His Christmas Gift ; Decadent Holiday Pleasures

by Janice Sims

  Alia Joie must have noticed him looking at the stairs because she said, “We have an elevator, too. It’s the latest in modern conveyances.” She grinned. “Anyway, this building used to be like a boutique hotel back in the day. I had it converted into an eight-apartment building by removing non-load-bearing walls between the rooms. The apartments have either two or three bedrooms, an open-concept living room and kitchen, two full baths, a half bath and washer dryer hookups. And each has its own balcony. They’re very nice spaces. You and I have the top floor to ourselves, but the tenants are allowed to use the rooftop amenities.”

  “Which are?” Adam asked, curious.

  She was beaming again. “Oh, baby, the rooftop is like paradise. The entire place is tiled in indoor and outdoor flooring. There’s a terrace with outdoor furnishings, chairs, couches, chaise longues, coffee tables and end tables. In one corner is an outdoor kitchen complete with a barbecue pit, fridge and a pizza oven. Oh, yeah, a bar, too.” She gestured toward the elevator. “Why am I describing it? Let’s go up and you can see it for yourself.”

  Adam followed her inside the elevator, which was larger than he’d expected for the size of the building. “Kudos on the elevator not bringing on my claustrophobia,” he joked as Alia Joie pressed the rooftop button.

  “I hate tiny elevators,” she said as the conveyance began moving upward. “I was lucky the hotel already had an elevator system, so the engineers didn’t need to carve out a space for one. But everything about this baby is ultramodern. I didn’t want to be bothered with it breaking down anytime soon. Most of our tenants are young and healthy, but we do have the elderly couple I mentioned who might not be able to manage the stairs for long, and we have an artist who uses a wheelchair. The building is wheelchair accessible, and I had the workmen make a few adjustments, like the heights of the cabinets and countertops in the bathroom and kitchen and a wheelchair-accessible bathroom, to make his apartment more comfortable for him.”

  Adam was not surprised by any of these revelations. Before he’d left, Alia Joie had talked about buying a building and renovating it. He hadn’t realized she was serious about it, though. He thought it had been a pipe dream, a bucket list item.

  He looked down into her upturned, smiling face. “I’m really proud of you.”

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and momentarily laid her head on his chest. “Thank you, babe.”

  The elevator stopped and the doors slid open to let them out onto the rooftop. It was getting dark, and the solar lamps strategically positioned around the large space were lighting up. They stepped onto the terrace and it looked, to Adam, like an upscale resort’s pool area, minus the pool. “A pool would have been expensive to put up here, huh?” he joked.

  Alia Joie laughed. “Yes, you know me too well. I asked about putting one in, but the architect said he wouldn’t advise it. The building is sound, and he could have used metal instead of concrete, but the weight of the water alone made it inadvisable. We do have a hot tub, though.” She pointed to the far left corner. “At any rate, we don’t need a pool. There’s a YMCA not too far from here if you want to get some swimming in.”

  Adam chuckled. “It’s wintertime, anyway.”

  They strolled around the huge area. Adam saw that Alia Joie had sectioned off the rooftop into specific spots with different functions. The area next to the outdoor kitchen had tables with umbrellas, enough to seat about twenty people. There was also a section with eight chaise lounges where people could sunbathe if they wanted to, or just relax and read a good book.

  Live plants in decorative planters dotted the entire rooftop, and the railing surrounding the whole thing was extra tall and reinforced in case someone got careless and lost their footing.

  “You thought of everything,” he complimented her. “Even safety measures for when someone gets tipsy and forgets they’re on a roof.”

  “The city has safety codes for rooftops,” she said sensibly.

  He smiled to himself. That was his Alia Joie. She was meticulous to a fault. “How long have you been living here?”

  “Only about a year.” She looked down, the positive energy he’d formerly sensed coming off her dwindling. “I had to stay busy while you were gone,” she said softly. “If I didn’t stay busy, I felt I’d go crazy worrying. So, in addition to work and painting, I needed a big project to focus on and this was it. And I needed something to take me out of myself. To care for someone besides myself. So I put ads out in the neighborhood inviting artists to put in applications for the apartments. I wanted people who were truly trying to make a living as an artist, be it painters, actors, dancers, writers. I ended up with some really good people, babe.”

  “How did you meet the elderly couple you told me about?” he asked.

  “Mom introduced them to me. They go to her church and they’ve been struggling financially since Mr. Johnson had a stroke and lost his job. They’re the cutest couple. Mrs. Johnson was a teacher for over forty years. Mr. Johnson worked as a postman until he got sick. They gave him grief over his disability and their combined income didn’t cover all the bills. So I welcomed them here. They’re the soul of this building. You’ll see.”

  Adam smiled at the prospect. He reached over and gently touched her cheek. “Now, let’s take a look at our place.”

  * * *

  When they got to the loft, Alia told Adam breezily to look around. She had to go freshen up. She did this not because she actually needed to use the bathroom, but because she wanted him to explore his new space on his own. When she’d moved in, she had chosen the furniture, the unique decorative touches, everything with him in mind. He was an electronics geek, so she’d made sure the electronics in the place were top-of-the-line, from the TV to the sound system to the alarm system.

  She hadn’t thrown away any of his belongings. His office was set up with all of his computer equipment, his textbooks and the books he read for pleasure. He was a comics fan, and his collection was just as he’d left it. He was also a video game enthusiast, and that collection was intact, as well.

  She disappeared for about twenty minutes. Longer, and he would have gotten suspicious. She found him in the gym, cycling on his Peloton bike. He smiled at her when she walked in. “Hey,” he said cheerfully, white teeth flashing in his bearded face. “You won’t believe how much I missed this thing.”

  She laughed, delighted he was smiling. She glanced down at her watch. “Have fun. It’s dinnertime. I’m going to see what I can put together for a quick meal.”

  Adam joined her in the kitchen a few minutes later. She was making a salad on the counter next to the farmhouse sink. She was going to prepare grilled chicken breasts and spicy brown rice, too.

  Adam came up and hugged her from behind. “Thank you for keeping all my stuff,” he said next to her ear.

  His body’s warmth and the tender tone of his voice made her gooey inside. She also appreciated his kind words. She’d been so anxious about how he would react to a new space. After the wedding, she’d moved in with him. Now, they would make this place their home. It was hard giving up something you were used to, even if you logically knew you couldn’t hold on to it. Adam probably knew that she couldn’t continue to live in his apartment with him missing. But she couldn’t guess at whatever visceral reaction he would have to the reality of his place being gone.

  She put down the lettuce she’d been tearing into chunks, and in the circle of his embrace, she turned and faced him. Looking into his eyes, she said, “There were some decisions I had to make without you. But I made them all with you in mind.”

  “I know,” he said, and kissed her forehead. “I had a lot of time to think while I was locked up, and I thought about your moving. I thought about so many things. I wondered how long it would take before you had to give up on me.”

  “I’d never give up on you!”

  “I know that,” he said softly, his
arms tightening around her. “What I meant was, how long it’d be before you had to move on or risk coming apart. It’s hard waiting on someone to come back to you when you’re not even sure they’re coming back. The government wasn’t telling you anything. It was kind of like I was a prisoner of war. I once read a study about men who were thought dead and turned up years later. Their wives were with other men by then. Or the men suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and it was impossible for their wives to live with them.”

  “But some of the couples stayed together, right?” Alia asked hopefully.

  “Yes, but they had to work hard at it. It required a lot of love and patience on both the soldier’s part and his wife’s.”

  Alia could see the pain in his gaze. He wasn’t just talking about some study he’d read in the past. He was talking about them. He was telling her it was going to take time for him to feel normal again. To feel whole.

  “I hear you,” she said.

  His eyes grew misty as he continued looking deeply into hers. “And I would understand if you got lonely and turned to someone else for comfort, Alia Joie. I know it was hard not knowing what was going on. Not knowing anything. I know you suffered.”

  The expression in his eyes was almost pleading. As if on one hand, he really didn’t want to hear her answer, and on the other, it was imperative that he know. Had she been unfaithful to him while he was gone?

  Alia took a deep breath. Honestly, the question upset her and gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Unfaithful to him? It had never occurred to her to cheat on him while he was being held captive, perhaps being tortured on a daily basis. What kind of woman would she be to even contemplate such a thing? A monster, that’s what kind. She didn’t want to cause him any more distress, though, so she said in as calm a manner as she could muster, “Adam, I’d rather jump off the Brooklyn Bridge than cheat on you. I’m a one-man woman. When I married you, it was until death do us part. And I meant it!”

  She felt his body relax and saw the sadness disappear from the depths of his eyes. The mist cleared from them, too, and he smiled weakly. “I’m sorry, but I had to know.”

  “What about you?” she asked quietly. “Did you find comfort in someone else’s arms while you were gone?”

  He laughed shortly. “Babe, I was locked up. The only people I saw were our captors and Calvin, Maritza and Arjun.”

  “I mean before you were captured,” Alia said.

  “I love you, Alia Joie. I would never cheat on you,” he stated emphatically.

  “That’s exactly how I feel about you,” she told him. “And just for the record, I would not be understanding about it as you said you would be about my cheating on you. I would be furious! I wouldn’t care if I’d been on a desert island for ten years and came back to you. I would expect you to have been faithful to me, Adam Braithwaite!”

  Adam chuckled. “Ten years, babe?”

  “Twenty, if it came to that. I’m yours for life. Not just for a decade. Forever! Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes,” he said, still chuckling.

  “Good,” she said, standing on tiptoe to kiss him high on the cheek, where his face was beardless. “Now, make yourself useful and get the gas grill on that machine over there that I call a stove ready for the chicken.” She gestured to the stove, a stainless steel double range replete with all the cooking capabilities any chef would covet. Her husband, who loved to cook and also got a kick out of new appliances, was going to have fun getting acquainted with that monster. It’d taken her a while to learn all of its functions. He went to do her bidding, sorry now, she was sure, for bringing up the subject of infidelity in their marriage.

  She smiled when his back was turned. That would teach him to get her riled up. She walked a tightrope where her responses to him were concerned. She had to be patient and kind and understanding. She also had to be truthful when he asked something as important as that. Yes, there had been men who had tried to seduce her while he was gone. She had never put herself in a position to be seduced, though. One man had been a business acquaintance the company was making a deal with. He’d found her attractive and made it clear he wanted to get to know her. But she’d gotten him straight in no time. And, once, she’d been traveling, and the man sitting next to her on the plane had flirted outrageously and asked her if she would have dinner with him after they touched down in London. She’d shown him her engagement ring and wedding band, which he had obviously chosen to ignore. She’d declined his offer firmly.

  Yes, she’d ached for the touch of a man some nights when she couldn’t sleep and memories of making love to Adam ran on a loop in her brain. Cold showers helped in those instances. Or she’d get up, put on her dance togs and pointe shoes and go through her ballet routines until she couldn’t dance anymore. Most of the time, though, she simply immersed herself in work, either for Youngblood Media or her painting. They were distractions that worked for the time being. None of that kept her from missing Adam, though, or praying fervently for his safe return.

  Now that she had him back, she wanted to relive those hot lovemaking sessions they used to share. But his reaction at the hotel had put a big question mark on whether or not her wish was going to come true anytime soon. He was going through something. Something he had to figure out on his own, obviously. Because he was not confiding in her the way he used to. They used to be able to talk about anything. Now he was behaving like her father’s generation of men: like he was an island unto himself. They lived by credos like A man doesn’t show emotions. A man takes care of his own business. A man doesn’t show weakness. Her mother had once told her that it had taken her father years to let go of the behavior he’d been taught by his father. She hoped it wouldn’t take years for Adam to open up to her.

  After Adam had gotten the grill prepared for the chicken, he turned to her and asked, “Do you suppose I have time to watch Black Panther before dinner?”

  She laughed. “No, that movie’s over two hours long. We’ll just eat in front of the TV tonight. Go on, enjoy yourself. I can handle dinner-cooking duties.”

  He grinned and loped into the adjacent great room where the wide-screen TV and other electronics were. She watched him go, her heart aflutter due to his presence. It was taking her a while to convince herself this wasn’t a dream. Adam was physically here. He looked a bit different. Ganglier because of his weight loss. He appeared taller, somehow. Maybe because with the forty pounds gone, his center of gravity had changed.

  His body shape used to look a bit like Dwayne Johnson’s. Now he had more of a LeBron James body type. Still yummy, as far as she was concerned, although she sensed his confidence wasn’t what it used to be. He didn’t appear to believe in his rugged sensuality the way he formerly had. He was a man who was well aware of his attractiveness to the opposite sex and didn’t mind ribbing her about salivating over him. And she honestly didn’t mind admitting that was the case. She enjoyed their saucy love life. He loved it when she seduced him, too. Their love affair was full of fun, passion and fire.

  She sighed as she turned her attention back to preparing dinner. Lord, give me strength and patience, she silently pleaded.

  Chapter 6

  His first night back home, after dinner and watching Black Panther twice, Adam bit the bullet and went to take a shower. Alia Joie had taken one earlier while he was watching the movie for the second time. He was sure she was wondering if he was purposely putting off going to bed, what with his behavior at the hotel room in Arlington. That was part of it. But he’d also enjoyed the movie and wanted to see it again. He had to admit to himself, as well, that sleeping all night with Alia Joie might prove problematic. He hadn’t worked out yet in his mind why he’d had a panic attack after he’d gotten an erection and was preparing to make love to her in the hotel.

  He’d dreamed about making love to her countless times while he was gone. Now that he had her within hi
s grasp, he was having doubts. He had no trouble getting a hard-on. It was psychological, not physical. He was terrified he would get naked with her, get her all worked up, then at the penultimate moment, his penis would shrivel and he’d be worthless to her. Worthless, with a withered pecker. Why was his self-esteem at its lowest point in his life? That was what he had to figure out.

  He finished showering, stepped out of the stall, selected a thick, white towel from the rack adjacent and began drying himself off in the large bathroom. He could hear Alia Joie in the master bedroom talking on her cell phone and wondered who she was talking to at nearly midnight. Her mother, probably. The two of them sometimes chatted several times a day. Debra was more than likely wondering how he was doing. His mother-in-law was a lovely woman. She reminded him of Ramona, except Ramona didn’t censure anything she had to say. Debra showed tact. Ramona just let you have it with both barrels.

  He strode into the bedroom wearing only a towel wrapped around his lower half, and Alia Joie smiled at him, gestured to her phone and mouthed, Chance.

  Ah, he was wrong. Chance and Alia Joie were very close, and now that Chance was in love, he was sure the two of them had plenty to talk about. Adam liked both her brothers and wished Brock, too, would find someone to love. But Brock was a playboy, and he doubted he’d settle down anytime soon.

  He rummaged in the dresser drawers until he found a pair of his pajamas. He smiled when he saw Alia Joie had bought him new sets of pajamas that hadn’t even been taken out of their packages, but had not gotten rid of his old comfortable ones. He selected a black-and-white-striped pair of the old ones and noticed, once he had them on, that he had to pull the drawstring tighter; otherwise, they felt great. He dropped onto the bed like he used to, causing Alia Joie to bounce on it. She shook a fist at him for his naughtiness and exclaimed, “She said yes! I’m so happy for you. She’s great. She’s perfect for you. Hurry up and get married.”