry colored ribbon tied in her hair. Her eyelashes were darkened, her cheeks blushed, and lips reddened. Dylan glanced down at his evergreen sweater (a loan from Katelyn's father) and his khaki pants. "I feel like I've fallen into a Hallmark movie," he laughed.
"Hey, now, I freaking love those movies," Katelyn asserted.
You know that desperately idiotic moment you have when you find out something dumb about someone and you think, "I really like that about you" and then you feel like there isn't anything you will ever find out about this person that you wouldn't like? Well that's exactly the moment Dylan experienced right then.
From the foyer, Martha called, "All right, kids, we're leaving. You're going to meet us at the church, right?"
"Yeah, Mom!" Katelyn called. "Right behind you!"
The church Katelyn grew up in was warm and wooden. There were crimson fabrics draped about and nearly every pew was full. A man in a black cloak motioned for the congregation to rise and, in unison, they began singing "O Holy Night." Martha leaned over to her youngest daughter and whispered, "Pastor Clark is over there, in case there's anything you want to see him about." Katelyn shot her mother a scolding look but then dropped her gaze to the ground and smiled a bit.
"What?" Dylan whispered when he noticed her expression. She shook her head and rolled her eyes as if to say, "Nothing."
***
"Your dad introduced me to this guy, Chet or something, who said that
when you were in high school you got sent home from a youth trip early
because you climbed onto the roof of the church you guys were staying
at," Dylan declared, inquisitively, as they drove back to the Eubanks'
home. "Oooh, kay," Katelyn drew out her words sardonically. "I mean, technically that's true, but I feel like Chet probably misrepresented the information there and also you probably shouldn't listen to anything Chet has to say and also Chet's name is "Chad" so what I meant was: you shouldn't listen to anything CHAD has to say."
"Chad!" Dylan cried out in recognition. "So anyway, what's the story?"
"There was a little cat stuck on the roof. I don't know how it got there. But these big ol' crows were swoopin' it and it was freaking out. So, I climbed onto the roof to save a cat. It was super noble. I still have that cat, too. Alexis is looking after her this weekend. Her name's Julia and she's afraid of everything."
Dylan laughed. Seriously. He was almost entirely convinced that he would never learn anything about Katelyn that he didn't like.
The amusement stopped when they pulled up to the Eubanks' house and saw a large group gathered in a circle outside of the front door.
"I wonder what's going on," Katelyn murmured as she slid out of her car. Dylan followed closely behind. As they approached the group, Katelyn eased for a moment, "Oh, Nathan's here!" Nathan had dark hair, swept back from his face, cheerful green eyes, and a pretty decent build. He was a little on the short side, but his wife, Madison, a chipper blond with straight hair and round cheeks, was even shorter.
"Hey, brother!" Katelyn called out. "What are you guys doing outside?"
"Talking to your boyfriend?" Nathan called back.
Katelyn glanced at Dylan, perplexed, and glanced back to her brother. "What d'you m--" that's when she noticed the other figure with them. Tall, wide shoulders, and the general shape of an elongated trapezoid.
"Tyler," she said, dismayed.
"Hey, babe!" He called out.
"What... are... you doing... here?" Katelyn stammered.
"Well, you invited me."
"We broke up?"
"Yeah, but, you did invite me. And I was thinking about it, you know? And, like, I'm almost thirty. I can't be making the same mistakes I did when I was twenty, you know? And, well, I really care about you. So, I came here to, and, here in front of your friends and family seems like an appropriate time and place for this--" (Sidebar here, readers, you and I both know that this is NOT an appropriate time or place for whatever this is, don't we? So don't you go off making the same kind of impetuous, foolish, and obnoxious decision Tyler is in the midst of, okay?) Tyler dropped to one knee, held out a ring, and asked, "Will you marry me?"
"No!" Katelyn said. "It's actually super weird that you're here at all. What are you doing?"
"Is that not obvious?" Nathan whispered.
Martha laughed, awkwardly. "Family meeting."
It wasn't a question. It was a demand. Martha Eubanks was a lovely
lady, but like most lovely ladies in the world, she wasn't exactly the
sort of person you wanted to enrage.
Dylan and Tyler sat alone at the kitchen table, listening to murmurs from the other room. Every now and then, they would hear something. "He really does have a meatloaf face. Why didn't I notice that before?" or "Are you really wondering whether I think you should pursue a relationship with the banker who has never lied to me or the waiter who just spent two days lying to me?" or "Mooooom." or "Nathan, honey, I really don't think I should be here for this, I'm very uncomfortable."
After awhile, Daniel joined the other guys in the kitchen, holding his daughter and grinning. "I'm rooting for you," he said with a nod.
"Thanks," both guys said simultaneously.
Daniel's eyes slid into slits. "Yeah, I'm definitely talking to fake-Tyler. Sorry, real Tyler, I just don't know you. And I like being the muscle in this family," he cracked.
"It's Dylan," Dylan said, dejectedly. "I keep thinking I should leave, though. I wasn't ever her boyfriend to begin with, you know? But, like, she drove me here. And it's snowing. And I've never been to Kansas City before. So, I wouldn't really know where to go or what to do if I left."
Daniel clamped a hand on Dylan's shoulder. "Hold in there, kid," he advised.
Suddenly, Katelyn came storming in the kitchen. "Can we talk?"
"Sure!" Both guys replied, eagerly and, once again, simultaneously.
"They're really good at that!" Daniel grinned.
"Uh, I mean, Tyler. Can we talk?" She glanced apologetically back at Dylan as Tyler followed her to the foyer. Dylan, try as he might, could not figure out what her glance was supposed to indicate.
"So, who exactly are you?" Nathan asked, appearing in the doorway.
"This is Dylan. He's cool. You'll like him," Daniel said, knowingly, as Dylan dropped his head into his palms. "I guess he's a friend of Katelyn's from work or something and after she and real-Tyler broke up she didn't want to confess to your mom so he said he'd help her out."
"Elizabeth tell you that?" Nathan asked. Daniel nodded in reply.
Dylan peered up, "You knew this whole time?" Again, Daniel nodded in reply.
***
Here's a piece of advice if you ever find yourself in a similar
situation to Dylan's where you're sitting on your own, fretting over
whether the girl you like is currently getting back together with her
ex-boyfriend or officially breaking it off for good and also wondering
WHAT HE IS DOING THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE: do not just "go to the
bathroom" so that you conveniently "accidentally" walk by wherever she
is having her deeply personal conversation. If you take this course of
action, you might suffer the same fate as Dylan did.
He passed by "accidentally" (AKA totally on purpose) just in time to see Tyler stoop down and kiss Katelyn. Everyone, it seems, has to stoop down when kissing Katelyn. He, however, did not stay to watch as Katelyn pushed Tyler away. He wasn't standing nearby to hear her say, "Listen, I think you were right before when you broke things off. I never really... felt like I was me in our relationship. Or valuable, really. I think we have different values and different priorities. I get how you're feeling panicked, wanting a relationship and everything. But I think you're looking in the wrong place." He'd already made it upstairs, to Katelyn's bedroom, to retrieve his stuff by the time she was telling Tyler, "And besides, I've found someone else, who I'm more myself around, more comfortable around, and just happier with. I'm sorry, I know that isn't great to hear or whatever, and that it's kind of a bummer that you came all the way out here and everything, but honestly, it's pretty weird that you're here, right? Because we already broke up."
By that point in Katelyn and Tyler's second breakup (re-breakup? continued breakup?), Dylan was standing in the hallway outside of Katelyn's bedroom with his bag slung over his shoulder. Jon met him in the hallway, clasped a hand over his shoulder and said, "Well, we're not going to throw you out in the snow, now are we?" Jon walked, leading Dylan down the hallway. "It's Dylan, right? Well, kid, I don't know about lying to me and my wife and my daughter and my son-in-law and my granddaughter. I mean, that's a bunch of people that I love that you spent the past day and a half lying to. But I respect that you were trying to help out Katy, and, to be perfectly honest, I prefer you over that bulldozer downstairs. Anyway, here's the guest room. I'm sorry about, well, everything."
Jonathan Eubanks was a pretty welcoming guy. He would lend you his sweater and invite you to stay for dinner and help you move if you needed someone to help you move. He did not like being stern or uninviting. He liked this kid: kind of quiet, very polite, willing to help clean up after a meal. He could tell that Dylan had a genuine love and respect for his own father and Jon always liked people who treated their families with love, respect, and reverence. He hated the idea of this kid feeling uncomfortable or embarrassed. He especially hated the thought of this kid feeling unwelcome in his house.
"Thanks," Dylan said, sheepishly.
The guest room was larger than Katelyn's. It had a soft, queen sized bed covered with a green comforter and blue pillows. There was a dresser and a night stand and a small bookshelf with mostly theological books. One wall was covered in family photographs with gold frames. He looked at the wall for awhile like it was a museum. Daniel and Elizabeth on their wedding day, young twenty-somethings, grinning widely at each other. Katelyn as a toddler pushing a baby Nathan into a sitting position. Nathan, in a suit, inexplicably holding a pineapple. Jon and Martha on their wedding day, looking young and lovely despite Jon's perm and Martha's excessive use of blush. Katelyn, turned to a canvas, paintbrush in hand, looking over her shoulder at the camera.
He let out a drawn out sigh, flung himself on the bed, and answered as soon as his phone started ringing.
"Merry Christmas, Son!" His dad called into his phone.
"Hey Dad," Dylan sighed.
"What's wrong?"
"It's kind of a long story."
"About a girl?"
"Unfortunately," he groaned.
***
Katelyn knocked on the door of the guest room. "Dylan?" She spoke softly, cautiously.
He cracked the door open. "Hey, look," he said, "It's okay. I mean, I'm happy for you. You got your boyfriend back. Or fiance, I guess? Are you marrying that guy? No, you know what, it's not any of my business. I hope it's not going to be awkward, having me here? Daniel was saying I could ride with them to the airport and my dad is going to get me a plane ticket, so, you know, your boyfriend doesn't have to feel uncomfortable about us driving back together." He was saying so many things so quickly that Katelyn just stared slack jawed until he said, "Well, Merry Christmas, and goodnight, and stuff," and then shut the door again.
Unsurprisingly, Katelyn could not sleep when she tried. She fell on top of her mattress, grumpily, and squeezed her eyes shut. Then, a montage seemed to hit her. Dylan sliding his hand, palm down and fingers spread, through his hair. Dylan shooting her a goofy grin as he ducked into her car. Dylan holding out a hot chocolate for her, pulling her chair out for her, accepting the hand she offered him. She imagined their first kiss. Then their second. Then their third. And she imagined each as though she hadn't been a participant but, instead, a spectator. She saw him letting her niece pull at the loose skin around his face. She imagined him nodding at her, smiling at her, holding open a door for her.
Finally, she let out a frustrated grunt, sat up, and grabbed her phone.
Alexis, unlike her best friend, was not having trouble sleeping. Working holiday shifts suck and they're always exhausting. When she arrived at midnight mass, appropriately dressed but unshowered and, therefore, smelling of fries, her mother had tsked at her disapprovingly. Now, she was stretched out on the trundle bed in her childhood bedroom, sleeping deeply and dreaming of peppermint mochas that somebody else served her and suddenly her phone was going off.
It rang several times before she drowsily sat up and heard on the other end, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING."
She laughed. That's the thing about best friends, they can do something totally obnoxious like wake you up when you're in the midst of a deep, exhausted slumber, and you can't help it, you still find them lovely and amusing.
"Breathe deep," Alexis advised. "Tell me what happened. And try not to wake up everyone between here and Kansas City while you're at it."
By the time Katelyn reached the end of her story, Alexis was laughing so hard her sides were cramping. "Shit, girl, you're like actually in one of those stupid Christmas movies that you love so much."
"Alexis," Katelyn huffed, "Now is really not the time to critique my movie tastes. This is my real life we're talking about."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but consider for a moment that you were in one of those stupid Christmas movies, okay? It's Christmastime, a weird situation throws you together for an extended period of time with a guy you only sort of know, and then you start to fall for him. Things kind of implode a little bit because your whole situation was based on a lie and that's not the best set up for handling even normal relationship obstacles, let alone your ex-boyfriend showing up and proposing to you. Also, was that part real or did you just make it up for dramatic effect?"
"No, that was real. It was super weird but it was real."
"Okay. Right. So, Dylan's probably feeling all hurt and confused or something because you guys were like... moving towards something and then you turned around and kissed your ex-boyfriend."
"Okay, but, he didn't know about that."
"Oh he totally did. I mean he maybe wouldn't have known about that if you were living your real life, but right now you're in a weird movie situation so you've probably like butt-dialed that popular and intimidating girl from your high school and then promptly farted."
"Ew, Alexis, be serious."
"I am. Well, not about the butt-dial thing, but have you ever considered that? No, wait, sorry, that's not what we're talking about. What I'm saying is: if you WERE in one of those movies, what would your next course of action be?"
"Uh, try to explain how somebody might want to be with someone but then still mess up and kiss somebody else like right after they started getting close?" Katelyn asked, helpfully. (By the way: this is probably a pretty good strategy. But this isn't a story about good strategies and sound advice. So, Alexis responded...)
"No! To hell with that! You gotta make the big gesture!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ugh, have you really never seen Chasing Liberty? The BIG GESTURE. Where you're like: here it is, I'm all in, and I'm proving it. It's going to freaking Oxford to get the guy or whatever."
He cracked the door open. "Hey, look," he said, "It's okay. I mean, I'm happy for you. You got your boyfriend back. Or fiance, I guess? Are you marrying that guy? No, you know what, it's not any of my business. I hope it's not going to be awkward, having me here? Daniel was saying I could ride with them to the airport and my dad is going to get me a plane ticket, so, you know, your boyfriend doesn't have to feel uncomfortable about us driving back together." He was saying so many things so quickly that Katelyn just stared slack jawed until he said, "Well, Merry Christmas, and goodnight, and stuff," and then shut the door again.
Unsurprisingly, Katelyn could not sleep when she tried. She fell on top of her mattress, grumpily, and squeezed her eyes shut. Then, a montage seemed to hit her. Dylan sliding his hand, palm down and fingers spread, through his hair. Dylan shooting her a goofy grin as he ducked into her car. Dylan holding out a hot chocolate for her, pulling her chair out for her, accepting the hand she offered him. She imagined their first kiss. Then their second. Then their third. And she imagined each as though she hadn't been a participant but, instead, a spectator. She saw him letting her niece pull at the loose skin around his face. She imagined him nodding at her, smiling at her, holding open a door for her.
Finally, she let out a frustrated grunt, sat up, and grabbed her phone.
Alexis, unlike her best friend, was not having trouble sleeping. Working holiday shifts suck and they're always exhausting. When she arrived at midnight mass, appropriately dressed but unshowered and, therefore, smelling of fries, her mother had tsked at her disapprovingly. Now, she was stretched out on the trundle bed in her childhood bedroom, sleeping deeply and dreaming of peppermint mochas that somebody else served her and suddenly her phone was going off.
It rang several times before she drowsily sat up and heard on the other end, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING."
She laughed. That's the thing about best friends, they can do something totally obnoxious like wake you up when you're in the midst of a deep, exhausted slumber, and you can't help it, you still find them lovely and amusing.
"Breathe deep," Alexis advised. "Tell me what happened. And try not to wake up everyone between here and Kansas City while you're at it."
By the time Katelyn reached the end of her story, Alexis was laughing so hard her sides were cramping. "Shit, girl, you're like actually in one of those stupid Christmas movies that you love so much."
"Alexis," Katelyn huffed, "Now is really not the time to critique my movie tastes. This is my real life we're talking about."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but consider for a moment that you were in one of those stupid Christmas movies, okay? It's Christmastime, a weird situation throws you together for an extended period of time with a guy you only sort of know, and then you start to fall for him. Things kind of implode a little bit because your whole situation was based on a lie and that's not the best set up for handling even normal relationship obstacles, let alone your ex-boyfriend showing up and proposing to you. Also, was that part real or did you just make it up for dramatic effect?"
"No, that was real. It was super weird but it was real."
"Okay. Right. So, Dylan's probably feeling all hurt and confused or something because you guys were like... moving towards something and then you turned around and kissed your ex-boyfriend."
"Okay, but, he didn't know about that."
"Oh he totally did. I mean he maybe wouldn't have known about that if you were living your real life, but right now you're in a weird movie situation so you've probably like butt-dialed that popular and intimidating girl from your high school and then promptly farted."
"Ew, Alexis, be serious."
"I am. Well, not about the butt-dial thing, but have you ever considered that? No, wait, sorry, that's not what we're talking about. What I'm saying is: if you WERE in one of those movies, what would your next course of action be?"
"Uh, try to explain how somebody might want to be with someone but then still mess up and kiss somebody else like right after they started getting close?" Katelyn asked, helpfully. (By the way: this is probably a pretty good strategy. But this isn't a story about good strategies and sound advice. So, Alexis responded...)
"No! To hell with that! You gotta make the big gesture!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ugh, have you really never seen Chasing Liberty? The BIG GESTURE. Where you're like: here it is, I'm all in, and I'm proving it. It's going to freaking Oxford to get the guy or whatever."
***
If you've never read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, which is totally fine, I guess, because there are a ton of books out there in the real world, you should know: it's a real book. It's good, it's funny, and there is a moment where Levi says, "Stay cool, Little Red." I direct those words to myself from time to time when I get unnecessarily anxious about something. In the book, Cath and Levi (the romantic leads) make out and then the next time she sees him he's kissing a girl who is not her at a party that he invited her to. It's a pretty crummy thing to do and after that Cath hardcore avoids him.
Given the choice, Dylan would have liked to do the same. He'd have preferred to avoid Katelyn for as long as possible. He might have even tried switching shifts with people at the diner so he wouldn't have to work with her too often. Maybe he'd even look for a different job. He considered all of this when he woke up on Christmas morning. But the undeniable truth was: he was currently stuck in Katelyn's family's house. And he would be for another entire day. Was it possible to avoid someone when you're stuck in the same house as them? He could certainly try. He would certainly try.
But then he had to pee.
He peeked out from behind the guest room door and was relieved to find nobody in the hallway. He tiptoed to the bathroom which was, thankfully, vacant. He had assumed that he would be able to return to the guest room just as easily and undisturbed.
He was wrong.
Well, he wasn't entirely wrong. No one was in the hallway when he stepped out from the bathroom, and nobody tried to stop him as he shuffled into the guest room. He shut the door then leaned his back against the closed door, his eyes shut, and exhaled slowly. He stayed there like that for about a minute before he heard a soft laugh, more of an abrupt exhale than anything else, and then someone say, "Do you kind of feel like James Bond?"
He opened his eyes slowly. Katelyn was sitting on the bed in front of him, wearing black leggings, an oversized green sweater, and furry socks. "Oh," he said slowly. "Not any more, I guess." He smiled, realized he was doing it, then over-corrected in an attempt to look cool and nonchalant but inevitably came across just looking cross.
"Last night," She started.
"I don't... we don't have to talk about it," Dylan said.
"We don't have to talk about what?"
"Whatever it is. It's fine. It's cool. We're friends."
Katelyn rolled her eyes. Dylan wondered if she really rolled her eyes this much or if being home just made her feel like a teenager. He didn't mind it, it's just he didn't know many people who went around rolling their eyes in adulthood.
"Dylan. I'm trying to say something here, okay?" Katelyn spoke slowly, more punctuated than she normally did. "I'm trying to talk to you about last night." She hesitated for a moment, decided against whatever she was about to say, and then held up a wrapped package to him.
He took it, cautiously. It was about the size of an envelope, wrapped in blue paper, and tied with a golden ribbon. "What is it?" He asked, looking at the package in his hands. Katelyn met his gaze and held it. Her expression read, "Open it" and he could tell she was actively not rolling her eyes in that moment.
He unwrapped the paper slowly, fighting against the anxious beat of his heart. He was unsurprised when he found an envelope, its flap taped down, beneath the paper. Inside, he found a stack of papers, cut just slightly smaller than their envelope. On each was a comic drawn in black pen. One depicted a frazzled, cartoon Katelyn, gnawing on her nails, a nervous Dylan stumbling over his words, and a poised Alexis speaking for each of them as Dylan agreed to help Katelyn dupe her family. Another showed Dylan, sitting in the car, talking about his dad and Katelyn, blushing, thinking, "Oh man you're so cool." They each showed moments that he and Katelyn had shared throughout the past few days.
"When did you do all of these?"
Katelyn shrugged.
He kept flipping through the comics. The second to the last showed him standing at the doorway, watching as Tyler kissed Katelyn, and then Katelyn shaking her head and shrugging, "I've met somebody else." Then the final comic was of him, looking at a comic in his hands, and of Katelyn, sitting on the bed, and saying, "I just wanted you to know, I think I love you."
He looked back at her.
"Yeah," she said sheepishly. "I think I might."
"What happened with Tyler?" Dylan asked, slowly, cautiously.
"He left. Look, it was super weird that he was here. I know that. But I was thinking about it, and maybe it wasn't totally a bad thing. Now everyone knows that you're not Tyler and we can... I mean... if you want to, we could just date. And we wouldn't have to pretend your someone else or come back in six months and explain 'yeah he was Tyler before but we were lying then and we're not now so...' you know what I mean?" She was talking fast and her face was flushing faster.
Dylan laughed. He shook his head, slightly, and approached her. He stooped, as one would do, and kissed her once again. "Yeah, okay," he said as he pulled his head back.
Given the choice, Dylan would have liked to do the same. He'd have preferred to avoid Katelyn for as long as possible. He might have even tried switching shifts with people at the diner so he wouldn't have to work with her too often. Maybe he'd even look for a different job. He considered all of this when he woke up on Christmas morning. But the undeniable truth was: he was currently stuck in Katelyn's family's house. And he would be for another entire day. Was it possible to avoid someone when you're stuck in the same house as them? He could certainly try. He would certainly try.
But then he had to pee.
He peeked out from behind the guest room door and was relieved to find nobody in the hallway. He tiptoed to the bathroom which was, thankfully, vacant. He had assumed that he would be able to return to the guest room just as easily and undisturbed.
He was wrong.
Well, he wasn't entirely wrong. No one was in the hallway when he stepped out from the bathroom, and nobody tried to stop him as he shuffled into the guest room. He shut the door then leaned his back against the closed door, his eyes shut, and exhaled slowly. He stayed there like that for about a minute before he heard a soft laugh, more of an abrupt exhale than anything else, and then someone say, "Do you kind of feel like James Bond?"
He opened his eyes slowly. Katelyn was sitting on the bed in front of him, wearing black leggings, an oversized green sweater, and furry socks. "Oh," he said slowly. "Not any more, I guess." He smiled, realized he was doing it, then over-corrected in an attempt to look cool and nonchalant but inevitably came across just looking cross.
"Last night," She started.
"I don't... we don't have to talk about it," Dylan said.
"We don't have to talk about what?"
"Whatever it is. It's fine. It's cool. We're friends."
Katelyn rolled her eyes. Dylan wondered if she really rolled her eyes this much or if being home just made her feel like a teenager. He didn't mind it, it's just he didn't know many people who went around rolling their eyes in adulthood.
"Dylan. I'm trying to say something here, okay?" Katelyn spoke slowly, more punctuated than she normally did. "I'm trying to talk to you about last night." She hesitated for a moment, decided against whatever she was about to say, and then held up a wrapped package to him.
He took it, cautiously. It was about the size of an envelope, wrapped in blue paper, and tied with a golden ribbon. "What is it?" He asked, looking at the package in his hands. Katelyn met his gaze and held it. Her expression read, "Open it" and he could tell she was actively not rolling her eyes in that moment.
He unwrapped the paper slowly, fighting against the anxious beat of his heart. He was unsurprised when he found an envelope, its flap taped down, beneath the paper. Inside, he found a stack of papers, cut just slightly smaller than their envelope. On each was a comic drawn in black pen. One depicted a frazzled, cartoon Katelyn, gnawing on her nails, a nervous Dylan stumbling over his words, and a poised Alexis speaking for each of them as Dylan agreed to help Katelyn dupe her family. Another showed Dylan, sitting in the car, talking about his dad and Katelyn, blushing, thinking, "Oh man you're so cool." They each showed moments that he and Katelyn had shared throughout the past few days.
"When did you do all of these?"
Katelyn shrugged.
He kept flipping through the comics. The second to the last showed him standing at the doorway, watching as Tyler kissed Katelyn, and then Katelyn shaking her head and shrugging, "I've met somebody else." Then the final comic was of him, looking at a comic in his hands, and of Katelyn, sitting on the bed, and saying, "I just wanted you to know, I think I love you."
He looked back at her.
"Yeah," she said sheepishly. "I think I might."
"What happened with Tyler?" Dylan asked, slowly, cautiously.
"He left. Look, it was super weird that he was here. I know that. But I was thinking about it, and maybe it wasn't totally a bad thing. Now everyone knows that you're not Tyler and we can... I mean... if you want to, we could just date. And we wouldn't have to pretend your someone else or come back in six months and explain 'yeah he was Tyler before but we were lying then and we're not now so...' you know what I mean?" She was talking fast and her face was flushing faster.
Dylan laughed. He shook his head, slightly, and approached her. He stooped, as one would do, and kissed her once again. "Yeah, okay," he said as he pulled his head back.
"Do you want to spend Christmas with my family?" Katelyn asked sweetly.
Dylan nodded, then kissed her again.
The End
Oh! You might still have some questions. Like, for instance: what was the result of Katelyn's interview with Delores White? Or did Dylan ever get a space heater? Unfortunately, we'll never know the answer to either of those questions. After all, the characters worked out their shit and kissed. So, you know, it seems pretty well wrapped up.
