Window displays, wreaths on doors, trees being hauled off, goodwill carolers. My eyes twinkled with the Christmas lights. Huntswood could never measure up to how festive and beautiful the city was. As far as I knew Santa put me in the good girl list because Jenna found me a job. I'd be able to have enough to buy small Christmas gifts if I did away with my pride to hold on to this job.

"Well, well, well if it isn't my favorite working elf." James came strolling in to the store with his guy friends.

"Hi my name is Emmy, I'm elfing happy to help you, what would you like this Christmas?" I said our greeting professionally yet not friendly.

"Do I get to sit on your lap to make my wish or how does this work?" One of his guy friends leaned in to ask me.

"And yet the lack of content still amazes me." I sighed and James caught on to the comment.

"Sorry but he's a lost cause." James apologized.

"Can I interest you in our polar coffee?" I offered the special.

"Um... No for me. Anyone want coffee?" He asked them and they all shook their heads. "Right. So hot chocolate with marshmallows and snap ginger cookies all around. Lactose free for my buddy Killian, it's how he keeps his face mildly pretty." He ordered.

"Mildly indeed." I mumbled.

"What did she say?" One of them asked.

"So 4 orders one lactose free?" I asked.

"Yep, that covers it."

"It'll be out in less than 10 minutes. Thank you for your order and Merry Christmas."

"No Happy Holidays?" He asked me with his amused little smile.

"What?"

"Thanks for the help." He tipped me $200 bucks and as soon as I opened my mouth another customer walked up to me.

"Excuse me I'll be right back, just a minute" I said to the customer.

"No! I don't have a minute to spare! I'm running late to a very important meeting and I swear I'm going to kill at least half my team because they're all useless! Just incredibly useless. What are they even getting paid to do at this point?" The customer began to yell at me.

"Never mind. It's fine," I smiled politely because I didn't want to get fired from this job. The tips were good especially with the holidays. But James wasn't looking at me in order for me to tell him he shouldn't have done that.

I didn't need his charity. Not after what happened between us. I didn't want him to feel like I needed to be adopted by him because of my lack of money. I wanted to stand by my principle. Yet his order came out all too quickly so I didn't get the chance to give him back his money.

At the end of my shift I clocked out putting away the elf hat, the apron, and I got to take some leftover cookies home. It was a nice gig, I even took some hot tea for the way back in the dead of cold to my dorm. But tonight I made a different way back and stopped in front of James' house.

Money and scarf in hand. We hadn't talked since the almost kiss. Almost a month without as much as a peep. I was about to head back to Huntswood and didn't want to wait till after the break to do this. I walked up the steps and rang his doorbell.

"Okay now who else did you guys call?" He opened the door shouting back to his friends and when he saw me he got quiet.

"Hey sorry for showing up but..."

"We don't have each other's numbers..."

"Yes."

"It's cold, come in."

"It's okay. Here you go." I handed the scarf and the money. "Thank you and Merry Christmas."

James accepted the thing and when he didn't say anything I climbed down the steps without hearing anything from him. Weirdly I thought of turning around to see his expression. I was curious to see what was going on in his mind. But I heard nothing until I reached the last step.

"Message received!" He slammed the door and I sighed from making him mad.

Although I didn't expect this to go well I didn't quite understand what he meant by message received. Why did I always feel like I was in the wrong with him? But did it matter? I wanted distance between us so good for me. All of my wishes were coming true.

*

Soon I was packing my bags for Huntswood. Sam, Jenna, and I were on the phone going through our lists of presents simultaneously while talking about what he had bought for each person. I was pretty proud of my ingenuity with the amount of money I had.

"My mom will be so proud of me for hunting this down. This was her dream bag when she was a little girl." Jenna bragged about her mom's gift which was a vintage designer bag she had spent months looking for. "Also where's that ringer coming from?"

"Not me," I said.

"Me either," Sam replied.

"Ugh where did I put my phone? I'm already on my third one. My mom will kill me if I lose this one too." Jenna said.

"No don't mess up the piles," Sam told Jenna.

"Sorry," Jenna said and I giggled. "Found it!" She screamed. "Yes?" She answered the phone and went away.

"So your grandma won't be spending Christmas with your parents?"

"Well she doesn't want to go and leave me but I hope I can convince her to at least spend the 25th with them. I don't wanna keep her from going over to mom's. And that's where everyone usually spends it. What about you? Have you decided if you'll stop by your mom's?"

"I'm going to try to run into them casually before and see how things are. If they invite me then I'll go. I know it'll be uncomfortable either way but at least we'll be together and then maybe someday it won't be as bad as it is now."

"I'm sure it won't be. It's just you were too perfect I'm sure they're having a hard time with all the growth you're growing through. I don't think they ever calculated what raising you to be this dream daughter would entail."

"Your high opinion of me never stops me from being flattered." She chuckled.

"You're welcome."

"Ugh when did our picture perfect families turn into such a mess?" She joked and I chuckled this time.

"Is Ems still there?" Jenna's voice came back through the phone loudly.

"I'm here," I replied.

"Um I have news. And I'm not sure it'd qualify as good news."

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Yeah what is it?" I asked as well.

"Okay so I got some news about Huntswood."

"Did someone die?" Sam asked.

"No! No. Why would you think that?" Jenna complained.

"Then what is it?" I asked waiting for the news.

"Well Adam is back in Huntswood."

"Back?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah he's there as we speak." Jenna assured us and I turned around too quickly only to bump into my roommates flower pot and watched as it fell on the floor.

"He's going to be there for the holidays," Jenna explained.

"Em?" My roommate ran to me from the bathroom.

"Oh sorry... I'm so sorry," I bent down to get the pot.

"Don't pick it up it broke and it's a cactus!" She yelled at me before I touched anything.

"Ems are you okay?!" Sam shouted on the line.

"Sorry. Yes. Sorry."

"What happened?" Jenna asked.

"Um I..." I blinked trying to come up with the words. "I just turned and uh..."

"I'll vacuum around you before you hurt yourself. So stay still." My roommate talked as if I couldn't understand her but I nodded at her.

"What did you say?" Sam asked.

"Ems?" Jenna asked.

"Um yes," I nodded.

I'd forgotten about him at the pizzeria and had brushed it off as a mistaken identity moment. But Adam going back to Huntswood of all the places he could be, why? Why would he do this? Christmas back home was already going to be bittersweet but now it was just bitter.

What if I didn't go back at all? It'd be a waste of a ticket but I could send the presents back through Jenna. But when would I be able to see grandma, Jeremy, Jackie, again? Next year? I was already a bit homesick could I stand it until Spring break? Why did he have to do this to me? What was there for him to come back to? This was my hometown not his. Wasn't it enough I avoided going back or near the pizza place so I wouldn't bump into him? Why did he close in on me like this? And why was it so cold outside? I put up my collar to get away from it now that I didn't have James' scarf to protect my face from the cutting wintry wind. Good for me, so good it hurt.

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No part, character, names, plot, setting, conflict or resolution, point of view, theme or symbolism of this story may be replicated.

Copyright: All Rights Reserved to A. Sena Gomes.