Waking up, I quickly get out of bed and get dressed in some comfy clothes. I finished packing up all of my toiletries as well as teh pajamas I wore to bed last night. I then make the bed and look over the room to make sure that I didn’t forget anything. We have a 10 o clock flight and I knew we’d need to plan some extra time to check our luggage because it is so close to the holidays. 

With this in mind, I quickly grabbed my phone to text Chris and see when he wanted to meet up, however as I picked up the phone, I realized that I called him instead. Realizing that it would look weirder if I ended the call now, I just waited for him to answer. “Hello”, he says, sounding slightly out of breath. 

“Is everything ok?” I ask him. 

“Yeah I’m fine, I was just finishing up my morning workout when you called. What time did you want to meet up this morning? Oh, and did you want to get breakfast this morning? We could find a place or just eat at the airport.” he responds.

Forcing myself to avoid thinking about how he looks right now, I say, “I called you to ask the same thing.” Looking at the clock next to me, it’s currently 7:00, so I ask, “How soon are you able to make it to my hotel?”

There is a slight pause before he says, “Probably like 30 mins, I just got back to my room so I’ll hop in the shower really quick and then I’ll get a taxi.”

“Okay, sounds good. I’ll see you then and we can decide on a place for breakfast.” I answer. With that he says, “Ok, see you in a bit” before hanging up. 

Now knowing I only have 30 minutes, I do one last look through the room to make sure that I didn’t forget anything and cleaning up anything that I had missed earlier. I also scan through the christmas presents I had gotten, and make sure that his watch is carefully wrapped so that it is not damaged at all. 

I decided to head down to the lobby so that I could get checked out ten minutes before we were supposed to meet. As I finished checking out, I got a text message from him that he was waiting in front of my hotel. I grab my luggage and make my way outside. 

“Good morning,” he says with a smile. “I already got us a taxi.” He says as he puts my luggage in the trunk. 

“Good morning, and thank you,” I said with a smile as I slid into the backseat. 

After Chris finished putting my suitcase and carry on into the trunk, he slid into the back seat beside me and he asked, “Do you have anywhere in particular that you would like to go for breakfast? If not, I have a place in mind.” 

“Surprise me,” I said with a grin. “It’s too early to make decisions today.”

He laughs in response before telling the driver where to go. Once again, the food he picked out tasted fantastic and after a wonderful breakfast we headed to the airport to get our luggage checked. 

As expected, the airport was full due to everyone traveling for the holidays and despite arriving early, we just barely made it to our flight in time. As we sat down in our seats, I immediately felt myself relax, traveling can be incredibly stressful and I spent the entire time in the airport worrying that we were actually going to miss our flight. With a sigh I said, “I am so glad we made our flight, I was really worried for a minute there that we would miss it.”

“We made it though, so everything is okay,” he says as he reaches over and gently grabs my hand. “Besides, if your family is as bad as you say, a flight should be a piece of cake in comparison.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, and said, “You know what, you might be right, maybe we would’ve been better off missing this flight.” 

He chuckles before the flight attendants begin to tell us about takeoff and we watch how everything on the ground gets smaller and smaller the higher up we go. Since our flight would be for 6 hours, I turned to Chris and decided to ask if he wanted to watch a movie together to pass the time. He didn’t hesitate to say yes and we started searching through the movies available until we found one we wanted to watch. For the next three hours, we watched the original movie we chose and the sequel before the flight attendants came over to bring out something for lunch. 

I chose a salad and Chris got a sandwich and although the food wasn’t as good as any of the places we visited, it was okay. After eating, I decided to pull out my book and start doing a little bit of reading. I liked to read, but I had been so busy recently that I hadn’t had time. As soon as I started reading however, I realized that Chris had leaned over so that he could see the book as well. With a giggle, I asked “Did you want to read this with me?”

“Maybe,” he answers with a shrug. “Is it good?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t started reading this one yet?” I say as I turn the book so that he can see it as well. “We can read it together, just make sure that you give me time to finish reading before you turn the page.”

“Of course,” he said with a soft laugh. “That is proper book etiquette after all.”

We spent the rest of the flight reading and made it about halfway through the book. Getting out of the airport, I immediately took in a deep breath of fresh air. We decided to get a taxi and grab some fast food for dinner on the way. We also needed to start looking for a place for him to stay, because his hotel had apparently canceled his reservation at the last minute. Despite looking at all of the hotels within a 20 minute radius of my house, I still was struggling to find an empty room for him to stay in. At the last minute, I found one that was only 20 minutes from my house, so I quickly told the driver to take us there. Since our taxi driver had somewhere else to be, we took our luggage out and headed inside. I would just have to get another taxi to get home after we get Chris’s hotel room. However, after going up to the front desk, the receptionist simply apologizes, “I am so sorry, but we are full. I just handed over the key to that room to a couple not even 5 minutes ago. And just so you know, they tried most of the other hotels around here and they are full as well.”

“Ok, thank you,” I responded. Looking outside, I can see the snow falling as it gets darker outside. “Do you mind if we stay in here for a few minutes while we wait for a taxi to get here.” I asked the receptionist. 

“Of course not, it’s too cold for you guys to be standing out in the cold.” she says with a smile. 

Realizing that it is late and unlikely that we’d be able to find him anywhere close to stay, I realize that it might be best to just bring him back to my place. I do live in a two bedroom apartment and he hasn’t given me any reason not to trust him so everything should be fine. Interrupting my train of thought, Chris says, “The taxi is here” before he grabs our luggage. 

“That was fast,” I reply as I grab my carry-on bag. As we get into the taxi, I give the driver my address and turn to Chris. “I was thinking we could just go to my place for tonight. I have a second bedroom so you can sleep there. It’s just getting late and obviously no hotels seem to have any open rooms, so...” At this point, I realized that I was rambling but as I watched Chris’s face in the growing darkness, there were no signs of a reaction. I expected him to have at least some sort of reaction, but his blank face wasn’t very helpful at the moment. “I mean you don’t have to,” I add, “I just thought, since you didn’t have anywhere else to go…” 

This time as my voice trails off, Chris answers,” I just don’t want you to be uncomfortable, I know that we haven’t known each other for very long, and I don’t want to impose.”

I immediately sigh, releasing all of the tension I didn’t realize I was holding, “I wouldn’t have offered if you made me uncomfortable.” Relaxing back into the seat, I say “Besides you won’t be imposing. I plan to put you to work. My house needs decorating and I think that your height is going to help us get everything done even faster.”

With a chuckle, he says, “Okay then, I’m happy to help.” With that, we pass the rest of our ride in exhausted silence. 

As we make it to my place, I give him a small tour of my little apartment. I had a small living room and kitchen, one bathroom, my bedroom and the guest room where he will be staying. After we put away our luggage in our respective rooms, I turn to him and ask, “Do you want to take a shower first? Or, if you’re hungry, you can help yourself to anything in the fridge or cabinets. There probably isn’t much in there though, because I threw out a lot before going to go meet you.”

Smiling, he says, “Food sounds good, the shower is all yours.” With that, I can hear his footsteps heading back into the kitchen. I quickly grab my clothes and hop in the shower. After finishing up in the bathroom, I open the door to smell something delicious. Walking into the kitchen, I find Chris plating up some spaghetti and garlic bread. 

“I hope you made enough for me, because this smells fantastic.” I say as I enter the kitchen.

Smiling, he says, “I had hoped you would want some, so I made extra.” He quickly made me a plate and we sat down to eat. After the first bite I couldn’t believe how delicious this was with the few ingredients I had. “You know, if I knew you could cook like this, I wouldn’t have even thought of letting you stay in a hotel. You know, you don’t have to go back right. You could stay here with me.” I say with a grin. Although I was half-joking, his food was really good and I wouldn’t mind him being here with me. My apartment has always felt really empty and lonely and just him being here already gives the place a feeling of comfort that it never really had before. 

“You’d better be careful, offering me something like that. I might just take you up on it. Although, I’m going to be honest, I wouldn't mind being your husband as well as personal chef if you’re up for negotiations.” He said in a teasing tone. His grin only grew bigger as he watched my face turn red from blushing. Before I could respond, he said, “You don’t have to respond if you don’t want to. I know I can be a bit much sometimes, so just let me know if I make you uncomfortable and I’ll stop.”

Although I’ve been desperately trying to ignore my feelings for him, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him it makes me uncomfortable. After all, it would only be a lie. So I said, “You don’t make me uncomfortable, you are just very forward sometimes, that’s all.”

“Would you like me to be less forward?” he asks. Immediately, he follows up with, “Wait, a second, does this mean that I actually have a chance?”

Deciding to answer him honestly I say, “No, I prefer you as you are. As for your second question, if you keep feeding me good food, I won’t be able to help but fall in love with you.”

As he cleans up our plates, he says, “I can’t believe you’re actually giving me tips on how to win you over now, and since you didn’t say no… I guess that means you are giving me a chance.” With a smile, he says, “I’m glad we could have this conversation and eat together, but you look like you need to get some sleep. I’ll do the dishes so you can head to bed and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Thank you and goodnight.” I responded. He says goodnight as well as I make my way to my room. As I get into bed, I think about the conversation I just had with Chris. I can’t believe I basically just told him my feelings and he actually acted casually about everything. It had been a long day and it didn’t take long before I drifted off to sleep