The Christmas Party

More Than Enough

"Have you seen Thea?" I asked Luca. He was sitting on the couch with my sister and brother-in-law watching some show.

"I think she's upstairs with the girls," Lauren answered.

I walked up the stairs in search of Thea. I heard delighted giggles once I peaked the staircase and navigated to the girls' room. I knocked, out of politeness, then cracked the door open. All of the girls, at once, screamed that I couldn't come in, but I got one good look at Thea before they all rushed to close the door. She had a wild grin on her face and the girls were giving her a makeover. Maddie was braiding Thea's hair, Alexis was trying to put makeup on her face, and Courtney was painting—well not her nails, exactly, but more like her entire hand.

"When can I come in?" I asked them through the door. I heard giggles and discussion on the other side.

"When we're done making Aunt Thea pretty!"

Aunt Thea. It made my heart sore. Aunt Thea. I wanted them to call her that forever; I wanted her to be their aunt.

"Okay, I'll wait downstairs with your parents."

"Okay!" came their giggled reply.

I walked back down the stairs and plopped down on the couch, grabbing a handful of chips from the bag Luca snacked on.

"Where's Thea?" he asked.

"Getting a makeover. So act surprised when she comes down," I answered.

"Oh no," Lauren said, shaking her head. "That poor girls. She's a trooper."

"She looked great," I laughed. The last thing I saw before the door closed was her lipstick, which made her look like she had a clown mouth.

The girls ran down the stairs a while later, all giggles and proud smiles.

"Everyone!" Maddie announced. "Close your eyes!"

We obliged, and dutifully covered our eyes with our hands while they led Thea down the stairs like Cinderella herself. When Thea was in position, Maddie allowed us to open our eyes. It took everything within our combined power not to laugh. We somehow managed to tell the girls how great a job they'd done.

Thea's hair was in a messy braid, loose strands falling out all around her face. Her mascara was all over her eyes. Her eyeshadow was blue. Her lipstick—bright red—was a mess all over her mouth. Courtney proudly lifted Thea's hands to show her nails, which were usually so carefully manicured, but were now covered in a mess of red polish all over her hands. The girls also made her tie a white sheet around her body like a dress.

"Wow," I said. "Girls, she looks beautiful—stunning—radiant! We need your help the next time we go out. You can be Thea's personal fashion assistants."

The girls seemed delighted by this and Thea smiled at them and agreed. "I'm just no good at this stuff. You guys did amazing. You'll have to show me to do all of this."

Lauren beamed at Thea and while I knew she already liked her, I think this really tipped the scale in her favor, and my sister told me so later that night.

"I really like Thea," Lauren said when we cleared the table later that night.

I smiled. "I do too."

"Seriously, though, Lou. Of all the girls you've brought home, no one even comes close to comparing to her. She's incredible. Mom loves her, too." Lauren nudged her chin over her shoulder and we looked from the sink to the living room where my mom animatedly talked to Thea, who had an easy and relaxed smile while she sipped her wine. Her heart beat just a little faster, knowing her family liked—no loved—Thea.

Louise had brought home maybe two girls for Thanksgiving in her years. Her family had met a handful of others. Her family was always polite, always cordial, but never had they connected with the other girls like Thea had, especially the kids. The other girls were politely interested in the girls, but never allowed them to give her a makeover, sled with them, lay down in their pillow fort and watch Frozen with them.

Thea was perfection.

"Yeah, she's . . ."

"Do you love her?"

"Yes."

Lauren pulled me into a side hug, our hands wet with soapy water. "That makes me so happy, Lou. Seriously. She's fitting in perfectly."

I smiled as I scrubbed a pot.

"She's perfect."


When we put the girls to bed, my sister wandered into the living room holding a small box with a werewolf printed on it. "Anyone up for a game?" Her eyebrow was quirked and I knew she meant to challenge me specifically, since I had an uncanny way of never losing at the game.

"You're on!"

Everyone stood up, save my Dad, who claimed he was too old to play these kinds of games, and my mom liked to remind him she was a year older than him so he had no excuse, but still, he stayed seated while the six of us moved to the kitchen table and set up the game.

Each player was randomly dealt a card that divided them into two teams: werewolves and villagers. The werewolves won with a villager was successfully killed and the villagers won if a werewolf was killed, which was decided by a vote after verbal debate. I happen to be a wonderful liar, even if Luca claimed he could see through me, I knew he was bluffing.

Lauren dealt us all our cards and I peeked at mine: werewolf. There were three extra cards placed in the center of the table. My sister began the narration on her phone, which played suspenseful music and instructed each player on when to open their eyes and complete their role. The narrator instructed all plays to close their eyes. The first to "wake up" were the werewolves. I opened my eyes. There could be a maximum of two werewolves in the deck and when I looked around the table, Thea's eyes were open. She winked at me and we both closed our eyes again. The narration played through each characters role and when the narrator told everyone to open their eyes, our eyes snapped open and we glared suspiciously at other.

I began, confident oozing. "I was the Robber, so I switched my card with Thea's, who was the Seer." Thea corroborated my story.

"I was the Seer. I checked Luca's card and he was a werewolf."

"You fucking liar! I was not!"

"Wow," I said. "Sure Luca."

"You two are fucking liars! I was the Seer and I checked Ross' card. He was the Troublemaker."

Ross nodded that he was.

"Then who's cards did you switch?" I asked him.

"Lauren's and your mom's."

"Mom, what were you?"

"I was the drunk."

"Lauren?"

"I was just a villager."

"Luca is obviously lying," Thea announced.

We all turned to look her and even though I knew she was lying, I was terrified that her face didn't twitch in the slightest when she spoke, weaving her lie about Luca's "tells", which were also a lie, because his lying tells were very different from what she was describing, but it was everything Luca was doing. I hoped on the bandwagon and agreed that Luca was lying.

The narrator informed the group we had one minute left to decide.

Luca became screaming wildly that he wasn't a werewolf and if we voted for him the villagers would lose. Thea, however, was more convincing and when we all voted to kill Luca (expect Luca, who pointed his finger at Thea), he flipped his card over to show he was the Seer and the villagers had just lost. Everyone groaned and Thea and I jumped up and high-fived, flipping our werewolf cards over.

"You can't play this game with a lawyer!" Luca claimed.

Thea and I laughed in victory. We passed our cards back to Lauren, sullen from the loss, and reshuffled the cards. I was a werewolf again, but this time I was alone, the other werewolf card in the center pile, so I was able to check a card in the center. The Seer was in the center, so I knew my disguise going into the game.

When we all woke up, I immediately identified myself as the Seer and claimed both werewolf cards were in the center. My Ross said he was the drunk and pointed to one of the cards in the center that he switched with. I informed everyone that was a werewolf card and everyone agreed to kill Ross, who it turns out, wasn't a werewolf at all and I was the single winner of the game.

Thea watched me with curious eyes. I winked at her and blew her a kiss, satisfied in my victory, but it was short lived. Every subsequent game after that, the moment I opened my mouth with a lie on my lips Thea called me out.

"Liar."

At first, people were hesitant to believe her, but after she was right a few games, the moment she called me a liar the game stopped and everyone voted to kill me.

Thea was always right.

After the game, my sister threw her arms around Thea and told her how happy she was that she was in our family, if only to put a stop to my reign of terror in the game. I rolled my eyes.

Later that night when Thea and I lay in bed together, I asked her how she knew I was lying every time.

"You have a tell," she explained.

"Which is?"

"I can't tell you that."

I raised my eyebrows. "Why not?"

"So I always know when you're lying to me."

"How am I supposed to win the game if you're playing?"

"I guess you don't."

"You're way too competitive."

"At least you're dating a winner."

"You're a thorn in my side."

"You want to know how I know?"

"Yes, I do."

"You won't look me in the eye when you're lying."

I hadn't noticed.

"You might look at my face, but you won't make eye contact."

"I hate that you know so much about me."

"I love it," Thea said and kissed me in the dark. "I love that I know everything about you."

"It is nice to be known and seen by someone like nobody else," I confessed, my voice dropping to whisper.

"Yes, it is."

"I like that you notice all of these small things about me, things no one has noticed before."

"I know everything about you. I've watched you so much longer than you realize."

"I thought you said you found me annoying," I teased.

I heard the smile on Thea's lips. "I did, but that didn't stop me from watching you, because even if I thought you were annoying sometimes, I always admired your heart; this beautiful, wonderful thing about you. You have a beautiful soul, even if I didn't see you at first, I was always unconsciously drawn to you, to that pure, without conditions, acceptance and love you seem to give so freely. I never dreamed you could give it to me or that I would deserve it."

I felt myself blushing.

"I would give you anything. The world, the moon, if I could. I hope my heart, body, and soul are enough."

"You'll always be enough."

* * *

A/N: Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting!

I'm so sorry I didn't update yesterday; I tried, but I literally had no time, so I'm posting two chapters today. Here is the first! The second will be up as soon as its written. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday!

Best wishes to you all!