Idiots to Lovers (bxb)

43 | A Big, Huge, Giant Hat

"Isn't it too early to be decorating?"

We were at the cafe late on a Tuesday evening, and the customers had long since gone home. I had somehow been roped into stringing up forty metres of Christmas lights while Everett sat crosslegged on the floor.

"We're having our event in a week! Less actually," he counted on his fingers, "four days now."

We had both luckily gotten over the flu in record time—Everett had, of course, gotten sick the very next day after he had visited.

"What are you doing anyway?" I asked now.

Stacks of cardboard were piled up around him, along with rolls of bright red and green fabric. Everett held a dangerously large scissor in one hand and a big roll of tape in the other. "I'm making a giant hat!"

I looked at his creation again. "That doesn't look like a hat. What's it for?"

"That's because it's not done yet." He jabbed his scissors into the green fabric, tearing out a long jagged strip. "It's to put on top of the tree, instead of the star." Everett glanced up at me. "Do you want some help though? I can do this later."

"No!" I said, a bit too quickly. But I was on a ladder, and I preferred to stay on it. I said as much to Everett when his gaze turned questioning.

"I would never hurt you, Clementine," he said, his tone sorrowful.

"I beg to differ," I joked. "But you can help by decorating the tree. Start from the bottom and I'll join you in a bit."

Everett halfheartedly tossed a yard of tinsel on it. A corner of it clung onto a fir branch while the rest dangled off onto the floor. He then started placing ornaments on and between the branches. Not hanging, placing. Which meant he was simply keeping them on the tree instead of tying them securely with the strings. Everytime he added a new ornament, a previous one was shaken off and rolled on to the floor.

One thing about Everett was that he worked fast, and he had already finished with one side of the tree by the time I hung up the last string of lights.

"I'll take it from here," I offered, coming up behind him. "You can finish your hat."

"Oh, okay." He beamed. "I can help with the rest if you want."

"Noo...you've done a lot." I eyed the—frankly hideous—tree. Clusters of sparkly balls and Santa hats were all bunched up together while noticeable bald spots lay over the areas that he'd missed.

Everett happily went back to making his fabric hat and I busied myself with the tree. It took longer than expected having to untangle all the tinsel he had wrapped unevenly around. It seemed that he had used it to knot the decorations in place. His attention being turned away, I discreetly pulled off all the decorations on his side of the tree and redid that too. Everett was really more hindrance than help. My hindrance, I couldn't help but think fondly to myself, hiding a smile.

I finished decorating all that I could see, everything except right near the top of the tree which the hat would cover. I guessed it was about eight feet tall, I couldn't reach it even on my toes. I turned on the switch and the whole place lit up in twinkling lights, running down the walls and twisting round the tree.

"Wow that's amazing, Clementine." Everett's stared up, wide-eyed. "These are the prettiest lights I've ever seen."

I had to disagree. The lights shining in his eyes were far, far more dazzling.

"Thanks," I said anyway, nodding towards his project. "Need any help with that?"

He held up a sort of cylindrical shape that sagged to the side. Strips of cardboard were joined using a bulky amount of masking tape, torn pieces of fabric hanging off the edges. "I'm all done."