The sun was setting, the end of another day, well actually it was really only the beginning of the evening, but that didn’t ease the annoyance that was coursing through Bobbi’s body.

For the past five hours she had been staring out her window watching the wind rustling the remaining dead leaves off the branches of the tree in the front yard, and she wished that the grey clouds that had been looming all day would just release the snow they were holding. Yeah that just shows how sad she really was, that the most entertaining part of her day was watching dead things whiz around her yard. Watching the leaves made a pang of home sickness hit her. Here the leaves turned from green to yellow to brown, while back home there were so many different shades of green, red, orange and yellow before the snow fell, it made her sad the way that things just weren't the same.
 
Five hours of sitting at the window, bottle of wine beside her on the windowsill, contemplating how much things have changed.
 
Of course this isn't how she pictured her evening.
 
Five hours ago she had been contemplating how to style her hair and do her make-up for the party that she was supposed to be attending with her boyfriend JC. Of course that was until his manager insisted he bring someone else along because she just wasn't "Hollywood" enough. So instead of going out with him, she was home, in her pyjama’s getting a headache because she didn’t drink red wine that often.

To make it worse it was two days before Christmas, and they had argued over the stupid party for a week previous to that. Of course he had insisted that it was important for him to attend and do some extra networking and it was a Christmas party after all.

She finally decided that the headache just wasn’t worth it and hauled herself out of her chair. She walked into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet; digging for the bottle of aspirin that she knew was in there somewhere.

She tried to pull it out without moving anything which of course meant that she knocked everything in front of it out onto the counter. The q-tips falling out of their box and into the sink seems like the most devastating thing to her at that moment and she burst into tears.
 
That's the problem of drinking wine for five hours and contemplating, you start to realize things that you probably should have realized a lot sooner. She told herself. The more she thought about how she wasn't "Hollywood" enough to attend these parties that JC was invited to, made her wonder just what the hell she was doing here.

With a sigh she gave up on taking the aspirin and opting instead to just go straight to bed. She settled against the down pillows and picked up the book she had been trying to read for the past few weeks. She managed to forget everything that was going on and even her anger until he walked into the bedroom, reeking of beer and perfume.

“Hey baby.”

The lipstick still staining his lips was the last straw.

“You son of a bitch.” Bobbi snapped, pushing him away from her.

“What?” JC asked, swaying slightly before grabbing the bed post.

“You stand there reeking of perfume with lipstick on your fucking mouth and you have the balls to ask me what?” Bobbi shouted at him.

“It’s not what you think Bobbi.” JC told her.

“That’s what they all fucking say.” She muttered, throwing on a hoodie and heading for the bedroom door.

“Where are you going?” JC asked, grabbing for her and missing completely.

“I’m going to Anne’s.”

She ran down the stairs, to angry to cry at the moment, but that wouldn’t last very long. She needed to be at her friends and not driving when it hit her. She grabbed her keys and purse and barely remembered to slip on her shoes.

She turned on her car and jumped as music blared from the speakers, she had forgotten she had blared it earlier while driving home from the store. She turned it down and took a deep, shaking breath while digging through her purse for her cell phone. She swore loudly when she realized it was still sitting on her kitchen table. Bobbi could only hope that Anne would forgive her for pounding on her door at two in the morning.

She pulled up to Anne’s house a few minutes later, the tears finally swimming up and blurring her vision. She gave into the sobs and lay her head down on the steering wheel. She jumped and screamed when someone pounded on her window.

“Jesus woman would you calm down?” Anne’s voice came through her window, “Would you get your ass inside before we both freeze to death?”

Bobbi turned off the car and opened the door. “How did you know I was here?”

Anne wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her towards the house. “Your very drunk boyfriend called me and told me you were coming.”

“Ex boyfriend.” Bobbi muttered as Anne sat her down on the couch.

“Did you say the words?” Anne asked.

“What?”

“Did you tell him it was over?” Anne asked again, “You have to say the words or it doesn’t count.”

“Not in so many words.” Bobbi muttered, “Wait, how do you know about anything?”

“He said something about coming home drunk and lipstick on his mouth, you not giving him a chance to explain and then he went and hurled his guts out after that.”

Bobbi frowned. “Would you let Jack explain?”

“Probably not, but I’m not you.” Anne shrugged, “Stay here for a couple days, cool down and then go back when you’re ready to hear him out.”

~ * ~

She lasted two days.

Maybe it was the fact that it was Christmas Eve, but she didn’t like the idea of being separated anymore. Anne had tried to talk her out of it until her boyfriend Jack dragged her to the car to go see her mother.

Bobbi pulled up to her house and stared at the outside, drumming her fingers on the wheel as she stared up at the house, trying to decide if she was making the right choice. The movement in the living room window was the deciding factor since she couldn’t exactly turn around and leave.

She sighed and got out of the car, making her way up to the house. JC was standing at the open door waiting for her.

“Hi.” She said, stopping at the bottom of the porch.

“Merry Christmas.” He said softly.

Her eyes examined his face and remembered the first time they met.

She had been at some award show in Vegas on her girlfriends stag and had gotten confused with the bathrooms in the dark. She had accidently opened the door to the men’s just as he was coming out. She knew who he was the minute she spotted him and had blushed profusely when it dawned on her what had happened.

She had made a run for the ladies and promptly hid for a good twenty minutes, hoping that he would have gone back to his table and finished laughing about it with his friends. When she figured she had hidden long enough she took a deep breath and opened the bathroom door only to find him sitting on the floor against the wall.

“I was debating on coming in there when no one had come out.” He had said to her, “Don’t be embarrassed, I once walked into a bathroom full of sixteen year old girls and almost didn’t make it out clothed.”

She had laughed nervously and introduced herself to him. They fell into conversation and sat talking until a guy wearing a headset showed up in a panic, reminding JC that he had to give away an award. JC quickly scribbled his cell number down on her hand, telling her to call him after the show and he’d get her into an after party.

Bobbi had thought he was full of shit but called anyway just in case. Sure enough he got her and her girlfriends into the best parties for the rest of the weekend and she had fallen head over heels in love with him.

They had moved in together on their six month anniversary, her packing up and moving to LA didn’t seem like that big of a sacrifice to her back then. Now standing and staring at him, his reputation haunting the two of them.

“Can I explain now?” JC pleaded.

Bobbi took a deep breath and nodded, climbing up the stairs and into the house that she had spent the last three years making into a home for them. This was the home that she had learned of her grandfather’s death and JC held her on the family room floor when she screamed and demanded to know why. It was the place that they held birthday parties, celebrated thanksgiving with their families in.

She walked to the kitchen; the place she had always felt was the warmest in the house. This was the room that their friends would sit and laugh while her and JC cut up vegetables or stirred noodles while drinking wine. The room that their nieces and nephews ran in an out of like there were revolving doors at either end of the room.

“So, explain.” Bobbi told him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Kelly kissed me.” JC told her.

“Well, at least you were honest.” Bobbi muttered.

“She only did it because everyone was hounding her too and she was drunk.”

“You aren’t helping your defence any here JC.” She told him.

“She’s a lesbian.”

Bobbi hadn’t been expecting that and her jaw dropped, “Say what?”

“Kelly’s a lesbian, if you don’t believe me I will drive you over to her house and you can meet her girlfriend.” JC told her. “No one at the label knows, I had to take her as a cover story.”

“So why couldn’t you just tell me that?” Bobbi asked.

“Because you were pissed and I didn’t think you’d believe me.” JC muttered, his expression dejected. “I don’t know what hurts worse, the feeling of emptiness I felt when you were gone or the fact that you thought that I had cheated on you.”

“Can you blame me with your track record?”

JC didn’t say anything, instead he cupped her face in his hands. She wanted to push him away, but the feeling of his lips on hers was too familiar and welcoming. She felt more at home like this then she had when she had walked through the front door. The gentle scrape of his five o’clock shadow against her face and the roughness from his lips being chapped excited her more than anything.

He pulled away from her and brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. “You need chap stick lover.”

JC laughed and pulled her to him tightly, “I know that you have every right to doubt my faithfulness, but I do love you, more than anything or anyone I have ever loved.”

“Except your mom.” She laughed.

“I think even more then her.” JC said.

Bobbi stared at him when he suddenly pulled away from her and ran for the living room where their Christmas tree was. Curious, she followed him, mostly wondering if he had lost his mind and ready to ream him out if he had looked at any of the presents that were already under there.

She arched her eye brow as she stared at him, on his knees, half buried under the tree, obviously looking for something.

“JC, what the hell are you doing?”

He re-emerged a long box in hand. “I was gonna give you this tomorrow morning, but I think you need it now.”

Bobbi stared up at him as she slowly accepted the box. She turned it over in her hands, finding the edge of the paper and slowly peeling the paper off. She turned the cardboard box over in her hands before she pulled open the folded in edges. She gasped and dropped the box when she saw the ring that was nestled in the paper. Her hands flew to her mouth as she stared at him.

“Not quite the reaction I was goi...”

She cut him off as she jumped on him, her mouth finding his. She shrieked against his mouth as the tumbled over the couch and onto the floor and burst out laughing, despite the fact that her head had just bounced off the carpet.

“Are you okay?” JC asked, concerned over the fact that she was currently killing herself laughing.

She pulled his lips back down to hers and proceeded to pull his shirt up, racking her nails over his stomach and rib cage making him moan deep in his throat. He pulled his lips from hers so that she could pull his shirt over his head and he took the opportunity to pull hers off as well.

Their touches were as frantic as their kisses and he growled in frustration when he couldn’t get the clasps of her bra to work for him.

“This shouldn’t be this difficult!” He growled before yanking the offending object over her head, his lips falling over her nipple causing her to gasp and arch off the floor.

She rolled her hips against him, feeling how hard she had gotten him in a matter of seconds. Her hands quickly fell to the track pants he had been wearing, pushing them and his underwear down in one push, using her feet to get them off completely.

Her hand quickly closed around him, making him collapse against her with a grunt and it didn’t take long before she felt the dampness of his body’s pleasure coating her hand and stomach. It didn’t seem to faze him, instead he simply grabbed his t shirt and wiped off her hand and stomach before undoing her jeans and pulling them and her underwear from her body, his hand going between her legs.

She could feel that he was already hard again and trapped him before he could move any further.

“Don’t tease me.” She moaned.

JC grinned at her and moved back up her body, taking her lips as he thrust into her. Bobbi gasped and her fingernails bit into the skin on his back. JC hissed and bucked his hips in reflex, making him go deeper then she could ever really remember.

“This won’t last long baby.” JC told her, his forehead pressing against hers as his hand slid down her thigh and pulled it higher up his back.

Bobbi tightened her thigh and used it to pull her body up to meet his thrusts, moaning as his body pressed into her just right as his lips caressed hers and his hands ran down her arms, twining his fingers with hers and pulling her hands over her head.

He pinned her small wrists in his left hand and dropped his free hand between them, rubbing her in time with his thrusts. She stared up at him, committing his face to her memory before the pleasure became too much and her eyes drifted closed. His name bubbled from her lips as she was pushed over the edge. He groaned her name softly in her ear as he thrust once more and his body froze over her before his weight collapsed against her.

She fought to catch her breath as she brushed his hair off his face and brought his lips up to hers. JC pulled himself from her body and  grabbed the blanket that was draped over the arm of the couch. He tucked it around them as she cuddled up to his chest and stared at the blinking lights of the Christmas tree.

She felt him pick up her left hand and felt the cool metal of the engagement ring slide over her finger.

“You have to say the words.” Bobbi said softly.

“What?”

“You have to say the words or it doesn’t count.”

JC smiled down at her, “Will you marry me?”

“Of course.” She told him kissing him softly before studying the ring. “This isn’t my only present right?”

“Greedy bitch.” JC teased.

“Stubborn asshole.” She shot back, “I love you.”

“Merry Christmas baby.” He told her, letting his eyes fall shut.

Bobbi smiled and stared at the tree once more, after all, she was home.