#menn?

“Both of my parents are working...” Ej sighed.

“Ok, well- moving on!” Miss Jenn said awkwardly as she looked over at Carlos. “What will you be doing for Christmas?”

Carlos smiled at Seb and placed a hand on his desk. “We’ll be singing Christmas Carols door to door”.

“Oh how wonderful! Please make sure to send me copies,” Miss Jenn requested.

Carlos gave her a look of disbelief, “what kind of co-captain would I be if I didn’t send my leading lady a copy? Of course, you will get one”.

Miss Jenn gave an amused giggle. She brought her composure back. “Ricky? How about you? And your dad? Right? You’ll be with your dad Christmas Eve? He shouldn’t have to be alone”.

Ricky grimaced uncomfortably. He didn’t mind Miss Jenn liking his dad, or even them dating, but she asks about him... a LOT. And the last time she asked, she asked if he wore the skinny jeans she bought him for Christmas. Apparently it “outlined” his figure nicely.

“Yes, Miss Jenn,” Ricky said, slightly through his teeth. “It’ll just be my dad and I”. She looked hopeful- Ricky crushed that quickly. “But we were probably going over to Nini’s to help her, her mom’s, Kourtney and her family bake cookies. They give them to the homeless shelter every year”. Ricky hesitated over every part of his remark, especially the part about Nini.

He had spent all of his time with Gina before she moved, then when he thought she wasn’t coming back, he kissed Nini. He liked Nini, right? And they dated and now she finally liked him, so what was the problem? Well... it’s Gina. She moved back and ever since things have been... weird between them. They smile awkwardly at each other in the hallway, almost hugged opening night during the last scene but decided against it, and one time they almost had a conversation more than five sentences when Gina asked Ricky about the missed science homework. But then Big Red came in and saved the day himself. Gina gave a gracious thank you and eye roll and walked away.

Gina’s head was eyeing the marks on her desk, so Ricky couldn’t tell if she was upset or not at the mention of Nini. She traced the writings on the wood with her finger as Miss Jenn asked everyone else in the cast circle about their holiday plans.

Big Red was going to play video games and seemed saltier than usual that Ricky was bailing on their annual video game plans to spend time with Nini, Ashlyn invited EJ to fly down with her family since her sister was in college and ended up not being able to make the family trip in time. EJ had the money to cover the costs and gave a delighted, “yes!”

All eyes shifted to Gina, who was last to be asked. “Oh, you know, we’ll be doing all sorts of fun plans. Decorating the tree, making treats, watching movies... Christmas is... great”. Ricky knew Gina was lying.

The bell gave a sharp ring. Carlos was in the background yelling, “ok everyone! Pre-order for mine and Seb’s Christmas CD is on the piano! 40% off if you order now!... Red! Phone numbers ONLY please. Stop drawing that!...”

Ricky tried to run up and stop Gina, but she was about two steps ahead of him. Just as he began to speak, Gina bolted out and he felt an arm on his shoulder. Miss Jenn.

“Rickyyy!!!”

“H-h-hey, Miss Jenn,” Ricky said, avoiding eye contact.

She placed a firm arm around his shoulders as she walked him to the door, speaking without taking a breath. “Listen, I know you’re going to be busy with Nini and I’m sure your dad doesn’t have any plans, so if your dad wants I won’t be doing anything. I would love to have some company that night. My mom got me this ham, but I don’t really want to eat it all by myself- oh! And then you two can have leftovers and I’m sure you guys needs ham leftovers, right? Well, if he wants to hang out with me or something like I said I won’t be busy so he can just let me know,” Miss Jenn pushed Ricky out the auditorium door. “Ok bye now!” She shut it enthusiastically as Ricky shook his head trying to make sense of what happened.

Ricky looked around the semi-crowded hallway as students made their way to their classes. Gina was long gone.

***********

Miss Jenn breathed a quick sigh from behind the door, perked up, flattened her skirt, and swiftly made her way to the piano to pick up some extra sheet music.

“Miss Jenn?” She heard a soft voice come from opposite stage.

“Gina?” Miss Jenn’s face crumpled as she double checked the closed door. “I thought? I saw?... you leave that way?...”

“There’s a door on that side of the stage too”.

“Oh, yeah, right.”

“Anyway...” Gina gritted her teeth awkwardly, “want some help?”

“Umm... sure, Gina”. Miss Jenn smiled delightfully. “There’s some chairs that need to be stacked”.

Gina made her way over to the chairs. She stacked two in silence and began the third by asking, “so you don’t have plans for Christmas Eve?”

Miss Jenn froze. “What?! No! I have tons of them. Family, friends... so many wonderful people-“

Gina cut her off. “I heard you tell Ricky you didn’t”.

Miss Jenn lowered her head while she meekly straightened her papers on the piano top.

“It’s ok, Miss Jenn. I don’t have any either”.

“Well, that’s interesting Gina, considering you told the entire class you did,” Miss Jenn shot back defensively.

Gina threw her hands up, surrendering, “ok, ok, I’m caught. I just didn’t want anyone worrying about me. My mom is my only family around, but she’s working. So yeah, it’s just me. But... I was planning on just watching YouTube tutorials on how to make eclairs and build puzzles that day anyway... and I think those are activities you can do with two people”.

Miss Jenn finally made eye contact with Gina, “...do you like ham?”

Gina grinned, “love it”.

*************************************************

Christmas Eve

Nini was pulling the last batch of sugar cookies out of the oven while Ricky and Kourtney were slapping on globs of green, blue and red frosting on the cooled ones.

“Oh no...” Dana, Nini’s mom, said scrolling through her phone.

“What?” Nini asked as she started sliding cookies onto the cooling rack.

“The weather... it looks like a bad storm is rolling in tonight. The homeless shelter will be incredibly hard to get to with traffic and this storm. I don’t know, Nini, I don’t think we should go”.

“But mom, we do this every year!” Nini protested. “And what would we do with all of these?!”

Ricky used his finger to take some frosting off of his chin and eat it. Nini glared at him as if her eyes were to say “not the time”.

“Oh. Sorry,” Ricky set down his currently half frosted cookie and knife.

Kourtney got up and gave Nini a side hug as she rested her head on Nini’s shoulder.

“There’s got to be something we can do”. Ricky’s dad, Mike, interjected.

“Well, It’s not the exact same, but we could give them to some people around the area. And we can always make cookies again for New Years or something and bring them then,” Carol suggested.

“That works,” Nini looked disappointed, but accepting considering the circumstance.

**************

Gina was adjusting the fork next to the paper plate at her small table. It wasn’t much, but Gina really tried to make the place nice for her special guest. She turned on her fireplace, hung up two socks with duct tape, set out some holiday paper plates and plastic ware, and even cut and taped a bunch of paper snowflakes all over the house. She had strung some lights and put up the few Christmas decorations she found in a small box in her attic. She didn’t have a tree, so she put up a faux one on her tv screen from a channel that showed it with Christmas music playing in the background. It wasn’t much, but it made Gina giddy.

Gina heard her doorbell ring. She swung the door open fast and immediately her eyes fixated on Miss Jenn’s arms. In one she was carrying her cooked ham and the other had a small gift bag and her purse. Gina couldn’t afford to get Miss Jenn anything and immediately felt horrible.

“Uh... um... come on in,” Gina stammered.

Miss Jenn looked around as she placed the items on the kitchen counter. “Gina, it’s beautiful”.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Gina said sheepishly.

Miss Jenn set a gentle hand on Gina’s shoulder. “Really, it looks great”.

Gina bit her lip thoughtfully. “Well, how about that ham?”

“Oh yes! I have just the thing for it!” Miss Jenn zipped open her purse and pulled out a plastic handle with a cover. When she slid the cover off it revealed a giant knife- to which Gina’s eyes widened with surprise.

“Uhm... you don’t carry that around with you... all the time... do you miss Jenn?”

“Oh no, of course not silly,” Miss Jenn said as she made the first carve into the ham. “I can’t carry it at airports,” she said as she winked playfully at Gina.

Right when Gina was about to say Christmas was cancelled, she heard the doorbell ring again.

“Weird. I didn’t invite anyone else,” Gina thought outloud.

“Nini? Ricky?” Gina said, her face puzzled. She heard the knife clud! in the background and Miss Jenn scurry to the front door. “Mike?!” She said, enthusiastically.

Nini, Ricky, Mike, and Kourtney were all standing in the doorway holding a giant plate of cookies.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“We brought cookies!” Ricky said as he tried to present them with a fancy hand gesture.

Kourtney, unable to keep her mouth shut, piped in, “No offense, but Miss Jenn what are you doing here?”

Nini shot Kourtney a look.

“Celebrating Christmas?” Miss Jenn said with a strained smile.

“Come on in”. Gina has to force the words out of her mouth. As soon as she turned around, she rolled her eyes and mouthed “whyyyyy”.

The gang let themselves in. The teens put the cookies on one of them empty counters in the kitchen and Mike made his way over to the ham. “Hey, Jenn, did you carve this?”

Jenn perked up, “yes, why?” She said with a confident smile.

“Well... uh... it’s great... it’s just you carved into the bone and that might break the knife”. Jenn’s eyes widened in embarrassment.

“It’s ok! You did great”. Mike tried to save himself.

“No, I actually don’t know how to carve a ham”. Miss Jenn got a calculated look in her eyes. “But maybe you could teach me?”

Mike looked at the kids, knowing they had more stops to go. “Would you guys be alright if I helped Miss Jenn with this ham?”

Everyone said yes, minus Nini who said no, but when she realized she was the only one, quickly changed her answer to yes.

Gina heard the doorbell ring again.

“What the-?” She asked outloud. She opened up her door and “The First Day of Christmas” was belted in her face by none other than Carlos and Seb. They barely got through the first day before Gina hushed them and stepped onto her small porch.

“What are you guys doing here?!”

“Caroling!” Carlos chimed, before noticing everyone else in the window. “What are they doing here?!” He asked offended. “Are you having an official cast party without me?! Gina! How could you? I thought we were frie-“.

Gina cut him off, slightly annoyed. “Will you be quiet? It’s not! I lied. Ok? I didn’t have anyone coming over for Christmas so I invited Miss Jenn and then the Three Musketeers and their father randomly showed up and they’re the last people I want here”.

“Gina, the more the merrier. Seb and I’s families can wait. Let’s make sure you get a Christmas to remember”.

Carlos then pushed past Gina and went into her house. “Hellooooo everyone!” He greeted. The other three ran over and gave him and Seb enthusiastic hugs.

Gina accepted her fate and walked back inside.

About fifteen minutes later, she was showing Kourtney how she found her “tree channel” on the TV when another knock came on the door.

Gina opened it up, now officially confused. “Red? What on Earth could you be doing here?”

He was carrying a small Christmas bag. “Well, I heard there was a party here-“

“Carlos?”

“Yeah,” Gina perched her lips, “anyway, Ricky also left this at my house and I heard he was here so I made sure to bring it with me. I also brought video games!”

Red let himself in and that was when Gina noticed the giant black backpack stuffed to the brim hanging from his back.

Gina yelled out to the empty street, “anyone else want to join? Apparently there’s a party at my house!”

And as if, on cue, Gina saw two more figures appear. Ashlyn and EJ. “Hellloooo! We heard there was a party here!” Ashlyn hollered carrying a giant pack of soda’s and EJ with chips and other treats in his arms.

“You two are supposed to be in Denver!”

“We were,” stated Ashlyn, “but my flight was with my sister- which EJ took- and it ended up being cancelled because of the storm. My whole family is there so we’re stuck here”.

“Storm? What storm?” Gina asked puzzled.

“Dude, you didn’t hear?” EJ asked.

“No, dude,” Gina retorted in a salty tone, “I didn’t”.

“Well, it’s massive. People are being told that after 6- so like fifteen minutes from now- we need to stay indoors. It’s supposed to be icy and snow like fifteen inches. It’s crazy. So we decided to come here, hopefully beating the storm. Besides, when Carlos declares a party, we have to be there”.

Gina sighed as she gave up. She should have expected a Carlos-party at her house sometime, might as well be now. She let the two, now shivering, in.

She called her mom and explained the situation. Her mom was surprisingly ok with all of the people there, mostly because there was adult supervision. Unfortunately, because of the storm, her mom wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. The office was requesting people stay to be safe, so the entire city was basically on lockdown at this point.

Gina made her way back to the kitchen. Everyone was scattered and chatting throughout her house. She found Miss Jenn and Mike finishing up the ham. She gently tapped Miss Jenn on the shoulder. “Um... Miss Jenn... some more people showed up”.

Miss Jenn must have really been in her own thoughts because she jumped back into Mike’s arms when she noticed all the new people that had arrived since Mike. They awkwardly pushed away from each other and brushed their clothes off.

“Oh... I’m going to need more ham”.

Gina saw Ricky approaching her and tried to push past Red and Ashlyn having a rousing conversation about dinosaurs.

“Hey, Gina!” She heard him call. She pretended not to hear him as she pushed through Red and Ashlyn. Ricky shook his head in frustration and returned back to Nini.

“Everything ok?” Nini asked cautiously.

“Yup. Just fine. Can we please just get back to... whatever we were doing?”

“We were just talking Ricky”.

“Yeah um, never mind. I’m going to get a drink,” Ricky said as he made his way to a canned Dr. Pepper.

About twenty minutes later, Carlos saw Gina sitting alone in her home office. She was sitting in a giant, faded swivel chair- her back to the doorframe, staring somberly out the window.

Carlos sighed dramatically. “OOOhhhh”. This caused Gina to jump, swivel around quickly, and glare at him.

He sighed even more dramatically as he fell against the doorway, palm to his forward, “OOOOHHHHHHH”.

“Yes, Carlos?” Gina asked, unamused.

“Well,” Carlos said, sauntering to a chair, his antics still high. He fell dramatically in the chair as he whimpered, “I’m just so. bored. at this amazing party you threw”.

Nothing.

“So I was thinking we should play a game”.

“Carlos, I own like, no board games”.

“Oh that’s fine!” Carlos perked up. “Charades doesn’t need board games,” he said with a wink. He popped up and held out his hand fashionably toward her.

Gina smiled and shook her head as she took his hand and they ran out to the living room. She noticed they were all already sitting around, a bag with paper strips sat neatly in the center of her coffee table. “Attention! Attention! We are ALL playing charades. No one gets a choice. Pick a teammate,” Carlos demanded royally.

Carlos ran over and grabbed Seb’s hand. Ashlyn and Red looked at each other and shrugged. Jenn scooted closer to Mike in the kitchen. Which left Nini, EJ, Ricky, and Kourtney sitting on the couches and Gina awkwardly standing in the corner.

“I call Gina,” Ricky said without hesitation. Both Nini and Gina gave him weird looks.

“Well then...” Carlos said apparently discomfited, “ I guess that leaves Nini, EJ, and Kourtney on the other team. That’s fine. Throuples are fun!” Carlos didn’t even hesitate with his last statement, but it made the entire room incredibly tense.

“Well go on!” Carlos pushed Gina in Ricky’s direction. “Go sit by your teammate”. Gina sat down next to Ricky, who was now perfectly settled in between her and Nini on the two seater couch.

“We’ll go first!” Miss Jenn volunteered. The game was fun, but Jenn was incredibly competitive and rubbed the fact she and Mike were winning in everyone’s face. Red and Ashlyn cheated the entire time which made Carlos annoyed. And Nini was barely giving any spirit to her team. Gina and Ricky cooperatively played together- at first it was awkward, but about two turns in they were already high-fiving and celebrating their victories and secretly celebrating their opponents losses.

It was the fourth round and it became Gina and Ricky’s turn again. She reached in the grocery bag and pulled out a little white paper with Seb’s handwriting poorly written on it. It read “Gabriella”. She got horrible flashbacks of seeing Ricky and Gina kiss during the show and after the show. Behind stage. Where they still don’t know she saw them.

“Uhh... umm...” she made an elephant trunk draping her arm from her nose and flailing her hand.

“Elephant!” Ricky yelled gleefully.

“Yeah, sure,” Gina said and then swiftly exited the room.

“That’s weird...,”Seb said under his breath. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t put elephant in there...”

Ashlyn chimed in, “let’s keep going,” which was perfect, because it broke the tension. Red ran over to Gina who was walking quickly to her bedroom. “Are you still playing?”

“Umm... no... I’m gonna take a break. Games wear me out,” she said as she let out a half-hearted laugh. “Just have Nini be Ricky’s partner or something”.

“Ok...” Red said as he awkwardly exited the room, slightly tripping on her bedroom frame.

Gina grabbed the small box filled with thick string and began braiding an intricate design on a bracelet she had been working on the past week.

She heard a small tap on the door and looked up from her bracelet.

“Hey Nini, what’s up?”

“Are you alright?” Nini asked, approaching and slowly sitting on the edge of Gina’s bed.

Gina sat up from laying on her stomach and let her back fall into her pillows. She began fumbling with her bracelet again.

“I’m good. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well... you left the game kind of... abruptly?”

Gina shrugged.

“Alright, I’m just going to ask. I don’t want to beat around the bush. Is this about Ricky and me?”

Gina scoffed. “Hah! No. Why would it be? Why would I care if the guy I got close to and hung out with for weeks turned around and found someone else right after I left? We were just friends. No big. It’s chill or whatever..”

This stung Nini a little- because it’s what she did to Ricky.

Nini let out a breath. She couldn’t believe what she was about to say next.

“Ricky liked you too”.

Gina dropped the bracelet.

“What?! I- I- mean... what?!! I never said I liked him”.

“It’s ok, Gina. It was obvious you did. I couldn’t blame you. I was pretty jealous. And yes, Ricky and I are together, but things haven’t been the same since. He never said he liked you, but he talks about you non-stop. And he’s the one who suggested we bring you cookies tonight- honestly, I tried to stop him. I don’t think he ever stopped liking you”.

Gina didn’t understand.

“W-why are you telling me this? You said you’re together with him”.

“Because I think I’m realizing what I realized before I got back with him the second time. I don’t want someone who’s only half-in. I deserve to have someone who wants me completely and so do you”.

“Are... you saying you want me to be with Ricky?”

“I’m saying, let’s see where things go”. Nini gently touched Gina’s hand. “But please don’t let some boy come in between our friendship and this party. I thought we were starting to become friends again before you moved”.

Gina laughed thinking of Thanksgiving and almost getting to have a sleepover. “We were, weren’t we?”

“So come just enjoy Christmas with your friends, ok? No matter what happens, we’re all family and that’s what matters”.

Gina smiled. Nini grabbed her hand and they walked downstairs. Everyone was eating ham and smiling and joking around. Gina was glad Nini came when she did. She would have been bummed to miss out on everything.

“Hey Gina! Glad to see you join us again!” Jenn said with a big grin.

“There’s some ham left on the stove!” Mike piped in, standing next to her.

Gina made herself a plate and walked quietly around the room. She saw an empty seat next to Ricky.

“May I sit here?” She said with a soft smile.

Ricky’s face beamed. “All yours”.

Nini glanced over at them and smiled. She went and sat at the small table with Kourtney and Ashlyn.

Red, Carlos, Seb, Gina, and Ricky sat and laughed and cracked jokes about the play and things that went wrong that none of the audience would have noticed. Gina couldn’t help but feel right at home with them. She and Ricky exchanged a small glance and she blushed as she looked away.

“Hey, do you want to play the switch, Ricky?” Red asked.

“It wouldn’t be a normal Christmas Eve without it”.

The night passed with video games, the girls doing each other’s hair, a lot of snacks, a small living room karaoke session, and a wild game of sardines. People had began to fall asleep in random places throughout Gina’s house. Some on the floor, couches, her mom’s bed and even Jenn had an emergency blow up mattress in her car she brought in.

Red and Ricky were the only other two up still playing video games at about 3 am. Gina decided to turn in and go to sleep.

Ricky jumped up and ran over to her while Red pretended not to listen.

“Hey Gina?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for letting us stay here. It was really nice of you guys.”

“Well, we didn’t really have a choice,” Gina giggled. “It was over -45 outside. You would’ve frozen immediately”.

“True,” Ricky smiled.

They stood in silence for a moment.

“Good night, Ricky”.

“Good night, Gina. Merry Christmas”.

Gina began to walk to the staircase, laid her hand on it, turned around and gave a soft smile to Ricky, and then walked back up the stairs.

The next morning, Gina went into her hall closet and got out the emergency stash of tooth brushes her mom keeps. Because they have times when they frequently run low on money, her mom keeps a large collection of necessaries handy (when she does get paid), for emergencies. Things like soap, shampoo, tooth paste, and tooth brushes that are long lasting are among the stored parts.

She placed a tooth brush and mini tooth paste from previous dentist visits next to each person, so when they woke up at least they could brush their teeth.

She then went into the kitchen and got out a frozen loaf of toast to thaw and the filled carton of eggs. It wasn’t much, but hopefully it could tide everyone over until the city was cleared to be on the roads again. Nini and Mike were among the first to wake up, with Jenn and Red the last. (Red also woke up in his own drool puddle, but no one was surprised. Ricky was just thankful he didn’t bring any of his “sleeping gear”).

Everyone sat around and ate breakfast, called families, and watched Elf. During Elf, Gina noticed Nini lay her head on Ricky’s shoulder, feeling like their conversation last night was too good to be true. But she could have sworn she caught Ricky giving her a couple glances...

The morning was quickly dissembling when Gina watched Nini and Ricky walk off to another room after the movie finished while everyone else helped clean up decorations and garbage from the day before.

Seb was on his phone when he screeched, “FINALLY. WE CAN GO HOME”.

Carlos looked at him, concerned. “Seb, honey, you ok?”

“I WAS GOING CRAZY. I WAS TRYING TO BE NICE BUT I HATE ENCLOSED SPACES. I CANT BREATHE AND I WANT TO GO HOME. THIS STORM IS OVER- thanks again, Gina- BUT LET’S GOOOO”.

Carlos just shook his head and giggled. They were definitely the first to leave. Red, Ashlyn and EJ were next. Mike walked Miss Jenn to her car, while Nini and Kourtney were in Gina’s room talking. Gina was watching Mike give Jenn a hug when she heard Ricky’s voice behind her.

“You think she’s going to be my new mom?”

“I don’t know. Would you be upset if she was?”

Ricky smiled. “I don’t know”.

Gina watched them talk a few more seconds and then turned around. “Listen, Ricky, about last night...”

“It’s no worries. I get it’s been a little weird between us...”

“A little?!-“

“-ok a lot-”

“-We’ve hardly talked! I mean I get you’re in a relationship and all-“

“What relationship?”

“... with Nini?” Gina asked confused.

“Yeah... I think we decided during Elf to put the breaks on that”.

“Is that why you left?”

“Yeah... Nini feels like she needs to find herself without someone.... whatever that means”.

Gina felt a little tingle swirl in her stomach. She repressed the smile that was beginning to take over her face.

“Well... that’s just a big bummer then”. The statement came out a lot more sarcastic than Gina intended, but luckily Ricky didn’t notice because he giggled back.

“Yeah, a real bummer”.

Nini and Kourtney came down the stairs.

“Ready to go?” She smiled at Ricky.

“Sure,” he smiled back politely.

“Thank you so much,” said Kourtney to Gina.

“Yes, thank you. We owe you. You sure you’re going to be ok? I don’t want to leave you alone on Christmas,” echoed Nini.

“I promise, I’m good. My mom will be home in like, an hour, tops. You guys go enjoy your missed time with your families. They need it too,” Gina reassures them.

“Ok, well, Merry Christmas,” Nini said.

The others copied this sentiment with some goodbye’s and a giant group hug before they headed out the door.

Nini smiled as she locked the door behind them and went over to the kitchen counter. The gifts! They had been so wrapped up in the fun, they never opened the gifts. Gina hurried and look at the tags to see who they belonged to so she could return the presents to their rightful owners.

The one from Miss Jenn was definitely for her so she decided not to make that call... but who’s was Red’s for? Gina looked at the tag.

To: Gina

From: Ricky

Gina set both presents down at the table and slowly pulled the paper maché from the gift bag from Miss Jenn. She had given Gina a handmade ornament that looked like a little cartoon version of herself with a small name plaque that read “Taylor”. Gina smiled as she stared at the detailing on the little figurine. It was so thoughtful and she appreciated Miss Jenn coming over in the first place. Regardless of what actually happened last night, Gina couldn’t help but appreciate how much fun she would have had with Miss Jenn alone. She really was an amazing teacher.

Then she pulled the other little bag towards her and carefully pulled the paper out of it. Inside was a knitted scarf. There were multiple colors in no particular pattern and parts of it had looser seams than others. Gina wrapped the scarf around her neck- it smelt like Ricky. It smelt like home.

Just then she heard the door bell ring. She stood up to answer it, but then realized her scarf was still on. She fought it like a snake wrapped around her neck. When it was finally done suffocating her, she ran to the door.

She swung it open and Ricky bolted in, slamming the door behind him.

“I forgot to give you your present!!!”

Gina giggled, “no you didn’t.” She nodded toward her table.

Ricky giggled. “It’s so bad. I’m so sorry. I was just trying to do this really nice thing-“

“Ricky, stop,” Gina said as she laid a hand on his shoulder. “I love it”.

Ricky blushed as he hung his for a second.

He began to walk back towards the door but as he reached for the handle, he dropped his hand. “Oh and Gina?”

“Yeah?”

“I meant what I said about how nice it was that you let us stay here. I don’t even think I realized how much I appreciated it when I said it”.

He then leaned over and gave Gina a soft peck on the cheek, making her entire body relax with this one small moment.

“Merry Christmas, Gina”.

She smiled and said, “Merry Christmas,” softly as he closed the door behind him.