I sink back onto the bed, ornament clutched in my hand.
My phone buzzes again.
Unknown:
Saw you looking at this and didn’t get it. A perfect piece to commemorate today.
I change his contact name to AK.
Me:
You realize I almost had a heart attack.
AK:
You good?
I don’t want to lie, but also, I want to answer.
Me:
Thank you. It’s perfect.
AK:
Counting sheep?
Me:
Might have to, I’m missing my weighted blanket.
AK:
You don’t need a weighted blanket Tsarina, you need to know you’re protected.
Me:
Phew, I thought you were going to say I needed you.
I watch the dots dance across the screen and disappear.
Shit, shit shit. I think and then.
AK:
If you do, let me know.
I just stare at the screen, just stare at it, emotions again building past the point I can hold them at bay. I’ve never neededanyone, or maybe I’ve never trusted anyone, until I met Nalani and, with her, Noelle. That day I saw Nalani’s location in the city, after a trip abroad to have a specialist look at Dad, and coming home with no good news at all, there she was.
Had that not happened, I’d never have met Claudia, Savannah, or Paul. Claudia would not have reconnected with Deacon, and those damn players would have never helped Dash pick out the dress that sealed the deal for him and Noelle.
“God, I need her right now, but I cannot put this on her; too much stress when she’s pregnant.”
As I lay back into bed, there’s a knock on the door, and the child in me that believed in Santa… perhaps for too long runs to the door expecting to throw it open and see her, but it’s not her, it’s… him.
“Well damn,” Aleks says easily, stepping past me like this is the most natural thing in the world. “Thought that excitement was for me.”
He sets a box down on the desk with care. Unrushed and casual. Like peace washed over him before the Christmas market.
