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“Andreas?”
I look over to see Colby carefully holding a very pretty fairy. “Yeah, hun?”
He nibbles on his lip. He does that a lot.
I try very hard not to think about how he needs someone to kiss it better.
“Do you promise?”
“Promise what?” I ask him.
He glances at Jalen, who’s paused in his ornament selection to watch his best friend. “Do you promise that we can help you decorate your apartment some other time?”
My chest feels like it wants to explode. I was trying not to think about letting them go tonight without seeming too smothering and asking for their numbers or when I could see them again. But if Colby’s already bringing up a perfect opportunity…
“I’d love that,” I tell them warmly. I’m sure they both let out a small breath of relief, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
“I’d love that, too,” Colby says in a slightly shaky voice.
“Yes!” Jalen cries with a finger snap that almost causes him to drop all his remaining ornaments. “An-dre-as,” he pleads, giving me puppy eyes. “Come help me decide, okay?”
I laugh, getting in between the two boys, discussing the various merits of their choices until we’re down to ten special baubles.
I want to give them boundaries because I can already see how that makes them thrive. But I kind of also want to hammer into them that they don’t have to choose, not really. Life’s too short. They can have whatever makes them happy, within reason.
That’s certainly what I intend on doing.
CHAPTER7
Colby
It’s a few days later,and Andreas has kept his word. We’re currently back in his beautiful apartment, carefully taking ornaments out of bubble wrap to hang them on his seven-foot-high tree. He’s even got a little stepladder out for us to use.
Jalen and I are wearing the ugly sweaters he bought us as kind of a joke, but truth be told, I’ve been living in mine. Obviously not at my horrible job. I’ve got a polo shirt that I wear for a uniform, so the customers know who to yell at. But when I get home, I’ve been putting it straight back on.
A couple of times, I’ve even slept in it. Jalen doesn’t know that. I’m too embarrassed to admit it out loud.
I can’t help it, though. It’s so completely alien to me to get thoughtful, spontaneous gifts. That’s not to diminish all the wonderful presents Jalen’s bought me over the years. He sent me things for Christmas and my birthday way before we ever met, and I know exactly what lengths he tried to go to this year to get me the best Christmas present. He’s always thoughtful and wonderful.
But it’s more to be expected to get gifts from your besties at those times of the year. Andreas just got us these jumpers because he wanted to. Because they amused him, and he thought they’d make us laugh.
Somehow it’s a different kind of gift.
It scares me how much I like it.
I’m not the kind of person who’s popular and has people fawning over them. I saw it at school. How the popular girls got the most Valentine’s Day cards and just sort of took it for granted because they were so beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of them were pretty nice as well. But they accepted those gifts as if it was a perfectly normal thing to happen.
I’m sleeping in a jumper with literal bells on because I can’t believe someone thought of me long enough to get me something special. Thoughtful. And that’s not even taking the money he’s spending into account.
I know it’s not much to him, but thirty dollars on a joke gift is a hell of a lot to me. It means something.
So despite Jalen’s many words of wisdom, I’m still struggling to accept the generosity a little. Even though we already had that amazing day with Andreas when he bought us all the decorations, took us out to lunch, then drove us home so we could decorate our flat. We even swung by here first so we could pick up our feast of Thai leftovers. He also got us some wine even though he wasn’t drinking because he had to drive home.
Now here we are, back again in his amazing home. He already invited us to stay over, so this time we knew to bring our own jarmas and a change of clothes for tomorrow. I’m aware that a lot has happened fast, but it’s crazy how natural it feels. He obviously loves having us around, and he makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. He’s promised once we’ve put the tree and other deccies up, we can watch a Christmas movie of our choosing with hot chocolate and popcorn.
It kind of feels like a dream.
“You’re very quiet,” Jalen says playfully. He’s sipping on a mimosa and probably hanging up baubles at half the rate I am, but I don’t care. We’re both having a lot of fun in our own ways.
