i kno there is still a couple more days till x-mas, but i just couldn't wait to put this up any longer. hope ya like!
Can I Have A Kiss?
Sara Sidle was exhausted. Although a self-confessed workaholic, a triple-shift was most certainly not her idea of fun- especially on Christmas Eve. She sighed as she stood alone in the break room, the Christmas carols droning over the speakers making her cringe. She had always hated carols, even as a child. For some reason, they always made her feel even more lonely.
Las Vegas had been having a bout of cooler weather, and the break room seemed to be warmest place in the lab at the time. Paired with a cup of hot coffee, she felt quite content. Physically, anyway.
She was just about to settle down when Greg came in wearing a Santa hat. The bell on the end of the hat jingled as he bobbed his head. His iPod was blaring "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" in his ears. He turned and smiled at Sara and went back to getting his coffee.
After getting his coffee, he turned off his iPod and went over to Sara. She was so lost in thought, she didn't even see her co-worker sit next to her. It wasn't until he poked her in the side that she finally realized it. She smiled wearily.
"You ok?" Greg asked.
"Uh-huh. Triple."
"Ouch. You didn't go home, I take it?"
She shook her head. "I… I couldn't. I can't sleep not knowing."
"So you sit in the break room for a day and a half without sleeping, and binge on caffeine instead? I'm sure that helps your case."
She smirked at his sarcasm. "For your information, I napped on the couch. For about an hour. And then Mia paged me with my results. But I did sleep."
"You should go home."
"I'm fine, Greg. Really. I'm okay." She returned her gaze to the plastic tree on the other side of the room, its barely-decorated branches mimicking the loneliness she had been feeling before Greg walked into the room. He always had that effect on her- he just made her feel that much less alone.
Greg smiled at her. He wasn't going to push her to stop her work. It was, after all, what she lived for. "Okay…"
She smiled at him. "Can I ask you something?"
"You know you can." He took another sip of his coffee.
"How come you didn't go home for the holidays this year? You didn't even take any time off."
"I wanted to spend it with you, of course." He grinned as she rolled her eyes again. "I go home every year. And I only just saw my family over the summer. I wanted to spend Christmas in Vegas for once." He gulped at his mug again. "Besides, I knew I'd have company. And you are the best kind of company I know."
Sara laughed. "You are so full of it, you know that?"
Greg chuckled back at her. "Tell me you don't find it charming."
She hid her smile with her coffee cup. "Okay, I won't tell you. Oww!" she exclaimed, as Greg elbowed her lightly in the side. She leaned further back against the couch and closed her eyes, hoping to at least partially recharge her sleep-deprived body. It wasn't until she heard plastic rustling a few minutes later that she actually opened her eyes.
Greg was shuffling around in his bag, not willing to leave the warmth at Sara's side. His neighbor had brought him a packet of Hershey's Chocolate Kisses the previous day, and not being a huge sweet-tooth himself, Greg had brought them into work with him, in hopes of getting rid of the excessive confectionary to his colleagues.
Sara watched as he opened the plastic package in his hands, her stomach grumbling as she realized she hadn't eaten in almost eighteen hours. She spoke without thinking. "Ooh, can I have a kiss?"
Greg chuckled slightly to himself, and before either of them had time to react to Sara's embarrassment, he had turned himself towards her, placed his hand gently on her hip, and leaned his lips against hers.
Though she would laugh about it later on, Sara's first though as she felt his warm, soft lips pressing against her own was that at least he wouldn't see her blushing at her previous comment. That though alone made her want to giggle, and it wasn't until she felt Greg pull away quickly that she realized how nice kissing him had felt. Still giddy from the mere idea of it, she somehow found herself unable to say anything but the first thought that came into her head as she found herself concentrating oddly hard on the tiled floor below their feet.
"I was, uh, actually talking about the chocolate."
A grin began to spread over both of their faces as Greg chuckled slightly, leaning himself back against the couch. "Damn."
Sara smiled slightly, her eyes finally diverting from the floor. "But hey, it's Christmas. And it's you. I'll take what I can get."
Looking back at her, not quite sure of what to make of her statement, Greg was suddenly the surprised party as he felt Sara move away from his side and lean against him into the couch, her lips lining up tenderly with his. He placed one hand on her back and another on her waist as he kissed her back, surprised at how well his evening had turned out. He'd liked Sara for a long time, but had somehow never envisioned this actually happening. She felt so warm, and she smelt so good, and it was all he could do not to moan from the sheer euphoria of just being with her. His briefly-opening eyes just managed to see the clock on the wall, and he pulled back from Sara to look her in the eye.
"And would you look at the time? It's officially past midnight. It looks like someone else got to give you a Christmas kiss." He brought his hand up to hold the side of her shoulder as he looked deep into her dark eyes. "Merry Christmas, Sara."
Sara smiled back at him. Maybe she didn't have to feel so lonely at Christmas after all. "Merry Christmas, Greg."
