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“It’s not that cold, Eric,” Jack mutters, rolling his eyes and Bitty pulls on a toque and mittens, “It’s maybe negative ten.”
Bitty looks up at him in alarm and then settles with a resolute look as he zips up the front of his jacket. “If you were talkin’ Fahrenheit I wouldn’t have gotten out of bed today.”
Jack leans down and kisses him quickly. “We’ll only be in the cold for ten minutes total, mon cher .”
“Let’s get this over with then,” Bitty grumbles, pulling his gloves on and wrenching open the hotel door.
Jack watches him take a few steps down the hall, laughing quietly, before Bitty turns back and gives him a warning look. He puts up his hands in defence and grabs his hotel key before following him down the hall.
Bitty looks like he’s bracing himself against the cold already as they enter the elevator.
“It’s really not that cold,” Jack says, trying to be reassuring. Bitty doesn’t move, though, so he puts an arm around his shoulders and pulls Bitty against him. “I’ll keep you warm,” he says against Bitty’s hair.
Bitty shakes his head. “Not worried about the cold. Your family.”
Jack’s brow furrowed. “They love you, Eric. You know that - I think you’ve met everyone that’s going to be at the dinner.”
He looks up, his chin poking against Jack’s chest. “It’s different, honey.”
Jack bends his head down awkwardly to kiss the tip of his nose. “I know. It’ll be fine, I promise. And if it isn’t, we can leave. Book a red-eye back to Providence and be back home before the sun rises.”
Bitty hums, moving his head again so his ear is against Jack’s chest. Finally, the doors slide open and Jack takes back one of his arms but leaves the other resting over Bitty’s shoulders. After five years of dating, most people took public displays of affection for granted, but they’d only been able to do simple things like holding hands in public for just over a year, so Jack suspected it would be a good long while before either of them took it for granted.
They stop together just before the carpeting for the automatic door and Jack looks down at the top of Bitty’s head, rubbing his shoulder lightly. “Are you gonna be okay? It’s a whole twenty feet to the car.”
Bitty glances up and scowles, bumping his hip against Jack’s. “Shut up. Let’s just go.”
The sun is setting as they walk out but it’s still fairly warm for Montreal in late December. There isn’t snow to be seen, which would have disappointed Jack tremendously as a child but now just left him relieved knowing there wouldn’t be any shoveling that had to be done.
Jack unlocks the car and Bitty pulls away from his side, scrambling into it so fast Jack can’t help but laugh. He walks around to the driver's side and turns the heat on. “Ten degrees,” he repeats, and Bitty just sticks his tongue out at him.
Bitty fiddles with the radio until he finds a French pop station and nods along with the songs, despite the fact that he can barely understand them. Before they’ve heard three complete songs, though, Jack is already pulling onto his parents street. The driveway is full, so he parks on the curb.
They get out of the car together and Jack reaches over to grab Bitty’s hand as they approach the house. Jack knocks on the door and his mother answers, looking flushed and cheerful.
“ Bonjour, maman ,” Jack murmurs, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
She returns the kiss and pats his other cheek. “ Bonjour, mon grand. ”
Bitty holds out the bottle of wine that they’d purchased in the duty free on their way into the country and she accepts it gleefully, stepping back into the house. They follow but are hardly more than two steps through the door when Alicia grins at them with a mischievous glint in her eye.
They both pause, looking at her questioningly before she points to the space above their heads. Looking up Jack can see that his parents had hung mistletoe. Bitty laughs at his side.
They turn back to each other at the same time and Bitty pushes himself up on his toes slightly to kiss Jack, but Jack takes the opportunity to knock him off balance and dip him, placing a hand at the back of Bitty’s head to kiss him fully.
Jack pulls them both back up to standing and Alicia is clapping. “Best kiss so far this evening,” she announces, and the few other family members in the living room agree with her.
Alicia disappears into the kitchen and Jack and Bitty mingle with those who have already arrived to the party. When she comes back, she hands them both glasses of wine and Bitty accepts his gratefully, downing almost half of it in his first sip.
“It’ll be fine, mon cher ,” Jack whispers in Bitty’s ear, echoing his earlier statement.
Bitty turns his head and pushes Jack’s face away playfully. “I know,” he says petulantly.
One more couple arrives and they share a chaste peck under the mistletoe, then Bob is coming out of the kitchen and announcing that dinner is ready and they all file into the dining room. There’s an extra table pushed against the original to give more space and a mismatched group of chairs but there’s enough space for everyone.
Jack is sat with Bitty on his left and his cousin Léo to his right. He can see Marie-Claude to Bitty’s left and already the two are chatting away about baking - she’s either in her last year of culinary school or recently graduated, Jack can’t remember.
Bob stands up and taps the rim of his glass. “I’m very glad you could all make it here tonight,” he says. “This time of year is about family, and I feel grateful to have such a wonderful one.” He nods to himself as if he’s just delivered a long speech, and Jack understands - the two of them were very much the same, neither had ever been fans of public speaking. “Does anyone have anything else they’d like to say?”
Jack clears his throat and stands up, his chair scraping back against the floor in a way that almost makes him wince. “I do - well, actually. Eric and I do.” He reaches down to grab Bitty’s hand, tugging it slightly so that he stands, too. “We’re engaged.”
Everyone starts to clap, most in just a quietly polite way but his closer cousins are genuinely enthusiastic. He looks over at his mother and sees her with her hand clapped over her mouth and tears forming in her eyes. When he smiles across the table at her she hops out of her seat and runs around the table, throwing her arms around both of them and pressing kisses into both their cheeks.
Alicia puts a hand on either side of Jack’s face. “I’m so proud of you,” she says, and then she sneaks in another kiss for each of them before going back to her seat.
They sit down and Bob tells everyone to dig in. Jack squeezes Bitty’s hand and leans over to whisper in his ear. “See? I told you it would be fine.”