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Story time!

So Jason just moved to NYC to live with his sister after graduating from San Francisco’s Jupiter University and just managed to score a job as an assistant designer at Penguin Books after six months of subtle networking.

However, New York is a huge city that leaves him feeling like maybe he romanticized the place a little much. (Hallmark tends to leave out the horrible homeless problem) And he’s definitely lacking in the friend department. Everyone always seems to be in a hurry or too busy to hang out after work and the people on the street are definitely not open to conversation.

Luckily enough, after throwing himself into his work to distract himself from his lack of social life, he attracts the friendship of one of Penguin’s junior editors, Annabeth Chase. They end up strong partners, working diligently together outside of work on freelance projects. Granted, most of the time they’re silent, but the knowledge of being with someone while doing the work makes it a little better.

Their group grows when Jason asks Annabeth out for a drink along with one of the new interns, Nico Di Angelo, supplied by Sigma Tau Delta. They’re a bit of a socially awkward trio, but they have fun together.

It’s when the holidays roll around that Jason doesn’t really know what to do. He never really celebrated Christmas and when he did it was with his friends.

Thalia definitely doesn’t celebrate it, staring at her brother like he’s the weirdest human being on earth for even attempting to squash a pine tree into their tiny-ass apartment, and Nico has since outed himself as a solitary pagan “Unless you want to come over on December 21st and light a log on fire.”

And maybe it’s the disappointment on his face, but Annabeth invites him to this event at her synagogue.

“I’ll warn you,” she tells him as they get on the subway. “It’s for kids.”

Jason shrugs, unable to keep from smiling. “I love kids.”

It ends up being a lot more than Jason expected. Annabeth’s synagogue is decked out in Chanukah decorations with little kids running around in the cutest Maccabee costumes Jason’s ever seen.

There’s different stations including a donation area to give new toys and winter coats, a sand art station, a painting station, a coloring station. There’s dancing and games happening all around them and it makes Jason think of a Christmas pageant his mom once forced him and Thalia to go to when he was four, back when she was trying to find a religion that wasn’t the bottle.

Jason isn’t entirely sure where to go, but Annabeth takes his hand and pulls him along to a face painting station where a small line of children are waiting to get their faces painted with little Chanukah symbols by a volunteer.

The volunteer looks about their age, dressed in a long-sleeve blue sweater with a sparkly Star of David on it. His hair is black with gentle curls and his skin dark, making the green of his eyes pop like emeralds.

He greets Annabeth familiarly, giving her a huge hug with the biggest grin. The kids in the line “ooooh” at them and the guy sticks his tongue out playfully back.

“Jason, this is Percy,” Annabeth said, turning to him. “Percy, this is Jason.”

“The designer, right?” Percy asks, sticking out his hand for a fist-bump.

Jason meets it curiously. Annabeth talked about him? “Right.”

“That’s rad, bro.”

“Percy’s a designer too,” Annabeth adds, but Percy winces.

“That doesn’t count as design.”

“Sure it does.”

“What does?” Jason asks.

“I design things in coffee froth,” Percy says with a shrug. “I work at Starbucks. And my mom’s candy business.”

“That’s not bad,” Jason says. “And of course it counts as design. I mean, we do the same thing.”

“We do?” Percy asks with a frown. He’s taken a seat on his stool again, dipping his paint brush into some blue paint to paint a dreidel on a little girl’s cheek.

“Sure. We both do things to catch a customer’s eye and make them feel good for at least a moment. And a moment is all it takes.”

The comment brings something to Percy’s face. His eyes light up and little dimples form in his cheeks Jason hadn’t noticed before. It makes Jason’s heart lurch.

And that’s how Jason ends up coming to Annabeth’s synagogue each night of Chanukah, volunteering each night beside Percy and earning a suspicious, yet amused glance from Annabeth.

He designs flyers for toy drives in his free time and help Percy post them around NYC, in cafes and on poles.

He helps make hot meals on motzei Shabbat Chanukah and helps distribute them to the homeless.

He even plays the guitar during the singalongs one night, flushing with joy as Percy sings next to him in the Hebrew he can’t pronounce himself.

It’s the happiest he’s been in a while and maybe it’s just his imagination, but during one of the songs Percy looks over at him with eyes that read a lot more than friendship.

However, like all holidays, Chanukah comes to an end to Jason’s surprise, he doesn’t see Percy anywhere after that. Too embarrassed to ask Annabeth for his number, he comes to synagogue for the heck of it hoping to catch sight of him, but he’s no where to be seen. Days go by. Jason becomes swamped reading manuscripts and following up on design concepts from his art director.

He decides, after two weeks of nothing, that whatever could have been between him and Percy had been fleeting, had been nothing but a fluke. And so he ignores the pang in his gut, ignores the excitement he feels when he passes Annabeth’s synagogue, and pouts into his hot chocolate during his lunch breaks with Nico.

It’s December 25th. Jason ignores the Santa Clauses he sees on the streets, ignores the cheery “Merry Christmas!”es he sees blinking blindingly from shop signs. His mind is on the design for a book cover his art director pitched to him, a non-fiction book about whaling in the 1700s. “I’ve been paying attention to your work recently,” she told him, her pointed eyebrows raised. “And I have to say I’m impressed. I want you to be one of the main artists on this one. I think it could use your style. Do you think you can handle that?”

Jason’s always up for a challenge. He’s just glad the Starbucks in New York City are open on Christmas. The idea of getting to work without coffee makes him ill.

He hears his name called and he moves over to the other side of the counter, frowning when he sees the top of the coffee is off. They usually leave it on and now his brain is going through Law and Order scenarios. But then he notices something in the coffee froth: a beautiful design of a heart with a laurel beneath it, all in foam. Jason blinks at it, touched, and then looks up in a start when someone raps their knuckles on the wood in front of him.

Percy stands there, grinning and bright-eyed. “Hey, there,” he says. “Long time no see.”

And all Jason can think of as he smiles back, heart lifting in his chest, is that thank god he chose to work on Christmas.

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