Chapter 29

Liam

I've been extra busy lately with baseball practice. While we don't start playing against other teams until a month into the spring semester, we start training early on in the fall semester. As the months go by there's more and more practices added into our schedules. We're currently practicing five days a week, which doesn't leave much time for anything else especially when piled with classes and homework. Practice is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Coach lets us off on Wednesdays and Sundays to rest and recover, for now anyways. Once the season is in full swing we'll barely have any days off between games and practice.

So far though I have been able to keep to mine and Emilia's standing date of The Burger Palace on Wednesdays. I miss having our Tuesday study sessions but thankfully I still get to see her in class on Mondays. On the weekends, when Emilia doesn't have work, we hangout, we watch movies, or we go to all the different Christmas activities scattered throughout town. I love how her eyes shine with every Christmas light display we go see.

It's the Wednesday before winter break officially starts, finals end tomorrow, but we have practice until Saturday. Classes don't resume until mid-January, I will be back on campus just after New Year's because practice starts back up again. I'll only be home for ten days but it feels too long to be apart from Emilia and that combined with the fact she'll be here all alone doesn't sit right with me.

Rosie invited her back to Connecticut with her family but Emilia declined as she didn't want to get in the way of their family traditions. She also said she was going to pick up more shifts at Nico's throughout the break. However, the family-owned Italian restaurant decided to close down from Christmas Eve through New Year's day. Rosie is staying home until the day before classes start and Emilia still doesn"t have her own car, so she decided to still decline the invitation in hopes of working a lot in the first few weeks of January. Emilia will be buying her own car soon, probably sometime in January. She needs one before the start of the spring semester as her internship placement is somewhere she'll have to drive too. If I didn't have my own classes and practice I would gladly drive her there everyday but unfortunately that's not how life really works.

Just as Wednesdays have become mine and Emilia's tradition, it has also become a tradition of me calling my mom while I wait in the parking lot of Nico's.

"Hi, sweetie." My mom picks up on the third ring, I can hear the smile in her voice.

"Hey, Mom. What are up to?"

"Oh, Eli and I were just trying some new recipes. She wanted to make some snicker doodle cookies. Maybe they'll make it in the Christmas cookie line up." Every Christmas Eve my mom and sister bake tons of different kinds of cookies and then together we decorate the gingerbread and sugar cookies.

"Mmm. That sound delicious."

"Let's hope so." She laughs and I can hear the faint beep of a timer. "One sec, Li." I hear the oven door opening and a tray being set down. "Alright. I'm back. They smell great."

"Mom, about Christmas…I have a question. You can say no."

"What is it?" My mom's tone is gentle.

"Remember Thanksgiving? How I left to go see my friend Emilia?" I hear her hum through the line letting me know she's listening. "Well let"s just say she can't go home for Christmas and I don't want her to be alone. Would she be able to come stay with us for a bit? Be with us for Christmas." I don't know why I'm so nervous to ask my mom these questions, I know my mom isn't going to say no. She's been texting me about Emilia for the past few weeks asking if I've made any progress on telling her my feelings. My mom would also never let someone be alone on a holiday, least of all her favorite one.

"Oh of course, honey. No one should be alone on Christmas."

"Thank you. You're the best."

"I know." She laughs, "So, you're still just friends, then?"

"Yeah, just friends." I sigh. I haven't confessed my feelings to her yet, though I have wanted to, no time has felt right. What's worse living with these feelings forever but always having hope or telling her and losing her?

"You should tell her how you feel. You know Christmas can be so magical." My moms love for Christmas started as a child, she says, but I know it runs deeper than that. She met my dad at a Christmas Eve party, two Christmases after that he proposed, and the season after that they were married. Even with him gone she continues to believe in the magic of the season.

"Yeah. I know. I will. Well I gotta go, I'm about to pick her up right now. I love you."

"I love you too, Liam. See you soon."

I wouldn't say I'm an anxious person but asking Emilia to spend Christmas with me and my family has sent my nerves sky rocketing. We're at The Burger Palace and my leg hasn't stopped shaking underneath the table since we sat down. I want to just blurt it out, get it over with but this doesn't seem like the best place to ask her to meet my parents. Especially since I have a feeling I'm going to have to give her a list of positive reasons to come home with me. She's not going to want to feel like she's intruding and I need to be able to reassure her she's not.

Emilia tells me all about her shift and how things have been working with James since the incident. She says he's been civil and they mostly just avoid each other. I don't like that she works with him but since I'm nothing more than a friend to her, for now anyways, I keep my mouth shut. Not that there is much I could say as her boyfriend to get him from working the same shifts as her, but still.

On the drive back to Emilia's apartment she plays what she calls her ‘perfectly curated Christmas playlist'. It ranges from the classics to Justin Bieber's Christmas album, Emilia insists that it's actually a classic and my taste just needs to be refined. I've learned a lot about Emilia over the past few months of being friends, including how funny she is. She told me she takes a while to warm up to people, to trust them but once she does her true self shines. Knowing that she feels like she can be herself around me is one of the highest compliments I could receive. Especially since I'm dying to know every detail about her.

When we get back to Emilia's I walk her to her door, she insisted this wasn't necessary the first few burger dates we had but after about week three she must have realized it was a pointless effort because she stopped telling me that.

"Come in" Emilia waves me in as she toes her shoes off. "I have something for you." A shy smile creeps up on her face as she walks over to the living room.

"You have something for me?" I ask, closing the door behind me and toeing my shoes off. She looks back at me and nods, then bends down in front of the Christmas tree picking up a package decorated beautifully in red paper and gold string.

She walks back over to where I am, on the threshold of what separates the kitchen from the living room. I didn't even register that I stopped walking. The nerves are really getting to me, especially now, seeing her in the apartment we expertly decorated together for her favorite time of the year. She can't be alone on this holiday.

"I thought I'd give it to you now since I won't see you on Christmas." Her smile brightens up her whole face. "You can open it now if you want."

"I think I'd rather wait."

"Oh, okay." Her lips curve downwards just for a second before she forces them up again "My grandma always let me open one gift on Christmas Eve, maybe this should be yours."

"Only if you'll open mine on Christmas Eve."

"You didn't have to get me anything." Her cheeks flush slightly.

"I wanted to."

"Thank you, will you drop it off before you leave on Saturday then?"

"No."

"Huh?" She looks puzzled, rightfully so. "How will I open it then?"

"You'll come home with me." There we go, right out with it. Maybe since I didn't phrase it as a question and more of a statement she won't be able to argue with me.

"Liam. What do you mean?" She shakes her head, causing her hair to fall in front of her face. I can't help it, I reach out to brush it gently behind her ear.

"Come spend the holiday with me and my family, Emi." My hand is still touching her cheek, I slowly let it fall to my side. "I hate the thought of you here alone. I want to spend Christmas with you. I'll bring you back the day after if you want. Just spend a few days with me, please." I am practically begging. Fine, there's no practically about it I am begging but if she says no then I guess I'll just be spending Christmas here as well.

"I…" Emilia starts but I shake my head.

"Nope, before you can even say it I need to let you know you are not intruding. I want you there. My mom wants you there." The room is silent apart from my heart beating so loud I'm pretty sure it's going to come right out of my chest.

"Okay, then. I'll come." She looks up, eyes meeting mine, with that beautiful smile on her face. I can't help but break into the biggest smile too, lunging forward and picking her off the ground spinning her around. She giggles, the sweetest sound I've ever heard, her smile is bigger than any I've managed to put on her face thus far and I've put a fair amount on there. It hits me hard that I want to keep her smiling forever and I know I need to show her how much she means to me and soon.