under the mistletoe

christmas dinner

🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢

"Abuela, Abuelo, I have someone for you guys to meet" I pull my lips into my mouth with a nervous smile. My father is cooking in the kitchen at the moment with Carlos.

Luke's hand entwined in mine as I pull him forward. "Guys, this is Luke" I stand behind him and place my hands on his shoulders while I stand on my toes. My chin rests on his shoulder and I force a giddy smile, though it's not to hard. "He's my... boyfriend"

Oh that felt weird to say.

"Hola Abuela. Te ves hermosa hoy" He hands my grandmother the flowers as everyone in the room starts laughing, except for him. "What? Did I miss something?"

I stand back as my grandmother gives Luke a hug. She's quite short, shorter than myself, and a rounder woman. No matter, she's sweet. "Oh hijo, such a sweet boy. Pretty flowers" She takes his face in her hands. Her Latina accent is quite thick but it adds a sense of warmth to her personality.

"Americans" My grandfather grumbles as he stands up to shake Lukes hand. When I say Lukes Spanish is off, I mean it's horrible. He sounds like someone who has never said a phrase in Spanish once in their life. Quite like an American speaking another language they know nothing of.

Luke forces a laugh and looks at me with worry before flinching back to the adults, "Sorry uh- Canadian actually. Moved here from Saskatchewan when I was little. My Spanish isn't that good, mon français est très bien. Though my French is pretty good"

My face displays shock as I've never heard him speak another language, "Never knew you weren't born American" I lean my head against his arm.

"That's a story for later, or another time" He shrugs while smiling down at me. His arm circles round my waist as he pulls me in closer.

The sound of a throat clearing interrupts our little moment and I see my father standing there, arms crossed and eyebrow raised. Luke looks up and my fathers eyes widen, "Well that's a Patterson if I've ever seen one"

"Yes sir. How you doin' Mr. Molina? Lucas Patterson" Luke reaches forward and shakes my fathers hand leaving my waist cold and bare. He also hands over the bottle of wine which gets placed on the coffee table before us.

My father nods, "I remember you from the sixth grade field trip down to... ugh where was it?" He taps his chin, literally, in thought.

"The Apple orchards, sir" Luke answers as my father sits down on the couch. Carlos comes running in minutes later, taking the last spot next to my grandparents.

My dad laughs as he shakes his head, "It's Ray to you, son. You're family now, thought Julie hasn't mentioned anything about a boyfriend once" He glares over at me.

"Yeah" Carlos raises a suspicious eyebrow, "How long have you been together?"

"A week"
"A month"

We look at eachother, both possessing wide eyes and a shocked look, "Erm-" Luke hesitates.

"It's been a month, feels like it's just been a week with how fast time flies" I laugh to cover up the truth.

"Well however long, you felt you could have him meet the family. Just don't break our little Juliana's heart" My grandfather points a finger in Luke's way.

He just shakes his head and forces a laugh. His eyes pointer at the floor before he looks up to me, into my eyes, "I'd rather die before I hurt her"

Suddenly this moment felt different. Almost like Luke isn't pretending anymore. Like- he's telling the truth? No no no, I'm delusional. There's no way in hell-