The man had the audacity to blush and bob his head at my mom. “I appreciate that, thank you.”
He walked us to the door as my mom kept talking about how wonderful Crush was. She reached for Edith’s leash. “I’ll give her a quick potty break.”
She speed-walked into the cold night, leaving us alone.
“I think she suspects something,” Andrew said as he watched her disappear into the darkness.
“That we had sex?” I screeched in horror.
He laughed at me like I’d said something adorable. “No. That we’ve been hanging out.”
How did hanging out relate to fun?
Andrew grabbed my belt loop and pulled me closer. “Hopefully she had no clue that I ravished her daughter just last night,” he whispered, his breath hot against my ear. “And I can’t wait to do it again.”
My knees just about gave out when he placed his finger under my chin and lifted it, quickly grazing his lips across mine. He stepped away from me and his posture shifted back to friendly neighbor.
“Hey, have fun decorating tonight!” he said in an exuberant voice, making me realize that he could see my mom heading back from the grassy patch with Edith.
“Th-thanks,” I stuttered and flapped my hand in an approximation of a wave as I tripped back to my side of the building.
I met up with her and we walked back to my door.
“I like him,” she said, glancing up at me. “He has such a nice way about him. Andhandsome.”
For the first time I could commiserate with a victim of his charms.
“Yup, he’s great,” I answered simply as I held the door open for her. “Anyway, let’s get to work.”
An hour and a half later the School of Frolic had been transformed into a dog-friendly, Seussian wonderland. We’d strung up faux evergreen garlands wrapped with multicolored lights, decorated my tabletop tree with so many bulbs that the branches sagged, and even hung up a ball of mistletoe near the door.
“Beautiful,” my mom said with an approving nod.
It felt strange seeing the place all decked out after keeping it bare-bones. I realized how much I’d missed getting into the holiday spirit.
“Well, we didn’t need my box after all, but let me bring it in for you, just in case.”
“Mom, no, don’t worry about it...”
But she was already heading for the door. When she returned I was shocked to see her carrying a much smaller box than I’d been expecting.
“Since you’re all done here maybe you can use these in your apartment?”
I placated her as she gathered her things to go. I still wasn’t sure if I was going to do any decorating at home. We hugged our goodbye as Edith did her barky commentary about affectionthat didn’t directly involve her. When we pulled apart my mom stared at me for a beat.
“You seem really happy. And that makes me happy too.”
I blushed. Ofcourseshe could pick up on the butterflies Andrew kept releasing in my chest. Her ability to read people, me and Taylor in particular, was one of her many gifts.
She was halfway out the door when she paused. “I put a little something for you in the box, right on top. I hope you’ll appreciate it.”
Once she’d left I hurried around the building to close up so I wouldn’t be there when the potential buyer arrived. The box she’d brought was sitting half-open on the back table so I peeked in to make sure she hadn’t left something edible for me, like a peppermint cupcake. I pulled out a small black box that was nestled on top of a Christmas tree skirt and opened it.
I felt a stone form in my chest when I saw what was inside. It was the ornament, our family joke. I’d made it when I was in grade school, a clay monstrosity of a star covered in red glitter with a photo decoupaged on it. We’d stopped hanging it on the tree at least ten years ago because the piece of yarn on the top had disintegrated, but it had a place of honor on the bookcase every season.
I moved to the light to study it even though I remembered every detail of the image plastered to it. It was a photo of me and my dad, hugging cheek to cheek. His eyes were closed and I was smiling the biggest, cheesiest grin that showed off a missing front tooth. I looked absolutely deranged because the photo had been taken at a neighborhood party and I was high on too many brownies. My dad looked overjoyed with his armswrapped around me. I could almost feel the weight of them as the tears started.
The me of six months ago would’ve stashed the box in a storage closet until I forgot about it.
