Chapter Ten
A half an hour later, Claudia and Josh
arrived back at Claudia’s apartment. As soon as she took off her coat and
shoes, she was in the kitchen, tying an apron around her waist.
“I’ve got to get cooking if I want
to feed all of these people before midnight.”
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
Josh offered.
“You’re going to have to help me set
up the table. I’m going to have to use on of those long tables from last
night, my dinning room table won’t be big enough.”
“Exactly how many people are coming
tonight?” he asked, leaning his elbows against the counter across from her.
“The four guys, and your brother and
sister. It sounds weird that parents and significant others aren’t coming
along since it is Christmas and all but this is an exclusive party.”
“Should I be asking for V.I.P passes
at the door?” Josh teased.
“No, I hired a bouncer to take care
of that,” she winked. “Everyone is spending the morning with their families
and then coming here afterwards. This way we won’t have to worry about kids
and other distractions. It’s just your immediate family and your best friends.
A chance to get reacquainted.”
“You’re too much, I can’t believe you’re
devoting your holiday to me and my family,” he said shaking his head at her.
“Are you just gonna stand there or
are you going to help me?” she asked.
He straightened quickly. “What can
I do?”
She smiled at his quick response. “You
can set up eight white chairs around that long table by the French doors.
The table cloth is in that cabinet,” she directed, nodding at the cupboard.
“And the center piece is right here on the counter.”
“When you need any help just ask. You
went through all the trouble of arranging this, you don’t need to do all
the cooking and preparing by yourself.”
She smiled. “I know.”
As Josh set up the table, butterflies
began fluttering in his stomach. This would be his chance to truly catch
up with his four best friends. They had talked last night at the party, but
there were so many people around and with loud music it was difficult to
have any private conversations. Now he would be alone with his siblings and
his best friends…people he loved dearly, but hadn’t seen in what felt like
ages.
The doorbell rang, interrupting his
thoughts. He turned to look at the door, but didn’t make a move to answer
it.
“Would you mind getting that Josh?”
Claudia called from the kitchen. “I’ve got my hands full but I’ll be out
in just a minute.”
He took a deep breath, wiped his clammy
hands on his dress pants and made his way to the door. Josh opened the door
to find his sister and brother on the other side of it. A smile spread across
his face as he let them in and hugged them in greeting.
Claudia emerged from the kitchen with
a polite smile on her face, wiping her hands on her apron.
“It’s so nice to see you again,” she
said as she hugged them also.
“We brought some red wine,” Josh’s
sister Heather said, handing her the wine bottle.
“Oh thank you, that’s so sweet! Here,
let me take your coats---”
“No, don’t worry, I’ve got them,” Josh
assured her.
“Thanks, you can go set them on my
bed. It’s the first bedroom on the left,” she told him as turned back to
her new guests. “You can take a seat anywhere. We were just setting up the
table, but you’re welcome to sit in the living room…”
Josh was already in Claudia’s bedroom.
He stopped for a moment to take in his surroundings. The room was done entirely
in earth tones. The room was very calm and peaceful, probably a wonderful
place to get away from the world. Several candles were scattered about, most
likely aromatherapy. He noticed the ceiling had been painted a pale blue
with realistic looking clouds, giving the room a relaxing feel. Long white
curtains traced the two windows.
The room was very neat, just as he
suspected it would be. He placed the coats on the soft bed and noticed a
novel lying across her pillow. Curiously, he picked it up; Danielle Steele.
I should have known.
Quickly, Josh made his way back down
the staircase, hoping he hadn’t taken too suspiciously long upstairs.
It didn’t take very long for the rest
of the guests to arrive. The butterflies in Josh’s stomach had ceased, and
it was replaced with a feeling of comfort. It felt so right to be surrounded
by his four best friends again. It was slightly awkward at first, but now
they sat around, talking as if time had never passed. It was reassuring to
know that after all this time, the people he truly loved were still here
for him.
Claudia had a few butterflies of her
own. This was her first time making a complete Christmas dinner by herself
and she desperately wanted it to be perfect. She wanted everything about
this day to be perfect for Josh because somewhere deep down, she knew he
deserved it.
It was clear to her that Josh had been
suffering for a long time. Claudia had a talent for reading people, and she
knew that there was something in Josh’s past that hadn’t strayed far from
his mind in a long time. Whatever it was had shut him away from the world
and scarred him deeply. But it appeared now that he was ready to come out
of his shell, and Claudia was determined to make him feel welcome outside
of his secluded world. She wanted to show him that he could open up and that
everything would be all right.
“How are you doing in here?” Josh asked,
from the doorway of the kitchen.
“Um, fine I think,” she said, long
enough to take the fingers that she had been chewing on out of her mouth.
“You seem tense, is everything okay?”
he questioned, concern in his voice. “You’ve hardly left this kitchen all
afternoon. Is there something we can help you with?”
Claudia leaned her hip against the
counter and sighed. “I guess I’m just nervous. This is the first time I’ve
ever cooked a Christmas dinner and…I just want it to be perfect.”
Josh hadn’t realized how anxious she
was about preparing this meal, but he didn’t want him or his family to be
the cause of her anxiety.
“Oh my gosh, what am I going to serve
for dessert?” she suddenly realized, bringing a hand to her forehead. “I
didn’t even think of that. How could I forget dessert?”
“Claudia.” Josh approached her and
placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes and smiled.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it so much.”
“But what am I going to say when they
ask for dessert? ‘Oh I’m sorry, I was too stupid to think of that.’ What
kind of hostess would forget dessert?”
“I really don’t think dessert is that
important---”
She broke away from him and started
searching through a cupboard, muttering about finding a pie recipe. She found
a small box and started flipping through the index cards that were inside.
Josh took the index cards out of her
hands, pushed the box aside and took her hands into his. He looked deep into
her green eyes, trying to find reassuring words. “I’ll take care of dessert.
You worry about dinner, okay? No wait, I take that back. Don’t worry about
dinner, just do the best that you can.”
She took in a deep breath and nodded.
“Oh no! I haven’t checked on the ham!” Claudia hurried to the oven and pulled
open the door. And there sat the ham, safely inside, looking and smelling
delicious.
“See? No smoke, no flames, no burnt
ham. Nothing to worry about.”
Her shoulders relaxed as she closed
the oven, turning to him. “You’re right, you’re right.”
“Anything I can help with in here?”
Josh’s sister, Heather asking, poking her head into the kitchen.
“No, don’t worry about it. I’m fine
thank you,” Claudia lied.
“Are you sure? Those guys out there
are boring me to death with all this talk about sports.”
“Actually,” Josh interjected. “I think
Claudia needs help with the vegetables, right, Claude?” he insisted, raising
his eyebrows at her as if he were daring her to object.
“Well…”
“It’s no problem,” Heather assured
her, walking into the kitchen to wash her hands. “Would you like me to cut
the asparagus?”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I suppose---”
“Man,” Josh said into her ear. “For
someone who loves to offer help you’re not big on accepting any, are you?”
Without letting her argue, he returned
to the living room, bringing an appetizer tray with him.
After a few more minutes, Claudia finally
started to loosen up. Having Heather in the kitchen with her turned out to
be a blessing. Not only was she helping with dinner and taking some stress
off of Claudia’s shoulders, she was keeping Claudia company at the same time.
With an extra pair of hands in the
kitchen, things were coming along much quicker. Claudia finally went into
the living room to visit for several minutes without worrying about the ham
roasting in the oven.
“It’s beginning to smell really good
in here, Claudia,” Joe commented. “Is it almost ready?” he asked eagerly.
“Hey, Joe, I think you’ve got a little
drool right there,” Lance teased, pointing to his chin.
“What can I say? I’m Italian, we love
food!” he defended.
“I’d better go check, I think it’s
almost ready---” She stopped when a flicker caught her eye. She turned to
the long table on her left to find that the table had been completely set.
The fine China Big Momma had given to her was set perfectly in place, silverware
and all. Two long white candles flickered on either side of the centerpiece.
“Who did that?” Claudia asked pointing
to the table.
“JC did it a little while ago,” Justin
told her. “Why, is something wrong?”
“Lemme guess, he didn’t put enough
plates out? You can never count on him you know, he’s always screwing something
up…” Chris rambled.
“No, it’s perfect…I’m just surprised,
I didn’t ask him to---” Looking around the room, she noticed that Josh was
no where to be found. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen him in several
minutes. “Where did he disappear to anyway?”
She received shrugs in response.
“He must have gone to use the ladies
room,” Chris concluded. “He probably had to powder his nose,” he continued
with a nod.
“Do you guys smell something burning?”
Josh’s brother Tyler asked, wrinkling his brow.
Claudia’s eyes grew wide as saucers.
“My ham!” she cried, running into the kitchen.
She opened the oven door and smoke
billowed out. She coughed, waving the smoke away with her hands, then grabbed
her potholders from the counter.
“Fire! Fire!” Chris began yelling from
the living room.
Justin had found the fire extinguisher
and sprayed the oven for a long minute until he was satisfied. He blew on
the end of it as if it were a gun and hitched up his pants with pride.
“That oughta take care of it.”
“My ham!” Claudia wailed in despair
at the black lump now sitting on the counter.
Just then, the smoke alarm began beeping
loudly over their heads. They covered their ears and cringed at the annoying
sound.
“Someone turn that thing off!”
“I can’t reach it, somebody get me
a chair!”
“Or better yet, grab a sledge hammer!”
Lance managed to drag a chair into
the kitchen a moment later and Justin climbed up on top of it to reach the
smoke alarm.
“How do you shut this thing up?” Justin
yelled.
“Did you try pushing the button?”
“I am pushing the button!”
“Here, let me try,” Tyler insisted.
Tyler climbed onto the chair, struggling
with the alarm for what seemed like forever. Finally, he managed to pry the
cover of the alarm off and yank the battery out of it. The battery flew across
the room, landing in the cranberry sauce.
“Is everyone okay? Where’s the fire?”
Josh hollered as he ran into the apartment.
“We’re fine, it was just a little smoke.”
“A little?” someone said sarcastically.
“I saw the smoke from outside and I
heard the smoke alarm so I called the fire department on my cell phone.”
“Here they come now,” Chris announced,
as the sirens became audible in the distance.
“Why were you outside?” Claudia asked.
“I thought you were upstairs in the bathroom.”
He held out an already made cheesecake
for her to see. “I got dessert,” he explained, almost sheepishly.
The sirens were out front now and only
seconds later, firemen came bursting through the door. Their looks of determination
and concern quickly turned to confusion.
“Where’s the fire?” they demanded.
“There is no fire, I’m sorry,” Claudia
said, approaching them, feeling embarrassed. “It was just a little smoke
in the oven. Everyone’s okay.”
“May we at least check you for minor
burns ma’am?”
Heather nudged Chris in the side and
whispered, “They can check me for burns anytime!”
Claudia slumped into the chair that
was still sitting in the middle of the kitchen a few minutes later, staring
at the black ham on the countertop. Once again, everyone was standing around
in the kitchen.
“Maybe JC should have picked up a pizza
while he was out,” Joey suggested. Justin slapped him on the back of the
head. “What? I’m hungry!”
“Well, merry Christmas everyone,” Claudia
said sarcastically, tossing her apron on the counter.
The room fell silent at Claudia’s words.
Her disappointment was more than clear. She had wanted this to be perfect
and she ended up with firemen in her house. Tears stung at her eyes but she
angrily blinked them away, not wanting to make more of a fool out of herself.
Suddenly, Chris’s laughter broke the
silence. He tried to muffle it at first, but after a moment he couldn’t hold
it back any longer.
“Chris! How insensitive of you!” Heather
exclaimed.
“Actually, when you think about it,
this is pretty funny,” Lance reasoned, beginning to chuckle himself.
Justin chuckled along with him. “Did
anyone else catch the look on Claudia’s face when Tyler said he smelled smoke?”
This comment brought on a few more
laughs. Claudia blushed and couldn’t help but smile at the thought of what
her expression must have been like.
“Her eyes just about popped out of
her head! And never in my life had I seen a woman run so fast in heels!”
Joey added.
“Can you believe the battery landed
square in the middle of the cranberry sauce?” Tyler chimed in.
“Tyler, were you aiming for that or
was that sheer luck?”
At this point everyone was beginning
to laugh. It was hard not to find humor in the situation. It didn’t take
long before everyone was bursting out laughing, even Claudia.
“I can’t believe JC actually called
the fire department!”
“Did you see the looks on their faces
when they ran in, ready to fight fire and all of us were just standing around
in the kitchen?”
The laughter increased and continued
on for several moments. They were doubled over with giggles, gasping for
breath. It was one of those moments where laughter was contagious, and once
you started, you just couldn’t stop.
“I may have exaggerated when I called,”
Josh said as the laughter died down and everyone began wiping their eyes.
“I guess smoke wasn’t really pouring out of the windows. And the place definitely
wasn’t burning to the ground. I may have concerned them when I told them
there were seven people trapped inside!”
Claudia sighed loudly. “So what do
we do now?”
Joe was the only one to answer. “Let’s
eat!”