The Christmas Party

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, kissing my nose softly. I ran my hands through his knotted black hair while he looked down at me. His eyes sparkled in the light of the laptop, still open to the scene of The Tigger Movie I’d paused it on, our bare bodies pressed into one another. My Kellin was home, he was here, and he was with me. There was nothing I wanted more out of this holiday season than that.

“I’m so glad you’re home!” I admitted, sneaking a kiss onto his collarbone.

“I love you, Leyla,” he said, rolling off me and onto his side, pulling me into cuddle with him, my back pressed to his stomach. “What were you watching when I got here? Is that Winnie the Pooh?”

“It’s The Tigger Movie, thank you very much!” I laughed as he buried his head into the hair covering my neck. He blew a raspberry against my skin and proceeded to kiss my neck, searching for my weak spot. He knew exactly where to find it. He knew my body like it was his own, knowing every soft spot and ticklish zone there is. He often traced the freckles on my back, and the scar from when I got my appendix out when I was 11 on my stomach. I may be just a fat, sniveling peasant but Kellin loved me, loved every inch of me. That was enough. I didn’t need Dana’s approval.

“Will you watch it with me?” I asked quietly, turning my head. “I want to finish it, but it’s a little too emotional to watch on my own.”

“Of course, baby. Start it up. I’ll always be here to watch Tigger Movies with you,” he mumbled into my jaw, pressing more kisses along it. I smiled and settled against him, reaching out to press the play button.

“I love you, Kellin.”

“And I love you, Leyla.”

-&-

“Kellin, you gotta get up and get dressed,” I said, nudging my fiancé later that day. I sat on the edge of the bed where he was napping, dressed in only my white strapless bra and matching panties. I propped my leg on my nightstand, rubbing my Christmas Cookie scented lotion into my legs and arms. Kellin’s arms snake around my waist and hug me close.

“You smell good enough to eat,” he murmured into my bare shoulder.

“Remember that later, huh?” I chuckled, pulling myself from his grasp and standing. I padded over to the closet where my dress bag hung. I unzipped it slowly, revealing the garment within. It was a pretty beige dress, one shoulder and designed like shimmery Christmas wrapping paper. I had a pair of heels I wore to one of Kellin’s uncles’ wedding a year or two back. They were made of lace the same color beige as the dress, and a Stiletto heel.

I took the dress from the bag and unzipped it down the side, stepping into it and pulling it up, clothing my bare body. It clung to my body in all of the right places and hides all of the wrong places. I tugged at the zipper for a minute or two, angry that I couldn’t move it even a little bit.

“I need your help,” I said when I finally gave up. Kellin lazily rolled onto his feet and joined me beside the closet, holding the top of my dress together with one hand while the other wiggled at the zipper tab slowly up my ribcage until finally, it came free and zipped easily up to the top. He kissed my cheek.

“I’m going to shower, okay? Anything in specific you’d like me to wear?”

“That suit you wore to your uncle’s wedding would be nice,” I answered, looking through my jewelry box on my dresser for my Christmas tree necklace. Most of my jewelry was Christmas related; on account of how much I loved the holidays. Most years, I wore a different pair of Christmas earrings every day but this year, I hadn’t had much holiday spirit. I had hardly decorated the house, only barely putting up the tree with Kellin when he flew home for Thanksgiving. I had, however, bothered to paint my nails red with white snowmen on each nail. I had a Christmas-themed phone cover, and drank out of a Christmas-sweater mug each morning. It didn’t feel like the holidays though. It just felt, wrong this year.

Sooner than I would’ve liked, Kellin was out of the shower and dressed, although he looked so gorgeous in his suit, and we were heading out. I didn’t want to see Dana, or her dress, or her nonstop flirting with my man. Kellin drove, his hand resting comfortingly on my knee while he sang along to the pop station my car’s radio had been stuck on for 6 months.

“Tonight will be okay, Leyla. I don’t know what’s got you so worried, but I’ll stay by your side the entire night. I won’t leave you for one second,” he assured me.

“I’m not so sure. Do you remember Dana?” I asked as he pulled into the parking garage and parked beside this brand new silver Beemer. Dana was stepping out as Kellin shut off the car.

“That one?” he asked, nodding minutely towards her with an unimpressed look on his face. This dress she raved about was hideous, strapless and ungodly bright green that left little to the imagination.

“She’s going to try and take you from me… She thinks you’re a prince and deserved to be treated like one or something. She told me that I’m not worthy of you because, and these are her words, I am a fat, sniveling peasant. She’s, uhm, she hates me, really. Then again, I hate her too.”

“You’re not a fat, sniveling peasant, I’m not a prince and she’s not taking me from you. Unless you ask me to leave, there is no way I’m going anywhere. I asked you to marry me, I asked you for forever, and that’s exactly what I intend to give you. Your forever, Leyla, is all that I need.”

“God, you’re perfect,” I said before I crashed our lips together.

We were late getting up to the office, having spent a good 5 or 10 minutes making out in the car. I fixed Kellin’s jacket and hair on the elevator ride up as well as my own lip gloss and hair before we stepped out and braced ourselves.

The night was alright, for the most part. Kellin and I held hands while I led us between the tables, a flute of champagne in my hand while we mingled with my coworkers. We dodged Dana’s attempts to get to Kellin, until dinner came and we had to sit at our seats. Because Dana was my cube mate, we were put at the same table and so began her advances on Kellin.

“You know, Kellin,” Dana said, leaning close to him, pressing her chest into her arm and increasing her cleavage tenfold. I raised my glass of water to my lips, unprepared for what came next. “That shirt's very becoming on you. If I were on you, I'd be cumming too.”

Kellin’s mouth literally dropped open while I spat out my water across the tablecloth.

“I, wow, uhm, thanks? I’m engaged, though, so. Thank you, Dana, but no,” Kellin stammered, trying to hide the blush that spread across his cheeks. I buried my face in my hands, trying to muffle my laughter as he tried to fend off Dana.

“I’m going to get another drink,” Kellin jumped up and hurried off, and not a second later, Dana got up and traipsed after him like he was her prey.

“Should I go after them, or just wait and see how she’s going to try and get him?” I asked Kayla, Mathias’s personal assistant, who sat beside me.

“Nah, wait here. She’s nearly harml- Oh. Maybe not.”

I looked up and found where she was looking. Dana had Kellin pressed into the wall, Kellin’s hands pushing gently at her shoulders while hers roamed under his suit jacket. I groaned and stood.

“Excuse me, I have a homewrecker to slap.”

I marched towards Dana’s back, sliding easily between the tables as she went in for the kiss, his head turning just in time for her lips to meet his cheek. I grabbed onto her perfectly curled black hair and yanked, dragging her away from Kellin as she screeched. I let her go and pushed her away, standing between her and him.

“Listen. Dana. You and I need to have a serious chat, because hit on Kellin, fine. Use inappropriate pick-up lines, whatever. Even insult me and try to convince me to break up with him, okay. But you do not under any circumstance touch him, let alone pin him to a wall and try to kiss him. You see this ring, bitch? He’s mine so back the fuck up before I fuck you up. How does that sound?”

Her eyes narrowed.

“You think you can tell me what to do, scumbag? You are NOTHING compared to me! You have nothing compared to me!”

“I don’t want to hear a word you have to say, Dana. Kellin is engaged to me, and that’s all there is to say. You don’t get to try and stop us from being together. You don’t get to try and wedge yourself between us and split us up. We love each other, and believe it or not, whether or not Kellin deserves me or I deserve him, is not any of your business, funny enough. So you walk your skanky ass back to the table, you shut your mouth and you keep your filthy hands off my fiancé. Do you understand me?”

She snarled and within seconds, had grabbed someone’s plate from the nearest table and threw it at me. She caught me head on and I crashed down, my entire world blacking out.