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Chapter Twenty-One
Thorn
“Ugh, small people suck!” I complain, flopping down on the sofa and cracking my neck.
“Excuse me?!” Raven starts to puff up like a mother hen.
“Oh relax, I love her really. But seriously, as a helper, she sucks.”
Raven deflates with a laugh.
“I told you so. But you insisted that the two of you could do it all without any help.”
It’s true, I did insist that Nix and I had all the decorations sorted. I thought it would be a super cute bonding exercise to trim the tree and deck the halls and all that shit together. Like a fabulous, heartwarming Hallmark film.
It wasn’t.
“What went wrong?”
“What didn’t?” I moan. Raven pushes me off the sofa with her feet and I’m about to snap at her when she sits with her legs on either side of me and rubs my shoulders. “Oh god, that feels amazing.”
“Tell me about it.”
“First...She’s three. Which means several important things. She has the attention span of a gnat. And she has no taste. We bought colour schemes for each room but suddenly she wants to mix and match. It’s hideous! And there’s so much pink! Plus she’s only about three foot tall so only the bottom half of each tree is decorated. She couldn’t help me do any of the lights or ceiling decorations, and don’t even get me started on holding the ladder!”
“Is that why you’re so tense?” Raven laughs.
“It was just so stressful! Every time I got to the top of the ladder and was about to do something, she would get distracted. I spent most of the day chasing after her from room to room. Nowhere is finished and everything we have done looks shit. And best of all, she said it was fun to begin with but she wants to do something different tomorrow!”
“Don’t worry about it. She’s a kid. It’s what they do.”
“But I wanted to bond with her.”
“If you guys bonded anymore we’d need solvents to part you both. You’re trouble together, and Nix adores you.”
“I was just trying to create the perfect Christmas.” I sigh.
“You can’t create it. The perfect Christmas just happens. Nix is home, the rest will fall into place. So long as we’re all together, it is perfect.”
“Ugh. You’re right.”
“Of course. But maybe you could finish the decorations in here. Everyone else can do their own rooms if they want. I’ll help Nix finish her tree tomorrow.”
“I called a decorating company. They’ll be here in the morning to finish and fix everything.”
“You’re ridiculous.” She laughs again, leans forward and kisses me on the cheek. “But if it makes you happy…”
“You make me happy. This weird little family thing we have going on...it works.”
“I think so too but I’m glad you agree.”
I pull away from her massage so that I can turn to look at her.
“We did finish the decorations in your room. Want to see?”
“Sure. Do I need sunglasses to shield myself from pink vomit?”
“We did your room first. It’s very tastefully done because Nix wasn’t bored back then.”
