“Far too personal, Roger.” I admonish.
When Oliver turns back to face his dad, I make eye contact and raise three fingers.
His smile is brief but smug.
Oliver whips back to look at me but I adopt an innocent expression. It’s far too soon to be discussing children with my boyfriend.
“Now can we watch an actual Christmas movie while we wait?” I ask.
“Of course.” Roger agrees, “And we can discuss obligations and the importance of stressing those to your children.”
“Dad!” Oliver shouts, “It was one season, and I was bad at football.”
“You made a commitment and you let your team down.” Roger continues without acknowledging his son’s distress.
“It was middle school!” He shouts in reply.
Oliver
One Year Later
“Oliver! She’s here!” I hear my sister call from the living room.
Penelope’s watched for her arrival for the last hour. Gabriella was supposed to arrive at one o’clock sharp. But my wonderful girlfriend has the pesky trait of being overly punctual. We all knew she’d be here early.
And for once I’m actually ready on time. Gabriella time not real time. I swear we haven’t gone to a single event without being at least thirty minutes early. And if she had her way it would’ve been an hour.
So I told her one o’clock, and we planned for noon.
Penelope had a girl’s day with her earlier in the week. Katie was in charge of keeping Buster her new puppy out of the shot. My mom invited Gabriella over early to help Penelope cook Christmas dinner. Darren is recording on his phone ever since Gabriella’s car pulled into the driveway. And my dad is keeping me calm. Or trying to at least.
I’m not calm. And that’s okay. I shouldn’t be calm. This day is too important to treat it with any manner of nonchalance.
I hear her heels click on the hardwood as she enters the house.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Sandy!” She calls as she walks through the house, “Penelope!”
She enters the living room carrying her casserole dish filled with ham rolls and she freezes. Her sweater this year shares a theme with mine. On mine is Rudolph and on hers is Clarice.
The tree we decorated as a family stands tall behind me with ornaments Pen and I made as children. Katie’s latest popsicle art is in pride of place and Gabriella’s mom sent one of hand painted ornaments as well.
Standing in a loose ring around the living room is my entire family. Soon to be our family.
My dad steps forward to take the dish from her shaking hands and I walk forward to hold her hands in my own.
“Merry Christmas Gabriella.” I say looking into her bright blue eyes.
Her red hair tumbles down her back in loose curls and I release one hand to twirl a strand between my fingers. Since our first days together I have loved playing with the silky strands.
“Merry Christmas Oliver.” She says as I release her hair and sink down to kneel on one knee.
Grabbing the ring box from my pocket I hold her gaze with my own. Silence reigns as I open the box and she begins to cry. My hands begin to tremble and I clench the box as tightly as I can to steel my nerves.
“I never was one to put much thought into the magic of Christmas. Bit of a grinch really.” I begin, “But then last year the most beautiful woman I have ever met carjacked me and I’ve been obsessed with her ever since.”
Gabriella’s eyes are red and she’s trying to wipe her tears away with her sweater’s sleeve, but she can’t keep up with the deluge.
