Merry Cherry Christmas

Max headed up toward Bloor, mind still gnawing over the issue. Okay, he’d decided to invite Jeremy for the holidays. That part of the plan was settled. And even though Max had surprisingly strong feelings for him, it was clearly far too soon to introduce Jeremy to his family as a boyfriend or anything so official.

Since he’d never actually brought anyone he was seeing home for so much as dinner, let alone weeks at Christmas, his dad and Valerie would undoubtedly be embarrassing about it. Max cringed. They’d mean well, but their enthusiasm could be a lot. If Jeremy agreed to come, they should definitely hit pause on messing around. It would be much easier for everyone to simply be friends.

Besides, Max had a ton on his plate with deciding about law school. He’d been in limbo waiting for the results, but even if they came in before Christmas, he should take the holidays to really consider it. He’d worked toward law school for almost as long as he could remember, and he had to figure out what he was doing one way or the other before he threw even more of a wrench into the plan. Even if the Jeremy-shaped wrench was so damn kissable…

This made sense, right? He jogged across Bloor as the walk signal counted down. Hit pause on sex over the holidays and just be friends. In January, they could re-evaluate.

Besides, Jeremy was a frosh. This was his time to be experimenting and having fun. He might want to date around. Why shouldn’t he now that Max had hopefully given him some confidence and helped him rip off the Band-Aid? It would be selfish to stand in the way, no matter how much he gritted his teeth at the thought of Jeremy with another guy. That wasn’t his call.

If they went home to the farm for Christmas strictly as friends, it would be the perfect time to put on the brakes so they could both take a step back. It made sense to take a breather, didn’t it? This snowball was careening downhill way too fast.

Sure, it was a rush knowing he was the first to touch Jeremy, but it was more than that. That Jeremy felt safe with him satisfied Max in a way he hadn’t known he craved. It was addictive, and he had to make sure he didn’t get ahead of himself and end up hurting Jeremy somehow. He was the older, experienced one. He had to be sure he did the right thing.

First times were intense and setting boundaries would be best for both of them. This way, Jeremy wouldn’t be alone, Max could get his head on straight, and they’d have a nice, wholesome family Christmas on the farm.

He reached home and sat on a rusty deckchair on the porch, wanting to get this done, his thumbs flying.

Hey. Hope studying is going well. Don’t want to bug you, but I had an idea. Do you want to come home to Pinevale with me for the holidays? I’d be pretty bummed hanging on campus alone in your shoes. Or new boots.

He paused and re-read, deleting the weak boot joke before continuing.

No pressure or anything. If you want to come, it’s probably best to hit pause on sex stuff until January. My dad and Valerie are old-fashioned and have dumb rules. And we just met, so it’s not like we’re a couple at this point. Is it cool with you to take a breather on messing around? We shouldn’t rush into anything anyway.

Taking a deep breath, he sent it. Then waited. And waited. And waited.

Shivering, he was just about to give up and escape inside when the reply bubbles wobbled. To his surprise, his heart raced. He really, really wanted Jeremy to say yes. And maybe this was partly a distraction from his law school conundrum, but he loved the idea of spending as much time with Jeremy as possible.

The bubbles appeared and disappeared, appeared and disappeared. Then nothing. Max paced the creaky porch. Maybe Jeremy had gotten distracted. Or maybe he wasn’t sure what to say. It definitely fit his MO to overthink a response. Max almost sent another message saying: Just a yes or no will do the trick, dude. He smiled, imagining Jeremy overthinking that text too.

Then the response came:

Hey! Are you sure? That would be awesome if it’s okay with your family. I don’t want to impose. Re: taking a break with the other stuff until January, that makes sense. Totally cool with me!

Max frowned. He didn’t want Jeremy to be too cool with taking a break. Then he groaned aloud, muttering, “This is what you wanted, Maxwell. This is the new plan.” He typed back:

Cool. I’ll get you a bus ticket for Thursday morning and you can pay me back whenever. Now get back to studying. I’ll text you the details. Crush that last exam, Cherry.