There was a box left with Tiana’s doorman, Elsa greeting Tony with a warm smile as she gave him a small gift as well, a little cake she made, since she knew she’d be seeing him and thought she might as well not come empty handed for the man. After a bit of small talk, Elsa left.
Inside the box were a handful of wrapped gifts: one, upon unwrapping it, were a number of first edition records, a smaller box that inside of it had three chocolate cupcakes with a small piece of toffee stuck into the frosting a legal-sized manilla envelope and a card placed on top. In addition to the box of presents was a small painting, about the size of a record, with a spectrum of warm colors used.
The card, which had a hand-drawn image of a wintry scene, snow included of course despite the fact there was none of it in Regium, read:
Dear Tiana,
Merry Christmas! I hope you’re having a good time. You can probably guess what half of the things are, but a present isn’t a present without records. The man at the store laughed and asked if I was going to buy the whole place out and I joked that I just might, but now I’m not so sure if I was really kidding or not since I’m forever adding to your collection of them.
As for the cupcakes, I hope they taste good. It was a new recipe I wanted to try out, but don’t feel obligated to eat them all. If Tony doesn’t think my baking is awful maybe he’ll take them off your hands if you don’t want them (I gave him a little cake).
And now the art: you don’t have to hang the painting anywhere, if you choose to keep it in a closet that’s fine too, but anyway painting is something I picked up on doing when I first came here to California. I think in some way it was what kept me sane and from becoming too overwhelmed with the newness of a new city, a new country, with a different language (it’s one thing to speak English and know you can switch to Russian, but another to only be able to speak English because no one will understand you if you don’t), so painting is how I passed the time. I know I always get you records so I wanted to add something a little more personal hence the art. You’re a warm person in that I find it easy to speak with you, I enjoy your company, which is why I went for a warm color palette.
Speaking of art, that leads me to the manilla envelope. Now this, you definitely don’t have to hang on to, but I’ve decided to give it to you anyway. Remember that time I came over for dinner and was blocking off the refrigerator when you had to get to it? I don’t know, but that moment stuck in my head so made a sketch of it though I changed the perspective to be as if the wall in front of us behind the counter weren’t there so the viewer (you in this case) would be facing us. I’m not really sure where I was going with this, but thought I’d pass the sketch along to you. And thank you for that evening, by the way. I had a lovely time and you undoubtably are a fantastic cook.
Always, Elsa ❤
P.S. I read the play a few times, the book you gave me. I’ve greatly enjoyed it each time so thank you for that too.
"Tiana," Tony cooed as soon as the woman walked through the front door. "There is quite a haul for you. All from that pretty blonde that likes to bake. She's very good." He commented before giving her most of the stuff. "Elsa Tony, her name is Elsa." She said before a small smile crossed her face. She knew what two of the presents were, but the large flat, rectangular one seemed to be a mystery. She had a couple ideas, but nothing too solid.
When she finally got to her apartment with all the stuff, Tiana started to open the gifts before an even wider grin crossed her face. Elsa was too nice to her. Putting the cupcakes on the counter and the record in the player, Tiana then opened a bottle of wine and started to look for places to hang the painting.
