I quietly sighed and sunk further into the couch. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and it was great seeing them again after spending most of the last five years overseas working on my degree, but being the only person under the age of 40, and one of the few under the age of 50, meant I was fairly bored with the conversations around me.
See, the family tradition was to gather at my grandparents house for Christmas. When I was a kid it was great since all the cousins would hang out and entertain ourselves, but my first Christmas back and they were all busy with their own things. Since we were going to be spending the week here and the house was well outside of cell phone range, and only had dial-up Internet, it was looking like I was going to be bored out of my mind.
Without warning, there was a creak from the front door and I raised my head off the back of the couch to peek in that direction. My Aunt Sarah and Uncle Joe had just made it in, but with them was their daughter, Julie. The week seemed like it might not be so bad after all.
I've always gotten along great with all my cousins, but Julie was the one I always felt a special connection with. We had the same interests, the same sense of humor, and would always sit together during family gatherings. Even though I was three years older than her we got along like two peas in a pod, but I had never seen her as anything more than my cousin--that was quickly changing.
I hadn't seen her since I was 18 and finishing up school, and a lot changes in a girl between 15 and 20. Instead of dorky braces, short hair, and a non-existent figure, she now had light brown hair about a third of the way down her back, pulled out of her face and behind her ears. Her braces were gone and instead was a gorgeous smile, the kind any orthodontist would be proud to put in a brochure. Her pale blue eyes seemed to pierce the soul and soft curves perfectly defined her slim 5 foot 4 frame. Her breasts were a bit on the small side, certainly no larger than a B cup (if that) but I've always preferred smaller breasts so this was a bonus in my eyes. She smiled when she saw me but didn't say anything.
The typical formalities pursued as everybody greeted the newly arrived guests. Now that Julie had unexpectedly shown up I perked up and joined the conversations around me, cheering up immensely. After about an hour Grandma called us to dinner. Between Grandma and all my aunts, we had about twelve women in the kitchen cooking all day so we had an absolute feast--after a few hours everybody was stuffed and most of the family ranged from slightly intoxicated to completely passed out. Julie and I wandered back to the living room to finally have a chance to catch up a bit.
She asked me about England (I got a scholarship to study math at Oxford) and told me she was finishing up her associates degree at her local Junior College, but had no clue where she wanted to go after that or what she wanted to study. I was up for more chatting, but Grandma was busy shooing everybody to bed.
"Bill, mind grabbing my bags out of the car and moving them over the garage? No extra beds left so I'm camping out in our old stomping grounds." Julie gave me the puppy dog look and my heart melted.
"I'd be happy to. I'm crashing there too, but I thought I'd be all alone. This will be just like staying with Grandma and Grandpa during summer vacation, right?"
A few minutes later I was carrying her bags into the loft over the garage and the old memories came flooding back. My grandparents lived in one of those old houses that had been added on to countless times, so the garage was technically in a separate building. Grandpa had been great about renovating and keeping it livable and his years of sweat and toil showed. Since the family was so large, the second story of the garage had actually been converted so all the grandkids could camp out during family visits and not keep the adults up in the actual house. The building had its own heater, air conditioning, water heater, and water purification systems so we'd still be comfortable.
