“I don’t want to watch anything with profanity in the title,” she counters.
Amanda and I exchange a look, but neither of us argues. It feels too difficult to explain, so we settle on a Hallmark movie about an uptight city bitch who goes skiing with her best friend only to find their chalet double-booked with a pair of eligible bachelors. It doesn’t matter that the movie is halfway over; the guide description makes it obvious where this is heading.
I have one eye on the TV and the other on my phone where I navigate to Theo’s Instagram profile to see if he’s posted from California, but there are no updates. My deep dive into the cast of boarding school friends he’s traveling with is interrupted when my phone lights up with a call from Hannah.
“I’m gonna take this.” I rocket off the couch, glad for any excuse to be saved from this movie and trot up to my bedroom.
“Thank god!” Hannah says when I answer. On her end cars whiz by in the background and she pants lightly, like she’s power walking. This doesn’t sound like Connecticut.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Everything.”
“Could you narrow it down a bit?”
“David and I had a fight.” She pauses like I’ll know what it was about without her having to tell me, and at a different point in our friendship I might have. But right now, I have no clue. About kids? Does he want her to move to Connecticut? I wrack my brain trying to think about anything Hannah’s said recently about their relationship, but come up blank.
“About Christmas,” she adds.
“What about Christmas?” I ask.
“He doesn’t get it. On the way home from Thanksgiving, we had this fight and he was all, ‘How do you expect us to move forward if you won’t spend Christmas with my family?’?” I’ll give it to her, she does a spot-on imitation of David, dropping her voice and adopting his clipped, precise way of speaking.
“You’ve been together almost two years. It’s not completely unreasonable for him to want you to spend Christmas together.”
“Finn! You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I’m always on your side,” I tell her, “but I’m saying that I can also see why he’s upset.”
“It’s stupid that he’s upset,” she rants. “He’s Jewish! Christmas isn’t even his thing.”
“Sure, and when was the last time you went to church?” I’m positive it was for the baccalaureate Mass that was part of graduation weekend, and only because it was mandatory. There’s silence on her end and I can picture her trying to come up with a gotcha she can throw back at me.
“Seriously, Han, if you want to spend Christmas with David’s family, I understand.”
“That’s not why I’m calling. I don’t want to be let off the hook, I want you to be outraged, too. He doesn’t understand that you guys ARE my family. He called our tradition little. How insulting is that? But what really grinds my gears is that we wouldn’t even be having this fight if I wanted to spend Christmas with Brooke, and it’s not my fault she’s a complete narcissist.”
Downstairs, the doorbell rings. Who on earth is ringing my mother’s doorbell after nine? A horrifying thought pops into my head: What if she has a secret boyfriend? My stomach roils at the thought. That would be too weird.
“Finn,” Mom yells from downstairs, “it’s for you.”
I bring the phone with me, holding it between my ear and shoulder as Hannah continues to vent, her rant seamlessly transitioning from David to Brooke. I know from experience this could go on a while. As I pad down the stairs a pair of leather driving moccasins come into view.
I take a few more steps and see dark jeans, rolled at the ankle.
A few more steps, a green sweater I recognize.
Theo’s here? In my mother’s foyer? And he looks exhausted. A battered brown leather duffel rests at his feet.
“Uh, Han, I have to call you back. Theo’s here,” I tell her, and with her permission, I end the call.
At the sound of my voice, he looks up at me and his face cracks into a shy smile.
“What are you doing here?” I wonder aloud.
Theo looks around to make sure no one else is in earshot. “Your text,” he says. “You said it was awful, and then when I tried to call you your phone was off. So I came to save you. Or suffer along with you. Your pick, really.”
“You came . . . here?” I ask, my brain still catching up to what is happening.
He nods.
“So, do you think we should make a run for it?” He points over his shoulder at the front door and flashes me a wink.
“No . . . I . . . ,” I sputter. I can’t believe he came all this way to save me from my family. Sure, this isn’t my ideal weekend, but it’s not that bad. I didn’t need saving, I just wanted to complain. And now Theo cut his own trip short and hopped on a plane at a moment’s notice to rescue me. I can’t decide if I want to hug him or jump him or cry. My brain’s still trying to process that he’s even here.
“We’re staying, right?” he asks after a minute. “Because your mum is heating me up a plate and I’m famished.”
I tackle him with a hug. I’m glad my face is buried in his neck because I can feel tears prickling in the corners of my eyes. He rubs his hands up and down my back. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay.”
And he’s right. Now that he’s here, I am okay. I bask in the sense of safety I feel in his arms. “Thank you,” I whisper into his cashmere sweater.
“California was boring without you anyway.”
* * *
? ? ?
?I pick at a second slice of pie while Theo attacks a plate of leftovers, stopping every few bites to compliment my mother’s cooking.
“My mum once burned a Tesco ready meal so badly the fire brigade had to come. It was a curry, I think, but by the time they put the flames out it was just charred plastic and rice. I think that’s the only thing I ever saw her cook. I can’t believe you made all of this, Mrs. Everett,” Theo marvels.
“Oh, you’re too kind,” she says. I catch her smiling into her cup of decaf coffee at his compliment. “Finn didn’t tell us he had a friend coming or we would have set aside a plate. I’m afraid it’s just the odds and ends left.” Her tone puts honking neon air quotes around the word “friend” to make it clear she suspects we’re more.
“Nonsense, this is wonderful. I wouldn’t want you to go out of your way,” Theo says. He looks over at me and narrows his eyes, and the left side of his mouth quirks up in a mischievous smile. I don’t like where this is going. “It’s just that I didn’t think I’d be able to make it. I was in California on some business, but the minute we wrapped up, I got myself on an earlier flight. I couldn’t stand to be away from my friend a minute longer.” He’s ratcheted up his accent, the way he does when he’s trying to charm someone, and by the look on my mom’s face, it’s working. He drapes his arm over my shoulder for emphasis.
I’ve dreamed about these moments so many times: being Theo’s boyfriend, being home. I never dared to dream them together, but here I am.