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“A little more to the right,” Vera Kane said from her chair, gesturing with her finger. Bellamy rolled his eyes since he had just had the stocking there before she made him move it to the left. “I saw that.”
“Of course, you did,” he snickered. Of all the residents in Arkadian Place, Mrs. Kane reminded him the most of his own grandmother, sharp as hell but always warm and kind. She was also one of the few residents that had been here since Bellamy started working here three years ago. Bellamy dreaded the day that Vera Kane had to move out of assisted living and into a more hands on facility.
He held the stocking on the wall, looking back at her for approval before pinning it in place. “Much better,” she grinned. “Now, get Marcus’s.”
Most residents were perfectly happy with the simple decorations they put in each room. But every year, she insisted that Bellamy put up her own decorations, especially the Christmas stockings that she had handstitched for her and her son decades ago. This year was no exception. So, Bellamy laughed and smiled as Vera Kane told him story after story about each decoration that he put up.
A jingle of bells jerked him out of their conversation, and his eyes darted to the door. Clarke had nudged the door open, causing the bells on the wreath Vera’s son had brought over to ring. “Good morning,” Clarke said with a bright smile to Mrs. Kane as she pushed the tray in. Then, her bright blue eyes flickered over to Bellamy, and he could feel his heart start to pound. “Hi, Bellamy,” she whispered, and he felt his own smile start to grow.
Clarke Griffin started working here about ten months ago, and she was every resident’s favorite nurse. She was warm and caring, always coming into work with a smile on her face. Bellamy was a bit in awe of her. It isn’t exactly easy working in places like this. Most people who do work here tend to waver in their enthusiasm and kindness over time, but not Clarke. She loved each and every resident, which was something the two of them shared.
“The decorations are beautiful. Did you stitch these yourself?” Clarke asked, looking at the stockings.
“Oh, I did that one when Marcus was four. My husband lost the original in the attic somewhere, and I never did find it, so—”
“Mrs. Kane, maybe we should save that story for after Clarke is done with her rounds?” Bellamy reminded her, and Clarke shot him a grateful smile. If he let her, Vera would talk Clarke’s ear off and set her behind for the whole day.
Bellamy rearranged the lights while Clarke gave Vera her meds, listening as the two of them talked about her health. Halfway through their conversation, Bellamy was out of decorations to work on and felt awkward when he just stood there, so he kept fiddling with the lights to keep from gazing at Clarke. He had already been called out by some of his coworkers for how lovestruck he looked whenever Clarke was in the room. The last thing he needed was for Clarke to catch on too.
When Clarke finished taking her blood pressure, he caught Mrs. Kane raising an eyebrow at him. “Okay, I will be back in a little bit,” Clarke said, and Bellamy averted his eyes so she didn’t catch what Vera was implying.
He did an awkward little wave as Clarke made her way out, instantly feeling ridiculous for it. And as soon Clarke shut the door behind her, Vera started making that tsk tsk noise that he knew was coming. “Don’t you start,” he warned.
“Do you think I didn’t see how you looked at her when she came in?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. It reminded him a lot of when his sister would tease him for having a crush back when they were kids.
“Clarke and I are just friends,” Bellamy reminded her, and this time, she rolled her eyes.
“Well, that is just a shame. You’re single, she’s single, and you both like each other,” she explained, and Bellamy bit down on his lip. She wasn’t far off in her assessment, at least not as far as Bellamy’s feelings were concerned. From Clarke’s very first day here, Bellamy had been thrown by just how beautiful she was. But he opted to ignore the way his stomach flipped when she blinked those gorgeous eyes at him or smiled in his direction, figuring that it wasn’t worth the risk if it didn’t work out since they worked together. Then, he got to know her, learning that she had a dark sense of humor that would have him nearly crying from laughter and that she had a passion for art. Over the last few months, they had gotten even closer. He knew all about the drama with her mom back home and she was well versed in the most recent arguments with Octavia. She was his confidant, his closest friend, and easily the most incredible person he had ever known… which made it nearly impossible to keep his affections for her a secret.
“It’s not like that,” he tried to argue, but Vera just raised her eyebrows again. “Okay, yes, I like Clarke. I’d have to be blind not to. But she just sees me as a friend.” Which was fine. She was a really great friend to have and he loved every moment he got with her. It was more than enough for him.
“No, she likes you too. Everybody is talking about it.”
“Who is everybody?” Bellamy chuckled.
“Gladys, Brenda, all the girls from my Bingo table…” she listed off, namedropping the most popular women in the facility. Bellamy swore that high schoolers had nothing on the gossiping that went on in here. “John told Brenda who told me that the background on her phone is that picture of you two from the Halloween party.”
“That was a group photo,” Bellamy pointed out. Though, he and Clarke were right next to each other in it. “Wait, John? As in John Murphy?” When she nodded, Bellamy threw his head back. Murphy was always giving Bellamy hell about his crush on Clarke, and now he was feeding the resident gossip train. Bellamy was going to kill him.
“Do not get mad at John. He is a sweet boy,” she said sternly. Bellamy bit his tongue before pointing out that outside of work, he was the grumpiest person to have ever walked this earth. “Now, I think you should ask Clarke to have dinner with you. Think of it as a Christmas present to me.”
“Mrs. Kane,” Bellamy sighed.
“It would make me so happy,” she said with the sweetest voice. He should have known she would try this. She knew she was his favorite resident, and she was milking that for all it was worth. “And who knows how many Christmases I have left?” she asked with a big pout.
Luckily, the door swung open and her son came striding in. “Hi, Mom,” Marcus said with a smile. He brushed past Bellamy to press a kiss to his mom’s cheek. “Bellamy, how are you?”
“I’m good. Your mom is trying to make me ask a girl out,” Bellamy replied, rolling his eyes slightly.
Marcus narrowed his eyes at him before looking at his mother. “You’re still trying to set him up with Clarke?” he snickered. Of course, Vera told her son all about his crush on Clarke. With that, Bellamy took his leave so they could visit, shaking his head as he stepped out into the hallway.
Bellamy volunteered to work Christmas Day this year. Normally, he would beg to have that day off so he could be with Octavia, but she wasn’t coming home this year. And it felt wrong to let someone else work the Christmas shift when they actually had family to be with, so Bellamy volunteered.
He glanced over the week’s schedule, seeing who got stuck working beside him on the holiday… and there was Clarke’s name right next to his.
Bellamy ducked out of the main office and walked over to the nurse’s station. Her head popped up when he came over, her lips immediately forming a smile. “Hey,” she said, looking a bit sleepy. Her hair was thrown up messily, a sign that Clarke was nearly dead on her feet. It was nearing the end of both of their shifts, and it had been quite the exhausting day, so he empathized.
“Hey, I saw you were working on Christmas,” he replied, tucking his hands into his pockets. He felt silly for getting so giddy about it. It was just a normal day at work, and they very frequently had the same exact shift. But it felt special, because it was Christmas.
“Oh, yeah,” she murmured, pushing a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “Not my first pick, but I hear a lot of the resident’s families will bring small presents and baked goods for the staff that day, so I’ve got something to look forward to.”
“And you got hanging out with me all day to look forward to as well,” he smirked as he leaned toward her, putting his elbows up on the desk. “I’m gonna go ahead and call dibs on anything with peanut butter in it.”
“Aww, you won’t share with me?” Clarke asked with an adorable little pout, her chin resting in her hands as she propped her elbows on the desk… as if she didn’t already know that he would do literally anything she asked if she just batted her eyelashes at him.
“Okay, fine, but just you. Murphy can have the fruitcake,” he teased, and Clarke giggled. He swore a blush formed on her cheeks, but she ducked her head before he could be sure.
Loud giggles interrupted their conversation, and both Bellamy and Clarke turned to the dinner table the noise was coming from. And there was Vera Kane and all her friends, giggling like school girls. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind what they were giggling about. Her eyes flickered up to meet his, and he shot her a warning look.
“You know she’s trying to set us up, right?” Clarke asked, and Bellamy snapped his head back in her direction. He had no idea that Clarke knew about that. And he started to panic that Vera told Clarke what Bellamy had admitted earlier. “One of the other nurses told me. Apparently, she’s dead set on getting us together by Christmas. I think it’s kind of adorable.”
“Yeah, adorable,” Bellamy agreed. “She just loves poking her nose into my life.” He shook his head, though a smile was creeping onto his lips.
“Because she cares about you. Meddling is how she shows it,” Clarke grinned, playfully patting his cheek before checking the computer again. “It’s cute.” He could feel the women’s eyes on him, and he just knew they were all going to have something to say about Clarke touching his cheek. His face turned red just thinking about it.
“You say it’s cute now, but trust me, she’s going to be all over us come Christmas,” he warned. He knew Mrs. Kane. He knew that once she set her mind to something, she got her way… and the last thing he needed was her pressuring him to ask Clarke out. The timing wasn’t right, and he was already nervous enough around Clarke.
“She’s a tiny thing and needs her walker to get around. How much trouble could she cause?” she snickered, shaking her head at him. Then, one of the alarms went off at the desk, meaning a resident needed Clarke. “Be right back,” she told him as she jumped out of her seat.
Bellamy let out a sigh as she disappeared around the corner. When he looked over his shoulder, Vera and all her friends were watching him. “You are not helping,” Bellamy called out to her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she shrugged, and all her friends burst out laughing. Vera Kane was up to something, and Bellamy was going to watch her like a hawk.
The nice thing about working on Christmas is that it’s an easy day. He didn’t really have to keep the residents entertained because a lot of their kids and grandkids come in to visit, which is exciting to watch. Even the gloomiest of the residents were all smiles as kids in their Sunday best ran up to hug them and tell them what Santa left for them. And a lot of residents get taken out for the day by their families, including Vera Kane, which was a huge relief to Bellamy. As much as he loved having her around, it was a lot easier to talk to Clarke without Vera raising her eyebrows at him or giggling with her friends whenever she saw them together.
He learned early in the day that Clarke didn’t have anyone to spend Christmas with since her mom lived so far away, and he made a decision. He was going to ask her to hang out after work, maybe to watch some Christmas movies or something. He had the perfect excuse since neither of them had plans, and it’d be a good opportunity to see how Clarke acts around him outside of work. And if it goes well, he could try it again next week… and eventually, he would work up the courage to actually ask her out.
Within the last hour of his shift, he brought it up. But before Clarke could respond, he heard Vera Kane’s excited voice say, “See? Didn’t I tell you?” Bellamy whipped his head around to see her pointing at Bellamy as she walked in with her son, who was just smiling and shaking his head as he helped her inside.
“Just when I thought we were in the clear,” Bellamy muttered, and Clarke swatted his arm. “I’m gonna have to stay ten feet away from you for the rest of the shift or else rumors are going to start again.”
“I think you can survive her teasing for less than an hour,” Clarke smirked, patting his shoulder with a teasing grin. “And then, we can eat take out and watch Christmas movies.”
It took him until after she walked off to realize that meant she was saying yes. Thank God she wasn’t around to see the goofy grin that took over his lips. But Vera Kane saw it.
“Bellamy,” she said in that teasing voice of hers, slowly making her way toward him. “Did you finally ask her out on a date?”
“We are going to watch Christmas movies after work,” he told her, and she furrowed her brows.
“That’s not a proper date,” she huffed.
“It’s not a date,” he pointed out. “As I’ve told you, we’re just friends.” He didn’t add in the for now at the end of the sentence, but he was growing more hopeful by the second.
“We’ll see,” she announced, holding her chin up high as she slowly made her way back into the sitting area.
The night was starting to wind down. A handful of residents were still up, either gathered around the TV to watch Hallmark movies or playing cards in the corner. Bellamy was waiting for Clarke to finish her last rounds so that he could walk out with her.
“I told Mrs. Kane that she should have made her goal Valentine’s Day, not Christmas. But honestly, I’m not sure you’ll ask Clarke out by then either,” Murphy teased, and Bellamy shot him a glare. He had just come in for his shift and was asking all about Vera’s little plan to get him and Clarke together.
“I will ask her out when I know she likes me back,” Bellamy muttered, crossing his arms.
“Oh my God,” Murphy groaned. “You’re an idiot. Or blind. Or both.” Bellamy ignored him and glanced down the hall to see Clarke starting to come their way. “If she didn’t like you, then why would she volunteer to take the Christmas shift just hours after I told her that you were working it?”
Bellamy’s head snapped in his direction, his eyes widening in confusion. Clarke hadn’t mentioned that she volunteered for it. Bellamy just assumed she got stuck with it like most people did.
Before he could press Murphy for more information, Clarke joined them. “Ready to go?” she asked Bellamy. His throat felt dry when he opened his mouth to respond, so he just nodded instead. “Merry Christmas, Murphy.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered in response as Clarke and Bellamy made their way to the door.
As Clarke punched in the key to get out, Bellamy turned back to wave at the residents. But he caught Vera Kane smirking at him. Why was she smirking?
He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but he wasn’t going to engage. He was almost home free after making it all day without Vera Kane trying to nudge him and Clarke together. So, he turned to walk out the door beside Clarke.
“Look who is under the mistletoe!” he heard Vera shout, and Bellamy froze. Slowly, he tilted his head up to see mistletoe hanging right above their heads. He cursed under his breath, wondering when the hell it was put there.
“How did she—” he muttered before realizing that there was no way in hell a resident could have gotten it up there. “Murphy,” Bellamy called out, turning around just in time to see Murphy ducking behind the desk.
“Now, you two know what happens when two people are caught under the mistletoe,” Mrs. Kane said with a huge grin, and Bellamy’s eyes darted to Clarke. Her cheeks were bright red, her bright eyes peering up at him.
“Um,” Bellamy choked out at the same time Clarke mumbled, “So.”
He could feel every resident’s eyes on them as his heart threatened to pound itself out of his chest.
“We could just—”
“—yeah.”
He had the strangest sense of déjà vu as he awkwardly closed the distance between them, like it was his first kiss all over again. His hands felt clammy, his heart was pounding, and his lips were tingling from anticipation. His mind was flooded with worries about what he last ate, how chapped his lips were, if he even remembered how to kiss…
… but Clarke shut his mind up by leaning forward and pressing her soft lips to his. And his body snapped back into focus as his hand cupped her cheek and his lips glided against hers. She sighed contentedly against his lips, sending a chill up his spine. Why did he wait this long? He could have been feeling the pure bliss that was her kiss if he had just worked up the nerve to tell her how he felt.
Loud whistles and cheers jolted them apart, and Bellamy was suddenly very aware that he was still at work. “Good night, everyone,” Clarke stuttered out, her cheeks as red as could be. Bellamy couldn’t help but look over at Vera Kane, who looked very pleased with herself. As soon as Clarke was out the door, Vera mouthed Merry Christmas before winking at him.
A small grin formed on his lips and he just shook his head as he pulled the door shut behind him. He would have a talk with her tomorrow about boundaries, but for now, he was going to let himself enjoy the fact that he just got to kiss Clarke Griffin.
“So,” he said at the same time Clarke said, “Um.” Her cheeks were still pink, and her eyes were wide as she looked up at him. He was at a loss for what to say and far too distracted by the way she bit down on her bottom lip.
What Murphy told him about Clarke choosing to work on Christmas after learning Bellamy was swirled around in his head, along with the fact that Clarke just chose to kiss him… and it wasn’t the short chaste kiss you did when just trying to appease a meddling group of seniors.
So, Bellamy took a chance and held her hand, and she didn’t let go. His cheeks still felt red from the kiss, and his heart was still pounding. But he had a feeling this might be his favorite Christmas.