‹ Prequel: Warmness on the Soul
The Way You Look Tonight
How She Does It
“Have you started Christmas shopping yet Gracie?” Val asked over dinner.
Grace laughed, “Are you kidding me? I’m done.” The girls looked at her, half in shock, half in amusement.
Christmas was Grace’s favourite time of year. As a kid she’d always be up before six in the morning, take her stocking off her door handle and go into her brother Kevin’s, room. There, they’d look through the contents of their stockings and put his TV on and watch some random film that was always on on Christmas morning, but no-one knew about it. They’d usually fall asleep during said movie and wake up for around seven thirty, eight-ish, which was, according to their parents, an acceptable time to get up and start opening presents, but not before they’d woke their parents up.
Kevin and Fran went all out every year for Christmas. It was usually just them and their children, unless they went home to Scotland, which didn’t happen often. Living as long as they had in Huntington they didn’t like the cold and the snow that so often graced their homeland.
Grace got her present collecting habit from her mother. Her mother would go to the January sales and see if there was anything to get people for next year, that way there was no
chance of her being even more stressed out in December.
***
“Gracie?” Leana said her name.
Grace looked up from her her mug of coffee, they’d decided to go to a nearby café, “Yes Leana?”
Leana almost looked pained, “How, how’d you do it?”
“Do what?” she asked confused.
“Sleep with someone you love as much as you do, but know you can’t have them?”
Grace was sort of shocked, that definitely wasn’t what she was expecting. “I don’t really know Leana,” Lacey, Gena, Val and Dylan came back from the counter, “I know I’m not going to get anymore from him apart from sex. So I enjoy it, if that’s all he’s going to give me, then so be it. That makes me sound pretty desperate, but I love him, and if he doesn’t love me back in the same way, then I can handle that. No matter how much it hurts, I won’t pressure him. So I take what anything I can get, and I love it, and I cherish those moments with him, because I know, that when he finds a girl he loves as much as I love him, then it’ll all end and, I’ll, I’ll be back to square one, with nothing. Nothing but the longing.” Grace stared off into space, as the girls beside her choked up.
Val sniffed, “Gracie, he loves you, everyone can see it, he’s just blind. He’s an idiot.”
“Thanks, Val, really, but I’m fine it with, really I am, I’m still young, plenty more fish and all that jazz. Let’s get back to the cabin, it looks like it’s going to snow again.” everyone nodded and they left the café heading back up to the cabin.
When they got there however, there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway.
Grace laughed, “Are you kidding me? I’m done.” The girls looked at her, half in shock, half in amusement.
Christmas was Grace’s favourite time of year. As a kid she’d always be up before six in the morning, take her stocking off her door handle and go into her brother Kevin’s, room. There, they’d look through the contents of their stockings and put his TV on and watch some random film that was always on on Christmas morning, but no-one knew about it. They’d usually fall asleep during said movie and wake up for around seven thirty, eight-ish, which was, according to their parents, an acceptable time to get up and start opening presents, but not before they’d woke their parents up.
Kevin and Fran went all out every year for Christmas. It was usually just them and their children, unless they went home to Scotland, which didn’t happen often. Living as long as they had in Huntington they didn’t like the cold and the snow that so often graced their homeland.
Grace got her present collecting habit from her mother. Her mother would go to the January sales and see if there was anything to get people for next year, that way there was no
chance of her being even more stressed out in December.
***
“Gracie?” Leana said her name.
Grace looked up from her her mug of coffee, they’d decided to go to a nearby café, “Yes Leana?”
Leana almost looked pained, “How, how’d you do it?”
“Do what?” she asked confused.
“Sleep with someone you love as much as you do, but know you can’t have them?”
Grace was sort of shocked, that definitely wasn’t what she was expecting. “I don’t really know Leana,” Lacey, Gena, Val and Dylan came back from the counter, “I know I’m not going to get anymore from him apart from sex. So I enjoy it, if that’s all he’s going to give me, then so be it. That makes me sound pretty desperate, but I love him, and if he doesn’t love me back in the same way, then I can handle that. No matter how much it hurts, I won’t pressure him. So I take what anything I can get, and I love it, and I cherish those moments with him, because I know, that when he finds a girl he loves as much as I love him, then it’ll all end and, I’ll, I’ll be back to square one, with nothing. Nothing but the longing.” Grace stared off into space, as the girls beside her choked up.
Val sniffed, “Gracie, he loves you, everyone can see it, he’s just blind. He’s an idiot.”
“Thanks, Val, really, but I’m fine it with, really I am, I’m still young, plenty more fish and all that jazz. Let’s get back to the cabin, it looks like it’s going to snow again.” everyone nodded and they left the café heading back up to the cabin.
When they got there however, there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway.