Christmas Inn Maine

by Chelsea M. Cameron

  “We’re such a cliché right now,” I said, when I caught my breath.

  “How’s that?” she asked, sitting down next to me.

  “We’re having a naked pillow fight. We’re a porn parody right now.”

  She lay back and put the pillow under her head. I got distracted from thoughts about the pillow fight by her body in the morning light.

  “Damn, we should have filmed it and then we could have made some money. Next time?” I hoped she was joking.

  She’d closed her eyes, so I couldn’t really tell.

  “As long as I get to pick my name. I want to have a kickass sexy name.”

  “Deal,” she said, opening her eyes and holding her hand out. “You know I'm joking, right?”

  “I hoped you were, but I wasn’t sure. I mean, if that’s your thing, that’s awesome. I just don’t know if I could have the courage to do it. Plus, that shit is a lot of work. You have to hustle.”

  Laura and I lay on the floor and talked about sex work and jobs and money and a whole bunch of other things. Just talking naked on the floor.

  “Okay, we should probably put clothes on,” she said, getting to her feet. “And I’m starving. Breakfast?” She held her hand out to me and I let her pull me up to standing.

  “Do we have to face your family?”

  She took my hand and held it in hers.

  “We have three choices: we can stay in this room and starve, we can go to breakfast and pretend nothing happened, or we can go to breakfast and not pretend nothing happened, but I don’t know if I really want to get into the dirty details just yet, don’t you think?”

  “That’s a double negative,” I said, and she kissed my cheek.

  “You’re cute. Let’s get dressed.” We put our clothes on and she took my fingers in hers for a few moments, but let go of my hand just before she opened the door and I felt a profound loss. It was still too early to analyze any of this.

  Laina was busy in the laundry room when we walked through the back door of the inn.

  “You’ll be fine,” Laura whispered to me, as she said good morning to her mother. Antonio was already singing in the kitchen as he made omelets and pancakes and sliced fruit. I didn’t know how he managed to cook all the food for everyone, but he had it down to a science.

  “How was your night last night?” Laina asked, looking from me to Laura and back.

  “It was fine,” Laura said. “No drama, right?”

  “Yeah, fine,” I said, feeling my face get hot. It was probably as red as a lobster right now. Why was I so bad at lying?

  “Good. Because the family is going to be here through Christmas. How do you feel about sharing a room for a while? I’m so sorry, Colden, but I’m not going to let them be left out in the cold.” Of course not.

  “No, it’s fine, I completely understand. Is there anything we can do?”

  Her eyes brightened up.

  “I was hoping you would ask that. Can you go get them some clothes and some toys and things for the kids? We’re putting together donations, but new items would be great. I have lists of sizes. Can you go after breakfast?”

  Laura and I both agreed that we would, and would pick up anything else the families might need. Laina said that a local TV station was also coming to interview the families and her about everything.

  “I don’t really want to do it, but I’m going to ask for donations, so it’s for them.” She smoothed her hands on her perfect hair. Like mother, like daughter.

  “You’ll be fine,” Laura said to her mom. “We’re going to eat quick and then leave, but text me if you need anything else.”

  Laura and I said hello to Antonio and he showed me the breakfast menu and asked what I wanted. I was ravenous after the coital gymnastics, so I asked for a three-egg veggie omelet, bacon, potatoes, and a croissant.

  “A little hungry?” Laura said in my ear and I kicked her leg to get her to stop saying sexy things in my ear in front of her dad. He was too busy flipping eggs and minding bacon to see at the moment, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

  When we got into the dining room I saw the increase in unfamiliar faces. The adults all had worry written on their foreheads, even as they tried to smile and make the best of it with the kids, many of whom were clustered around Minnie, petting her and laughing at her little pig noises.

  “Emotional support pig,” I said.

  “She definitely is,” Laura agreed.

  We sat down in the secluded spot away from the chaos of everyone else. It almost felt like hiding, but for now, I was okay with that.

  “What are we going to tell them?” I said.

  “We don’t have to tell them anything. It’s not like they can read minds.”

  I stared at her.

  “Laura, have you seen my face? This is not a secret-keeping face.” I pointed at myself.

  “They don’t need to even know there’s a secret. Just act normally.”

  I didn’t know how to do that. Probably good that we’d be out of the inn for most of the day.

  “Listen, I can drive, if you want. My car is bigger.”

  Michelle came to take our drink orders and I could barely look at her, but I could feel her staring at me and then glancing at Laura and back. Laura kicked me lightly under the table.

  I was trying. I was trying to be normal like I hadn’t been having a naked pillow fight with her less than an hour before.

  “I’ll get those drinks for you,” Michelle said in a weird voice. I didn’t look up from the tablecloth until she left.

  “She was being weird. That was weird, right? She probably knows,” I hissed at Laura.

  “You need to calm down,” Laura said in a soothing voice. “You’re freaking out about nothing. Even if she does suspect something, we’re not going to say anything, so she won’t know if it’s just her imagination.”

  I had to admit that was a good point, but I was starting to crack under the stress of thinking that everyone knew that Laura and I hooked up.

  “Good morning girls,” Lillian said, and I smiled at her.

  “Looks like Minnie is having a good time,” I said. The pig was literally in the middle of a pile of giggling children.

  “I’m glad she’s helping take their mind off it. I heard you’re going out to get a few things for them, and would you mind getting some ornaments? We’re going to get an extra tree so they can all decorate it together tonight.”

  How sweet. Laura added that to our list and I had the feeling before we got back from shopping, that list was going to balloon and my car was going to be full.

  Before we finished breakfast, there were more additions to Laura’s list. I was tired from the night before, but I was going to suck it up. The breakfast restored me a little bit, and two cups of coffee helped even more.

  “You ready to go?” I asked Laura, as we took our own dishes into the kitchen. It seemed like the right thing to do.

  “Yeah,” Laura said, giving me a look. It was the kind of look that said she wanted to drag me into the deep freezer and maybe do some things that might melt the ice in there.

  “You can’t look at me like that,” I whispered, looking around, but there was no one around.

  “I can’t help it,” she said. “I’ll do my best, but no promises.”

  I groaned and she pushed me through the laundry room again and out the door.

  Since the inn was located in such a rural area, we had to drive quite a distance to find a big box store that would have everything we needed.

  “Okay, let’s do the clothes first,” Laura said, looking at her list. I was going to let her take charge on this since she was the most organized of the two of us. I both loved and hated that aspect of her personality.

  “We’ll start with the kids and work our way up. Okay. There are two little girl toddlers.”

  I had literally never shopped for toddler clothes before, so it was a little bit of a learning curve, but we found pants, shirts, socks, underwear, and a few
sweaters. They’d managed to escape with their coats, but we got extras just in case.

  “I hope they like pink and purple because that’s all there is here,” Laura said.

  “Can we grab some stuff in the same sizes from the boy’s section just to make sure? Then whatever they don’t want we can donate.”

  Laura liked that idea, so we did the same thing in the boy’s section. We’d forgotten that they needed pajamas, so we added those as well, and then ticked off the rest of the people on the list.

  Shoes were next, followed by basics like toothbrushes, and then some other random supplies they’d requested. Somehow we managed to fill one cart, so Laura sent me to the front of the store for a second.

  That got filled with Christmas ornaments and tinsel and then we went bananas in the toy aisle.

  “They all need stuffed animals, that’s for sure,” I said, throwing anything cute and fluffy into the cart.

  “Okay, dolls and blocks, and some puzzles, and games, and I think we’re good. Someone is going to donate electronics, so I hope they aren’t disappointed that we didn’t get tablets for them.”

  “Something tells me they aren’t going to be disappointed,” I said.

  “Maybe not. I just want them to have a good Christmas, or at least a non-shitty one. I can’t imagine losing everything.”

  I agreed, so we put some extra toys in the cart and then went to check out. I almost fainted at the bill, but Laura didn’t bat an eyelash as she handed over the credit card.

  We loaded up the car and headed back to the inn, but not before stopping to grab a fast food snack of fries and milkshakes. The two of us sat in the parking lot, munching fries and sipping on cool sweetness and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done anything like this.

  “I think we should wrap up the presents when we get back.”

  I agreed, even though I probably wouldn’t do a very good job. It was the thought that counted, right?

  “Hey,” she said, turning in the passenger seat to face me.

  “What?” I asked, putting my milkshake in the cup holder.

  “Can I kiss you?”

  “Yeah, you can kiss me.”

  The console was between us, so that was a little awkward, but we made it work. She kissed me and I kissed her back and my heart did that warm and fluttery thing and I never wanted it to end.

  Laura’s phone buzzed and she groaned.

  “We have to get snacks for kids, apparently. There’s a list.”

  Back to the store we went.

  It was dark when we finally got back.

  “I’m so exhausted and I’m starving.” Fortunately, it was time for dinner, but we still had to unload everything. We put all the presents in the barn and took everything else into the inn.

  “Oh my goodness,” Liana said, coming out to help us. “I think you went a little overboard, but there’s no such thing as overboard in this situation, thank you.”

  The families were at dinner and Laina decided she didn’t want to make a big thing of it, so we all snuck upstairs and left the items in each of the rooms they were staying in. It was almost like being Santa.

  “Thank you so much for helping, I know it’s going to make a difference.” Laina put one arm around me and one around Laura and hugged us both at the same time.

  She let us go and I was a little embarrassed.

  “We’re starving so we’re going back down to dinner,” Laura said, speaking for both of us.

  “Go ahead,” Laina said and gave me a wink before I followed Laura down the stairs.

  “I think your mom knows,” I said to her, as we got to the bottom of the stairs.

  “Probably. She doesn’t miss much. Remind me to tell you about the one and only time I tried to sneak out and how it went.”

  I definitely wanted to hear that story, so I made a note to ask later.

  We got swept into the arms of her family again and it was impossible to sit at our little table alone. No, we had to dine with everyone.

  Laura was seated next to me and I spent the entirety of the dinner completely aware of her, and aware of everyone staring at me and wondering what had changed between Laura and me.

  After only a few minutes, I was entirely convinced that everyone at the table knew exactly what had happened between me and Laura last night. They might not know the exact details (since they weren’t mind readers), but they knew that something had happened, and things between us had changed.

  I got sidetracked by a conversation with Dan and Lillian about Christmas traditions, but I heard Laura talking about me to Mel.

  “Yeah, they’re staying with me for now.”

  My heart skipped a beat hearing her using the right pronoun for me. I felt something on my leg and put my hand under the table to find her fingers there, as if she’d been waiting for me.

  I squeezed her fingers and she took her hand back. I didn’t think anyone had noticed, but I could barely breathe and had to remember what I’d been talking about.

  Laura got up when she’d finished dinner and went to the piano. I followed her, of course.

  “You know, you don’t have to always be playing. You can just sit and be.”

  “I know,” she said, playing a few quick scales. “But it saves me from having to answer probing questions from my nosy relatives.”

  Oh, good point.

  I sat next to her on the bench again and she asked me for song suggestions and played every one.

  “You’re incredible,” I said, and it was a battle not to kiss her. I’d never wanted to kiss anyone so much in my entire life.

  “So are you,” she said. “You have no idea.”

  I didn’t think I was all that great, but I wasn’t going to argue with her while she was playing. Instead, I sat and listened as she wove a web of music and comfort around me.

  Abruptly, she stopped and turned to me.

  “Why are we here when we could be in my room doing other things?” she asked.

  I blinked at her for a second.

  “I have absolutely no idea. Let’s go.”

  It was hard not to run out of the inn and back to Laura’s room. We at least had to say goodnight to people. After the long day and the little sleep I’d gotten the night before, I was exhausted, so it wasn’t a total lie that Laura and I were going to bed early. It would be earlier than last night, I hoped.

  “Wait,” she said, as we stripped off our winter clothes in the foyer of her parent’s house.

  “What?” I kicked off my boots and I was ready to strip off my clothes too.

  “We should bring snacks with us.”

  “I swear to god, if you spend an hour arranging another charcuterie tray, Laura,” I said, as I hung up my coat.

  “No, no, I won’t do that. But we should have sustenance for in between.” That was so Laura, planning snacks for our sexcapades.

  She grabbed some crackers, cheese, fruit, waters, and a few other odds and ends and loaded up her arms before we went upstairs to her room. She dumped all the snacks on the dresser and turned to face me.

  “Now,” she said. “Where were we?”

  I laughed.

  “That was such a movie line, Laura. Why don’t you ask me what color my underwear is?”

  She took a seductive step toward me.

  “What color are your panties, Colden?”

  I pulled the waist of my jeans out and looked.

  “Uh, they’re kind of white with polka dots, and lace on the edges.”

  “Really?” She dropped the sexy act and came over. “They sound cute.”

  “What color are yours?”

  “Do you want to see?”

  “Obviously,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I mean, if we’re being honest, I kind of don’t care, but I was playing along with the sexy talk. Sorry, I’m not good at this.” I was killing the mood.

  “Come here,” she said, hooking her fingers around my belt loops and pulling me so I crashed into her. “You’re doing really well as
far as I’m concerned.”

  This was the first time we’d kissed standing up and it was a whole new experience. Our height difference of about six inches made things interesting. Being the shorter one, I pushed up on my tiptoes to reach her and she leaned down and we met in the middle, trying to learn how to angle our faces so we didn’t bump noses and so both of us could breathe. Kissing required a lot of maneuvering when you were standing up.

  “Come on,” she said, walking backwards, pulling me with her. “Let’s do a little prep before we get into this.”

  I stared at her. What kind of prep was she talking about? Then she opened the drawer in her nightstand and pulling out a few things.

  “Can you grab a towel from the closet in my bathroom? One of the bigger ones.” I didn’t blame her for not wanting to have to wash the sheets for the second day in a row.

  When I got back with the towel, she had quite the array of . . . things.

  “So, you can have your pick of lube. I recommend this one,” she said, pointing to a bottle. There were also several toys laid out. That was a relief. I had been hoping she’d be open to using them, or at least familiar with them and wouldn’t think I was a weirdo for having one.

  I dove for my suitcase and pulled out my trusty friend who had delighted me for many hours.

  Laura held up the same toy in a different color.

  “Twins,” she said.

  I walked back toward the bed and saw what else she had.

  “What’s this?” I asked, pointing to what looked like a harness.

  Laura took a deep breath before she answered. “It’s a strap on. Goes with either of these.”

  “Oh,” I said. I’d never used one, but had always wondered.

  “It’s brand new, I haven’t used it. In case you were worried about that. It was kind of a joke, but then I kept it and, well, I wouldn’t be upset if it was used.”

  “By me or on me?” I asked.

  She lifted one shoulder “Either. Both.”

  “Oh,” I said again. I’d thought we were going to do the same shit as last night, but Laura had brought out so many accessories that my mind reeled with the possibilities.

  “We don’t have to do anything tonight. I just wanted to show you that there were options and I’m open to a lot of things. Maybe I should have waited, but I was too excited.”