The Christmas Party

A Car Ride Together With You

"Excuse me," Luca complained when Thea settled in the passenger seat. "What are you doing?"

"Sitting," Thea responded.

"That's my seat."

"Interesting, I don't see your name on the seat."

"I always ride shotgun."

"Bummer."

"Louise!" Luca demanded, rounding on me while I loaded up the hatchback. He stomped to the back of the car and threw his finger accusingly at Thea. "Do something about this!"

"What are you two fighting about?" I asked, lifting a suitcase.

"She's in the passenger seat!" I threw Luca a confused look and peaked my head around the back to look at Thea, who smiled and waved in the rearview mirror. "That's my seat! I always ride shotgun!"

I looked between the siblings. "You both are too old to be fighting over shotgun. Figure it out yourselves. I'm staying out of this one."

"Sorry, Luca," Thea said, a devious grin on her face.

"You can't ride shotgun!" Luca demanded, storming back to her side.

"I'm older, I got here first, and my girlfriend is driving so," Thea said, drawing out the "o" sound. "I think I win."

I finished loading the car and hopped in the driver's seat. Meanwhile Luca stood outside the car, mouth agape in disbelief. I looked at him and shrugged. "I don't know what you expect me to say: it's Thea, she always gets her way. Plus she's kind of my girlfriend now."

"I am your best friend—of three years! She is your girlfriend of three days!"

I looked at Thea who raised her eyebrows at me, daring me to ask her to move. "I think Thea's riding shotgun."

"This is nepotism."

Thea looked at her brother. "I don't think you know what the word means."

"Yes I do!" Luca climbed into the backseat and slammed the door. "I won't forget this."

Thea and I exchanged a look. She inclined her head to me and her eyebrows did a quick little jump up her forehead, which said 'see I told you he was dramatic.' I rolled my eyes in which I conveyed my meaning: 'I know he is.'

"Do you want to stop for a coffee?" I asked Luca, hoping to appease him.

"Yes I do!" He scooted to the middle seat and leaned forward so he was between us. "And you're buying."

"Is this what it's going to be like having kids?" I asked Thea.

"No. Under no circumstances will my children act like him and so help them if they do."

I looked at Thea, eyes wide, and I feared for our future children already. God help them if they ever put a toe out of line in front of Thea.


After the three hour drive down the interstate consisting of several rest stops so Luca could pee after chugging his coffee, singing along to our favorite Christmas songs, then playing car games, we arrived at my parent's house. We pulled up the idyllic little house at the end of the block, the yard and roof covered in snow. My parents had their Christmas decorations that would give Clark Griswold a run for his money strung along the property. A giant inflatable Frosty was on the porch, lazily waving at us in the gentle breeze.

"Home sweet home," I said and hopped out of the car.

"Have you told your parents we're dating?" Thea asked as we walked up the steps to the front door.

"No, I haven't talked to my mom yet," I said and looked at Luca. "Although I guess I just assumed Luca would have told her."

Luca threw his chin in the air indignantly. "I did not. I did say you had something to tell her though."

"There it is," I said to Thea.

"I don't know if that qualifies as telling your mom."

I shrugged. "She'll probably be more excited than we are." This made Thea smile.

I knocked on the door a few times before letting us in. "Mom? Dad? We're here!" I called into the house from the entry way. We kicked off our shoes and not a moment after standing up straight my sister's kids came running down the stairs and vaulted into my arms.

"Oof," I grunted, almost falling over. "Hi kiddos!"

"Hi Aunt Louise!" The three of them all said together.

"Do you guys remember my friend Luca?" I asked, picking up the two youngest in each arm, though I grunted with the effort (they were getting quite heavy these days).

"Yes," the oldest said. "Hi Uncle Luca."

"Hi Maddie, how are you?" Luca asked, beaming down at my niece.

"Good thank you. How are you?"

"I'm great! I'm very excited to be here finally." Luca beamed at my nieces and I nodded my head, impressed with their etiquette.

"Girls, this is Thea. She's Luca's sister."

All eyes turned to Thea.

"Thea, this is Maddie." I gestured to the oldest. "Courtney," I lifted my right arm with the middle child. "And Alexis." I lifted my left arm with the youngest.

"Hi girls," Thea said, smiling and waving.

Alexis' eyes grew wide at Thea. "Are you a princess?" Alexis asked shamelessly. The oldest giggled but didn't say anything. Thea for her part, took this information in stride and decided to play along.

"Yes, but I'm undercover while I'm here so I can visit without any pesky castle guards following me around." Alexis' eyes grew wider. "Can you help me keep a secret?" Alexis nodded eagerly, then wiggled out of my arm and clung to Thea, begging to know all about her kingdom and her castle.

"Is that my children I hear?" I heard my mom shout from the kitchen.

"Yes I'm her!" Luca called.

My mom, dad, sister and her husband all filed out of the kitchen and came to meet us. My mom hugged Luca and Thea first.

"My sweet, sweet Luca. How are you dear? Are you eating enough?"

I looked at my sister while my mom fussed over Luca. "Does mom just not care about me?"

"You know how she's always wanted a son," Lauren replied.

"Does Ross not count?" I asked, referring to Lauren's husband. Ross shrugged.

"Apparently not," he answered, laughing.

"It's because Luca's the baby," I said, watching my Mom dote on him. When she finished gushing over Luca, she turned her attention to Thea and brought her into a tight hug. My mom insisted on telling Thea how beautiful she was, to which Alexis chimed in it was because Thea was a princess, and to Alexis' absolute delight my mom agreed with her wholeheartedly. My mom expressed how happy she was that Thea and Luca would be spending Christmas with her and she finally had the whole family together under one roof.

Then my mom said hi to me.

"So where do I fall in the line of favorite children? It a goes Luca, Thea, then me?" I asked.

"You're actually fifth," my sister teased. "It goes Thea, Luca, me then Ross then you."

"Cool, cool, cool."

"Oh stop it. I love you all equally," my mom said and pulled me into a huge hug. "Especially my youngest daughter."

"I like how you say 'youngest daughter' and not 'youngest' even though I am literally your youngest child. You're counting Luca, aren't you?"

"Well of course I am! Luca is also my baby now."

Luca grinned at me. My dad came over and hugged me too after greeting Luca and Thea.

"Are you all hungry? Dinner will be ready in ten minutes," my mom said. I noticed the apron tied around her waist.

"We're starving!" Luca announced.

"Ross and I will grab your bags," my dad said, leading Ross out to the car.

"Honey," my mom said. "Luca is staying in the guest room downstairs—"

"And you can put Thea's bags in my room," I cut in.

Everyone turned to look at me. My mom face painted with inquisition. I cleared my throat.

"So funny story: Thea and I are dating."

"Mom said that was fake," my sister said, looking at my mom like she'd lied to her.

"That's what she told me!" my mom exclaimed, affronted that anyone would doubt her intel.

"Well it was fake. For a bit. Then it was real."

"You and Thea are actually a couple now? It's not just for your Christmas party?" my mom clarified.

"Right. Thea is my girlfriend now."

My mom looked between the two of us then squealed in absolute delight and pulled Thea into a tight hug. "This could not be better news!" My mom linked arms with Thea and walked her to the kitchen, gushing about our newfound relationship. "You know how many times I told that girl to ask you out on a real date?"

"Oh my God," I mumbled.

My sister looked at me. "I don't know what you expected to happen. Do you remember when I brought Ross home for the first time?"

"Do you think I have time to hide all the baby photos?"

"Definitely not. There are too many."

I trudged to the kitchen and accepted my fate.

Dinner was a lovely affair that consisted of my mom rambling about my relationship with Thea and all of the phone calls between my mother and I in which she persuaded me to pursue Thea, gushing about how lucky I was to have Thea (which also consisted of her endless compliments of Thea's beauty, success, drive, and overall perfection), and reminding everyone that she was right and she "just knew" that Thea and I would end up together.

"You just knew, huh?" I asked.

"I just knew it. Honey, I wish you could have seen your own face whenever you would talk about Thea," my mom answered. "Even your father knew you liked her."

I looked at my dad, who shrugged and admitted that he thought I did like her.

"Do you all spend your free time talking about me?" I asked. Everyone at the table answered yes.

"Oh honey," Luca said. "It was obvious you liked her, we were just all waiting for the ball to drop."

"You guys are rude."

Everyone laughed and teased me all night, telling me they were surprised how long it took for me to figure everything out. I glanced at Thea, who seemed to have a permanent smile plastered on her face. The way she watched me at dinner made me feel light, giddy, like someone had filled the room with a lightness.

"How long did you know about all of this?" I asked.

"For a while," Thea answered. "Your mom talks to me too, you know."

"Mom! You talked to Thea about me?"

"Of course I did. Luca too."

"Is this what you all were keeping a big secret from me?"

"Yes." Luca answered. My mouth hung open.

"Were all of you in on trying to get the two of us together?"

Everyone hesitated.

"I don't like that you're not answering me."

"Well Sweetie," my mother began. "It was not so much that we were meddling, but more discussing."

"Discussing? Discussing how? Discussing what?"

"We discussed the possibilities, mainly the ones that involved the two of you together. Thea just told us things that happened during the day: the things you did and said. We were all convinced you liked her, the only thing we didn't know was when you would realize it and when you would try to make a move."

"Right. I hope that you talked about Thea too."

"Of course we did," Luca answered. "But not so much. I knew immediately that Thea liked you and she said as much when I asked her—unlike you."

"When did you ask Thea?"

Luca tapped his chin in thought. "When did we talk about it?"

"After shopping that one day when I showed you the snow globe."

Luca snapped his fingers. "That's right! You were acting so weird! I just asked her and Thea told me immediately that she was developing feelings for you. Of course I called our mom—"

"My mom," I cut in.

"Our mom and told her everything."

"Is that why you were pushing me so hard to ask her out?" I asked my mom.

My mom tried to look innocent.

"By the way," my sister cut in. "How did this all come about? What exactly happened?"

"You don't know yet? It hasn't been blabbed to everyone here?" I gave the Amatos a look. Thea smiled innocently back but that mischievous twinkle never left her eye. I sighed and told everyone the abridged version of Friday night.

"Ha!" my sister exclaimed. "I win!"

Everyone shook their heads. Luca plucked his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to my sister. My mom stood up and rifled through her purse and also gave my sister a twenty. Luca was handed two ten dollar bills from my sister and mother.

"What the f—" I stopped myself short and smiled at my nieces. "What is going on?"

"We all had a bet going," Luca answered.

"I can see that. What was the bet about?"

"You and Thea."

"Obviously."

"Oh sweetie, don't be mad. It was all in good fun," my mom said.

"About what?" I demanded, my face burning red. Thea was thoroughly enjoying this scene and my embarrassment. She leaned her head against her hand and watched me, a closed-mouth grin on her face. "Did you know about this?" I asked her.

"I didn't. I promise."

"Well?" I asked, rounding on my family.

"We just had a bet on when you two would finally kiss and then another bet on when you would officially start dating, since you two here basically dating without the labels for the last two weeks," Luca explained.

"I hate all of you."

"We love you too," my sister grinned.

Thea wrapped her arm around my shoulder and hugged me. "Isn't it nice to be home?"

"I can't help but feel you were somehow involved in all of this," I told Thea.

She shrugged, a huge grin on her face. "Me? Never."

"Why do I feel like you're lying?"

Thea smiled mischievously. "The best part about my job is you'll never know when I am."

"I don't think I like that."

Thea kissed my cheek and laughed.

"Also, are you best friends with my mom too?"

"Of course I am."

* * *

A/N: Thank you everyone for reading, voting, and commenting!

I feel like the last few chapters have been kind of weak, but I'm on vacation now so I hope that I'll be able to spend a little more time writing and the quality of the chapters will improve.

Is there anything specific you want to see/learn in the coming chapters? Drop your suggestions in the comments below!

Stay safe everyone!