Hers for the Holidays

Chapter Four

Vincent sat staring at his computer, he took a sip of his beer and glanced at his phone. Why hadn’t she called yet? Should he call her? Would that be weird? Did she even like him?

He swiveled around in his computer chair with a long sigh and looked back at the computer screen, he'd try logging back into the group chat, maybe she would already be there and he could talk with her. Or maybe she was avoiding him?

He leaned over and grabbed a slice of pizza from the cardboard box and started eating, he was thinking about this too much. He slipped on his headset and started to press the keys on the keyboard to get his character moving to another world.

“Hey, Vincent.” Her sweet, soft voice filled his headphones and he couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t felt this way before when she had talked to him, he wondered what that meant.

“Hi Em, I take it you got home safely?” He asked trying to fight down the grin that was spreading across his face as he ate.

“Just fine, no big bads got me. I just got off the phone, I had a call from my mom.” She said with a sigh.

“Not a very fun conversation I take it?” Vincent asked.

“Sort of, just making plans for the holidays,” Emily answered.

“I had a similar conversation today too, I’m not looking forward to going home by myself. My mom keeps pressuring me to meet a nice girl and bring her home.” He said before taking another sip from his beer.

“Hey, want to pretend to be my boyfriend and I’ll do the same for you? Pretend to be your girlfriend, I mean. I don’t think I’d be able to pretend to be a boyfriend very well.” Emily asked with a chuckle only half-kidding, half-hoping he would say yes. “Or just tell me no, that I’m overstepping and being a weirdo.”

Vincent smiled to himself as he thought about it, this would give him more time to get closer to Emily, find out why she smelled so good to him, and get his own mother off of his back, he’d have to figure out a way to hide the fact that he was a werewolf though.

“I’m good with that, I don’t mind pretending to be your boyfriend. My mom will be thrilled, is the rest of your family around here or will we be traveling?” Vincent smirked sitting his beer bottle down and resuming his gaming.

“So it’s a win-win situation, nice. My family is umm, a bit odd. I guess we can hash out the details later, I see CJ and Commander on now. They probably don’t want to know about holiday plans.” Emily said.

“I caught the tail end of that, are we making plans for the holidays?” CJ asked curiously.

“No,” Vincent answered quickly, “Emily and I were just talking about Thanksgiving plans for next week and family stuff.”

“Ugh, my family left the states for the holidays. I couldn’t go since I’ve still got school,” CJ complained.

“That sucks man,” Commanderof26 chimed in, “I’m still trying to figure out the in-law things with my ma-wife.”

“Luckily my roommate said I can come home with him and his girlfriend for the holidays, he’s got sisters so maybe I’ll meet my next girlfriend there,” CJ said happily as he made his character run around the group.

Vincent caught the Commander’s slip of the tongue and he wondered if the fellow gamer was also a shifter or maybe the English man was mated to one. It sure sounded to him like he was about to say mate, he shook his head. Best not to get involved, he decided that he shouldn’t say anything. He didn't want to have the other gamer thinking he was some nutjob who thought things like werewolves and vampires were real if it turned out he was wrong.

“So are we questing?” Emily asked ready to get started.

“I think we are,” Vincent said with a grin as he took another quick drink as he started playing, he was also making a mental note to call his mother and make sure that the older women knew that he would be bringing someone home for the holidays.

***

The next morning Emily opened blurry eyes to look at her phone, the shrill alarm making her all but panic as she scrambled out of bed. She mentally cursed herself as she moved to her heavy oak dresser, opening the drawers and quickly grabbing her clothing, she knew she wouldn’t have enough time for a shower. It looked like it was going to be a dry-shampoo kind of day, she thought as she stripped off her pajamas and quickly slipped into a clean pair of jeans and a brightly colored hand-knit sweater.

She pulled her hair into a messy bun, swiped on a little bit of mascara, and added a little peachy colored lip gloss to her lips before grabbing her black low heeled boots and sitting down on the couch to slip them on quickly. After getting the boots on, she jumped up and grabbed her purse, looping it over her head she grabbed her keys and phone and headed out the door.

She made her way quickly through the busy streets heading to the popular diner where she waited tables, it wasn’t her end goal. It did help her pay the bills though so she wasn’t going to complain, she worked hard and the tips were good. It was already busy as she quickly rushed in, her friend and fellow waitress Eva nodding at her in greeting.

Emily slipped behind the counter stashing her purse away and grabbing a black apron, tying it tightly around her shapely hips, she grabbed her note pad and pen and headed out to jump in to taking care of her tables. She gave a quick thank you to Eva for covering her tables til she got there. Her morning was spent losing herself in the busy rush of serving others.