STEPHANIE:

      "What in the world do you have here?" Jinxx questions, as I roll a wire kitchen cart, covered with a plastic tablecloth, through the front door of the studio.

      I remove the plastic and flap it out the front door to get rid of the dampness, then put it into the plastic bag I brought before stuffing it into the bottom of the cart. "I have everyone's Christmas gifts, along with the desserts I promised to bring. Can't have too much food for a Christmas party, right?"

      Alice comes up between us, and hugs me. "Hello, sweetie!" she exclaims. "I adore your sweater, you look absolutely lovely in periwinkle. Let me help you unload the sweets. Dare I hope that you've made some of those divine coconut bars?"

      "Of course I did," I tell her. "I know how much you like those, but I've also found a few new recipes for everyone to try out."

      "Yup, we all lucked out with the coconut thingies," Lylah announces, as she and Macy come in behind me with their arms full of bags and boxes, shaking the raindrops out of their hair. "And you should consider yourselves fortunate that we let her bring y'all any of the fudge. I seriously thought about running off with the pan and keeping it all for myself."

      "That's hardly necessary, I have two more batches in the freezer, and I can whip up some more pretty much any time," I respond.

      "Yeah, she's been on her annual holiday baking frenzy all week," Macy adds. "So it's a good thing she has an outlet, or Lylah and I would end up weighing seven hundred pounds each before New Years."

      They take their packages to the tree after Jinxx takes our jackets and goes to hang them up, while Alice leads me to the dessert table. I start taking trays off of the top of the cart, naming off what I've brought as I hand them to her; "Christmas cookies, of course, orange cream fudge, chocolate shortbread cups, chocolate-mint bars, and your raspberry-coconut bars."

      Then, as I start pulling more trays out of the center shelf, she raises an eyebrow, looking sort of surprised. "Steph, you have enough sweets here for everyone, do we really need any more right now?"

      "Yes, but now we have things that everyone can eat," I explain. "I didn't want to leave anyone out, so I hunted up a few vegan recipes, too."

      "Thank you, Stephanie, that was very thoughtful of you," Feldy says, as he and his wife walk up behind us. "So what sort of goodies do we have to look forward to?"

      I pass the vegan desserts to Feldy's wife, Amy, listing as I go; "Let's see... Lemon tartlets, brownie bites, cashew-butter cups, pecan pie bars, and nectarine-oat squares. And so everybody knows what's what, the vegan stuff is on green trays, and the other things are on red trays." She starts rearranging the table, separating the different types of desserts, grabbing a pair of scissors and snipping a dangling piece of garland to use as a divider.

      As we're looking over the table, a voice exclaims from behind us, "All right, we've got Christmas cookies! Now it's officially a party!" Then a hand darts around me and snatches a frosted snowflake from the tray.

      "Honestly, C, shouldn't you wait until we eat actual food?" Ash inquires, walking up as CC starts munching on the cookie.

      "Probably, but I wanted to make sure I got one before they were gone," he replies, after swallowing the bite he's been chewing. "My grandma's sugar cookies were one of my favorite things about Christmas when I was a kid, and these are just as good, maybe even better. I have to say, Steph, you are one heck of a cook."

      "Yeah, I guess I can relate," Ash says. "My thing was always my Nan's blackberry cobbler. Me and my cousins would go out and pick a bunch of berries during the summer, and she always made sure to freeze enough to make that for Thanksgiving, and maybe Christmas if there were enough left. I don't make a habit of eating a lot of sweets anymore, but I'd love to be able to have one of those again."

      He's smiling as he says this, but there's a bit of sadness showing in his eyes, and I remember hearing that his grandmother has passed away. I put my hand on his shoulder and tell him, "Well, I can't do anything about it now, but if I remember correctly, you have a birthday coming up soon, right? I could make you one then, if you want. It might not be the same, but I'm willing to give it a shot."

      He slings an arm across my shoulders and gives me a peck on the cheek. "That's really sweet, hon, and maybe I'll take you up on that. But where have you been this last week? You just sort of disappeared after you took me home that night."

      "I've been working on finishing up all of my Christmas gifts, and I've been baking a lot, so I could make up some gift trays, and have the freezer stocked. That way I'm not spending all my time cooking while the 'rents are here."

      "Oh, right! Macy mentioned that the other day. Apparently, you three are the only ones here who are actually staying in LA for the holidays."

      "Yeah, Max couldn't get leave this year, unfortunately, but Mom and Dad will be here in a couple of days, and they're staying until the fourth," I reply. "That way, they both have a few days to recover before they have to go back to work."

      Jinxx has wandered over to join us, catching the last bit of the conversation. "What do your folks do? I don't think Macy has ever said."

      "Mom is a 911 dispatcher, and Dad is a football coach-slash-guidance counselor for the high school I graduated from."

       Jake, Inna, Andy, and Juliet come through the door, and we put the conversation on pause to greet everyone. Once they've put their gifts by the tree, everybody heads for the table to grab some food, then we all find a seat and start discussing everyone's holiday plans. Apparently, everyone in the band is going to spend the holidays with their families, with Jinxx and Alice being extra-ambitious, and taking his family along with them to England, so he can meet hers. Feldy and Amy are taking their kids on a ski trip, Jake and Inna will be in Idaho, where his family lives, Ashley is leaving for Missouri the day before Christmas Eve, and CC is apparently going to finally get to take his tropical vacation with his girl.

      After we finish our food, Feldy suggests, "Okay, why don't we all grab a plate of treats, and then we can exchange gifts. That way nobody has to run back and forth to the dessert table and miss seeing all the fun."

      We all file over to the table and choose some desserts, then go back to our seats, and I place my plate on top of the cart, where I still have everyone's gifts. Ash is in the chair on my left, and asks, "Do you mind if I put mine up there, too?"

      "No, not at all," I tell him. As he sets it next to mine, I see that he has one of the lemon tarts, a coconut bar, and a small square of fudge, and I say, "Decided to try both sides of the table, I see."

      "Yeah, Alice and Lylah were talking up the fudge and these bars so much that I figured I should give 'em a try, and the lemon things just looked really good, even if they are vegan."

      After a bit of argument about who gets to hand out their gifts first, Amy comes up with the idea of writing numbers on slips of paper and having everyone draw, to make it totally impartial. CC ends up going first, and I'm last, with Ash just before me. Everyone takes their turn handing out presents, and I have quite an assortment of things piled on top of the cart by the time Ash gets his turn; gift cards, jewelry, T-shirts, a couple of DVDs, and a book on raku pottery from Alice. Then he hands me a package and says, "I have to admit, I was having a problem figuring out what to get you, but I kind of got an idea when you were at my place the other day. I hope it's not something you already have."

       I pull off the paper and when I open the box, I find several paperback books. They're laying face down, and when I turn them over, I see that they go along with the book I had with me the night I took him home. "Thank you, Ash, this is totally cool! I don't have any of these, the one you saw is the first one that I ever read. Now I have something to read before bed for at least the next couple of weeks."

      "Oh, enabling her print addiction, huh? She'll be your friend for life now," Macy snickers.

      "What have you got there?" Feldy inquires, and I lay them out on the arm of my chair, so he can get a better view.

      "It's a series called 'Monster Hunter', and I picked up one of the books the day we all went shopping. Now I have four more, I just have to check the dates when I get home and figure out which one to start with."

      "Apparently there's one more book in the series," Ash informs me. "But they didn't have the most recent one in stock, and couldn't guarantee that it would get here before Christmas, so I just got these."

      "That's fine, I'm sure I can get it later. But now you should finish giving everyone their gifts, and then we can see if I did as good of a job as you did."

      He finishes passing out his gifts, and then I start taking my packages out of the bottom of the cart, and handing them out to everyone. "I hope you like these, I made them all myself," I inform them. "And just so you know, they're all basically the same thing, but sort of personalized for each of you."

      When everyone has their boxes, they all start opening them, and pull out the customized coffee mugs I made for them. Alice and Jinxx get a big kick out of theirs, which I made to look like their two cats, and everyone else starts showing off their designs. Andy's and Juliet's represent their pet names for each other, while Jake's has an ocean theme, and Inna's has the "Om" tattoo on her chest surrounded by the pink lilies on her arm. Feldy's has a sound board, Amy's shows their dogs, and CC's is in the shape of a drum, with a pair of drumsticks for the handle.

      Ash hangs onto his package until everyone else is done, then carefully removes the paper and opens the box. He pulls out the mug, which I made to look like his big "Purdy" beltbuckle is wrapped around it, with a miniature version of his Warpaint bass for the handle. He holds it up in front of his face, turning it to inspect it from every angle, and a big grin spreads across his face. "This is totally fuckin' awesome, Steph, I love it!" he announces. "But I may just have to put it on a shelf and look at it, because I'm almost afraid to mess it up with coffee."

      "Well, it's yours, so you can do whatever you want with it, but it's not really necessary. If you notice, it's glazed inside and out in black, so it won't show coffee stains."

      He puts it down with his other gifts, and picks up the last bit of his coconut bar, popping it into his mouth. "See, I told you all that those were absolutely scrumptious, didn't I?" Alice says, and he nods in agreement.

      "Yeah, these are really good, and so was the lemon thing," he replies. "The fudge was okay, too, but a bit too much concentrated sugar for me."

      He pauses, and before he can continue, his phone rings. He pulls it out, glances at the screen, then taps it and says, "Hi there! If you're checking on when I'm showing up, my flight leaves here at nine AM on the twenty-third, so barring any delays, I should be at the house no later than one-thirty."

      He pauses to listen to whoever has called, and everyone gets quiet when his expression changes, going from happy and smiling to worried and tense in the space of a heartbeat. He listens silently for a few seconds, then says, "Yeah, I'll take care of that as soon as I hang up, and I'll text you my new ETA as soon as I have it. Let me know if anything changes, okay?"

      He ends that call, and immediately makes another, and we figure out that he's trying to change his flight. When he finishes this call, he sends a quick text, then stuffs his phone back into his pocket and says, "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I've got a plane to catch in less than three hours."

      "What happened, bro?" CC inquires. "Can we do something to help?"

      "That was one of my cousins on the phone, they just took Pop to the hospital," he explains. "He was having some trouble breathing, and apparently his heartbeat was erratic. They're not sure yet what it is, but I'm not taking any chances. And I'm not sure exactly when I'll be back, because I'm not leaving until I know for sure that everything is okay."

      "Totally understandable," Andy says. "I would have done the same with my grandpa, so take as long as you need."

      "Absolutely!" Jake adds. "If you're not back by the time we're set to start recording again, we'll work on whatever we can do without you until you do get back."

      "Shit! I guess I should try to get ahold of Markie or somebody and see if she'll check my mail and stuff while I'm gone."

      "No can do, dude," CC interjects. "Don't you remember showing me that text she sent you about the concert cruise she was going on with Johnny?"

      I turn to look at Macy and Lylah, raising an eyebrow. They both nod, so I interrupt, telling him, "Ash, don't worry about that. We'll take care of it, if you're okay with us doing it."

      "Of course I am, I trust you," he says. "But I don't want to interfere with your plans."

      "Hell, there's no problem there," Macy chimes in. "We're in town, and our folks raised us to help people when they need it, so they'll totally understand. We can even take turns going over, if it comes to that."

      "Okay, if you're sure, I accept the offer. Thanks a lot, I owe you big time."

      We all gather around to give him hugs, then the guys help him carry his stuff to his car. They all talk for a couple of minutes, then he drives off, and the others come back inside. We all just look around the room at each other for a few seconds, not saying anything, until Alice murmurs, "Poor Ash, he doesn't need this to worry about, since he just lost his Gram last year."

      "Yeah, he was pretty torn up about that, he idolized his grandma," Jinxx adds. "I hope Mr. Purdy gets better soon, or I'm not sure how Ash will handle it."

      We sort of stand around awkwardly for a couple more minutes, then I go to the table and start dividing up the leftover desserts, so everyone can take some home, while Macy and Lylah take the gifts to my car. Everyone says their goodbyes, and we wish each other a happy holiday before heading to our vehicles and driving away. The earlier happy mood has completely evaporated, and no one has a clue how to bring it back, even if we were inclined to do so. Our friend has a problem that we can't help him with, which has put a dark cloud over everything.

      I just hope that it passes over, because I'm honestly not sure if Ash would be able to handle another storm of that kind.