A/N: this short story includes changes that will happened to I Promise after the rewrite.
KAT
I surveyed the living room one last time before walking over to the tree. I pick a gold ornament and move it to a different place on the large plastic evergreen.
"Is this okay?" I asked, turning to look at my boyfriend, Connor.
He tossed his phone onto the couch cushion next to him and pushed up glasses that aren't there. He was wearing contacts though every few minutes he seemed to forget. He opened his arms and I nearly collapsed into his arms.
"It's more than okay, K," he said. "It's beautiful, just like you."
I smiled. "I'm wearing the ugliest goodwill sweater I could find," I said.
Since the annual Christmas party was at my house, I had picked the simple theme of ugly sweaters and everyone had reluctantly agreed.
Brooke, Kiara and I had spent an entire day browsing through thrift stores for horrendous looking sweaters. After about four hours of searching, I had found a large black sweater that had somehow managed to spell Christmas wrong-it was spelled with two s's instead of one. I wore it as a dress with thigh high grey boots and a red belt around my waist. I wore my black wig that hit halfway down my back and a red Santa hat on top.
Connor wore a disgustingly white sweater that had splotches of pink that indicated it was either washed with something red or someone didn't know how to drink without spilling their beverage over themselves. It had a terrible grey pattern that was not Christmas related at all, and said it bold lettering 'Feliz Navidad'.
He smiled back at me. "You're always beautiful to me."
"I'm serious," I said.
"So am I," he said. "They'll love it."
He pressed his lips to mine and my stomach erupted with butterflies.
I kissed him back, using the atrocious sweater to pull him closer.
Just then the doorbell rang.
Connor pulled away with a groan.
He ducked his head so that our foreheads were resting against each other. "Can we ignore them?" he asked.
I glanced at the door and turned back to Connor. "Not today, Condom," I said. "It's our first Christmas party together we have to make a good example."
"There's always next year."
"You mean when it's Alli and Mason's turn to host?" I ask. "Not happening." I stood up and tugged him to his feet. "Come on."
He intertwined my fingers with his. "Why is this so important to you?"
I tried to pull him to the door but he stayed put.
"Kat," he said.
I sighed. "It's your first Christmas with my friends."
"Your friends love me."
"It's your first Christmas...with me," I explained.
"Oh."
The doorbell rang again and I glanced at it, wishing I was answering instead of having this conversation.
"It's just kind of a big milestone you know?" I said. "We've been together for five months and it's just kind of huge. Everything has to be perfect."
He raised an eyebrow. "When have things ever been perfect with us?"
"That's not my point-"
"In the ten months that you've known me," he cut me off, "we've only ever been close to perfect when we were together. When we just me and you. So what if we have a few mishaps and missteps today? It'll still be closer to perfect than anything has been in my entire life."
I stared at him, processing his words.
The doorbell rang one more time as Connor leaned down and softly pressed his lips to mine. His hands cupped my cheeks as I kissed him back, our lips slowly moving against each other's.
Connor pulled away though his warm hands were still holding me firmly. "I love you, Kat Wilcox. I will continue to love you for as long as you will let me to, so please take those doubts out of your head."
I nodded.
"Are you okay?"
I nodded again.
"Great," he said. "Let's go welcome our first guests."
I followed him to my front door and watched as he pulled it open.
Alli and Mason stood on the porch, shivering from the cold. Their cheeks, noses and ears red from the frigid air.
"It's fucking freezing you assholes," Alli said and pushed past us.
Mason followed her with a warm smile. "Merry Christmas guys."
I smiled at Connor. "Merry Christmas," we responded.
