My Dream Man | Book 1 | Sal Vulcano

Chapter Thirty-Two

After a long November and a rough beginning of December, it was time for Christmas. I was late putting up my Christmas tree this year since I had no time to. I was invited last minute to my brother's Thanksgiving party that he was hosting, so I went to "enjoy" family time. Even though my brother and I never got along, it didn't mean we hated each other completely. He just had a different job and was always busy with what he was doing. I was surprised that he even thought of inviting me this year, since the last year we ever did anything together was at my mom's funeral thirteen years ago. There was a lot of catching up to do.

Here's the backstory on my brother and I. His name is Cameron but we always called him Cam for short. Cameron was always shy, hated social interaction. If he could get out of it, he could, and if there wasn't a way, he would always find one. Cam used to always get bullied in school for his name sounding too 'girlish', but my mom didn't care, neither did he honestly. Cam loved his name, and I was proud of him. Cam was always smart in school, had straight a's, and all the teachers loved him. Cam also played hockey and baseball during school, his two favorite sports. Everyone loved Cam, but he didn't like anyone back except his family.

With this in mind, Cam and I never got along seventy percent of the time. Yes, it sounds like a normal brother and sister relationship, but it was true! Cam and I could be doing great for a month, no fighting, all happy for lucky, then suddenly we hated each other. We wouldn't say much about it, we would just keep our distance and not talk. We never had arguments, we just never talked. When our dad passed away, that's when we started falling apart. It was nothing bad, just we didn't have to stay home anymore. I went to university, then after a while so did Cam. Last I saw mom was with Cam on Christmas. Next thing we knew, a few months later, we saw mom in a coffin. From there, Cam and I never talked, never stayed in touch, and that was it.

Seeing Cam again on Thanksgiving was like opening a gift a stranger handed you on the street. I didn't know him at all, he changed. With a nice shirt under a vest, beige khakis, he was dressed up nice. His hair was long, pulled into a ponytail. He seemed to be surprised to see me there. I was introduced to his wife and kids that I never known of. I was greeted by other family members, some I didn't know who they were. Cam and I got to have a small chat after diner was served (all very healthy, nothing too fatty) and figured out what we were now doing with our lives. I told Cam that I was going out with Sal, which, of course, I wasn't surprised that he knew the Jokers. I wiped it away, telling him I worked for the show and was doing well. Cam told me he was a manager at the fro-zone and shopping center down the road. He also told me that his wife worked at one of the largest business campaigns in New York, which I could of figured out myself by her obvious plastic surgery. He also told me about his kids and how they were getting straight a's in school, which wasn't a big surprise to me. Cam and I were glad to talk again and said that we needed to stay in touch. We never exchanged phone numbers.

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It was finally the first week of December and I needed to bring down my Christmas tree from the attic and decorate it. But before I could do any of that, I had to clean. So, my week began with cleaning up the whole downstairs, from sweeping, washing blankets, dusting, and shampooing the carpet. What were hell to clean were the couches, knowing my dogs liked to lay in them all the time. I made a mental note to myself to throw away the old dog beds and buy them a dog couch. Throughout all of this, I played my Christmas jams loud so that I could hear it any part of the house. I was rocking the dog-mom Christmas preparation look.

After the fifth day, when I was all done cleaning, I finally went up to the attic to get my Christmas tree. When I found it, I went to pick it up and it fell out of the bag. With my luck, the mice had gotten into it and chewed it all up. So, instead, I told myself I would pick that up later and just bring the ornaments down so I wouldn't have to do it later. But that time, I had to go get a new tree. I went upstairs and changed to a pair of sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt with my black hoodie. Being lazy, I just kept my glasses on. When I got downstairs, I slipped on my boots, my winter coat, my beanie and threw my gloves into my pocket just in case. I put the dogs into their room, grabbed my keys and was on my way, after I scrapped the snow and ice off of my car.

I threw my keys into the ignition and started the heat as I grabbed the scrapper and scrapped off the snow and ice. Just then, from across the street, a door opened and closed.

"Addison~!" My name was sung out.

I looked at the direction of the name and saw my boyfriend coming across the street. He wore a black coat, zipped up to his bottom lip and a dark green beanie that covered his ears. His hair slightly poked out of his beanie as he wore his hipster glasses. I smiled at him as he neared me. He greeted me with a kiss on the cheek then wrapped an arm around my waist.

"What's the plan for today sugar?" Sal asked looking down at me.

"Well, I needed to go get a new Christmas tree because the mice got to mine in the attic and destroyed it. Um, I also wanted to see if there was any new Christmas ornaments I could buy." I replied with a smile.

"Can....can I come with you? I mean, it's cool if you don't want to, but I was just-"

"Yes Sal, you can come." I chuckled.

Sal smiled at me then proceeded to plant a kiss on my forehead. I rolled my eyes and finished up what I had on the windshield before entering the car and pulling out to the nearest Lowe's in town. When we arrived, I didn't know what exactly I wanted. I browsed around as Sal and I looked at all the different trees up for display.

"How about a white one?" Sal asked, pointing to the white tree.

I shrugged. "Not classic. I mean, it's nice, but I don't want a white tree. I want a normal green tree."

Then I found it. It was not too big, but it was big enjoying that both Sal and I would need a step stool to reach the top. I came with no lights, so we would have to put the lights on ourselves, which I thought was great. When you looked at it, it looked totally real, but when you touched it, you knew it was fake.

"We have to get this one." I awed, touching the fake pines on the tree.

"How much is it?" Sal asked, admiring the tree as well.

I looked at the price and my face immediately dropped. Sal noticed. "What's wrong?"

"It's out of my budget. And I also need to get new ornaments and lights with it." I said, disappointed.

"I will pay for-"

"No, no, I'm not letting you pay for something that expensive. Um, I'll just keep looking elsewhere. I will just buy some ornaments and lights for now." I said really disappointed.

I started to push the cart away from the trees and headed to the decorations. I noticed that Sal wasn't behind me, so I turned around. I saw him looking at the tree I wanted and staring at it.

"You coming?" I asked.

Sal nodded his head as he kept looking at the tree. He then walked slowly away from it then caught up to me. When he did, he placed his hand on top of mine as we walked to buy what we needed.