Everyone I know loves Christmas. The lights, the gifts, the movies, the music, the famous Starbucks cups, the sweaters, the trees, and the list can go on. Who could hate such a holiday?
However, this holiday has meant nothing to me since my father walked out on me and my mom. You would think she would hate Christmas as much as I do, but I think she distracts herself with her store and how well it does during this holiday season. My dad was tired of her focusing on her dream and decided she wasn’t enough to make him happy anymore. He still sends us Christmas cards with his new family and I always throw them in the trash whenever I make it home during Thanksgiving break.
I parked in front of my mom’s store and sighed. Finishing a semester in college was always bittersweet. I am finally relieved from the stress of exams, even though it is just for a little bit, but it also means that I’m needed at home to help out at the store for the holidays. Sasha’s. The metallic gold letters shine bright on the window and the Christmas decorations are on display. Decorations that are pointless and have nothing to do with the ‘real’ reason of Christmas. How is a fat man in a red suit supposed to make me happy? I roll my eyes as the sight and get out of my car.
The wind blows my scarf and I pull my jacket closed to keep me warm. We live outside of New York City in a little town that loves to go all out for Christmas, much to my dismay, but I tolerate it. I’m no Scrooge, and I know how to handle different opinions, as long as people are kind.
I enter the store and am met with the checkout table decorated for Christmas on my left and purses and Sasha’s makeup line on my right. In the back of the store is where my mother had the women’s clothing and shoes along with dressing rooms and a cute sitting area. She was doing well for herself and I could not be more proud to call her my mom.
I turn to walk to the counter and see my mom at the last register helping customers. The line was long, but luckily she had all five registers open, helping people check out as fast as they could. I walked behind the counter and stood behind my mom, “I think you should take your lunch now.”
She sighs as she grabs a shirt from the customer, “I don’t have time to -” She puts the shirt down once she faces me, “Emerson! You didn’t tell me you were coming in today!”
She greets me with a big hug, which I return. “Yeah. My professor mentioned that I didn’t need to take the final since it was optional and I already have an A in the class.”
“That’s great! Oh- hold on just a second.” She finishes checking out the customer and picks up the phone asking for an employee to come to the counter. Once an employee shows up they fill my mom’s spot and we leave the store, walking down the main street of our small town.
I look at my mom and see her in a Christmas sweater and I laugh, “Nice Rudolph.”
She looks down and flicks the glowing 3D nose, “Thought you might like it. You know you’ll need to wear something for Christmas if you want to work at my store.”
“Mom.” I give a glare and she laughs
“Maybe just a Santa hat?” She grabs my hand as we get closer to the cafe near her shop. I roll my eyes and scoff, but don’t pull away. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too mom.” And I meant it. I attend school in California, so I don’t come home often. Not even during the summers because I work out there. However, my boss loves me so he sends me home for Christmas, basically paying for my plane ticket and everything. I also think it’s because he knows I have a distaste for the holidays and believes sending me home will fix it.
She gives me a small smile and pushes her brunette hair out of her face. It’s greying, but she’s still beautiful. People say I resemble her and I’ve always taken it as a compliment. I don’t want to look anything like my father, and I’m glad I have my mother’s brown eyes versus my father’s blue ones. We walk into the cafe and sit near the window. She asks how my semester at school was and we catch up on all that’s been missed. I later find out that she’s been seeing someone, and I scold her for hiding it from me which she replies, “You’ll meet him soon.”
I nod and we continue to chat. I love my mom, and I loved how easy it was to always talk to her. I never really dated in college, but I would talk to her about boys if there ever was one that came into my life. It normally would just be hookups at parties, but nothing more. I guess I’m not ready to trust anyone yet since my dad left. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
Once we head back to the store, it seems that there are even more people than before. My mom rushes to the counter, but before she takes the next customer she bends down and grabs a red Santa hat.
“No.” I shake my head at her.
She gives me her mom look and I fold my arms, “Don’t tell your mother ‘no.’ Now come here.”
I bend my knees and she places the hat on my head and places my name tag on the right side my green sweater, which ends up being hidden by my hair anyways. I adjust the hat and relieve a cashier for their break. The day goes smoothly and once the cashier returned I just wander around the store to help customers out.
“Those would look perfect with that top.” I smile at the elderly women shopping for her granddaughter.
“Thank you so much dear!” She gives me a hug and a kiss on my cheek then walks off.
I smile as I watch her disappear into the crowd, “Um. Excuse me?” I turn around as I hear the voice and am met with a tall man wearing a hideous Christmas sweater sporting those famous green eyes. “Can you help me?”
I scrunch my eyebrows together and nod, “What do you need help with, sir?”
He laughs, “It’s Harry, but I’m shopping for my mum and sister. I normally hire someone to do my Christmas shopping, but this year I wanted to do it myself. However, I haven’t got the slightest idea of what to get them.”
It’s my turn to laugh, because not only did he introduce himself as if I didn’t know who he was, he came to Sasha’s out of all the other stores. Not able to fight my curiosity, I ask, “I’ll be glad to help you. What brings you to Sasha’s?”
He gives me a smile, “My friend recommended it, said my sister was a fan. Although, I think she normally shops online since she is living in London right now.”
“Oh, wow. Okay, we have an app and we are able to look up our customers' favorites for this purpose, do you think she uses it?” I pull out the store’s iPad and enter the passcode. It opens right up to the app, but it’s the store’s version.
He raises his eyebrows and rests against a shoe stand, “Try, Gemma Styles.”
I type the name and check the spelling with him before searching, “Yep. There she is. Our app is a retail app, but also kind of mixed with Pinterest.” I explain and he nods as I search through her favorites, “Of course we asked their approval about being able to search through their favorites, and I’m glad she approved because this just got a lot easier.” He laughs at that and I show him the iPad.
“This is neat. She wants all of this?” He scrolls through all her favorite items from our store and looks up at me, seeming lost.
“Yes, but of course you don’t need to get her everything. Do you just want to get her one thing or maybe do you have a price limit for each person?”
He pauses, “Not really.”
I laugh, “How about you choose what you like for her and we will go from there?” He nods and as he is scrolling through pointing out stuff he likes, I go and hunt it down for him. In the end he came up with two tops, one dress, one pair of shoes, and two lip kits. “Is this too much?”
“No. It’s perfect.” He smiles at me and takes the basket.
“Now for your mother?”
“Oh, I’ll get her a purse and some shoes. I’ve got to stop at a jewelry store for her too.” I nod and he picks out a purse that his sister liked, stating that they have the same taste. I however choose a different one, so his sister wouldn’t get jealous.
“This was my mother’s favorite purse, and it’s a bestseller. I’m sure she’ll love it.” He grabs it from me with a smile and looks at it.
“Yeah, I agree. She’ll love it.” We continue to shop and he ends up choosing two pairs of shoes for his mom along with the purse. I lead him to the checkout line and tell him to let me know if he needs anything else.
As I walk away to help more customers, I try to shake the shock that I just spent over an hour helping Harry Styles, the worldwide known twenty-three year old singer, shop for his family. And the crazy part is that we didn’t even mention the fact that he is famous. He didn’t even act like a celebrity, unlike a few others we’ve had visit our store who were rude to my mom's staff, he was kind and patient. Of course he had a few girls ask for an autograph or picture, but honestly, this small town could care less about Hollywood.
Once I finished up, I walked up to the counter and told my mom I would meet her at home. I walked out of the store that already had it’s ‘Closed’ sign up and tore off that ghastly Santa hat only to be startled by a familiar voice, “I quite liked the hat.”
I turn to see the familiar reindeer sweater before meeting his green eyes, “Not really into the whole Christmas thing.”
He stepped closer, “Could have fooled me.”
I don’t know what to say so I change the topic, “I thought you would be long gone by now.”
He shrugs, “I didn’t get the chance to thank you earlier, and I would have felt like a proper twat if I left without expressing my gratitude.”
I wave him off, “It’s my job. No biggie.”
“Yeah, but I also appreciate that you treated me like any other customer.” He pushes his hands into his coat and I nod.
“You’re just another guy, with a very public job.”
He looks at me when I say this, I guess to see if I’m being sincere, and I am. Sure it was weird seeing him in person when I only ever saw him in magazines or blog sights, but he’s just so… easy to be around.
“What are you doing now?”
“Heading home.” I point to my car and he follows my finger to my white Audi R8.
“Nice car.” I thank him and tell him it was a gift from my mother, “She must be a very generous woman.”
I nod, “She is. You may have seen her.” He scrunches his eyebrows together in confusion and I nod to the store, “She owns it. She also was the one wearing that horrendous Rudolph sweater.”
His eyes grow at this, “Oh. Wow. I didn’t even realize. I did meet her, actually. She was the one who checked me out, even gave me a discount. Very nice woman. Said she liked my sweater too.”
I laugh, “Of course she did.”
He shrugs with a sly smile, “You aren’t fond of it?”
I scoff while crossing my arms, “Like I said. Not a big fan of this holiday.”
He hums at this and looks around the town, “Did you grow up here?” I nod and he continues, “It’s nice. Care to give me a tour?”
“At night?”
“The Christmas lights, light up the town.” He gives me a smile that I can’t refuse. I take a step toward him and he reaches his hand out to move my hair away from my name tag, “Emerson. Nice to finally know a name.” I blush and apologize for not previously introducing myself, but he brushes it off. We begin the same trek I walked earlier with my mother and he asks, “So. Tell me, what are you doing with your life right now?”
I look at him to see him already watching me, causing me to look straight again, “Um. I’m twenty-two and a senior at Stanford University, graduating in May.”
“California? Why so far from home?”
I shrug, “Don’t really want to be here anymore. The only reason I come back is for my mom.” He nods at this and we pass the cafe from earlier.
“Any siblings? What’s your major? Birthday?”
I laugh at all his questions, “No siblings. I’m majoring in business and my birthday is October 15th. Any more questions?”
He blushes slightly, “Sorry. I just want to get to know you.”
“And why is that?” I walk in front of him and face him with a grin
He looks into my eyes and bluntly states, “You intrigue me. Why do you hate Christmas?”
I turn back around and continue walking, “Many reasons.”
“Name a few.” He doesn’t sound judgmental or condescending, but more genuine.
“I just think it’s pointless. We advertise and sell this holiday with a big fat man breaking into people’s houses? We get each other gifts, and that’s nice sure, but we also make a list expecting gifts. I don’t know. I think it lost its meaning and it’s just a waste of money in my opinion. Imagine how much money people spend on decorations and how much their electricity bill increases. That money can go to so many other places or people that need it. But people don’t think of that.”
“Hm. I see your point. And I agree that the money can be better spent. But isn’t Christmas more than that?”
“Nope.” I sigh as I sit on a bench in the town square.
“No? So you don’t feel happier seeing other people shop for gifts or seeing the happiness of someone getting a gift they weren’t expecting? Or just seeing young kids walking around and the excitement in their eyes knowing Santa is coming and that they get to make cookies and gingerbread houses when they get home? Or how many people volunteer to dress up as Santa to ring a bell outside stores. Or how millions of people rally together to buy items to donate so that children can have gifts on Christmas morning. Don’t you see that joy and hopefulness in humanity?”
“I just see a lot of people stressed out about getting the perfect gift, or having the perfect Christmas.”
“Emerson.” I look at him as he says my name, “I think you lost your Christmas spirit.”
I roll my eyes, “You can’t lose something you’ve never had, Harry.”
He looks into the distance and then stands up while holding out his hand, “Come with me.”
I take his hand and he pulls me up, “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
He walks through the park and I begin to figure out where he’s taking me, “Harry. No. I don’t even know you.”
He laughs, hard. “It’s just ice skating. You don’t have to know me to ice skate.”
“Well. You have to know how to ice skate, before ice skating!”
He approaches the worker at the table and pays for two adults, “What size shoe are you?” I tell her and she hands me white skates and we walk to a bench to put them on.
“Alright.” He says as he stands with his skates on his feet and wobbles a bit. “Ready?”
“No.” I glare up at him and he gives me a cheeky smile.
“You’ll love it. But if you do this, I’ll get you a hot chocolate?” He holds his hand out as if we are making a deal and I shake his hand, solidifying it.
“Fine. Just know, I hate you.”
He puts his hand over his heart, “But Emerson. How can you hate someone you don’t even know?” A smile creeps on my face and I stand up and walk towards the rink leaving Harry to follow.
I step on the rink and am instantly brought back to when my dad taught me. I had competed nationally up until my senior year of high school, and I won many competitions. I take a deep breath and take off. I pass Harry who I notice is struggling and I laugh as I skate backward in front of him.
“I thought you didn’t know how to skate?” He points at me with accusing eyes.
I shrug, “I was in a few competitions growing up. Need some help?”
He looks at his feet and I skate up to his side and begin to teach him the basics. Once he begins to get decent at it and can skate on his own I ask him, “What made you want to ice skate if you can’t even do it?”
“It’s just for fun, isn’t it?” He looks at me and I know he can see right through me, “Tell me about your competitions.”
“I was good. I stopped my senior year of high school though.”
“Did you win?”
Nodding I say, “a few. My dad taught me when I was very young.”
“Does he still skate with you?” Harry asks slowly
I look down at my hands and shake my head, “No. He’s not around anymore. My parents divorced when I was seventeen.”
“Ah. That couldn’t have been easy.” He squeezes my hand and I just shrug, “Mine divorced as well, but I was very young. I don’t know any different.”
“Yeah. I think it would have been fine if he tried to stay in contact with us, but he just left. And we got the papers in the mail. I thought it was an early Christmas present from him, but it was just him saying he no longer wanted to be in our lives.” I wipe the tear from my face and apologize while I leave the rink. I hear him call after me, but I don’t stop. How did I just confess all of that to him? I hardly know him! I take off my skate quickly and run to the restroom with my shoes in hand. I enter the last stall and lock it while I begin to cry. I never truly came to terms with my father leaving, I was always focused on school work. I hated crying over a man that didn’t even love me or want me.
I hear a knock and look down to see expensive boots outside my stall, “Emerson? Please open the door, I don’t feel like crawling on this foul floor today.”
I laugh and wipe my eyes, “That would be a sight.” I open the stall and see him giving me a reassuring smile.
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“No. It’s fine, it wasn’t you.” I have a small hiccup and groan. “I’m sorry. You probably think I’m crazy. We only just met.”
He wipes a tear from my face, “Feels like I’ve known you a while though, yeah?”
I look up at him and lean my head into his hand, “Yeah.”
“Don’t worry Emerson. I’ll teach you to love Christmas again. Don’t let your father take that from you. Don’t let him win.”
“How do you suppose you’ll do that?”
A grin comes to his face and he grabs my hand, “For starters. We can leave this horrid bathroom.” I laugh and follow him out.
He still holds onto my hand and we walk by our local Christmas tree lot. “But Harry, this is an awful tradition. They kill trees and decorate it’s corpse.”
He stops in his tracks and faces me, “That’s an awful way to look at it.”
“It’s true.” I point out and he still looks at me shocked before he looks up and grins. I follow his line of sight and shake my head, “And this tradition is stupid. It’s just a weed, and people use it to kiss people they are normally too afraid to kiss.”
He steps close to me and I can’t help but intake a breath at our close proximity, “How about this? Emerson, I really want to kiss you right here, under this ‘stupid weed’, right now.”
His hand comes to rest on my cheek as he rubs his thumb along my bottom lip. Trees are surrounding us and no one is in sight. He inches closer and I can feel his breath against my lips. No longer able to take this, I lean forward and am met with his soft lips against my own. My right hand is in his hair and my left is on his chest, grabbing at his jacket. His hands are now holding my face and I could not be more content. He slowly pulls away by placing small kisses on my lips and I bite my lip while blushing.
He is smiling and says, “That’s no innocent mistletoe kiss.”
I laugh and shake my head, maybe the mistletoe isn’t so bad.
We continue walking around looking at the pine trees and I ask, “Why are we looking at these? We don’t even need one.”
“Who says?”
“Um. I’m pretty sure my mom already has one.” I point out
“I don’t have one.” I give him a questioning look and he smiles, “I’m renting a house here for Christmas with my family. They come in tomorrow.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you say anything?”
He shrugs, something I noticed he does a lot, “You didn’t ask.”
I narrow my eyes at him and point at him, “I kind of did.”
“Nope. You said you thought I would be ‘long gone’, but I wanted to thank you.”
“Hm. Okay, fair. So you’re staying here for the holidays?”
“Yep. Exciting isn’t it?”
I nod, “Why here?”
“Well, your mom’s store, Gemma is dying to see it, and we heard of this little Christmas town and wanted to give it a try. It’s going to be different without Robin, my mum’s late husband, so we are trying something different.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry for your loss.” He shakes his head
“It wasn’t by surprise, we knew he was sick, but it’s still hard. I get through it by knowing he’s no longer suffering.” I nod and he stops in front of a tree a little bit taller than himself. “This is it.”
“That one?” I look at the tree and observe it. “Have you ever had a real Christmas tree before?” He shakes his head as he walks around the tree, “They’re a pain in the ass, if you ask me. Pine needles get everywhere, it hurts decorating it, and you have to put the Christmas lights on it.”
“Well.” He waves a worker over and tells them that this is the tree he wants then looks at me, “If you ask me, it will smell up the home like Christmas and nature, and you have fun decorating it, and in the end, it looks beautiful.”
I roll my eyes, “Have fun poking yourself to death.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me closer to him as he goes to pay, “Oh we will.”

---

I texted my mom, letting her know I was safe and with a friend, even though I’m not sure what Harry is at this moment. However, I ended up at his house as he is telling the men where he wants the tree. Luckily our town tree lot sells everything needed to set up a real tree, so he didn’t need to go to the store for that. On another note, once the men left and Harry was proudly looking at his huge tree I pointed out, “Do you even have Christmas lights or ornaments?”
He turns to me with a frown and scratches his head. “And all the stores are probably closed, huh?”
I can’t handle his disappointment and I sigh, “Hold on.” I call my mom and ask her to come over with a few tree decorations, which she gladly obliges. Twenty minutes later as Harry and I are just talking and getting to know each other, we hear a knock. He leaves his chair to open the door and I see my beautiful mother with a large tub in her hands.
“Oh! Hello, again! I didn’t know you were a friend of Emmy’s.” My mother gushes as Harry takes the tub from her and sets it by the door.
“We met today, actually. She’s the one that helped me find all the gifts.” Harry smiles and looks at me, I stand up to lose the feeling I got in my stomach and go over to them.
“Mom, this is Harry Styles. Harry, this is my mom. Sasha Griffin.” He goes to shake her hand but recovers quickly when she moves in for a hug. “Sorry, she’s a hugger.”
He laughs and gives her a hug back, “That’s alright. I am too.”
She pats his arm and blushes, “Oh! I almost forgot. I brought over some goodies!” She leaves and quickly returns with a larger Thermos and a plate of Christmas cookies.
“These look lovely, Mrs. Griffin! Now you must stay and help decorate?” Harry takes the cookies from her places them on the coffee table.
“Oh no, I actually have plans tonight.” She gives me a small wink and I smile, knowing she’s talking about her new beau. “Here’s some hot chocolate though. You two have fun!”
I take the thermos from her and give her a hug, “I love you mom. Have fun.” I kiss her cheek and she waves goodbye to Harry before leaving us.
“Yep. Your mom is really sweet.” I laugh and turn to see him already munching on a cookie. “And so are these cookies.”
“You’re such a dork.” I walk up to him and take the rest of his snowflake cookie out of his hand and eat it, causing him to gasp.
“And you are such a grinch” He gives me a smirk, to know he’s joking
“I’m okay with that.” I sit down on the couch and prop my feet up next to me.
Harry walks over to me, “Oh yeah?” I nod and he sits on the coffee table across from me, “You know, the Grinch ends up loving Christmas in the end.”
“Oh? I wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen it all the way through.”
“WHAT!” Harry gasps for the second time that night. “Okay. Hold on.”
I watch as he fiddles with his laptop and the TV and before I know it, Harry has the Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas playing on the TV and he orders me to watch it while also helping him decorate the tree.
I reluctantly agree and we continue to decorate. First making sure the lights work before wrapping them around the tree and then we begin to put the ornaments on. Harry chose to the colors gold, silver, and white. Mainly because that was the color of many of the decorations, but also because he asked for my opinion.
“Okay. Now I’m going to lift you up, and you’ll put on the topper.” He says to me with a serious face and hands me the topper.
“Yeah right. You’re not lifting me.” I roll my eyes, but before I can walk away he’s lifting me into the air and sets me on his shoulders, “Okay. No. Not okay.” I grab onto his hair and try to calm my breathing.
He laughs, “Just put it on. And I’ll take you down.” I groan and he walks closer to the tree so I can place the topper. Once I’m done I tell him and he walks us over to the couch. He sits down and I climb off of him and sit next to him, making sure to punch him in the shoulder. “Ow. What was that for?”
“You picked me up and put me on your shoulders!” He laughs and scoots closer to me.
“But look how pretty our tree is.” I try not to feel affected by his word choice of ownership. The tree is his, not ours. And I also attempt to avoid noticing how while I’m looking at the tree, he’s looking at me.
“Don’t you mean your corpse?” I say, but as I observe it, I have to admit. It actually made his temporary home feel better.
He leans in closer and I feel his breath against my neck, “Our pretty corpse.” There he goes again with ‘our.’ I turn to face him and before I can process anything his lips are on mine. I respond instantly and he slowly leans me down on the couch, but before anything else happens I pull away, knowing he’s only here for Christmas.
“I’m trying to watch the movie.” I peek behind him at the TV. Even though I loathe this movie, I need to protect myself.
He kisses my cheek and moves me so I’m resting my head on his lap and he begins playing with my hair. When the infamous Grinch song comes on he even starts singing along and I can’t help but watch him instead of the movie. The way his eyes light up and the funny faces he makes while he sings along in a goofy voice. I find myself giggling and he looks at me with a smile that calms and excites me at the same time. Harry asks me what I find so funny and I just say, “You’re so cute.”
“Not as cute as you.” He pokes my nose and a laugh slips through my lips. He grabs his penguin coffee mug from the coffee table and takes a sip of the hot chocolate. “I’m really going to need your mom’s hot chocolate recipe for my family to try.”
“I’ll write it down for you before I leave,” I say and he looks at me with sadness in his eyes. “What?”
“I just forget you have to leave me.” He states, but I know he’s not talking about tonight.
I sit up, facing him. “And so do you. You have another tour and I have another semester to finish. Remember, we’ve only known each other for a day, Harry.”
“Don’t act like you aren’t feeling it.” He scoffs as he puts his mug down. And I’m shocked that he just spoke to me like that. He sounds angry. Maybe annoyed? Agitated?
“What, Harry? What am I supposed to be feeling? I don’t even know you!”
“For fucks sake, Emerson!” He stands up and holds out his arms, “We’ve done nothing but gotten to know each other today. You’re Emerson Griffin. Your favorite color is black, but you always say blue. You want to work in New York City to be a business woman and expand your mom’s company. You love cats even though you are allergic to them. Your mom and dad divorced when you were seventeen and it still hurts you, even though you try to avoid it. You have no siblings, but you were glad in the end because you don’t want them to feel the pain that you’ve felt and still feel. You have a huge heart and are willing to help people even though you have different views. Emerson.” He says as he gets on his knees in front of the couch that I can’t seem to move from. I feel his thumb wipe a tear that I didn’t even know escaped, “I know you. I felt like I’ve known you for so long, even though it’s been a couple of hours. I’m comfortable with you, and I know you feel what I’m feeling too.” I shake my head and stand up, grabbing my belongings. “Emerson.”
I stop in front of the door and fight my will to look back. I grab the doorknob and say, “No, Harry.” I start my walk home through the snow and try to forget the eventful night I’ve had. Harry did change my life. He showed me that Christmas was not to blame for my dad walking out, and I thank him for that. He also showed me how to be strong and that it was okay to be cliche and to let loose for a little while. I’ve only known him for a few hours, but I know that my life will be forever changed.
Before I can think too much, I’m pulled out of my train of thought. Literally. Someone pulls on my arm and a car honks as they zoom by. I’m leaning into the stranger, shocked that I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even notice there was a car. I look up and see Harry holding me with wide eyes. I finally stand to support myself and hug him tight. “Thank you.”
“I almost lost you.” He breathes into my hair, “I almost lost you and I just found you.”
“I’m sorry,” I say as I begin to cry and he rubs my back trying to soothe me. “I’m scared.”
“I won’t hurt you. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” He says and I push my lips against his. I feel him smiling during the kiss and I give him one last peck before pulling away.
“You were wrong.” He gets a worried look on his face and I add, “I don’t hate Christmas anymore.”
Laughing he picks me up and spins me around before we both walk hand in hand back to his temporary home, to wrap his presents for his family.

Notes

Lots of fluff. I watch a lot of Hallmark movies.... if you couldn't tell. I'm also a hopeless romantic. Forgive me.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! (or Happy Holidays!)

P.S. Here's a fun fact: I didn't know what to title this, so I chose my favorite Christmas song by The Waitresses lol