Eri knocked on the front door, and when it opened, she expected to see Avian or Marco on the other side. Instead, she was greeted by Elias. She wasn’t particularly complaining about that, but she hadn’t seen him since he’d let her stay with him last weekend.
“Well, hello, Amate.”
“Hey. I didn’t expect to see you here,” she responded as he stepped aside and let her in.
“It’s a pleasant surprise, isn’t it?” he teased.
“For you, I guess.”
“I picked them up from the airport,” he supplied.
Eri had forgotten that he was picking them up since he lived closer to the airport than the rest of them. However, she hadn’t minded and had volunteered to do so if he couldn’t make it. They’d been back a few hours, and Avian had called her to let her know they made it safely and asked if she’d come over in a few hours to help her with thank you cards for the wedding gifts they’d received. She wasn’t surprised her friend was trying to get it out of the way. The new semester started in a few days, and it would be one less thing her friend had to worry about.
She followed Elias into the living room, where Avian and Marco were, with the gifts they’d received littered across the room. Lorna had taken them after the wedding and dropped them off at some point.
“Hey,” Avian greeted, getting up from where she sat on the floor in front of the coffee table. She pulled Eri into a hug. “Thanks for coming over to help.”
“It’s no problem,” Eri responded. “Besides, I guess I missed you a little, or whatever,” she teased, and Avian laughed. She’d made it a point not to reach out to her while she was on her honeymoon and to wait for her to get back to get all the details Avian felt comfortable giving her. “Hey, Marco,” she greeted.
“Hey,” he responded. “For the record, I told her I would help, but she insisted the two of you could handle it.”
“You helped. You signed your name to the cards,” Avian retorted.
Eri waved him off. “It’s fine. I don’t mind helping. It’ll give us an excuse for her to tell me how the honeymoon was—that is, when you didn’t have her confined to a bed,” she teased.
Elias snorted, and Eri turned to look at him. “Then I’m sure she won’t have much to tell you.”
“We did not stay in bed the entire time,” Avian informed.
“Not the entire time. But a solid seventy percent,” Marco countered with a smirk.
“You know what? You and Elias go find something to do,” Avian directed.
The men chuckled as Marco got up, kissing Avian’s temple as he passed to do what she instructed. Eri felt a soft touch on her side before Elias followed him into the kitchen. They settled on opposite sides of the coffee table, and Eri took in all the opened gifts. If she had to guess, she’d say that her friend had received almost everything on their registry.
“Where do you want to start?” Eri asked.
“Lorna was nice enough to make a list of everyone who brought or sent gifts if they didn’t make it, with their addresses beside them.” Avian passed her a tablet. “I tooka picture, then wrote the gift they sent beside it. Will you use this and address the envelopes for me? We have return address stickers, so you only have to do the receiving address.”
“Okay, I can do that.” She looked over the list, and a name caught her attention. “Avi, your mom sent you a wedding gift?”
“Yeah. She sent it with Aunt Willa.”
Eri studied her momentarily as Avian wrote on one of the cards. “Did you like it?”
She was aware of Deborah’s attitude towards anything that she disapproved of. Eri had been on the receiving end of it more than once. She also knew that she’d been hellbent on Avian either not going through with the marriage or that it wouldn’t last. It was a little shocking to Eri that she’d sent a gift. However, she knew that didn’t mean the gift was thoughtful. It could have been something to push her agenda of dislike towards the marriage and Marco.
That’s why she asked if she liked it instead of what it was because if her friend didn’t like it, Eri didn’t care what it was. She would get rid of it if Marco hadn’t already because she knew he would in no way tolerate them having something around the house that upset his wife.
“It wasn’t a malicious gift. His and hers towels, and a pair of champagne flutes. I’m going to put the towels in the guest bathroom.”
Eri nodded in understanding. While it may not have been a gift sent with malice, it was best not to bring any energy it held into their bedroom. A space that was supposed to be where they relaxed and felt at peace. She started on the first envelope.
“Tell me about your honeymoon. What sights did you see?”
While working on the cards and envelopes, she listened to Avian describe the different sights and activities they did outside the bedroom. After finishing addressing the envelopes, Eri moved on to putting return labels and stamps on them.
“Do you think you succeeded in creating me a nibling?” she asked as they put the cards in the correct envelopes.
