MARGOT:Just like you did
ME:How’s my niece this morning?
MARGOT:I just got back from seeing her. She’s gorgeous and I fell apart because I can’t hold her yet. Ugly cried. Now my boobs are hooked up to these pumps and like every other part of my body, they will never be the same.
ME:God, Margot, not the visual I need this early in the morning
MARGOT:The outfits are adorable. Of course Mom has a million questions about where they came from
ME:Sorry you had to lie to her
MARGOT:Small price to pay for the visit. Thank you for coming to see us. It was the perfect gift.
I scrub my hand across my face to brush away the tears that well up. Nonna watches me, then sets her cup down.
“I think I’m ready to go in,” she says.
Within minutes, there are paper and ribbon and bows whipping through the air like they’re caught in hurricane-force winds. It’s chaos, but the absolute best kind. Nonna circles the room, commenting on each gift she sees and delighting in the pandemonium. She stops next to me and whispers, “Your mother sent over a few things. She didn’t want you to be empty-handed this morning.” Nonna points to a small pile next to Olivia.
I stare at the packages with my name on them for several minutes before I start opening them, trying not to get too emotional. She got me the phone case I’ve been wanting, along with a new pair of boots and an assortment of my favorites from Sephora. I pop the old case off my phone and start wrestling on the new one.
Aunt Kelsey’s four daughters parade around the room in their new princess dresses while Denver and Dallas battle it out with Mary and Frannie with their new lightsabers. Uncle Sal’s son, Banks, is testing out his new guitar while Webb, who still isn’t wearing pants, is steamrolling over everything and everyone on his new hoverboard.
Olivia struggles to open the gigantic jar of bread-and-butter pickle slices. She gets a jar like this every year, and every year it’s the first thing she opens. When Olivia was five, she ate an entire container of these pickles at Aunt Kelsey’s house, so when Christmas rolled around that year, Aunt Kelsey gave her a huge jar of them. There’s just something about getting this ridiculously oversize jar every year that makes her so happy.
She pops one in her mouth and says, “I’m seriously going to need a nap later.”
“Yeah, maybe we can sneak away before lunch.”
Olivia looks at the mess around me, then nudges a small box toward me with her foot. “You forgot one,” she says.
Sure enough, there’s a small package wrapped in brown paper with my name on it. I tear off the wrapping and open the plain white box.
Inside, there is a silver bracelet with something hanging from it. I hold it closer so I can see what it is.
“Ooh! Is that a charm bracelet?” Olivia says.
“I think so.” And then it clicks. There are two letters hanging from it—anSand aG. Surely my mom would not have bought me this.
“There’s a card in the bottom of the box.” Olivia hands me a small square of paper.
I show Olivia the card, and her face scrunches up when she reads it. “Not sure what to think about that.”
I tuck the card and the bracelet back in the box because, yeah, I don’t either.
Ugh.
Charlie walks toward us wearing a University of Arkansas hoodie he must have gotten as a gift this morning. Olivia throws up her hand. “We’re banishing you from our club.”
“I’m the president of that club, so that’s not possible,” he says, pushing her arm down and sitting between us. “Uncle Ronnie gave me this and I’m wearing it until Uncle Sal notices. But I’m not the one you need to be worried about. Ask Sophie about some of the colleges she’s applied to.”
Olivia leans forward to look at me. I know she’s thinking about our old LSU pact, the one I didn’t think was even relevant anymore. “Where did you apply?”
“I’ve applied to a bunch of different places.”
“Like Massachusetts,” Charlie adds.
“You hate it when it gets too cold,” she says.
