"See? We're already compromising like an old married couple."
The words hung between us for a moment.
She cleared her throat. "So, um. This is the one. I'm decided."
At the checkout, I paid for everything while Candi wandered the small gift shop. She emerged with a silver star tree topper.
"For the top," she said.
I added it to the purchase.
Loading it into my truck bed required both of us. I lifted the heavy end, and when I glanced over, she was staring.
"What?"
"Nothing." Her cheeks went pink. "You're just... really strong."
"It's not that heavy."
"Still."
Back at the house, we wrestled it through the door and into the stand. She directed—"Left. No, your other left. Back a little!"—while I adjusted the angle, both of us laughing when it nearly tipped twice.
I grabbed a bottle of red wine from the kitchen and poured two glasses while she opened the box of lights.
"White lights," she said with mock disappointment. "So predictable."
"You agreed to plain lights."
"I know, I know."
We worked together stringing them, reaching around each other, hands brushing. She told me about her dad's annual disasters trying to assemble theirs—apparently one year he put it together upside down and didn't realize until all the ornaments were on.
"How do you put a tree together upside down?" I asked.
"That's what we all said! He insisted it was supposed to be that way until Mom showed him the box."
We hung ornaments, easy and comfortable. At the end, she held up the silver star.
"You should do it," she said.
"It's your star."
"But it's yours. Ours." She pressed it into my hand.
I climbed up, placed the star on top. When I stepped back, it glowed—slightly lopsided but somehow right. The room felt warmer, lived-in.
She stood back to admire it, and I found myself watching her instead.
"It's beautiful," she said.
"Yeah," I agreed, not looking at the tree.
"I'M MAKING YOU DINNER," she suddenly announced. "To thank you for the second chance. And for getting a tree."
"You don't have to—"
"I want to." She opened my fridge and peered inside. "Okay, so you've got... beer, condiments, and what I think used to be Chinese food?"
