New Year's Eve 2016
The snow came down heavily as Tim drove deep into the suburbs to see his grandmother. It was already dark out, midway through the evening on the thirty-first of December, when he finally found the time on his winter break from college to visit her. He recalled how disappointed she was on the phone when he told her he couldn't be there on Christmas, it would have taken a blizzard to keep him away for New Year's Eve.
The neighborhoods he drove through became older and more established the closer he got to her house. He reached her brightly-lit, cozy little street with a few hours to spare before midnight. Pleasant memories of childhood visits here all came back to him as he surveyed the friendly neighborhood. His grandmother's house was the sweetest and most welcoming of them all.
Tim parked outside her house and exited the car. Harsh wind roared around his ears as he made the short journey up the steps to her porch. The door opened before he could knock. The calming, familiar voice of his grandmother, "It's getting awful out there. Get in here quick."
She shut the door the second he made it inside. She had her arms wrapped around him tightly before he could get his boots off. She embraced him tenderly and kissed warmth back into his frozen cheeks.
"I'm so glad you made it. Now let me get a better look at you," she said. Grandma Vivian took a step back and cast her eyes approvingly over her grandson. "You've changed so much. What a man you've become," she remarked.
Tim had to chuckle. He was just thinking the opposite of her, he was relieved to see she hadn't changed a bit. Vivian remained the beautiful, silver-haired grandmother he remembered. Her bright blue eyes had a way of shining when she was happy, and they were shining now. Her full, bee stung lips appeared untouched by time, just as ripe and kissable as when she was his age, dressed up in a fresh coat of vibrant red lipstick.
He was being polite by noticing her facial features first. The next man to focus his gaze just upon her face would be the first. Vivian's most prominent feature had to be her enormous breasts. They were a pair of hooters for the ages. Grandma Vivian's rack held the record for capturing the most wandering eyes. Even her own grandson had succumbed to their bountiful charms and blown big loads into his bedsheets fantasizing about those fat knockers.
Tim could recall with some embarrassment the afternoon a few years ago when his mom found a picture of Grandma Vivian in her bathing suit in his nightstand. He wondered if his mom bought his excuse that he'd just stolen the picture to remind himself of her when he couldn't visit.
In the years that followed that embarrassing picture incident, fantasies involving the beautiful, scantily-clad women in movies, and girls he liked at school, replaced those of his grandmother. Tim couldn't help but remember some of those earlier fantasies as he indulged in a quick glance at her breasts, practically popping out of a festive red sweater that matched her painted lips, then forced himself to look away. Vivian steered him over to the sofa, which he was all too happy to take a seat and stretch out on after his long, snow-plagued drive.
"Would you like something warm to drink, dear?"
"Yes, that would be really nice."
Vivian was halfway to the kitchen before stopping on her heels. "Last time you were here I would have gotten you a cup of hot chocolate. Now I don't know whether to get you hot chocolate or coffee. Which would you prefer?"
Tim tried to think of when the last time he visited her around the holidays was, and felt so guilty at how long it had been that he answered hot chocolate even though a hot cup of coffee would have really hit the spot. He looked around the room from his perch on the sofa while his grandmother prepared his drink in the kitchen.
The well-kept, cheerful house was still decorated for Christmas, with all the pleasant sights and smells of the holiday. It was comforting at first, but Tim started to worry as he looked around, imagining the difficult time his grandmother was going to have hauling all these decorations back down to the basement and taking care of that tree in the corner.
Grandma Vivian returned to the living room, holding a steaming mug with snowflakes and reindeer on it by the handle. A candy cane hung from the rim. She put the mug down on a coaster and slid it over to her grandson. Tim took the mug up and blew on it before taking a sip of hot chocolatey goodness. Vivian took a seat in the chair next to the table.
"Give me a few minutes to warm up and I'll take down some of these decorations for you while I'm here."
"No!" Vivian's sudden outburst made her chuckle with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, it's just I see you so infrequently, I'm not going to waste your visit having you do chores for me."
Tim felt chastened into silence. He took another sip of hot chocolate, reprimanding himself for not finding more time to spend with his grandmother over the years.
"I shouldn't have put it like that. I don't want to be the grandmother that scolds her grandkid for not seeing her more often. Please forget I said anything. How about I give you your Christmas gift?" She forced a smile on her face.
He smirked with a childish delight. "You didn't have to get me anything, Grandma."
"I would buy you the world if it had a price tag, honey." Her forced smile was washed away by a real one as she looked admiringly on her grandson. Vivian got up to retrieve the present, but was diverted when the doorbell rang. She was surprised to find her two closest friends at the door.
Tim looked back and saw two older women, one a little older than his grandmother and one a little younger. They jostled through the door before noticing Tim on the sofa.
"Let us in. It's colder than a witch's tit out there," the woman older than his grandmother remarked.
The slightly younger woman's eyes immediately wandered over to Tim. "Oh, Viv, you finally splurged on a stripper this year! Things are about to heat up."
"That's my grandson, Kathy!"
"All the better. Means I won't have to compete against your big tits for him."
Vivian stepped between Kathy and her grandson. She looked over at him and said, "Tim, these are my friends, Kathy and Cassandra. I'll tell you why they're here as soon as I figure that out myself." She turned her attention back over to the two older women with a discerning look on her face.
Cassandra pulled a deck of cards out of her purse. "We're here to play cards," she said. "Same thing we do every New Year's since Bob died."
"Didn't you get my message? I told you not to come over, that my grandson was visiting tonight."
Cassandra reached back in her purse and pulled out her phone, she shook it in her hand at Vivian. "You have to reach me by text now if you want me to get it."
Kathy negotiated around Vivian and ran her hand across Tim's chest. "So this is your grandson. I was beginning to think he didn't exist. Now I get why you were hiding him from me," she declared with a sharp, seductive smile.
"Keep the innapropriate comments to yourself," Vivian cautioned. "That's enough of that," she said, removing her friend's arm from around Tim. "Well, girls, thanks for stopping by, but I don't think my grandson wants to play cards with us."
"Don't shoo us out with the storm brewing out there, we'll be good," Cassandra said.
Vivian looked out the window and then asked her grandson, "What do you want to do, Tim?"
"I guess they can stay," Tim replied. He was still a little shaken up by the things Kathy said and the way she touched him. The girls at school certainly didn't act like that around him.
"And he's a gentleman, too. Be still, my beating heart," Kathy joked.
"If you're going to stay, you have to cut that out," Vivian warned her.
"It's settled then." Cassandra unknotted her scarf and sprawled out on the sofa. "You got any New Year's bubbly, Viv? How about those little sweet cakes you made last year?"
"Yes, I'll get them. Tim, would you lend me a hand?" Her suggestion had the double purpose of letting her spend some time alone in the kitchen with her grandson as well as keeping him away from her insatiable friend Kathy.
Tim accepted Vivian's prompt and followed his grandmother into the kitchen. "I'm sorry for all this," his grandmother said once they were alone. She unwrapped a cake and began to slice it at the counter. "This isn't going to help my case for more time next year, is it?" She laughed.
"What do you mean?" Tim asked, taking a seat at the table.
Vivian brought the cake over to the table and sat across from him. "I know I'm the low woman on the totem pole, your mom told me how much time you've been spending with your friends since you got back. Driving all the way out here and spending any of that time with your grandma isn't very enticing, I understand that," Vivian's eyes dimmed and her smile evaporated as she spoke.
"I should have been here for Christmas," Tim said.
"That reminds me, let me get your present." Vivian's eyes lit up once again. She pushed up from the chair and bustled out of the room, returning a couple minutes later, impeccably-wrapped present in hand, with a red bow on top.
"But aren't your friends waiting for us to come back out?" Tim asked.
"Don't worry, darling. Cassandra's playing solitaire and Kathy's trying to find the nudie channel on the TV, they'll be at it a while." Vivian set the present down in front of her grandson, the color and cheer fully returned to her face.
Tim removed the bow and discarded the wrapping paper, all while his grandmother watched with a glowing smile. He reached into the box, through the colorful tissue paper, and pulled the case to a video game out.
He grinned like a child on Christmas morning as he read the title, "The Last Guardian, this is one of the hottest games this Christmas!" he remarked. "Thank you, Grandma."
"You're very welcome. But what were you expecting, did you think I was going to knit you a sweater for Christmas?"
Tim laughed, then replied, "I don't know, I wasn't expecting this."
