SHOCK AND AWE
MEL
Mel, Kate, and Zoe returned from the rec room that the kids had been decorating cookies in, carrying plates full of their hard work. After everyone gushed over the frosted monstrosities only a kid could see as art, and
after Walker "ruthlessly" bit the head off of one, nearly making his granddaughter cry, the children were escorted into the living room by their mothers to greet the rest of the party guests.
It wasn't too long before the Christmas party in the Hanson household was back to normal. Mel still couldn't seem to shake the slight uncomfortable feeling the little episode gave her and she just knew that once she left the kitchen, eyes of pity would all be on her.
She didn't want pity. She wanted to beat the bitch's ass.
Since that wasn't an option, she chose to refill her eggnog and suck it up. And speaking of, she decided it might be time to start laying off the eggnog for awhile. Her legs were warming, her tongue was getting a little numb, and that old familiar "I don't care" attitude that only alcohol could provide was beginning to creep
up on her. She would cut herself off and eat a little more after this glass.
Mel took a deep breath and prepared to leave the kitchen and face the music when she stopped for a moment and smiled--she was literally facing the music. Rounding the corner and pushing her way through the small crowd of family members, the four Hanson brothers stood before them, singing a Christmas song a cappella. Well, almost a cappella--Isaac was equipped with his acoustic.
Taylor's eyes met hers and they smiled at each other. She wanted to giggle at the blood rising in his cheeks. She was always amused by his shyness. It was adorable. However, her eyes immediately flew to Mac. The four of them sounded absolutely fantastic together, but Mac's voice--well, she hated to admit it, but he had apparently been the one to inherit the pipes in the family. Not that Ike, Tay, and Zac couldn't sing well. That couldn't have been further from the truth. But Mac? Mac could SING. Mel was mesmerized, as she always had been by an exceptional voice. But now her wheels were turning as well. She made a mental note to speak to Tay about this ASAP.
Their mini performance turned into a family sing-along for the next half hour or so, complete with Ike begging
Mel to lend her voice and Mel completely refusing. She was in absolutely no shape to sing and she tried to keep a little class by not explaining why. She had half a glass of eggnog left and she wasn't very confident of her ability to form syllables even as she spoke.
Sing-alongs turned into reminiscing as immediate and extended family, alike, shared stories and memories
about each other. It was heart-warming to Mel when one or two of them involving her crept in there. The moment was so picture-perfect she could have cried. She sat in the floor next to Tay due to a severe lack of
seating options and they stole a glance at each other. He smiled and put his arm around her, whispering that he loved her quietly in her ear. Mel smiled widely. Perfection.
____________________________________
TAYLOR
Sitting next to Mel, listening to crazy antics his cousins were involved in as children, surrounded by his
brothers and his niece, nephews, and parents, life was perfect according to Taylor. He hadn't had a Christmas this good in--well, he really couldn't remember. He didn't need Christmas morning to come. He didn't need
anything else for the holiday other than where he was at, exactly in that moment.
Until Zac stood up to speak.
Tay should have known by the smile on Zac's face that this story wouldn't end well, but he was too in the
moment to care. "I actually have a story that nobody's ever heard before. Uh, as brothers, when you grow up in such close quarters with each other, so close in age, you tend to...harbor secrets about each other. Get in the kind of "don't tell Mom" trouble together, that sort of thing."
"Oh really?" Diana responded, mockingly.
Family members laughed as Zac continued to speak. "Yes, really, Mom. Don't worry, the cops weren't called."
"This just keeps getting better!" Diana said in mock shock. "Should they have been?"
This caused Zac to laugh and he nodded. "Yeah, they probably should have been. Anyway, this particular story I was told to take to my grave, but given current circumstances, I'd say it's pretty safe to tell now. To set the scene, Mel, here, kinda stumbled back into our lives as a babysitter. But what I want to talk about is BEFORE that." His grin widened as he looked over at Tay.
Tay wanted to die. He wanted to absolutely melt into the carpet. "Uh, Zac, I don't really think this is necessary..."
"Oh, I think it is. I figure since we're all reminiscing, it's time I go ahead and let the proverbial cat--or DOG, as the case may be--out of the bag."
"Oh my god," Tay muttered, hiding his face in his hand.
"Tay, what is he talking about?" Mel asked.
"Just close your ears, you don't want to hear this."
"Oh, I think she does," Zac laughed. "She'll get a kick out of it!"
"Well I'm intrigued now," Mel said, straightening up to prepare for Zac's story.
Tay groaned. Family laughed. His perfect Christmas, and his life, was officially over.
"So, Mel, remember your first reunion with my dear brother? Oh, the drama, the fanfare..."
"Zac..." Tay warned.
Zac ignored him. "Well the truth is, Tay wasn't as clueless as he wanted you to believe he was. He already knew you were in town. He knew an entire month before your little reunion."
"Is this true?" Mel asked Tay.
Tay was ruined. He knew it. He just knew it. "Well...I didn't know it was YOU..."
"That is true," Zac said. "He honestly didn't know. Neither one of us did. However, he saw you and Drew walking down the street one day and it was all over from there. Tay dragged me up and down those streets every damn day! He wouldn't tell Ike because he was afraid Ike would swoop in with his charm and steal you
away--which he did try, by the way, that's no secret. Anyway, there was a ballgame at the high school one Friday night and everyone was making their way home. We were sitting outside on the porch and Tay punches me in the gut and I almost puke. And he's like 'There they are!' And I look up and there's Mel and Drew just walking on by on their way home. They didn't see us because the porch light wasn't on so the yard was dark, but we could see them because of the street lights."
"Tay!" Mel said. "Why didn't you ever speak to me?"
"Oh that was never gonna happen," Zac said. "Tay was a wuss when it came to girls. He would never make the first move. And you never noticed him so it was pretty much hopeless."
"How old were you at the time?" One of their cousins asked.
"Oh god," Zac laughed. "Young. 12 and 14 maybe? Middle of Nowhere had JUST happened then. Like, it was FRESH. Anyway, it gets better. I was ready to walk up to them and be like 'Hey, my brother likes you.' But Tay wanted no part of that. So we stalked them. Mel, we stalked you. At 10:30 at night, in the dark, we stalked you. All the way home. For the FIRST time."
Tay's blood boiled in embarrassment and he felt a light slap on his arm. "YOU STALKED ME?" Mel managed to squeak out. She was laughing. He was convinced it was the alcohol and at this rate he was willing to bring her the entire jug of eggnog right that second. As long as it kept her laughing.
"Jordan Taylor!" Diana said. "I raised you better than that."
"Hey, Zac never uttered a WORD! He's not innocent either. Ike didn't even know!"
At this point, Zac was losing his mind. Once he was able to remotely calm himself, he said to his mother, "Mom, you remember when Tay and I came home and Tay sprained his ankle? And you were like 'Oh my god, what were you two doing out so late?' And we told you we helped the neighbor chase his dog down the street?"
"Well, yeah, you never found it."
"Because the neighbor didn't even have a dog. No. We discovered that Mel had a ladder below her window that Drew used to climb up and into her room. And Tay fell off of that ladder. But it wasn't the fall that hurt him. Mel's neighbor DID have a dog. A big one. So all at once, the flood lights on Mel's house come on and there's Tay, flat on his back, and this HUGE dog next door had apparently just broken it's chain and it was like slow motion. I'm trying to help my brother up, the lights are on, the dog is coming for us. Tay fell and twisted his ankle as he was running home. For his life. The dog was just a convenient story. The truth of the matter was, my brother, Taylor Hanson, was a creepy stalker as a teenager."
"And YOU helped!" Tay said, defensively, trying to deflect ANYTHING he could off of himself.
The room roared. Ike, Zac, Paul, and Walker laughed until they cried. Stern looks came from Diana, Kate, and Nikki. Tay wanted to melt into the floor and Mel drained her eggnog and looked around calmly.
And then she cleared her throat.
"I want you to know that I actually remember that night," she said. The room fell silent. "I never knew what it was. I never found out and I never had a clue. But I want you to know that TO THIS DAY, I believed my parents' house was haunted because of that very night. I was so scared that night, it was unreal. Drew and I slept downstairs and practically begged my parents to sleep with their bedroom door open. You guys remember that?" Mel looked over at her parents. Her parents were laughing. Mel looked horrified at them. "Did you two KNOW about this?"
Susan shook her head. "No. We honestly didn't. But we knew the house wasn't haunted. It had just been built a couple years before we moved into it."
"So why did you let me believe it?"
"Sweetie, you were a teenager. There was no telling you anything, you were going to believe what you wanted to, regardless. So we thought it was just a phase and chose to let it run its course."
"Except that it wasn't..."
"I'm sorry, honey."
Her father, meanwhile, lost his mind alongside Zac.
Tay looked over at Mel and she looked back at him. He expected to see anger in her eyes, but instead he
saw defiance. And laughter. And he knew in that moment that he was safe. She turned her attention to the rest of the room and smiled. "You know what? I see how this is gonna be. We don't need to take this abuse. Forget you guys. We're taking our toys and we're going home!"
At this, the entire room was roaring with laughter.
And then Tay made an impulse decision. Right then and there. He hadn't discussed it with Mel, and he may very well lose his life over it, but something about it felt absolutely right and if she didn't like it, well--that was a fight they could have at home later. But there was just something...something...
He stood up and raised his voice over the laughter to get control of the room. "Well, I don't really have a story to tell, because I'm kind like that, but I do have sort of an announcement." He reached down and helped Mel to her feet. There was confusion in her eyes, mixed with a hint of fear. He was so nervous he almost couldn't handle it but there was no turning back now. He'd already opened his mouth. "We decided to announce it here merely for convenience. We just wanted everyone to know, family first, that we FINALLY set a wedding date. For October 20th of next year, and everyone in the room WILL receive an invitation."
What followed was a sea of applause, congrats, hugs, cheering, and other various types of positive response. He stole a glance at Mel and she was in pure shock. He could tell she was holding back. He knew she wanted to react. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell if she was angry or not. But she had to be. She absolutely had to be, there was no doubt about it. Instead of expressing herself right there in the moment, she plastered a smile on
her face and played along and didn't let a single soul know that this was news to her.
_____________________________________________
MEL
The first half of the car ride home that night was silent. Mel was still in shock. She couldn't drive home due to her current blood alcohol level but she was still coherent enough to understand and remember what had gone on at the party. They stayed late to help clean up and she remembered being relatively silent during the clean up.
Finally, Taylor broke the silence. "You're mad, aren't you? I know you are. Just go ahead and get it out. You get a freebie just to let loose on me tonight. I won't even fight back."
Mel found herself smiling in the dark. Surprisingly, she wasn't mad. In actuality, in spite of herself, she felt relieved. "I'm not mad," she said.
She saw Tay's head whip toward her then back toward the road. "You're--seriously? Impossible."
"Am I really that bad?"
"Well--I mean, I made a pretty big decision for us back there without discussing it with you first. If I were in your shoes, I'd be fuming."
"So why'd you do it?"
Tay shrugged. "It just felt right."
"Honestly? I'm not mad. I'm really not mad. I think I've been so quiet because I've been trying to GET mad. Like, I feel like I should be but I'm not. And I'm trying to be okay with that. And accepting of it. Because, honestly, Tay, the truth is, I'm relieved. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. We actually have a wedding decision MADE and we can actually start planning for REAL. It's kind of exciting. It's the perfect Christmas present."
She looked over at him and she saw him smile into the glow of the dashboard. "Seriously? That's really how you feel about it?"
"That's really how I feel about it."
"And the date. The date is okay?"
"The date is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. Plenty of time to give to caterers and florists and schedule the venue...it's perfect. You did good tonight."
They pulled into the driveway and Tay turned off the car. "Stay here for a minute."
"But, Tay, it's cold out here."
"Only for a second, I promise."
Not wanting to ruin their good night, she chose to keep her mouth shut and not argue any further. While
she waited, she got her phone out and started messing around with it when the lighting changed in her peripheral vision. It made her look up and she gasped in shock.
She got out of the Jeep, unable to take her eyes off her house. It was ablaze in lights. White lights. They outlined the roof, the windows, the posts on the porch, the bushes. Where there wasn't light, there were garland and wreaths and red bows. It was beautiful. Suddenly, Mel wasn't cold anymore. In fact, her body didn't even seem to register temperature.
His hands shoved in his pockets, Tay darted across the yard and stood next to her. "What do you think?"
"Oh my god!" Mel giggled and hugged him happily. "When did you do this? Why didn't I notice it this earlier?"
"I was careful not to use icicle lights so they wouldn't be noticeable. I like icicle lights, though, so if you want to use them next year, we can. But I did some here and some there. Mostly when you were occupied inside. Sometimes at night when you were sleeping--"
"Tay that's dangerous!"
"--sometimes I had help," he finished his sentence, smiling. "I wanted you to have the perfect Christmas and I didn't think it was complete without lights."
"It's beautiful," Mel said, still beaming. "I love it. I really do. I almost want to pitch a tent out here so I don't miss it."
"Yeah, not gonna happen," Tay laughed, his teeth starting to chatter.
Mel noticed Tay's discomfort. "Let's go inside. It's freezing out here. Literally."
"That's the best suggestion I've heard all night."
As they walked in the house, they immediately heard Fred screeching from the bathroom. He was too little to let him have the run of the house just yet so when they left the house, they had to isolate him. Mel wanted to cry at the sound. She raced to the bathroom and straightened up the bathroom behind him and carried him upstairs to the bedroom so she could change her clothes.
Once in their pajamas, Tay and Mel met each other downstairs in the kitchen. Immediately, she handed Fred
to Tay and ordered Tay to go in the living room. He had done way too much tonight. She insisted on pampering him for the rest of the night. It was the least she could do. They watched what he wanted to watch, talked about what he wanted to talk about, drank what he wanted to drink and snacked on what he wanted to snack on. For Mel, the rest of Christmas Eve was all about Tay.
They had been sitting for awhile. Nobody was counting time. They were into National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation pretty deep, laughing and quoting lines in the dark along with the movie. The only light in the room was the television and the tree, so when Fred left the couch, you couldn't see where he was by simply looking around.
But you could hear him.
"Tay, what is that noise?"
"I didn't hear anything."
"Mute the TV."
Tay pressed the mute button and the pair sat in silence. Ever so quietly, they could hear the rustling off to the right of them, across the room at the bay window. Mel craned her neck to see and she found Fred in the window, vigilantly batting at something in the window sill. "What is he chasing?" Mel asked.
Tay craned his neck to see, too, and then settled back down. "Probably a bug. He'll get it, don't worry."
Mel tried to settle back down to watch the movie but Fred just kept at it and she stayed distracted. "Tay are you sure that's a bug?"
"He's just doing his kitten thing, don't worry about it. He's fine."
But Mel wasn't satisfied. Curiosity got the best of her and besides, she was ready to snuggle her kitty. "I'm just gonna go see."
"Mel, come on," Tay groaned. "Don't get up, I'm comfortable."
"I'll be back in just a second, I promise."
Mel walked over to the bay window and squatted down behind Fred, as the kitten never noticed her approach. "Hey," she whispered at him. "Whatcha got there?"
Mel looked around him on both sides but saw no signs of a bug anywhere. She was about to give up when
her eyes glanced out the window and her eyes widened. The yard, in the glow of the Christmas lights, was blanketed in white. Stepping back and adjusting her eyes, it occurred to her that it was snowing!
"Tay!" Mel hissed. "Tay! He's chasing snowflakes!"
He looked at her, confused. "What?"
"It's snowing! And he's been chasing the snowflakes that are falling outside the window. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen? Where's a video camera when you need it?
Tay got up from his seat and shuffled to join Mel at the window. "Oh. Well. So it is."
Standing behind her, Tay wrapped an arm around Mel's neck and kissed the top of her head. She had scooped Fred off the window seat and the three of them stood and watched the snow for a moment. As the snow fell, a tear fell from Mel's eye. Again, absolute perfection.
"Oh, hey, check this out," Tay said, reaching over on the mantle next to them. "I kinda stole this from Mom's house tonight."
She turned around and Tay dangled mistletoe in front of her. Before she could say a word, he bent over and quickly kissed Fred on top of his tiny head. Mel melted. She was a complete puddle in the floor, at Tay's infinite mercy. "Oh, Tay," Mel said, wiping a tear from her eye. "You kissed Fred."
"Yeah, yeah, don't read too much into it."
Mel giggled through her tears and he held the mistletoe higher and leaned in for the main event. It had been the most perfect Christmas ever, for both of them. Twenty-five years in the making.
MEL
Mel, Kate, and Zoe returned from the rec room that the kids had been decorating cookies in, carrying plates full of their hard work. After everyone gushed over the frosted monstrosities only a kid could see as art, and
after Walker "ruthlessly" bit the head off of one, nearly making his granddaughter cry, the children were escorted into the living room by their mothers to greet the rest of the party guests.
It wasn't too long before the Christmas party in the Hanson household was back to normal. Mel still couldn't seem to shake the slight uncomfortable feeling the little episode gave her and she just knew that once she left the kitchen, eyes of pity would all be on her.
She didn't want pity. She wanted to beat the bitch's ass.
Since that wasn't an option, she chose to refill her eggnog and suck it up. And speaking of, she decided it might be time to start laying off the eggnog for awhile. Her legs were warming, her tongue was getting a little numb, and that old familiar "I don't care" attitude that only alcohol could provide was beginning to creep
up on her. She would cut herself off and eat a little more after this glass.
Mel took a deep breath and prepared to leave the kitchen and face the music when she stopped for a moment and smiled--she was literally facing the music. Rounding the corner and pushing her way through the small crowd of family members, the four Hanson brothers stood before them, singing a Christmas song a cappella. Well, almost a cappella--Isaac was equipped with his acoustic.
Taylor's eyes met hers and they smiled at each other. She wanted to giggle at the blood rising in his cheeks. She was always amused by his shyness. It was adorable. However, her eyes immediately flew to Mac. The four of them sounded absolutely fantastic together, but Mac's voice--well, she hated to admit it, but he had apparently been the one to inherit the pipes in the family. Not that Ike, Tay, and Zac couldn't sing well. That couldn't have been further from the truth. But Mac? Mac could SING. Mel was mesmerized, as she always had been by an exceptional voice. But now her wheels were turning as well. She made a mental note to speak to Tay about this ASAP.
Their mini performance turned into a family sing-along for the next half hour or so, complete with Ike begging
Mel to lend her voice and Mel completely refusing. She was in absolutely no shape to sing and she tried to keep a little class by not explaining why. She had half a glass of eggnog left and she wasn't very confident of her ability to form syllables even as she spoke.
Sing-alongs turned into reminiscing as immediate and extended family, alike, shared stories and memories
about each other. It was heart-warming to Mel when one or two of them involving her crept in there. The moment was so picture-perfect she could have cried. She sat in the floor next to Tay due to a severe lack of
seating options and they stole a glance at each other. He smiled and put his arm around her, whispering that he loved her quietly in her ear. Mel smiled widely. Perfection.
____________________________________
TAYLOR
Sitting next to Mel, listening to crazy antics his cousins were involved in as children, surrounded by his
brothers and his niece, nephews, and parents, life was perfect according to Taylor. He hadn't had a Christmas this good in--well, he really couldn't remember. He didn't need Christmas morning to come. He didn't need
anything else for the holiday other than where he was at, exactly in that moment.
Until Zac stood up to speak.
Tay should have known by the smile on Zac's face that this story wouldn't end well, but he was too in the
moment to care. "I actually have a story that nobody's ever heard before. Uh, as brothers, when you grow up in such close quarters with each other, so close in age, you tend to...harbor secrets about each other. Get in the kind of "don't tell Mom" trouble together, that sort of thing."
"Oh really?" Diana responded, mockingly.
Family members laughed as Zac continued to speak. "Yes, really, Mom. Don't worry, the cops weren't called."
"This just keeps getting better!" Diana said in mock shock. "Should they have been?"
This caused Zac to laugh and he nodded. "Yeah, they probably should have been. Anyway, this particular story I was told to take to my grave, but given current circumstances, I'd say it's pretty safe to tell now. To set the scene, Mel, here, kinda stumbled back into our lives as a babysitter. But what I want to talk about is BEFORE that." His grin widened as he looked over at Tay.
Tay wanted to die. He wanted to absolutely melt into the carpet. "Uh, Zac, I don't really think this is necessary..."
"Oh, I think it is. I figure since we're all reminiscing, it's time I go ahead and let the proverbial cat--or DOG, as the case may be--out of the bag."
"Oh my god," Tay muttered, hiding his face in his hand.
"Tay, what is he talking about?" Mel asked.
"Just close your ears, you don't want to hear this."
"Oh, I think she does," Zac laughed. "She'll get a kick out of it!"
"Well I'm intrigued now," Mel said, straightening up to prepare for Zac's story.
Tay groaned. Family laughed. His perfect Christmas, and his life, was officially over.
"So, Mel, remember your first reunion with my dear brother? Oh, the drama, the fanfare..."
"Zac..." Tay warned.
Zac ignored him. "Well the truth is, Tay wasn't as clueless as he wanted you to believe he was. He already knew you were in town. He knew an entire month before your little reunion."
"Is this true?" Mel asked Tay.
Tay was ruined. He knew it. He just knew it. "Well...I didn't know it was YOU..."
"That is true," Zac said. "He honestly didn't know. Neither one of us did. However, he saw you and Drew walking down the street one day and it was all over from there. Tay dragged me up and down those streets every damn day! He wouldn't tell Ike because he was afraid Ike would swoop in with his charm and steal you
away--which he did try, by the way, that's no secret. Anyway, there was a ballgame at the high school one Friday night and everyone was making their way home. We were sitting outside on the porch and Tay punches me in the gut and I almost puke. And he's like 'There they are!' And I look up and there's Mel and Drew just walking on by on their way home. They didn't see us because the porch light wasn't on so the yard was dark, but we could see them because of the street lights."
"Tay!" Mel said. "Why didn't you ever speak to me?"
"Oh that was never gonna happen," Zac said. "Tay was a wuss when it came to girls. He would never make the first move. And you never noticed him so it was pretty much hopeless."
"How old were you at the time?" One of their cousins asked.
"Oh god," Zac laughed. "Young. 12 and 14 maybe? Middle of Nowhere had JUST happened then. Like, it was FRESH. Anyway, it gets better. I was ready to walk up to them and be like 'Hey, my brother likes you.' But Tay wanted no part of that. So we stalked them. Mel, we stalked you. At 10:30 at night, in the dark, we stalked you. All the way home. For the FIRST time."
Tay's blood boiled in embarrassment and he felt a light slap on his arm. "YOU STALKED ME?" Mel managed to squeak out. She was laughing. He was convinced it was the alcohol and at this rate he was willing to bring her the entire jug of eggnog right that second. As long as it kept her laughing.
"Jordan Taylor!" Diana said. "I raised you better than that."
"Hey, Zac never uttered a WORD! He's not innocent either. Ike didn't even know!"
At this point, Zac was losing his mind. Once he was able to remotely calm himself, he said to his mother, "Mom, you remember when Tay and I came home and Tay sprained his ankle? And you were like 'Oh my god, what were you two doing out so late?' And we told you we helped the neighbor chase his dog down the street?"
"Well, yeah, you never found it."
"Because the neighbor didn't even have a dog. No. We discovered that Mel had a ladder below her window that Drew used to climb up and into her room. And Tay fell off of that ladder. But it wasn't the fall that hurt him. Mel's neighbor DID have a dog. A big one. So all at once, the flood lights on Mel's house come on and there's Tay, flat on his back, and this HUGE dog next door had apparently just broken it's chain and it was like slow motion. I'm trying to help my brother up, the lights are on, the dog is coming for us. Tay fell and twisted his ankle as he was running home. For his life. The dog was just a convenient story. The truth of the matter was, my brother, Taylor Hanson, was a creepy stalker as a teenager."
"And YOU helped!" Tay said, defensively, trying to deflect ANYTHING he could off of himself.
The room roared. Ike, Zac, Paul, and Walker laughed until they cried. Stern looks came from Diana, Kate, and Nikki. Tay wanted to melt into the floor and Mel drained her eggnog and looked around calmly.
And then she cleared her throat.
"I want you to know that I actually remember that night," she said. The room fell silent. "I never knew what it was. I never found out and I never had a clue. But I want you to know that TO THIS DAY, I believed my parents' house was haunted because of that very night. I was so scared that night, it was unreal. Drew and I slept downstairs and practically begged my parents to sleep with their bedroom door open. You guys remember that?" Mel looked over at her parents. Her parents were laughing. Mel looked horrified at them. "Did you two KNOW about this?"
Susan shook her head. "No. We honestly didn't. But we knew the house wasn't haunted. It had just been built a couple years before we moved into it."
"So why did you let me believe it?"
"Sweetie, you were a teenager. There was no telling you anything, you were going to believe what you wanted to, regardless. So we thought it was just a phase and chose to let it run its course."
"Except that it wasn't..."
"I'm sorry, honey."
Her father, meanwhile, lost his mind alongside Zac.
Tay looked over at Mel and she looked back at him. He expected to see anger in her eyes, but instead he
saw defiance. And laughter. And he knew in that moment that he was safe. She turned her attention to the rest of the room and smiled. "You know what? I see how this is gonna be. We don't need to take this abuse. Forget you guys. We're taking our toys and we're going home!"
At this, the entire room was roaring with laughter.
And then Tay made an impulse decision. Right then and there. He hadn't discussed it with Mel, and he may very well lose his life over it, but something about it felt absolutely right and if she didn't like it, well--that was a fight they could have at home later. But there was just something...something...
He stood up and raised his voice over the laughter to get control of the room. "Well, I don't really have a story to tell, because I'm kind like that, but I do have sort of an announcement." He reached down and helped Mel to her feet. There was confusion in her eyes, mixed with a hint of fear. He was so nervous he almost couldn't handle it but there was no turning back now. He'd already opened his mouth. "We decided to announce it here merely for convenience. We just wanted everyone to know, family first, that we FINALLY set a wedding date. For October 20th of next year, and everyone in the room WILL receive an invitation."
What followed was a sea of applause, congrats, hugs, cheering, and other various types of positive response. He stole a glance at Mel and she was in pure shock. He could tell she was holding back. He knew she wanted to react. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell if she was angry or not. But she had to be. She absolutely had to be, there was no doubt about it. Instead of expressing herself right there in the moment, she plastered a smile on
her face and played along and didn't let a single soul know that this was news to her.
_____________________________________________
MEL
The first half of the car ride home that night was silent. Mel was still in shock. She couldn't drive home due to her current blood alcohol level but she was still coherent enough to understand and remember what had gone on at the party. They stayed late to help clean up and she remembered being relatively silent during the clean up.
Finally, Taylor broke the silence. "You're mad, aren't you? I know you are. Just go ahead and get it out. You get a freebie just to let loose on me tonight. I won't even fight back."
Mel found herself smiling in the dark. Surprisingly, she wasn't mad. In actuality, in spite of herself, she felt relieved. "I'm not mad," she said.
She saw Tay's head whip toward her then back toward the road. "You're--seriously? Impossible."
"Am I really that bad?"
"Well--I mean, I made a pretty big decision for us back there without discussing it with you first. If I were in your shoes, I'd be fuming."
"So why'd you do it?"
Tay shrugged. "It just felt right."
"Honestly? I'm not mad. I'm really not mad. I think I've been so quiet because I've been trying to GET mad. Like, I feel like I should be but I'm not. And I'm trying to be okay with that. And accepting of it. Because, honestly, Tay, the truth is, I'm relieved. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. We actually have a wedding decision MADE and we can actually start planning for REAL. It's kind of exciting. It's the perfect Christmas present."
She looked over at him and she saw him smile into the glow of the dashboard. "Seriously? That's really how you feel about it?"
"That's really how I feel about it."
"And the date. The date is okay?"
"The date is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. Plenty of time to give to caterers and florists and schedule the venue...it's perfect. You did good tonight."
They pulled into the driveway and Tay turned off the car. "Stay here for a minute."
"But, Tay, it's cold out here."
"Only for a second, I promise."
Not wanting to ruin their good night, she chose to keep her mouth shut and not argue any further. While
she waited, she got her phone out and started messing around with it when the lighting changed in her peripheral vision. It made her look up and she gasped in shock.
She got out of the Jeep, unable to take her eyes off her house. It was ablaze in lights. White lights. They outlined the roof, the windows, the posts on the porch, the bushes. Where there wasn't light, there were garland and wreaths and red bows. It was beautiful. Suddenly, Mel wasn't cold anymore. In fact, her body didn't even seem to register temperature.
His hands shoved in his pockets, Tay darted across the yard and stood next to her. "What do you think?"
"Oh my god!" Mel giggled and hugged him happily. "When did you do this? Why didn't I notice it this earlier?"
"I was careful not to use icicle lights so they wouldn't be noticeable. I like icicle lights, though, so if you want to use them next year, we can. But I did some here and some there. Mostly when you were occupied inside. Sometimes at night when you were sleeping--"
"Tay that's dangerous!"
"--sometimes I had help," he finished his sentence, smiling. "I wanted you to have the perfect Christmas and I didn't think it was complete without lights."
"It's beautiful," Mel said, still beaming. "I love it. I really do. I almost want to pitch a tent out here so I don't miss it."
"Yeah, not gonna happen," Tay laughed, his teeth starting to chatter.
Mel noticed Tay's discomfort. "Let's go inside. It's freezing out here. Literally."
"That's the best suggestion I've heard all night."
As they walked in the house, they immediately heard Fred screeching from the bathroom. He was too little to let him have the run of the house just yet so when they left the house, they had to isolate him. Mel wanted to cry at the sound. She raced to the bathroom and straightened up the bathroom behind him and carried him upstairs to the bedroom so she could change her clothes.
Once in their pajamas, Tay and Mel met each other downstairs in the kitchen. Immediately, she handed Fred
to Tay and ordered Tay to go in the living room. He had done way too much tonight. She insisted on pampering him for the rest of the night. It was the least she could do. They watched what he wanted to watch, talked about what he wanted to talk about, drank what he wanted to drink and snacked on what he wanted to snack on. For Mel, the rest of Christmas Eve was all about Tay.
They had been sitting for awhile. Nobody was counting time. They were into National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation pretty deep, laughing and quoting lines in the dark along with the movie. The only light in the room was the television and the tree, so when Fred left the couch, you couldn't see where he was by simply looking around.
But you could hear him.
"Tay, what is that noise?"
"I didn't hear anything."
"Mute the TV."
Tay pressed the mute button and the pair sat in silence. Ever so quietly, they could hear the rustling off to the right of them, across the room at the bay window. Mel craned her neck to see and she found Fred in the window, vigilantly batting at something in the window sill. "What is he chasing?" Mel asked.
Tay craned his neck to see, too, and then settled back down. "Probably a bug. He'll get it, don't worry."
Mel tried to settle back down to watch the movie but Fred just kept at it and she stayed distracted. "Tay are you sure that's a bug?"
"He's just doing his kitten thing, don't worry about it. He's fine."
But Mel wasn't satisfied. Curiosity got the best of her and besides, she was ready to snuggle her kitty. "I'm just gonna go see."
"Mel, come on," Tay groaned. "Don't get up, I'm comfortable."
"I'll be back in just a second, I promise."
Mel walked over to the bay window and squatted down behind Fred, as the kitten never noticed her approach. "Hey," she whispered at him. "Whatcha got there?"
Mel looked around him on both sides but saw no signs of a bug anywhere. She was about to give up when
her eyes glanced out the window and her eyes widened. The yard, in the glow of the Christmas lights, was blanketed in white. Stepping back and adjusting her eyes, it occurred to her that it was snowing!
"Tay!" Mel hissed. "Tay! He's chasing snowflakes!"
He looked at her, confused. "What?"
"It's snowing! And he's been chasing the snowflakes that are falling outside the window. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen? Where's a video camera when you need it?
Tay got up from his seat and shuffled to join Mel at the window. "Oh. Well. So it is."
Standing behind her, Tay wrapped an arm around Mel's neck and kissed the top of her head. She had scooped Fred off the window seat and the three of them stood and watched the snow for a moment. As the snow fell, a tear fell from Mel's eye. Again, absolute perfection.
"Oh, hey, check this out," Tay said, reaching over on the mantle next to them. "I kinda stole this from Mom's house tonight."
She turned around and Tay dangled mistletoe in front of her. Before she could say a word, he bent over and quickly kissed Fred on top of his tiny head. Mel melted. She was a complete puddle in the floor, at Tay's infinite mercy. "Oh, Tay," Mel said, wiping a tear from her eye. "You kissed Fred."
"Yeah, yeah, don't read too much into it."
Mel giggled through her tears and he held the mistletoe higher and leaned in for the main event. It had been the most perfect Christmas ever, for both of them. Twenty-five years in the making.