Teamwork

Julia didn't bother getting the mail yesterday or the day before so she's expecting her mailbox to be overflowing when she checks it, but to her surprise, there's only a single red envelope inside. She retrieves it from the box and flips it over to look at the front, immediately recognizing the handwriting. Sighing heavily, she tucks the envelope under her arm without opening it and continues on to her apartment, keys in hand.

Once she's unlocked her front door and pushed her way inside, she kicks off her boots and drops both the envelope and her keys on top of the dining room table before heading down the hall to her bedroom, stripping off her coat and scarf along the way. She's supposed to be at Gigi Rose's house for family Christmas by 1 and she's already running behind so she takes a quick shower, blow dries her hair without styling it, then bypasses makeup with the exception of tinted moisturizer. After pulling on a warm sweater and some leggings, she shoves her feet into a pair of black boots and grabs her jacket and a bag full of gifts then heads back out into the cold.

She's the last one to arrive at Gigi Rose's at ten minutes past 1 and the whole family makes sure to let her know it. She just playfully rolls her eyes as she hangs her jacket in the closet by the front door before making her way further into the house. Her mother and Rick, Gigi Rose, and her uncle Dante and Nolan are all sitting in the living room spread out across the furniture but there's an extra person where there's usually an empty chair.

"Christian?"

The man grins as he gets up from his seat to wrap her in a hug. "Miss me?"

"What are you doing here? I didn't think we were supposed to see you this Christmas."

"You weren't, but Mom went to St. Thomas with her boyfriend this year so I figured I'd come down and spend it with you guys. I mean, I guess it's better than spending it alone."

"You bet your ass it is," she says, playfully jabbing him in the ribs. "C'mon, come tell me about your trip." She sets her gifts under the tree then pulls him over to sit on the hearth right in front of the fire so that she can get warm while she listens to him talk all about how he spent his entire summer backpacking across the entire continent of Europe. He's a travel photographer for some big company which basically means he gets paid to go to the most stunning places in the world and take pretty pictures of them, and she is super jealous. She's never been further from home than New York City.

Christian is Rick's only child from his first marriage. He's twenty-three and looks exactly the opposite of his father, with wild dirty blonde hair, a scruffy beard, and bright blue eyes. He's been joining the gathering at Gigi Rose's house every other Christmas for the past five years that Angela and Rick have been together, along with random visits every few months when he gets a few days off from traveling. He's not technically her step-brother yet but he already feels like family and, as small as her family is, she's more than happy to add him to it.

He's in the middle of a story about this couple he met in Spain when he stops suddenly and lets out a chuckle. "Uhm, J, you got a little-" He cuts himself off, pointing to a spot on his own neck and then pointing at her. "You get a boyfriend since I saw you last?"

"What?"

"Got a little bit of a hickey there," he clarifies, pointing to the small bruise on the side of her neck just below her jaw.

"Fuck." She quickly pulls all her hair over her shoulder to try her best at covering it up, glancing over at the rest of her family to make sure they haven't overheard anything. "Does that help?"

Christian bites back a smile and shakes his head.

"Well then I guess I just have to keep them away from my right side."

"Good luck with that."

Gigi Rose finally herds everyone into the dining room for lunch and Julia grabs the seat at the end of the row, making sure that Christian is the one who sits down across from her. The spread is ridiculously thorough as always, with everyone's favorite food choices set out neatly in front of them. She and Christian talk some more about Europe and the rest of the family are listening now but when he pauses to practically inhale some of Gigi's Christmas ham, her mother takes the opportunity to change the subject.

"Have you heard from your father at all, baby?"

All eyes at the table turn to her but she just shakes her head and looks down at her plate. "I got the annual Christmas check in the mail this week, but other than that, no."

"Are you actually going to keep it this time?"

"I'm gonna do the same thing with it that I did with the other ones."

Angela frowns. "Julia, he just wants to help you."

"I know, Mom, and he has helped. But I don't need his money anymore. I'd rather be able to actually know him."

Her father has never been a part of her life from the time she was born. He'd had political asipirations from the time he was a child and he knew when he got his girlfriend pregnant at the age of sixteen that they would damage that, so he'd cut off ties to them both. It wasn't until she was about ten years old that he reached out for the first time and from then, she's seen him once every five or six years.

Still, he's kept her a secret from everyone, from his constituents to his own wife and other children, for fear of causing a scandal that could hurt his career. Because of that, he feels so guilty that he's insisted on helping her in every way possible. He's the one who insisted on helping her buy her apartment. He's the one who paid the rest of her tuition to Georgetown that wasn't covered by her scholarships. He sends her a gift every birthday and a sizable check every Christmas, but she never does anything with them. There's a box on the shelf in her bedroom full of untouched checks from the past twelve years. Of course Julia appreciates everything he's given her and she's very thankful for all he's done, but she would've traded it all just to have her dad around.

Her mother sighs heavily. "I know, baby."

Nolan drapes his arm her shoulders and pulls her into a side hug but she kind of just shakes it off, trying to pretend that she's fine and that the whole situation with her father doesn't bother her. Luckily, Gigi Rose asks Christian to continue his stories about Europe and when he starts up about Paris, both her uncles jump into the conversation, comparing local spots and activities since they had just visited in October.

Once everyone is finally finished eating and stuffed beyond comfort, Julia gets up to help clear the table and clean up a little before gift opening time. She makes a couple of trips from the dining room to the kitchen with dirty plates and empty serving bowls and while she's rinsing some silverware at the sink to put into the dishwasher, her mother comes in with two handfuls of dishes herself.

"Julia Rose, is that a hickey?"

"What?" She immediately reaches up to slap her hand over the part of her neck that her mother is zeroed in on, already having forgotten that it was there just in the time that they were eating dinner. "No, it's-...." Angela gives her a knowing look so she just sighs and glances over her shoulder toward the dining room. "Can we not do this now?"

Her mother grins and nods understandingly but her uncle Dante makes his way into the kitchen behind them, having overheard. "What's that, baby J's got a hickey? Who's the guy?"

Julia groans. "No, it's not-...No one. It's no one."

"I don't know, J," he teases. "That's a pretty nice little bruise you got goin' on there."

"Are you still seeing Tom?" Angela asks. "Or someone else now?"

"Mom-"

"Oooh, who's Tom?" Dante interrupts and Julia makes a noise of annoyance as she turns the water off and steps away from the sink.

"He's nobody. He's just a friend. It's not-....ugh, you guys are the worst."

Her mother and uncle exchange knowing looks before her mother breaks out into another grin. "So, it was Tom then?"

"What the hell, Mom? Why does it matter?"

"I like him," Angela shrugs. "He's very polite, he's super cute. Plus, he seems like he really likes you."

"Well, sorry but it's not-....it's not like that." Julia cringes at the fact that she's essentially telling her mother and her uncle that she has a fuck buddy (not to mention a second that they don't know about) just to get them off her back about dating him.

Angela makes a face like that's too much information, which to be honest, it totally is. "Well, that's disappointing," she sighs.

Christian peeks his head around the door frame from the living room, obviously noting the awkwardness of the moment, but he has a message to deilver. "Gigi says everyone get their asses in here for presents."

Julia follows him immediately with the others following behind her and she resumes her previous seat on the hearth next to Christian. While he gets the job of passing out the gifts to everyone, Julia pulls her phone from where it's tucked into the waistband of her leggings and types out a quick text to Tom.

Hey, thanks for the hickey by the way. Got a family interrogation

make it up to you next time ;)

-

Christian has two days left on his traveling break in DC and since both his father and Julia's mother have to go back to work and Julia is still out for Christmas break, he decides to crash her lazy day at home. It takes some convincing to get her out from under her blankets on the sofa so that they can go eat brunch, but as soon as they return to the apartment, she's right back there crawling under the warm fleece. Christian takes the chair across from her, propping his feet up on the coffee table between them, as Julia goes through the Netflix selection for something to watch.

They watch half a season of Parks and Recreation before he starts getting antsy and suggests they do something besides sit there for the rest of the afternoon so she breaks out the board games and lets him take his pick. He's surprisingly competitive at scrabble considering how mellow he is otherwise, but he's super into it and even gets a little grumpy when she gets sixty-four points on a word thanks to a triple letter score. She's looking at her row of tiles, wondering what the fuck she's going to do with an X, a Q, a Z, and a bunch of vowels when there's a knock on the door and she hops up to answer it, leaving Christian in the living room. When she pulls the door open, it's one of the last people she's expecting to see.

"Mike, hey. What're you doing here?"

He looks really good even though he's just in a hoodie and jeans and she kind of wants to jump his bones right there in the doorway, but that probably has something to do with the fact that she hasn't seen him in over a month, except for the morning after she spent the night with Tom last week and then he was too busy smirking knowingly at them while she was more focused on Tom. "I was just-"

"J, you're outta beer!" Christian shouts from the kitchen, interrupting him.

"Mel and I don't drink beer, dumbass," she yells back over her shoulder, rolling her eyes, before she turns back to Mike. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Nothing. Never mind. You've got...company."

Julia doesn't miss the look that flashes across his face and she bites back a smile. He's totally jealous. "Oh, him? Nah, don't worry about him. You wanna come in?"

"Sure he won't mind?"

Yup. Jealous. "I'm sure," she says, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside the apartment then she leads him over to the living room where Christian is back in his seat, grimacing his way through a sip of wine. She pulls Mike down onto the sofa with her, watching Christian in amusement until he notices.

"How do you drink this shit? It's terrible."

"Says the dude who was just hunting PBR in my fridge. Now that is some truly disgusting shit."

"Hey, it's cheap and I'm a starving artist."

"Starving artist, my ass! You make more money than I do for sure."

Christian grins because he knows she's right and he takes another sip of the wine he's poured himself before shuddering. "I can't do it. Here."

He leans forward to hand her the glass and she takes it from his hand, turning it back and downing it all at once. "You gotta chug it. We don't buy alcohol for taste around here. Well, Mel does sometimes but she can afford it. I buy the cheap shit at Target."

"So," he starts, eyes flickering over to Mike before returning back to her. "Hickey?"

"Um, no," she laughs awkwardly because this isn't going to be fun trying to explain to him later. "This is Mike. Mike, this is Christian. He's my....brother? Kind of. Something like that. My mom's engaged to his dad."

Mike totally lightens up after that, leaning up to shake Christian's hand and making easy conversation with him while they finish their scrabble game (which Christian ends up winning of course). He's infinitely more amused by Julia and Christian's back and forth now that he knows they're family but he's still not good at looking at Julia without giving away what he really wants, which is the reason why he showed up at her apartment in the first place. Christian wants to laugh at how obvious he's being, but Julia is either completely oblivious or she's just into it.

Either way, their ridiculous flirting and eye fucking makes him feel super awkward and he decides he should probably go because they're probably just waiting for him to anyway. Julia convinces him to at least stay for dinner and he reluctantly agrees since there can't really be any funny business while they're eating, but as soon as they've finished off most of the chinese food, he's getting up to throw his empty cartons away and saying his goodbyes.

"You don't have to go, Chris," Julia tells him as he pulls on his coat.

"Nah really, J, it's fine. You guys are-....I'm just in the way." He pulls his shoes on by the front door before stopping to look back at them. "I'll text you later, okay?"

"Don't leave town without saying goodbye," she calls after him and he just shoots her a wink before disappearing out the door.

They just sit there in silence for a moment before looking over at each other and Mike moves immediately, grabbing the back of her neck to pull her in to kiss him. Julia reacts like a fire's been lit within her and she climbs over his lap, settling herself on top of him as she drapes her arms over his shoulders and pulls him in closer. Not having been with him in over a month seems to just add fuel to the fire and it's only when he slips his hand into her leggings that she stops him and pulls back a little.

"Melissa's gonna be home soon," she mumbles against his slightly swollen lips. "We can't do this here."

Mike stands easily even with her on top of him and she squeals as she wraps her legs around his waist, tightening her arms around his neck as he carries her down the hall and into her bedroom. Kicking the door shut with his foot, he walks over to drop her gently on the bed so that he can yank his shirt off over his head and unzip his jeans to get those off too. Once he's kicked them to the side, he crawls onto the bed, hovering over her, his hands slipping just under the hem of her hoodie and pausing to rest on her hips. He looks down at the Nats logo plastered across her chest and shakes his head while she just bites back a grin. Jealous again.

"Let's get this off you."