Under the Mistletoe

"Another Christmas movie?" her brother said as soon as he walked in.

"Leave me alone!" his recently-engaged sister told him with feigned indignance. "I love these movies!"

Her brother glanced at the screen and saw an actress he thought was particularly attractive and stopped just long enough to say, "Whoa! Who is that?"

"She's beautiful, huh?" his sister replied.

Her brother surprised her when he sat down to watch.

"Yeah, she's gorgeous."

"Her name is Jill Wagner. She used to do car commercials for Mercury," his sister told him

"Yeah. Right. I knew I'd seen her. 'You gotta put Mercury on your list!' That was her line, right?"

"Yep. You got it," she told him. "Sorry, but she's married and way too old for you, big brother."

"The married part I respect, but how is she too old for me?" he asked.

"Well, you're 28, and she's gotta be 40 if not older," his sister told him, as though that was some sort of definitive answer.

"Well, I'll tell you what. You introduce me to a woman that attractive, and it won't matter to me if she's 25 or 45."

"Ha! Listen to you. You're never gonna settle down. You just flit around from one pretty girl to the next leaving a trail of broken hearts in your wake."

"Hey, not everyone meets the right person by the time they're 26, you know."

His sister smiled, held out her left hand again in order to show off her new ring then said, "I really am the luckiest girl in the whole world!"

Her brother laughed, told told her how happy he was for her, then let her know he had things to do.

"Okay, I'll have to watch Jill for both of us then," his sister told him.

He took one last look at the very attractive woman on screen then said, "She's hot. No doubt about that."

Layton Russell was 28, and his 26-year old sister, Cassandra, who'd been Cassie to him his whole life, had been engaged for nearly a week, and both of them had come home for the holidays. He really was happy for his sister, but Layton had been a self-proclaimed, confirmed bachelor since his freshman year of college. He was also guilty of everything his sister had just said.

He wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of letting her know, but he was more than a little envious she'd found someone she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

Layton had never spent more than two months with a woman, and that had happened only once. His 'relationships' tended to last a week or two with many numbered in hours rather than days. Being young and attractive, women came easily, and as he'd learned early on, nearly all who came were, in fact, 'easy'.

But when a good friend of his who was a year younger, and also a self-proclaimed bachelor had fallen hard for a woman, Layton began seriously asking himself why he always felt so empty. The only answer he could find was this vicious cycle that kept playing out in his life. Go out, meet someone, strike up a conversation, buy her a drink, take her home, sleep with her, and say goodbye.

He was beginning to feel it was a kind of learned, manic-depressive behavior in which the mania built and reached a crescendo in bed during orgasm only to be followed by a huge letdown that lasted until the next manic episode.

His thoughts were interrupted when his mom saw him.

"Come here, Layton!" she said happily.

He knew she was going to hug him again, and rather than protest, he opened his arms and said, "Hey, Mom!"

"I am SO glad you're home this year, honey!" she told him yet again.

"Me, too," he replied, and although Christmas was no big deal to him anymore, it was nice to be back in the house where he'd grown up.

Unlike a couple of his high school friends, there was no chance Layton would ever end up living there again, let alone staying there. He'd gone to college directly out of high school, and four years later graduated with a degree in accounting.

He'd fully intended on going to work for his father who was the owner of a well-known accounting firm in their relatively small town of Bellingham, Washington. But he'd surprised everyone, to include himself, when he announced he was joining the Marine Corps.

"You can't be serious!" his mother, Kathryn Russell, had said, worried sick he'd come him in a coffin.

"It'll be good for him," his father, Edward Russell, told her, but she was having none of it.

For days she tried to talk him out of it, but after running into a Marine officer on campus who talked to him about getting commissioned, he couldn't shake the idea that was the future he wanted. No office. No desk. No shirt and tie. Just being outdoors training Marines and living in the boonies.

So he completed the required tests, passed the physical with no issues, then found himself in Quantico, Virginia for ten weeks getting hollered at all day, every day until he and his fellow officer candidates could run the platoon by themselves. The staff was always there ready to pounce, but it was up to the candidates to get where they needed to go on time and in the right uniform.

It was structured exactly like boot camp, but with a few differences, with that one being the most noticeable. After all, they were being prepared to lead, and it made a lot of sense.

The day before his graduation from OCS, his parents flew out for his commissioning ceremony then drove to another location on the base called TBS which stood for The Basic School. Layton spent another six months there learning to lead an infantry platoon as well as getting all of the basics any Marine got in terms of history, customs, first aid, and marksmanship training.

The big surprise came in the last several weeks of TBS when the new second lieutenants submitted their top three choices of MOS (military occupational speciality), military-speak for 'job'.

TBS used something called 'the quality spread'. Each company of approximately 250 lieutenants was rank ordered from 1-250 based on academics, fitness, leadership, and other areas. The company was then divided into thirds.

If one was in the top of the upper third, one could almost be guaranteed to get one's first choice. The same was true for the top few in the middle and lower thirds. But for those unlucky schmucks who were at the bottom of any third, it was quite likely one would be assigned an MOS the officer did NOT want.

Among the most highly sought after were the combat arms MOS's: infantry, artillery, tanks. The Army called tanks 'armor' and artillery 'field artillery' and differentiated between straight-leg and mechanized infantry while the Marine Corps did not.

Among the worst possible assignments were: adjutant, disbursing, and supply.

Layton had been the bottom man in the upper third, and although he requested infantry, artillery, and tanks in that order, he knew that wasn't likely. But he couldn't have been more shocked or disappointed when his assigned MOS came back.

He still remembered quite clearly when his SPC or Staff Platoon Commander, a young captain with five years in the Corps who spent every day with his platoon said, "Lieutenant Russel. Congratulations, money man."

"No. Sir. Please don't tell me..."

"Yep. You made it. Disbursing officer. Don't hurt yourself counting all that money."

His buddies both gave him huge amounts of grief and equal amounts of sympathy. Most of the latter was out of a sense of relief they'd dodged their first bullet on active duty. Well, except for the prior-enlisted officers, some of whom had been to Afghanistan once or even twice with one of them sporting a purple heart because he really had been shot.

So after finishing TBS, Layton headed south to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were he reported to the Financial Management School at Camp Johnson, a satellite base of Lejeune.

He spent eight weeks learning every aspect of his new MOS, and as an accounting major, most of it was old hat. The important new things he learned related to doing the job the Marine Corps way, and he'd learned already there was the right way, the wrong way, and the Marine Corps way.

Doing things the Marine Corps way was all he needed to do, and so far, five years later, he'd done them reasonably well.

All that ran through his mind in the course of a few seconds while his mom was hugging him.

"Are you still going to help me get ready for the Christmas party?" she asked, her smile so big her son worried something might break.

"Of course, Mom. I told you I would."

"Wonderful! I can't wait to get started," she said, as she brought her hands together in front of her.

She looked around then whispered, "Do you think you can get your sister away from the TV long enough to give us a hand?"

Layton laughed but not too loudly.

"I'm not a miracle worker, Mom," he told her. "But maybe after this movie ends I'll give it a try."

"I enjoy them, too, but I can't sit for hours on end watching movies with the same plot over and over and..."

Just then Cassie walked in, and her mother stopped in mid-sentence. She had tears in her eyes, so that meant either the movie was over or it was at the part where there was some kind of misunderstanding between the main characters not long before they made up and realized they were in love.

She saw her brother look at her then smirk, and she said, "Don't you dare!"

"Who me? I'd never laugh at my sister or poke fun at her for being a weepy, hopeless romantic," her brother told her.

"Well, at least I found romance," she told him before shoving him out of the way with her shoulder.

Their mother smiled happily as she watched her children interact the way they had for so many years. It was all in good fun, and she knew they'd do anything for each other, as she would for them or they for her. They'd always been close, and that made Layton's decision to leave the area that much harder on them all.

"So...Cass," her mother said. "Layton and I are getting ready to start decorating the house, and we were wondering if..."

"Sure, Mom. I'd love to help," she said before her mom could finish.

Layton leaned toward his mom then said loudly enough for Cassie to hear, "The man and woman who fell in love in the movie must have just said 'I do'," knowing he'd get another shot from his sister's elbow.

When it came, he laughed then said, "That was SO worth it!"

She balled up a hand and put it under his nose and said, "You better watch it, buster."

He tried not to laugh, as her tiny little fist 'threatened' his handsome face. When he lost it, she did, too, and when they hugged, their mom had tears of her own in her eyes.

"Come on, kids! Let's get this place ready. Your father's invited the entire staff this year, and I want the house to look amazing!"

As they laid things out to get started, Cassie asked her mom a question.

"Do you think the Ellises will be coming?"

Her mom stopped moving then recovered.

"Oh. I'd be very surprised if they did."

"Did he really do that?" Cassie asked.

"I'm afraid so, honey," her mom said as she busied herself to try and avoid discussing the biggest scandal in the 30-year history of the firm.

"How old was this woman he was having the affair with?" her daughter asked.

Her mom finally stopped pretending, turned toward her daughter and said, "Twenty-three! She was 23 years old, for crying out loud! And he threw away his marriage for...that! Some college co-ed, for crying out loud. I swear I don't understand!"

"His poor wife," Cassie said, the thought of her fiancé doing that her sending chills down her back.

"You haven't met her yet, have you?" her mom said.

"No. Daddy just brought him on board this summer, and I've been gone with Richard, so..."

"Such a nice woman. And beautiful, too! I have to admit he's a very attractive man, but his wife is...gorgeous. And he throws it all away for some...bimbo!"

Cassie knew her mother was, at some level, thinking similar thoughts. She knew her father would never do that, but then again, nearly anything was possible, so as much as it pained her to admit it, it wasn't out of the range of possibilities. And yet she simply couldn't imagine her father ever doing that to his wife and their family.

"What'd I miss?" Layton asked as he carried in a large box from the attic.

"Oh, just some local gossip, honey," his mom said. "Can you put that box over on the table for now then go get the other one just like it?"

"It's already downstairs on the garage floor, Mom. I'll go get it now."

Once he was out of sight, Cassie asked, mostly rhetorically, "Do you think Layton will ever get married?"

Her mother stood up straight, sighed, then said, "Nothing would make me happier. Unless, of course, he got married and came home for good."

"Ha! Fat chance of that," Cassie said.

Her mother didn't want to admit her daughter was right, but she had no reason to believe her son would be settling down anytime soon. As he walked back in, she also had to admit she understood why.

He was so handsome his own mother often found it hard not to look just to be reminded. Cassie had been watching a show many years ago called White Collar while Layton was in the room.

"Hey! There's your twin!" she called out.

He turned around to look, and his mother was holding her hands over her face.

"Oh, my heavens. He looks just like your brother!"

'He' was Matt Bomer, an incredibly good looking actor who played the role of a white-collar criminal who'd made his living stealing valuable works of art. That is, until the other star of the show, an FBI agent, arrested him, and turned him to work for the Agency putting away other white collar criminals.

Unlike Layton, Bomer was gay, a well-kept secret for many years. His coming out was heartbreaking to many women who'd had huge crushes on the Hollywood actor.

"You think I look like him?" Layton had asked.

Both Cassie and his mom replied in unison, "Yes!"

"I don't see it," Layton said, shaking his head before turning and leaving the room.

But the truth was, the resemblance was uncanny, and ever since Bomer came out as gay, Cassie had occasionally teased her brother about that being the reason he'd never gotten serious with anyone. She knew he was straight as straight could be, but like siblings everywhere, any reason to give her brother a hard time was a good reason.

Rather than point out the number of women with whom he'd shared his bed over the years, he'd only say something like, "Yeah. You're on to me. Just don't tell Dad, okay?"

She'd laugh and that'd be the end of it until the next time.

Bomer was now 41, but when he was 28, the resemblance was striking, and Layton Russell was every bit as handsome as the Hollywood heartthrob. Layton wasn't exactly tall, but at 5'10" he was slightly above average in terms of height. He wasn't 'buffed' or 'ripped', but he had an athletic-looking physique that, at 165 pounds, was more runner than lifter.

Mostly it was the very dark hair and the piercing blue eyes that went so well with the amazing smile. Well, the high cheekbones didn't hurt, either, so as much as he hated to admit it, he did bear a fairly strong resemblance to the actor in question.

Kathryn was laughing at her daughter's 'fat chance' comment when her son came back in and asked what was so funny.

"Oh, your sister was just telling me about something Richard said," she told him, making up a story about her future son-in-law to avoid having the 'when are you going to settle down' conversation again which normally lasted less than ten seconds due to Layton's exasperation.

For the next several hours, Kathryn orchestrated the movements of her children as she told them what to put here or hang over there. By the time they took a break, the house was well on the way to being ready.

"Thank you. Both of you," their mom said when she let them know it was time to get dinner started along with a reminder their father would be home around six.

"Oh, Mom," Cassie said as she pulled something out of the cardboard box. "Where do you want to hang this?"

"Oh, my goodness! The mistletoe. We can't very well forget that, can we?"

Her mom pointed to the same place they'd hung it every year, and Cassie hung it up.

"You know, if we get Layton to stand underneath this all night, we just might be able to pair him up with someone," Cassie said as she carefully got off of the stepladder.

"Um...except that almost everyone who'll be here is already married," her mother gently reminded her. "But I do like the idea."

Cassie shrugged and said it was worth a try. Her mom agreed, and with that, they called it quits.

Later that evening, as they talked and ate, Edward Russell told his wife the house was really coming along nicely.

"Thank you, dear. We should have it finished early tomorrow. Is everything on track for tomorrow night?"

"Oh, yes. So far, we have over 90% of the RSVPs back, and all of them are coming. Except for Denise."

"Oh, right. She's due any day now, isn't she?" Kathryn asked.

"She is. In fact, her revised due date is on Christmas Day."

"Poor child!" Cassie said. "He or she will never know the joy of a separate birthday."

Layton rolled his eyes, and Cassie threw a roll at him.

Their mother started to chide them just as Layton caught it and said with a smile, "How did you know I wanted another one of these?" before ripping out a huge bite causing everyone to laugh.

"You see. This is what I want," Cassie said. "A family of my own that loves each other the way we do."

All eyes turned to Layton who was chewing the oversized bite of bread.

"What?" he asked, shoving the food to one side of his mouth so he could talk.

Edward knew his wife about to ask 'the question' so he shook his head to warn her off.

"Oh, that," Layton said as he chewed. "Mom? Gimme a break this one time, okay? Please?"

"Is it wrong to want both of your children to get married and have a family?" she asked, playing the martyr as she always did when she meddled in her son's personal life.

Layton took a sip of water to help swallow the gooey bread then said, "You never know. I might just surprise you one of these...years."

He tried not to laugh when the expression on his mother's face went from indignant to hopeful to...her throwing a roll at him.

This time he ducked while he laughed, and everyone went back to eating and talking about anything else.

Layton was up early the next day and headed to a local gym called Bellingham Fitness where he planned to get in a mile swim before his mom drafted him to finish the house.

He and Cassie put the finishing touches on a little before noon, and suddenly Layton found himself in a place he spent very little time when he realized he had absolutely nothing to do.

"Sit down and watch a movie with me," Cassie suggested.

After making a face, he finally agreed to give it a try, and when he saw the female lead was his latest celebrity crush, he stayed and watched the whole thing.

"You just need to find yourself a younger version of Jill," Cassie told him when it ended.

As expected, the beautiful Jill Wagner, had of course, agreed to leave the big city and stay with the handsome guy she'd fallen in love with during the last 90 minutes just as she had the other handsome man in the first movie Layton didn't watch until the end.

When it ended, Layton said, "If I could find someone like her in real life, who knows?"

"Then I'm going to set you up!" Cassie replied much too enthusiastically.

The odds of finding his very own Jill Wagner somewhere down the road seemed slim, and there was no chance of that happening in the next ten days while he was home visiting. But for the first time he was actually open to the possibility which no longer seemed like a death sentence but something that would make his full-yet-empty life complete. He laughed at the oxymoron then made an announcement.