Inevitable (Book One)

Chapter 39

Lyla

We exit the restaurant, both stuffed full from our dinner. Luckily, we didn't see either of our previous admires tonight. Our server had been a middle-aged woman who was so sweet and had talked to me about her three teenage kids and even showed me some pictures at one point. It's dark out now and I pull my phone out of my purse seeing it's just past seven. I also notice I have a missed call from a half hour ago. It's an unknown number again. There's no voicemail left so I just delete the notification as we reach Shawn's car.

"Hot chocolate time?" He asks as he slides into the driver's side.

"Yes!" I answer him quickly and he chuckles at me. A few minutes later, we are at the drive thru for Starbucks and we each order a hot chocolate. I go with a festive peppermint candy cane one and Shawn sticks to the classic. Shawn starts to wind up and down some of the residential streets, making sure to drive slowly so I can look at all the Christmas displays. Whenever I point out a good one, he pulls over so I have plenty of time to stare and take pictures. There's one house we come across that it completely decked out. The entire lawn has different figurines on it from reindeer to Santa's sleigh to Snowman to elves. Then the actual house looks like something out of Christmas Vacation, with strings of lights covering every surface. Even Shawn admits that it's quite the show.

"That's what our house will look like," I tease him but quickly snap my mouth shut when I realize what I just said. I hope that my ill-timed mention of the future doesn't freak him out. I grow nervous and embarrassed immediately, looking out my window, not wanting to face Shawn.

"No," Shawn replies and I look across the console at him. "Ours will be even better." He winks at me and I feel myself smile again, all the doubt from my comment washing away. We drive around for almost two hours. Shawn doesn't complain or whine the entire time as I tell him where to turn or send us back down a road we've already been on. By the time we get back to Shawn's house it's about nine thirty. We walk in and I toss my jacket on the armchair in the living room before I head upstairs to change. Shawn follows and he changes into a pairs of sweatpants and a t-shirt as I go with one of his baggy t-shirts.

We head back down to the living room and I move to turn the lights on the Christmas tree on. Danielle and I had battled Shawn and Kyle on the fact that they needed to have a Christmas tree. Shawn and Kyle didn't put up much of a fight, their only argument was that they wouldn't even be here on Christmas. That same day Danielle and I dragged Shawn out to a tree farm and searched for over an hour for the perfect tree. Shawn had rolled his eyes at us multiple times throughout, but did not dare to make any comments. He had lugged the tree inside for us and set it up. He was a bit more happy when just him and I went out to get lights and some ornaments. He took every opportunity to kiss me and pull me into his arms as we browsed the aisles of decorations. By the end of that night we had a beautiful Christmas tree in the corner of the living room and both Shawn and Kyle ended up admitting that we made the right call.

I fall back onto the couch and stare at the tree as it lights up the room. Shawn joins me, sitting beside me and wrapping his arm around me as I lean into him. Shawn leans forward to grab the TV remote and turns it on.

"What are you thinking? Christmas movie?" He asks me and I answer him with a knowing grin and a nod. He hands me the remote with a light chuckle and I scroll through a list of movies before settling on the classic Christmas Vacation. Shawn admits he's never seen the movie and my mind is blown. I demand that he give his full attention to the masterpiece and he laughs amused at my hype for the film. We start watching and when the scene where the lights finally light up the house he points out that it looks like the house we saw tonight. I smile over at him and watch as he stares at the screen completely invested. I get up from my cozy spot on the couch for a quick washroom break. Shawn offers to pause the movie but I tell him its fine, I have seen the movie two dozen times or more. When I'm in the washroom I hear my phone ringing back in the living room.