“I am so exhausted,” Marie says as she plops down on the couch with her eyes drooping open and closed. “So much holiday spirit in one day is a lot to take.”

We just got back from the Haggerty Christmas party and Marie is right- it was pretty exhausting to meet his whole family and be introduced to everybody at the party. I don’t remember any of the names at all but Andrew introduced me to almost everybody. Aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, they were all there. I’m sure barely any of them remembered my name and I was mostly just referred to as ‘Andrew’s friend’ which was fine with me because I wouldn’t remember anybody’s names either. I was stuffed too because of all of the food that was there. Apparently, it’s a requirement in the family that you have to be an incredible chef and then you must cook something incredible for the Christmas party. Most of the time, I watch what I eat but this Christmas party broke me.

“I didn’t know that Aunt Jen got married,” Lucas says randomly, hanging his jacket up on the coat rack before heading upstairs, obviously pretty tired from the party as well.

“She eloped last year,” Marie reminds him.

“Yeah, well we’re going to go upstairs now so we’ll see you guys in the morning,” Andrew says before wrapping his arm around my shoulders and leading me towards the stairs behind Lucas.

When we get into his room, he shuts the door and then we’re alone to celebrate our own personal little Christmas.

“So, do I get my present now?” I ask him jokingly, sitting on the edge of his bed.

He nods and teasingly rolls his eyes at me. “Yeah, it’s in here,” He says, going into the closet and grabbing a wrapped box. “Do I get my present too?”

“Not yet,” I smile up at him as he hands me the box. “But it’s a really good present so it’ll be worth the wait, I think.”

“Okay then,” He chuckles. “Go ahead and open yours then and prepare to be amazed.”

 “I better be amazed,” I joke.

“Just open it,” He rolls his eyes at me.

I tug on the paper until it rips and look at the box but it’s a completely unexciting plain brown box. I tear open the tape and look in the box, moving around some tissue paper to find a small black box that looks like it holds jewelry. It’s long so it’s either a bracelet or maybe a necklace.

“I know that it may be too romantic,” Andrew explains. “And incredibly cliché, but I bought it before everything happened and I was still going to give it to you no matter what because I really think that you’d like it.”

I eagerly grab the black box and push it open to see a beautiful golden bracelet inside made up of connected music notes with diamonds on some of the round part of the notes. “Wow,” I breathe, pulling it out of the box and holding it in my fingers to feel the smooth gold.

“Flip it over,” He tells me. “I know that you have all of the money in the world so if you wanted a bracelet then you could just buy one, which is why I had to make it special- something that you can’t just buy.”

I look at the back of the music notes and I can tell that there’s letters engraved in the back of the notes that read “AWH 7-24-13” with one character on each note. AWH being his initials and July 24th being the date that we got together over the summer. “This is amazing, Andrew,” I tell him with a small smile. “Really, I love it.”

“Good,” He takes the bracelet from me, silently offering to clasp it around my wrist for me and when he does, I inspect it again- it really is an amazing and personal gift and it’s so perfect that I just want to lean forward and kiss him but I know that I can’t do that. We’re still just friends and, although I’m sure that that will end soon, I have to stick with it for now. I compromise with myself by leaning forward and kissing his cheek, which is a friendly gesture.

“Your present is downstairs, so I’ll be right back,” I tell him, standing up off of the bed to go downstairs. While I’m down there, I send a picture of the bracelet to Mason and Sienna because I’m just that excited about it and then I wish them a Merry Christmas as I’m gathering up Andrew’s present.

I go back into his room with two coffee mugs full of that expensive coffee mixed with cream and sugar and I hand one of them to Andrew.

“A cup of coffee?” He wonders with amusement.

I nod. “Yep. Drink it though, it’s really good coffee.”

“Okay then,” He chuckles, taking a sip of the hot coffee. “Wow, it is really good. This is almost as awesome as a Christmas miracle.”

“Shut up,” I softly nudge him. “It’s Swiss coffee. That’s why it tastes so good.”

“I feel like you’re leading up to something,” He eyes me suspiciously.

I nod, pulling a small box out of my bag that’s been sitting on the other side of the bed. “You would be correct,” I tell him, handing him the box with a cute little bow on the top but it isn’t actually wrapped, it’s just a brown square, similar to a jewelry box.

He opens it up to look at the watch that is glistening inside of the box. “Wow. This is a really nice watch,” He observes, taking it out of the box to inspect it.

“It’s not engraved but I can totally get it engraved if you want,” I tell him quickly. “Anyway, this is a Swiss watch, which means that it’s a really awesome watch.”

“Swiss coffee and a Swiss watch?” He wonders with raised eyebrows. “That’s very fancy.”

“I’m still leading up to something,” I inform him, pulling an envelope out of my bag but I wait to give it to him so that I can explain. “I remember that you said that you’ve never been to Europe and that you’ve always wanted to see the Alps.”

“Stella,” Andrew deadpans. “Please tell me that you did not buy me a trip to Switzerland.”

“No, of course I didn’t do that,” I say, handing him the envelope and as he opens it, I explain what’s inside. “I bought you a trip to Italy and then a train ride into Switzerland through the Alps. I only got the idea a few days ago though, so I haven’t really planned it in depth yet though.”

He pulls out the paper inside of the envelope, which is just a piece of paper that I cut into a small rectangle and I drew on it to make it look like a plane ticket. It’s obviously fake but I haven’t had time to organize dates or anything because that can take weeks or months so there’s a lot to think about but the general idea is there and it’s perfect.

“No, that’s too much,” Andrew says, shaking his head at me. “I can’t accept something so insanely expensive.”

“Well, this isn’t a completely selfless gift,” I admit. “Of course, you have to take me with you. And you have to accept it. I already bought the plane tickets,” I joke, motioning towards the pen-made plane ticket that he’s holding in his hand.

“Is this the whole gift or is this just another thing leading up to the fact that you actually kidnapped the Swiss king for me to keep?” He jokes, taking another sip of his coffee.

I giggle and run my fingers over my new bracelet. “Switzerland doesn’t have a king, Andrew.”

“Okay, fine. This is seriously incredible, Stella,” He tells me, wrapping his arms around me for a tight hug. I hug him back, letting it linger for longer than it should but it’s not like hugging is a crime against friendship. And considering all of the things that we could be doing right now, hugging is by far the most innocent of them all. “I can’t believe we’re really going to Europe.”

“Well, you should believe it because it’s happening,” I smile at him. “There’s also one more part to your present but you can’t have that one yet.”

“Why not?” He wonders with a confused frown.

I offer him a mischievous smile. “It’s not exactly… friendly,” I tell him.

He remains confused for a moment before finally understanding what I mean and then his jaw drops for a moment before he recovers and clears his throat. “Oh. You’re really killing me here, Stella.”

“I know,” I admit with a guilty shrug. “But I have a feeling that you have something planned for New Year’s Eve. Am I right or am I right?”

“New Year’s Eve?” He wonders. “I might have something in mind for that particular day maybe.”

“That’s what I thought,” I giggle, still flying high on this holiday cheer which makes it pretty impossible for me to stop laughing. “So, I suspect that after New Year’s, everything will be different. Just five more days.”

“It feels like forever from now,” Andrew whines, putting the watch and the fake plane ticket on the night stand along with all of the boxes and gift wrap that we’ve gone through tonight.

“Considering everything that we’ve been through, a few days shouldn’t be anything,” I assure him. “Taking things slow will be better for us in the end. I promise.”

“Yeah, I guess it helps to look at it like that,” He agrees with a nod, drinking the last of his coffee. “We should get some more of this coffee when we go to Switzerland.”

I laugh and jokingly roll my eyes at him. We’ve had a long day and I think that it’s time for bed now so I grab my pajamas out of my bag so that I can get dressed. “That definitely needs to happen, I agree. And we need to buy out their chocolate supply as well. They have the best chocolate. Now, you have to look away so that I can get dressed.”

“Killing. Me,” He states again but I think that he’s joking. Maybe.

“Just turn around,” I tell him with a small smirk fighting its way onto my face.

He reluctantly hides his face under the covers and I quickly change out of my jeans and sweater for my pajama shorts and a tank top before I give him the all clear. “Well, your present makes mine look kind of crappy and that’s really unfair, you know.”

“Are you kidding?” I ask him incredulously, crawling onto the bed beside Andrew and fixing my hair so that it’s out of my face.

“No, I’m not,” He shakes his head at me. “I got you a bracelet and you gave me a watch so they even out but then you also got me a freaking trip to Europe- the ideal trip to Europe, actually. I am never going to be able to beat that ever, you know.”

“You already have,” I tell him honestly. “Andrew, you gave me a Christmas. That’s not something that has a comparison or any kind of real value. I’ve never been able to do this whole Christmas thing with a real family and with real presents but you gave me that. I honestly couldn’t be happier with the way that this Christmas turned out and it’s all thanks to you. Seriously, you’re more incredible than you give yourself credit for.”

“Even after all that I’ve put you through, you still think that I’m incredible?” He wonders with raised eyebrows.

I hide myself under the covers and rest my head on his shoulder. “People make mistakes. Granted, yours was pretty irritating but at least you didn’t cheat on me. If you did that then there wouldn’t be anything incredible about you but I know that you didn’t. And it’s not like I ever stopped loving you, even through everything. This is our second chance. Not forgetting everything that’s happened but putting it behind us and moving on. So yeah, even after all of the shit that we’ve put ourselves through, I do think that you’re incredible because even though you’re the guy that unintentionally flirted with the she devil, you’re still the guy that brings me to his family’s Christmas because I don’t have one of my own. And that’s pretty incredible.”

He gets under the covers too and wraps his arms around my shoulders. “I have no idea what I would do without you, Stella Wayne.”

I smile and lean into him more. “You’d obviously crash and burn.”

“Obviously,” He agrees jokingly. “Merry Christmas, Stell.”

I kiss his cheek again before turning off the lamp beside the bed and laying down with my pillow on one of the pillows. “Merry Christmas, Andrew.”

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