"It's not happening, what i am suppose to do now" Claire sighed banging her palms slightly on the platform.

Claire and her grandmother were preparing dough for cookies. She volunteered to make dough while grandmother was melting chocolate to garnish the cookie with. Whole platform was covered with flour, cocoa powder, bowls and other boxes of ingredients.

"Move i will do it" her grandmother pushed her aside with her waist as she takes Claire's place. "You go melt chocolates and separate egg whites from yolk, also get butter from fridge" saying this she starts preparing dough.

Claire picks up a slotted spoon with openings that was not wide enough for an egg yolk to slip through, and held the spoon over a bowl. She Cracks an egg over the spoon, letting the whites slip through the slots in the spoon, she gently shakes the spoon to help any remaining whites separate from the yolks and slide into the bowl.

She repeats same process for three more eggs, she was on half way to fourth one when door bell rang. "I will get it" she quickly wipes hands on her apron before rushing to the door to open it.

She swings the door open to reveal Arthur standing there with his hand in his trouser's pockets and a goofy smile stretched accross his face."Hey buttercup Merry Christmas!" He pulled her cheeks before engulfing her in a hug.

She hugs him back and that's when she notices Ayden standing at the back smiling politely at her. "Hey Ayden" she says as she detached herself from Arthur.

"Oh yeah he was here I forgot" Arthur scratches the back of his neck to which Claire lightly hits his hand.

"Merry Christmas Claire" Ayden says.

"Merry Christmas, come on get in both of you" she smiles and closes the door behind her once they all got in.

"Woah! What are you making" Arthur asked as he raise his nose in air to sniff "I smell sweets" he says dreamily closing his eyes to focus better on what it is.

"Cookies!" He immediately opened his eyes and exclaimed.

Claire and Ayden both broke into fits of laughter "He can smell cookies from far" Ayden says, "I know" Claire replies while shaking her head at her bestfriend.

"Okay did earthquake struck this place?" Arthur voiced out, eyes as big as soccer.

Claire groaned "Who enters kitchen as soon as they arrive at someone's home" well it wasn't a surprise for her, Arthur always walk around in her house as if he owns this place but she said that because she didn't want him to insult her again on her cooking skills.

"Well what else could you expect when your friend was in kitchen it was bound to happen" Her grandmother replied eyeing the messy platform.

"Hey sexy! Merry Christmas" Arthur grinned and drawled his words.

"You won't stop calling me that will you" Claire's Grandmother shakes her head.

"Seriously? Come on Claire tell me if i am lying, Isn't she sexy" He asked Claire as he walks towards the melted chocolate and scooped a little on his finger tip before tasting it. Claire's grandmother swatted his hand away and glared at him.

"Ofcourse you ain't lying" Claire giggled at his face reaction when grandma swatted his hand away from chocolate. He looked like a kid whose parents just said no for buying McDonald's meal since they have food at home.

"Kids these days" grandma muttered and walked towards Ayden smiling politely. "I like this kid, he is so polite".

"Yeah and we like eachother" Arthur propped his hand on Claire's shoulder and looked at her. "Right Claire, we like eachother we don't need anyone else to like us, we know our worth" he examined his nails and blew air on them, smirking at Ayden and Grandmother to which Ayden rolled his eyes.

"But I love Ayden" He whispered in her ear, Claire pinched his hand.

"Owie! Violent woman" he rubbed the spot where she pinched to sooth pain, he quickly rushed towards Ayden and Grandmother. "You are right grandma i don't like her either, she is so Violent" he scrunched his nose and frowned his eye brows.

Claire scowled at him "what a switch you are, you know what Ayden be aware of him, he can even trade you for cookies"

"Hey! That was a secret you don't have to tell him" he whined as he kept his hand on his chest pretending to be hurt.

Ayden's blue eyes shot icy glare towards Arthur.

"Ofcourse not boo bear, I wouldn't trade you for anything" he smiled cheekily, he went towards Claire and grabbed her by her hand before pulling her aside "What are you doing, you are running my chance I have to propose him today don't you know" he whispered as he looked back at Grandma and Ayden trying to listen what he was talking to Claire with narrowed eyes.

As soon as they saw him looking at them, they both turned there head to other side as if they weren't attempting to listen their conversation.

"Yeah let's go, Arthur and Ayden come on have a seat" Claire cleared her throat in attempt to divert the topic.

"Yes yes let's go" Arthur pulled Ayden towards the setting area.

Claire got coffee with some cookies and served each one of them except Arthur. She kept the tray on table and sat next to grandma.

"Hey you didn't give me" Arthur asked frowning.

"You can take it on your own" she retorts. Arthur pouts and picked up a cookie for himself.

"Well we are here to invite you over for dinner tonight at my residence" Arthur begins after munching his cookies.

"Sure we will be there" grandma smiled.

"Mr and Mrs. Evans will be there as well right?" Claire asked.

"Yes mom and dad are invited as well"

"Okay we will be there" Claire smiled.

"Well then we must get going now, i have to prepare for meal as well" Arthur spokes getting up from the couch straightening his trousers towards it's ankle.

"You are going to cook!" Claire exclaimed. Arthur was a really good cook, he knows how the magic of spices work and how to make food more delicious.

"Yes buttercup" he smiled proudly. "Okay bye, be there on time girls". Saying this he walked towards the door with Ayden.

Claire quickly whispered "best of luck" in his left ear with a thumbs up to which he nodded and left.

~~●●~~

"Claire we getting late" Grandma walks in Claire's room seeing her straightening her hair.

"Just a moment grandma I will be right there" she says as she put the straightener on the table and gave herself a last look before switching off the straightener. "Okay let's go" she grabbed her car keys and headed out with grandma.

They reached Arthur's home, Claire rang the door bell and waited for few seconds. She could hear some shuffling behind the door then a thud and an "owie" before Arthur opened the door.

"Hey!" He says as he hopped on his left foot holding the right foot's toes rubbing them with a hiss. "Come on get in".

"Nervous?" She asked as they walked in.

"Hell yeah" Arthur says.

"Should be" Claire smiled back at him and Arthur glared her.

Meanwhile Ayden entered the hall with a spatula in his hand. "Uh Arthur what should be the color of chicken ones it's roasted?" He asked looking anywhere but Arthur.

"Golden brown, why?" Arthur asked narrowing his eyes.

"Uhun is dark brown okay? More like black" Ayden shifted on his place. "Well i think i have burnt it" he pressed his lips in a thin line.

"You WHAT?" Arthur quickly ran into the kitchen "AYDEN!!!".

Claire, grandma, Mr and Mrs Evans, Arthur and Ayden were now sitting at the dinning table having dinner with light conversation here and there.

"Ahem well I need attention of you all" Arthur stood up clearing his throat and fixing his Jacket's lapels.

"As you all are well aware of me and Ayden, we both have been dating for past eight months knowing eachothers likes and Dislikes, past and planning future" he says eyeing Ayden who looked confused.

Taking a deep breath Arthur continued "And I would love to append Ayden as a part of my future, yes I love him and want to live with him" he takes a long pause before saying "Ayden will you like to be my better half? I promised to love you with everything I have" he says as he took out a ring from his trouser's pocket and held it infront of him.

All this while Mr. And Mrs. Evans had smile on their faces while grandma looked both of them in amusement she always wanted them to be together and Claire had smile with some unshed tears seeing her bestfriend finally living his life.

"Yes I would love to Arthur" Ayden gushed smiling uncontrollably, his cheeks red.

Arthur quickly slipped ring on his ring figure before engulfing Ayden in a bone crushing hug, everyone cheered and blessed the new couple. After few more conversations Claire and grandma decided to leave for home.

"We will be heading home now thank you so much for inviting us and once again congratulations!" She says hugging both of them before leaving.

Reaching home they both took their shoes off and put them on the shoe rack.

"They are so adorable together no" Grandma gushed.

"Indeed" Claire smiled, they both walked towards the fire place and sat on the couch.

"Now Christmas gift" grandma picked up a packet wrapped in red color gift wrap and handed it to Claire.
"Here open it".

Claire ripped open the wrapper and gasped she picked up the sweater it was beautiful with vibrant colors, she remembered the colors she looked at her grandma and found her smiling back at her.

"Did you like it?" She asked even though knowing the answer.

"Ofcourse I liked it, you made it" Claire said remembering the knitting her grandmother was doing the other day.

"I am glad you liked it, now get married soon so that I can knit some for my great grand children" she chuckled and Claire rolled her eyes.

"Not anytime soon Grandma you need to chill, I am not leaving you that soon" Claire replied putting her hand on grandma's shoulder.

"You better find someone soon because I am not sure for how long will I survive but I want to see you happily settled before I die" grandma says.

"It's not like I am going to search for someone, if we are meant to be together we will automatically find our way to meet our soul mates, and I can't settle with someone you know who can't match my vibes I want love but most importantly I want to be loved as well and I guess it's going to take time to find sucha person. I dare you to talk about death now" she glared at her grandmother.

"Now your gift" she giggles walking towards her room. She came back with a packet in her hand wrapped in dark blue wrapping paper.

"Here open it" she gave the packet to grandma.

Grandma removed the wrapping paper and took out the frame, it was a photo frame which had their family photo Claire, her mom and dad, grandma and grandfather.

The picture was clicked a month before her grandfather passed away. Claire was small sitting on her grandfather's lap with grandma on her left side and dad and mom standing behind them. They all had smile on their faces as baby Claire gazed up at her grandpa and held his finger trying to put it in her mouth.

Grandma tenderly ran her hand on the photo frame, her eyes held tears as she remembered that time. A smile broke on her lips when she looked at Claire and hugged her "Thank you".

Claire found that photo tugged in the closet under clothes of her grandmother when she was cleaning the room, she took it out it was the first time she saw that picture and immediately presumed it might be close to grandma since she tugged it very carefully.

So she got the size of photo increased because it was small of album size but she needed a big picture for frame.

She got it done and secretly brought it back home to gift it to grandma. Here after seeing her reaction she was satisfied indeed it was a great idea to gift her that frame.

Claire hugged her grandma whispering "Merry Christmas".

Grandma broke the hug smiling and walked towards the empty wall which had no pictures or poster or anything, there was a nail on the wall and she hung the photo frame there in the middle on the wall.

She walked back and gazed towards the picture smiling. Claire walked towards her grandma and hugged her from behind placing her chin on her grandmother's left shoulder she looked up at photo. The photo of their complete family a sudden warmth filled her chest seeing it, she wished they were here, nonetheless she smiled.

After sometime they both retired for the night, both in their own world of thoughts.