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Literotica 2021 Winter Holidays Story Contest
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She had to look good. She had to look beyond good. She had to look so sexy she made a man's heart stop.
Normally, Elena preferred hanging out in yoga pants and oversized sweatshirts. When she went to her best friend's annual Christmas party, she threw on jeans and an ugly sweater. It was all about how bad she could look.
But this year was different. This year, Lisa's older, sexy, and long crushed on older brother, Michael, would be there. The year before, he and his wife of four years had split up. He didn't come to the party. The family didn't say it, but they were relieved Michael and Courtney split up. They left him to himself for months, but this year was different.
And so, Michael -- three years older than her own thirty-five -- with his light blue eyes and dimpled cheeks, would be there. And he was single. She couldn't show up in her Christmas boxers and elf shoes. Not this year.
Ugly sweater, but sexy.
When Lisa opened the door three hours later, her jaw dropped open. "Damn, Elena, look at your legs."
Elena wore a men's sweater designed with a tinsel covered tree, thigh high candy cane striped tights, and her elf shoes. Make-up fully done, and hair blown out instead of in her usual twisted bun on top of her head. It wasn't that different.
As her best friend, Lisa was well aware of Elena's crush. Despite him being her brother and Elena being her best friend, she still always thought the two of them would pair up well. Especially after the disaster of Courtney.
"He's not here yet," Lisa whispered as she took the bottle of wine from Elena.
"Phoebe's trying to convince him still." Phoebe was Lisa's partner and a good friend of Michael's.
Lisa led Elena into the kitchen. Phoebe mouthed, "Wow" at Elena as she came in.
She said into the phone, "I just think you'll have more fun here than at your parents. Trust me, Michael, it's going to be worth it."
"You look great!" Phoebe hugged her after she hung up and then made Elena give a twirl. "Michael is going to lose his mind."
Elena blushed. "Is it that obvious?"
Lisa patted Elena's shoulder. "Honey, the only person in my family who doesn't know you've always been in love with Michael is Michael."
Phoebe moved to the bar area and filled glasses with boozy punch. "Michael will show up. It's perfect. Like a Christmas miracle."
"You're Jewish," Lisa grumbled.
"Stick with me here. Michael and Courtney did not work out. We all knew they weren't going to work out, but Michael was too stubborn to give up on love. Now, here we are, Elena just happens to be single. Michael is single. And here's Elena, no longer just his sister's little friend."
"All grown up and looking fucking hot," Lisa tapped her cup against Phoebe's and
Elena's. "You're like one of those cheesy Christmas movies."
"But with sex."
"Who says I'm going to have sex with him?" Elena tried to look innocent.
Lisa and Phoebe cackled.
"He better show up." Lisa refilled their glasses. "If he misses out on this, you're going to have to seduce my Uncle Morris. Who can't stop looking at your butt. Since he's single, that's not a problem, but he is sixty-seven and I don't know that you're looking for that kind of relationship."
Three cups of punch later -- while avoiding Uncle Morris, who did, in fact, think Elena's short sweater and thigh highs were the highlight of his Christmas season -- Michael walked in the door. She would blame the flush in her cheeks on the punch and not the fact he looked amazing and made her cheeks heat just watching him.
Elena did not immediately stop what she was doing to stare at him. That would be too obvious. She did tune out the person asking the trivia questions to watch Michael hang up his jacket.
He hugged Lisa, kissed Phoebe on the cheek. No ugly sweater for Michael. Instead, he wore a simple green one and a light up Christmas light necklace.
"Borrowed it from Mom," she heard him explain. Because she was absolutely not staring at him and eavesdropping.
Until she realized her entire team was silent and watching her. "What? Sorry?"
"You weren't even guessing," one of Phoebe's aunts teased.
Across the bustling room, her eyes met Michael's. He stilled, taking in her outfit, and then the corner of his mouth kicked up in the sexiest half smile Elena had ever seen.
With the intensity of a hunter locked in on its prey, Michael wove his way through the crowd until he was at the edge of the group of people playing trivia. He paused there, watching Elena.
She tried to pay attention; she really did. It was just, Michael had the sleeves of his green sweater pushed up, and despite never really thinking about it before that moment, it turned out Elena had a thing for the corded muscles of a man's forearms.
"Elena?"
"Stephen Segal!" Elena yelled.
"The correct answer is 'The Grinch' but nice try," one of Lisa's cousins teased.
Her teammates broke out in howls of laughter. She smiled and blushed, embarrassed to be caught not paying attention again.
"With that, I am going to take a break from this game." Elena shoved herself up from the couch. As she stood, Michael moved and there he was, directly in front of her.
Silver threaded through his dark hair, and there were lines around his blue eyes, but he still had dimples and when he smiled at her they winked into place. "It's been a few years since I've seen you."
"Yes, it has." That was good. She didn't make a complete fool of herself.
She hugged him, just as he bent down to kiss her on the cheek. In her awkwardness, she moved right when he went left, her lips brushed across his and they both pulled back, blinking at each other.
She might be a grown ass woman and know how to talk to men, but this was still someone she had crushed on for more than half her life. Elena, in all her awkwardness, blurted out, "Punch!"
