Page 45 of Biggest Player
“Totally. I start decorating in November.” He gnaws on one of my fries.
I also start decorating in November.
“Do you actually have time to decorate yourself? Isn’t November football season?”
I know enough about football to know the season runs through the holidays. My brother is a die-hard fan; he wears his jersey to Thanksgiving dinner and usually leaves the meal early to catch the rest of the game at home. “In peace,” he’ll say.
“Here’s how I do it,” Dex begins. “Yes, I have help putting up the decorations in the house, but the trees? Those I do myself.”
“Trees? Plural?”
“Yeah, I have at least three. My living room is huge.”
Oh.
Okay.
Wow.
This is a surprising factoid about him. Never would have guessed he would be a guy with a forest full of trees, but I cannot say I’d push him out of bed.
“How many trees doyouhave?” he asks me.
“Um.One.” Like a normal person. “I don’t have a ton of room in my house for more than that.”
Dex nods. “Makes sense.”
“Are you only into the decorating, or are you into other holiday festivities too?”
“Like what?”
“Like ...” I consider the holiday festivities one might partake in. “Shopping. Or going to see a play. Holiday concerts. Ice-skating.”
“I don’t have lots of time for anything else, but I enjoy looking at lights and shit.” Dex clears his throat. “There’s a competition show on TV that I watch where the contestants compete to see who can decorate their yards with the best and most lights, and the show picks one winner.”
Interesting. “I’ll have to look for that in the fall.”
He makes a humming sound. “When I was younger, my grandma used to drive us around looking at holiday lights around town—that’s probably why I get into it so much.”
I can relate. “My grandma used to decorate her tree to the hilt. Garland and tinsel—tons and tons of tinsel—the whole nine yards.” I love tinsel and would roll around in it if I could.
Sigh.
I wish I had more room, but I do have a bunch of my grandma’s ornaments; I inherited them when she died.
I sure do miss her, and now I wish it were the holidays so I could decorate!
“I like most holidays, except Halloween, if I’m being honest.” Dex takes the last calamari from the basket and holds it out toward me. “Want the last one?”
I shake my head. “All you.”
“People can argue that Valentine’s Day is too commercialized, but I like it anyway,” he goes on, chewing. “Any excuse to do something fun, eh?”
I grin; I can’t stop myself. “What I’m hearing is that you’re kind of romantic.”
He shrugs. “Don’t know about that, but I do try. No reason not to.” Dex sighs, rubbing his fingers on the napkin to clean up the oil from the appetizers. “We didn’t have much growing up—my parents spent most of their money on stupid shit, and all they did was fight. So once I got older, I just ...” He adjusts himself in his seat, shifting his ass. “I had a girlfriend my freshman year of college who was big into celebrating absolutely everything. She kind of changed my mind about it.”
This perks me up.
