Despite all my current issues with my parents, I held onto fond memories of Christmases from my childhood. It was a time of decorated homes, delicious food, and a warm, magical feeling that seemed to wrap around everything.
And that was exactly what I wanted to give the girls, especially since it would be their first Christmas without their mother.
My own family never had the money for a real tree every year. We had a small artificial one that lived in a box for eleven months, only to be resurrected each December. But Logan had given me his credit card for the girls' needs, and right now, what they needed most was a little magic.
However, things weren't going as planned. We were at the tree lot, and I’d expected the girls to be buzzing with excitement. That was definitely not the case.
“What do you think of this one?” I asked, pointing to a pine tree almost as tall as me. It wasn't perfect—with Christmas just days away, the best ones were long gone.
“Whatever…” Anna shrugged, utterly dismissive.
Aurora mirrored the gesture perfectly.
“Just imagine it covered in decorations and lights,” I insisted.
“Whatever,” Anna repeated with another shrug.
Once again, Aurora followed suit.
“We could go to the market and buy ingredients to make cookies. How does that sound? Have you ever made Christmas cookies before?”
Anna looked away, ignoring me. Aurora, however, gave a small nod. I couldn’t tell if she was agreeing to the idea or confirming they’d made cookies before.
“Let’s look at a few more, and if we don’t find a better one, we can get this one. Is that okay?”
“Whatever,” Anna grumbled, her eyes scanning the crowd as if anything else was more interesting than the trees we’d come to buy.
I sighed, feeling a wave of discouragement. I was so distracted, trying to figure out how to cheer them up, that I jumped when a hand touched my shoulder. I think I even let out a little yelp as I spun around.
My confusion only deepened when I saw who it was.
“Hey… easy. It’s just me,” Logan said, looking taken aback by my reaction.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I decided to take the day off. To buy a Christmas tree.”
“You put your research on hold… to buy a tree?”
“I live for this. It’s my most anticipated activity of the year.”
“Really?” My tone was dripping with irony.
“Of course. Who wouldn’t want to go out on a freezing day, spend half an hour finding parking, hours hunting for a perfectly symmetrical pine, only to settle for any old one and wait in an hour-long line to pay five times what it’s worth? It’s fantastic.” He was the one being deeply sarcastic now.
“You didn’t have to come, then. No one goes through all that without a sense of obligation.”
“They’re my daughters, aren’t they?”
So that was it. Obligation.
On one hand, it was good that Logan had finally awakened to this sense of duty. It was a start. But fatherhood required so much more than that. It was a shame he hadn’t discovered the ‘something more’ yet.
“Don’t tell me this is the best you’ve found?” he said, gesturing to the tree we’d been looking at.
“You find something better, then,” I challenged.
“That’s why I’m here. I knew if I left it to you, we’d end up with something tragic.”
