Christine lay silently on Erik's chest. Her mind wandering to the little questions. Would it be different? Would Abigail ever come back again? Could she live without him if he ever really did leave her? A high sigh broke her from her thought. Erik's arms around her tightened and felt her resistance.
"What is wrong Christine?" He asked concerned.
"Erik." She propped herself up to look at him. "Am I being paranoid thinking that you could leave me at any time?"
"Yes."
"Erik!"
"Christine." He held her chin delicately, "You are the only woman I could ever love."
"But…"
"You are my life. You cannot live in the past."
"No living in the past." She said quietly. Her whole life she had live in the past. "You have to promise not to either."
"I promise." He kissed her.
"Erik?"
"Yes, love?"
"Where did Anna and James go?" Christine thought they were staying with him, but she had not seem them at all.
"They are staying at the Plaza." He shrugged. "Anna thought it was a good idea."
"No one eats the cranberry sauce Christine." Erik sighed as he watched her put a couple cans into the grocery cart.
"I like it." She shrugged.
"So you are buying ten cans of it?"
"Meg likes it too and she is pregnant." They rolled the cart down to the meat section. "Should we get a big turkey?"
"How many cans of cranberry sauce did you get again?" Erik was still busy looking in the cart.
"I'm getting the seven pound." Christine rolled her eyes.
"That is enough for two weeks." He sighed wearily. The cart was now full of food and he was wondering how he was going to pay for all of this.
"No it's enough for Thanksgiving and the next day." She caught some people staring at Erik's mask and glared at them.
"Won't you ever get tired of that?" He sighed.
"No." Her shoulders shrugged. "It's a way to release my anger."
"I had no idea you were so angry." A brow lifted.
"Well there are other ways to release anger." She gave a knowing smile.
"Such as?"
"You know…"
"No I don't."
"Erik I'm going to say it aloud!"
"Then why even start it?" He smirked.
"You're horrible." She shook her head and they went towards the check out area.
"How do you know when it's done?" Christine looked intently at the half cooked turkey.
"I have no idea." Erik shrugged as he opened a bottle of wine for their guest.
"I liked it better when you knew everything." She sighed still staring at the turkey.
"You know my culinary skills are very limited, love." He chuckled.
"Wait till the little red thing pops up." Meg said as she walked in, both looked at her in surprise. She shrugged. "I've gotten better with cooking."
"Must be a pregnancy thing." Chris smiled as he too, walked in.
"Who told him?" Meg gasped.
"I did." Christine said.
"Why?" She shrieked.
"Because I felt bad for not telling him about me and Erik." Christine shrugged. "And you were going to tell him sooner or later."
"Later would have been better."
"Raoul is smiling a lot." Chris jumped in. "I would have caught on sooner."
"And he's not watching the television." Erik mumbled. He had bought it because of that boy.
"I'm surprised no one else has caught on." Christine had to agree that Raoul not watching the television especially when his beloved sport was on was very strange.
"Who know?" Chris asked.
"You guys and Raoul." Meg said weakly.
"You didn't tell your mom?" Christine turned to looked at her.
"No." She sighed. "I'm worried she'll get mad and think I'm throwing my life away."
"She's going to catch on soon." Chris commented.
"Why?" Meg looked at him.
"Because… you know." He nodded.
"What?"
"You're starting to show." Christine sighed as she began to watch the turkey again.
"I know." Meg shrugged.
"It's not going to cook any faster Christine." Erik told her.
"What if the red thing pops up?" She kept watching it.
"It won't till six." Meg offered.
"Why?"
"You put it in at twelve, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well it takes six hours to cook on high."
"High?"
"Some people slow cook their turkey all day." Chris shrugged. "Eight till five."
"Should we have done that?" Christine looked at Erik. He shrugged and went to go offer drinks to everyone.
"It's fine Christine." Meg rolled her eyes.
"Are you ok having it?" Chris asked.
"I'm scared." She smiled slightly. "But I'm ok with having it now. Raoul and I made plans and everything will work out somehow."
"Good." Christine nodded. "When should I start to put things out?"
"Hey Meg." Philippe came in and went to her. "Are you pregnant?"
"He's good." Chris snorted.
"How did you know?" She rolled her eyes.
"Raoul's not watching the game." Philippe shrugged. "When were you guys planning on telling everyone?"
"Tonight." She smiled.
"Good." He nodded. "Because Bee somehow knows and she's bursting to tell someone."
"How did she know?"
"Meg." Philippe smiled. "She's had three kids."
"Right."
"Christine step away from the oven and be social." Chris sighed.
"What if it burns?" She didn't turn.
"It wont." He rolled his eyes. "Come on before your eyeballs start to burn."
"What's that smell?" Mrs. De Chagny sniffed the air.
"Oh God!" Christine dashed to the kitchen and opened the oven door and stared at the half burned turkey. "It's ruined."
"It's fine." Erik shrugged and took it out. "We can just take the burnt pieces off."
"I ruined Thanksgiving." She sighed.
"No, it's fine." He said sternly as he carved the burnt bird.
"What's wrong?" Mrs. De Chagny came in.
"I killed the turkey!" Christine pointed to the meat.
"It was already dead, love." Erik smirked.
"Just eat it with extra cranberry sauce." Mrs. De Chagny shrugged and walked out.
"I knew that sauce would come in handy." Christine smiled and began to put the sauce in bowels.
"That was awful." Christine rested with Erik on the couch. "It would have been fine if I didn't burn the turkey."
"So we're doing it again next year?" He looked down at her. "The turkey was fine."
"Yep." She nodded. "And I know the turkey tasted fine but the fact that I burned it… just… is bad."
"I, for one, would have preferred a bed to anything."
"At least the couch is comfortable." She shrugged. "Besides we can't have the family wandering around New York drunk."
"They wouldn't have been wandering," He shrugged. "They would have made it safely home."
"Still." A small sigh escaped her. "I like it better this way."
His eyes looked around the apartment. "We should get a bigger apartment." Another quick scan. "Or a house."
"Really?" Her hands propped herself up.
"I don't see why not." He shrugged. "Commuting to the city is not that difficult."
"When can we start looking?" Christine was excited.
"Whenever."
"Now you know I can't sleep Erik." A glint was in her eyes.
"Really?" He caught her lips with his and his hands traveled down her back.
"Wait." She broke away. "We have guest."
"We're quiet." Erik kissed her again and flipped her on the couch. She squealed quietly with delight. He moved to her neck and began to slide her pajama bottoms down.
"Oh Robert!" They broke away and looked in the direction of the noise.
"Well someone had the same idea." Erik lifted a brow.
"Erik." Christine looked at him. "That's Mr. and Mrs. De Chagny."
"Oh." He nodded and turned to her with a smirk. "Well we shall not be out done then."
"Erik." She stopped him. "Those people are like my parents."
"Robert you dirty man!" The muffled voice came again.
"Right." His hands slide the pajama bottoms back up. They both went back to a comfortable position. A loud noise came from a bedroom.
"They aren't in our room are they?" Erik asked.
"No." She sighed. "Anna, James, Raoul, and Meg are."
"Good."
Another noise.
"What was that noise Aunty Chrissy?" Ben lifted his head from the floor.
"The people upstairs are having a party." She almost forgot that Ben and Kat were down there.
"Oh." The little boy nodded. "Can I go?"
"No." Christine shook her head. "You need to sleep."
"Fine." He grumbled and went back to sleep in a few seconds. They were quiet for a while then Erik spoke.
"We should wash all the sheets tomorrow."
"Someone pass the butter, please." Meg asked at the table the next morning. Everyone was silent. The only things that were said were to ask for food or say a polite 'good morning'. Every person was thinking it, but none wanted to say it for fear of embarrassment to themselves.
"Good morning everyone!" Mr. De Chagny said loudly as he strolled into the kitchen area. "Why is everyone so silent?"
"Don't feel well?" Meg guessed, looking down at her plate.
"Oh well I'm just going to take this to Annette." He nodded and left.
No one looked up and started to eat again. A slight giggle was heard. They looked in the direction of Bee. Then Meg started to laugh and so did Christine. Soon everyone was laughing even the kids who had no idea what was so funny. Mr. De Chagny walked back in.
"What is so funny?"
Oh I forgot to mention this before but... I have over a 100 reviews! And Thank You All for that because when I see that I have a review in my mailbox I can't stop smiling. So again thank you for all the reviews, and I would try to answer them all but my wonderful schule does not permit me to do so.
E.V. Oleander
