Monthly Bonus Content #4 — ‘Making Memories’ (Nate Xmas Special) (Patreon)

My fingers pinch the velvet ribbon between my fingers, the bauble swinging gently from it and sparkling in the multi-coloured fairy lights already coiled around the empty fir tree.

A pout sits on my lips as I watch it sway. It’s a beautiful object—expensive and heavy—wrapped in velvet with gems twinkling at the top before fading away to glitter towards the bottom.

Nate chuckles from behind me, so I grasp the bauble in my hand and look over my shoulder at him.

He’s sorting through packages in shopping bags, tugging out the tissue paper holding the packages safely in place and folding it all neatly next to each bag.

“Decorating a Christmas tree usually inspires joy.” He stands from his crouched position and walks towards me, placing his thumb and index finger either side of my lips. “Not so much pouting.”

I draw my head back so as I can speak. “It’s just….” My gaze drops to the decoration in my hand, the weight of it hefty but still in some way empty.

“Yes?” Nate prompts, stepping closer with obvious interest but worry making the word drag from his lips.

I lift the bauble. “They’re just decorations.”

He arches a brow as his deep brown eyes slide to the bauble. “Um, yes? That would seem to be their purpose.”

“Just decorations,” I repeat, thrusting it forward until it almost bounces off the tip of his nose.

He pushes my hand away to look me in the eye. “Isn’t that the point? We need something to decorate this monstrosity.” He gestures with a flap of his hand at the ginormous Christmas tree. The others had, foolishly, allowed Farah and I to pick out the tree. We’d found the biggest one on the lot. Its fat branches are barely contained by the alcove we’ve placed it in, the top of it tilting slightly as it hits the roof, and the base is so wide it almost blocks the path around the sofa.

I cradle the glittering object in my palm. “Christmas is about memories.” My fingers loosen on it as the gems bite into my palm. “There are no memories to any of these.” I nod at the newly bought decorations and décor. “They’re just so new.”

His lips instantly push into a smile before he tugs me close and plants a kiss on my temple. “That’s surprisingly sentimental of you, [Name].”

I wrap my free arm around him and inhale the heady scent of cinnamon and spruce. “I can be soft when I want to be.”

His fingers wrap around my hand before taking the bauble from my grasp. He throws it into the air before catching it with ease.

“You say it has no memories? Well, we just made one for it.” He coils the ribbon around his finger to let the bauble dangle from it. “When I look at this, I’ll always remember this moment and how Christmas brings out the sweetness in you.”

I smile at it. “I suppose you have a point.”

“And look,” he stoops down to retrieve another bauble, “this one will hold another memory.”

“Which memory?” I needn’t have asked as he shows me exactly. His lips find mine in a kiss that’s as sweet and warm as hot cocoa. And just as delicious. I savour the taste of it after he draws away, letting my eyes remain closed for a while and rolling my lips together.

“Is that memory satisfactory?” he asks with a half-smile that makes my toes curl.

I nod. “I think it will do.” Then I point at the many other boxes littering the floor of the living room. “But maybe we should make memories for every one of these,” I suggest, tugging him close until our bodies are pressed together.

He reaches past me to hang the ornaments on the tree. “It does seem like the right thing to do.” His hand falls on my back, his fingers spreading wide and sending a shiver through me.

“Do you think the others will mind that they’re only our memories?” I murmur as I make to press his mouth onto mine.

“At this point, [redacted petname], I really don’t care what they’ll think.”

We sink into the kiss, the fairy lights casting a halo of colours about us, and the baubles on the trees dancing from the branches.