The Christmas Surprise

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas, even though it's the setting for the story I had a few things crop up so there is still a bit to go and hopefully you all still enjoy it.

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Waking up, I’m feeling anxious about how the day is going to go with seeing Mum but then seeing Corey again and all the mixed feelings that I’ve got with that.

Heading down to the kitchen, Bec has been up for a while “Morning, already made you breakfast” she says as I’m sensing that she is enjoying having another adult in the house of a morning seeing that Jase leaves for work because she gets up.

“Thanks, you’re up and busy early,” I say as she just nods at me, “Yeah well Jase is up at 4:30 every morning and Ava has decided that 5:30 is when she wants to wake up every morning so I’m just up so early you know I’m up and doing”.

I nod and eat the pancakes that Bec has made for me, impressed at how good her cooking has become as she sits at the table across from me. “Is everything alright with you?” I ask as Bec sits there and nods.

“Yeah everything is amazing you know, it’s Christmas, our first with Ava and I’ve got my favourite brother here with us so it’s so good,” she says as I can tell that there is genuine excitement in her voice more like she’s excited by this than anyone else would be.

“I’m glad that you said that but am I really your favourite or are you just saying that because I came home and am staying here for a few days,” I ask as she tells me that it’s as true as it could be that I am her favourite brother.

“Well, I’m proud but it’s probably because you don’t see me right?” I say as Bec just reaches over the table and whacks me hard which hurts my arm and I am rubbing it.

Bec changes the topic to talk about our lunch with Mum this morning “So we’re meeting Mum down at the river at about 12:30 so if we can get there at about 12, we can be ready for her and I’ll drop you off to pick up the car after lunch” she says as I nod my head.

The plan sounds good and I know that it’s going to be an interesting affair seeing Mum for the first time in so long so I just want to chill for a little while before going to have a shower and get ready. I text Corey right before having my shower “Hey bro, meeting up at 5 cool with you?” I message before going to have a shower which fortunately I’m not intruded on even though I’m not jerking my cock this morning.

Getting dressed, I put on my Red Calvin Klein briefs and some tight jeans with a Black Calvin Klein shirt that is tight and shows off my chest. Walking to the living room where Bec is sitting she just smiles at me “You’re not subtle at all Blake” she says as I smirk and shrug my shoulders.

“Ok maybe not, but I don’t know what I’m getting myself into this afternoon and I don’t want those chubster comments cropping up again,” I say mockingly offended by how Bec delivered that comment the other day. “You know that you’re not a chubster Blake now just shut up,” she says as we both laugh and get ready to head down to the river.

Heading down to the river, I see again how everything is changed as Bec drives down to the river “Why does everything have to change so much” I say in the car as growing up when you’d say that you were going down to the river it meant that you were just having a picnic by the river or going to the one highly overrated restaurant that sat in the middle of empty paddocks from the old farms that used to be in the area.

These days, the eastern side of the river is an entertainment and restaurant hub with all the paddock space almost gone although the river bank is still pretty much how I remember it with a few little upgrades around the place. Getting out of the car, Bec and I wander with Ava as I get to push the pram and probably most people are thinking we’re the couple seeing as I’m pushing the pram and not Bec.

We get to the café/restaurant that Mum and Bec usually have lunch at and I go and sit down with my back to the entrance so that Mum doesn’t see me when she comes in. “Mum just text me to tell me that she’s outside, so I will go and meet her outside,” Bec says as I sit there with Ava who is having her own little fun in the high chair.

Bec and Mum walk-in “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that we’ve got company with my brother today” Bec doesn’t say who and implies that it’s Adam that is joining her for lunch because we look alike from behind.

Mum walks around “Afternoon Ad…” she starts to say as I turn around “Wrong child,” I say as Mum looks shocked to see me. “BLAKEY? Oh My god,” she says hugging me tightly so excited to see me. “I thought you were too busy at work to come home for Christmas” I nod with that being what I told her to surprise her and not push the case about me coming home.

“Yeah I know I did but I wanted to surprise you and everybody else but make it lowkey at the same time so that you didn’t throw me a party or have a big welcoming committee at the airport,” I say as I know she’s disappointed that I didn’t want the party but overall just me being home makes her happy.

“So how long are you home for?” Mum asks me thinking that I won’t be home that long and won’t be here for Christmas either. “Please tell me that we can at least spend a little bit of Christmas together,” she says almost pleading with me trying to make me stay as I smile.

“Well, I head home on the 21st” Mum’s face drops and looks disappointed as she hears me say the 21st. “Blake don’t be an arsehole, he means January 21st Mum,” Bec says with her excitement controlling things and Mum gets even more excited.

We order lunch and we sit there talking “So is there a special someone? Sophie maybe?” she asks as I just glare at her not wanting all these questions and I’ve been open that Sophie and I are just friends.

“You know that Sophie has a girlfriend Katie and nothing is really different since I talked to you on the phone, so I don’t necessarily need to fill you in too much because nothing really changes,” I say to her as Mum feels a bit disappointed that she can’t interrogate me about my life especially right there having lunch.

“So where are you staying?” Mum asks as I get the sense that this is a loaded question and know that whatever answer I give it’s going to be the wrong thing to say. “Well I’m staying with Bec for a few days and then I’m staying at one of Corey’s places for the rest of the stay,” I say as Mum raises her eyebrows somewhat unimpressed.

“Should’ve told us you were coming and you could’ve stayed in the spare room because it’s just me and Dad these days and considering that Bec has Ava to deal with these days” she says as I know she doesn’t mean anything by it but does feel a bit condescending about me being a burden on Bec and shows why I didn’t want to tell her beforehand and/or stay with her.

Bec steps in “It was actually my idea Mum for him to stay with Jase and me because it’s good to have some company and saves him a lot of money because he was just going to stay at a hotel and waste his money” Bec says as Mum nods before the conversation moves to a general one.

While we wait for lunch, I excuse myself to use the bathroom as I sigh letting out my frustration because even though I know this would have happened and she’s just doing the mothering thing, I wish this was more of a casual thing like she has with Bec.

As I head to the bathroom, I check my phone and see Corey reply to my text message this morning “Yep, 5:30 might be better though is heading into the city ok for you? He asks as that is what I expected so just reply with a thumbs up”.

Walking back to the table, I can hear Bec and Mum talking as Bec raises her tone a little bit “Did you really need to say all that? I mean there was a reason he didn’t want to tell you and surprise you because he didn’t want to be bombarded with 9,000 questions about his life because it’s not fun and it’s like when you complain about Grandma and how she was always making comments and telling you that your life was wrong” she says as Mum sighs and nods.

I stand there listening to the conversation just out of view right now as Mum accepts the fact “I know, it’s just that I haven’t seen him for so long and I don’t know if on the phone he can fully tell me everything but I get your point Bec” she says as I come back to the table and sit down as the topic changes.

The rest of the lunch is fun as Mum is struggling to not smother me with questions and I’m happy to answer them as if they are just casual questions about things in America and the difference rather than more in-depth serious questions.

Finishing up, Mum wants to spend some more time with me this afternoon which I think should be ok given that I was probably mean to her about the questions and not telling her. “Yeah, we can spend some time together and you could drop me off at the hire car place before I go and catch up with Corey tonight,” I say as Mum smiles.

The three of us plus Ava go for a walk for a while before Bec and Ava head home and it leaves Mum and me together. “So I know that you don’t want me to bombard you with questions but I am curious whether or not there is that someone special for you back over there.”

I don’t know whether that’s a dig at me for being 30 and still single or what but I just shake my head “Nope, I’m just too busy with work, I’m pretty much working 12 hours a day at the moment so there’s no real-time for it and I’m ok with that right now” I say as Mum tells me that I’m working too hard and she’s probably not wrong.

My romantic life has been pretty much non-existent since what happened with Corey and I don’t know whether it was that I was holding out hope for Corey and me to get back together eventually or just that I’d felt like I’d been hurt so much that emotionally I had shut down and wasn’t willing to trust anyone or open my heart to anyone in a relationship. Even though I haven’t had a relationship, I have been with other guys over in the stats that have just been random fucks after meeting guys at a bar or club or just some friends-with-benefits action.

“I am probably working too much but I enjoy what I do over there and have a really good job and team that takes me to a lot of places although I do miss not being at home more,” I say as Mum nods and feels reassured that I’m doing ok over in the states.

“So what are we doing about visits and whatnot?” Mum asks as I shrug because really there isn’t an itinerary other than Christmas day. “I don’t know, I mean probably just the same as when I was living here, I’ll visit every so often and you can come to visit where I’m staying and of course, I’ll be over for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day,” I say as she is much happier knowing.

Mum and I spend some good time together as she drops me off at the car hire place “Come over for Dinner tomorrow, nothing too fancy just the family as in me and Dad, Adam and maybe Bec and Jack” she says rolling her eyes when mentioning his name.  “Well how about we do it the day after? I promised Jack that we would get dinner and drinks” I say as Mum nods and is ok with that and allows her to get ready for that and we build that understanding that I’m not shutting her out but need the space.

Getting into the car feels weird because even though I don’t drive that much in the states, it’s still an adjustment to go back to the normal side of the road and everything that goes with driving in Australia.

Corey rings me just after 3 pm “Hey bro, is it cool if we change places, I know that you’re set on Newtown but my guys found a cracked pipe that has flooded the place and it needs to be replaced but it’s more than a few days work” he says as it’s disappointing because I thought about that places as a potential place if I moved back home but it does give me the chance at luxury.

“Suppose it’s alright, especially if you give me some harbour views” I tease as he just laughs and pretty much answers my question. “They are the keys I’ve got bro,” he says laughing as I’m happy for the change despite it not being my first choice.

“Can we push back catching up until about 6ish, just lets me fix the Newtown issues and we’ll be all good” the change is annoying but it does mean some extra time to prepare for tonight.

I drive back to Bec’s for a while and she gets surprised to see me “I thought you were going straight to see Corey” she says as I nod thinking that I was. “Yeah, but we had to push back an hour because he had an emergency ironically at the place I chose so he needed to deal with that” I explain as Bec just nods towards me.

“Did he say what the emergency actually was?” she asks as I start to wonder if maybe there’s more to the story than what he said. “Yeah, said there was a burst pipe and left a bit of damage,” I say as Bec just nods.

“Why are you thinking there’s something more to it?” I ask Bec as she just shakes her head at me. “Nope, I’m just a busybody,” she says as I roll my eyes at her.

“Where are you two meeting?” she asks as I shrug still not sure where we are going to meet up. “Not sure really, it’s Corey so could be somewhere good and fancy or could also be just the drive-thru at Maccas.”

Thinking about it, one night when we were together, Corey said to me when I got home from work one night after a long tough day “Forget about cooking dinner and I’ll take you out to dinner” he said as Corey and I loved to eat out, although that was probably down to each of us being very average cooks at best. I got changed and thought that we might’ve just been going down to the pub which would have been good but to my shock that we ended up at the Maccas’ drive-thru.

I do have to give him some credit though because he had packed a full-on picnic for us which was a lovely romantic thing that he had done for me and we ended up down at the park near where he was living and sat there with amazing views looking east and the planes coming over into Sydney airport although my fries ended up completely cold.

My phone buzzes in my pocket as I’m reminiscing about Corey's “Speak of the devil” I read through the message and he tells me to park the car at the apartment because there’s an amazing bar that is not far away from the place.

“He wants me to meet him at the place and then we are going to a pub nearby,” I tell Bec before looking at what I’m wearing. “Should I change to something better? More fancy even?” I ask Bec as she shakes her head.

“This is just two mates catching up at the pub for the first time in a long time and nothing else,” she says which I know is right and that I’m overthinking this all because as she said this is nothing other than two friends catching up after a few years apart.

I get ready to go again and the drive to the city is frustrating just with how much traffic there is which isn’t unusual for Sydney at the best of times but with so many new tunnels and roads, I’m completely out of my depth on how to get to where I need to go.

Eventually, I find where I need to go and find the allocated parking spot and pull up in the space and head upstairs. As I head upstairs, the whole place just looks so fancy and modern which isn’t unexpected but still more than what I’m used to.

I find the apartment and it’s massive compared to what I was expecting which was just a small pokey box as some of these places tend to be. I wander in finding the door open and see Corey sitting out on the balcony as I see his freshly shaven head which was always how I loved him looking but his fiancé always wanted him to rock the longer hair and not have his piercings in.

I can’t help but notice how hot he looks right now with his tight shirt on as he still hasn’t seen me yet as I have to calm myself down “Settle Blake, you’re not doing this remember” I tell myself as Corey sees me.

“BLAKEY BOY,” he says excited to see me and using the name he always called me when we were together. He rushes in and hugs me tightly as I feel his even bigger muscled body squeezing me tightly and his washboard abs flexing through the shirt.

“Sup man, been a while,” I say as my nerves are starting to consume me as he hugs me again. “Let me look at you’ he says looking at me up and down as I know that he is practically undressing me with his eyes right now.

I take my chance to look at Corey and somewhat unsurprisingly notice that his engagement ring is gone to go with all the changes to his body. “So there’s a lot I’m out of the loop on,” I say to Corey who smiles and just nods.

“Yeah, I’m guessing that you’ve noticed the big one,” he says rubbing his hair more than showing his missing engagement ring.