Yesterday's Feelings

Christmas day was rapidly approaching and the snow was piling up outside. Eric was still gone but we had been having a lovely Skype session. I had spent the last week or so really thinking hard about my talk with John. He was right. I needed a change, even if it was something that was temporary. Something to keep me occupied. I poked around online for a bit and submitted some job applications. Some were real long-shots, some were months away that started in summer. I wasn't even really thinking about it and I moved on looking around at other things.

I yawned as I looked at the older man with heavy eyes through the screen. Eric was flitting about.. somewhere, I'd lost track of where we was at now. All I knew is that Christmas was days away and I knew John would be spending it at their parents' with his new girlfriend, Allison (who was nice). "Are you coming back for Christmas?" I asked.

Eric frowned, "I don't know. I'm supposed to go through New York but I won't be in till super late plus if there's a lot of people flying, it will probably be delayed or something.." He said quietly. Wherever it was, it was morning because Eric took a rough slurp of his coffee and made a face.

I laughed a little and propped my head up with my arm, "Oh. Eli was really looking forward to Christmas with you." I said, "Dani and I too." I smiled some.

Eric gave me something that was a cross between a frown and a smile, "I'll try to be back on Christmas. I mean, I have a lot of connecting flights and you know how busy that travel time is." He said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Dani keeps asking to go see the big lit-up tree." I smiled softly, "I haven't the heart to tell her that that big tree that gets lit up is only in New York." I chuckled, pointing out the numerous times over the last week that Dani had been asking me to take her to see the tree in Rockefeller Center. I know she missed the tree last year, it was something we did after my mom and her dad passed, and she was begging to go this year.

Eric sat quietly for a little bit, "Why don't you guys meet me in New York for Christmas?" Eric suggested, almost out of the Blue. "We'll just stay there for all of New Years too. I mean, I've got a connecting flight through New York and if the weather is bad and the flight is delayed— which it almost always is, I may as well just stay." Eric paused again, "Plus, you know you miss it as bad as she does."

I smiled a little and shook my head. He knew that I missed home. New York would always be my home, no matter what. "I like that idea, but where are we going to stay it's just days before Christmas. Everywhere is going to be booked Eric." I said in a reasonably true protest.

"You let me worry about that." Eric said with a huge grin on his face, "Consider it my Christmas present to you and Dani." Eric said.

I yawned again and shook my head, "Eric, you can't just book last min—"

Eric chuckled, "I didn't."

My tired eyes narrowed at the screen, "What?"

Eric grinned, "I sort of planned on having John surprise you guys with the tickets. He has them stashed away. I bought them a while ago. Everything is already paid for for you, Dani, and Eli. Including a place to stay. You guys leave in a couple days." Eric said, "I'll be there shortly after, but, in time for Christmas." He paused, "I promise."

"Eric, that's way, way too much." I said in protest, "A trip to New York for Christmas. That's way—"

"No, it's not. You've been working so hard plus caring for Dani and Eli by yourself. You deserve a vacation, this vacation, this trip. So I'm not taking no for an answer." Eric insisted.

How could I tell him 'no'? Easy. I couldn't. It would be just what we all needed. Time together, time to break up a routine, some fun. I was actually terribly excited and I knew that Dani would be too. I just felt a little bad that Eric was paying for it all. It couldn't have been cheap and those kinds of things came out of his travel budget. I knew a little bit about what he was giving up for us to have that trip, that time together. It was important to make the trip fun and memorable and happy.

As soon as I was done Skyping with Eric I called Gene's parents and asked if they would be willing to take Dani for an evening, as well as maybe Eli. They were thrilled to have Dani and I (and Eli) coming back for the holidays and they were eager to see us— it had been too long since they'd seen their favorite "grandbabies". I settled on making some dinner reservations and plans for while we were all in town. No doubt in my mind that a special dinner for two would be in order to Eric for pulling this off, especially because he managed to keep it a secret for so long.