Here at Last (15 page)

“Does your family do gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
”
I asked him.

“Christmas Eve. Well, it used to be that way. When my parents split up, everyone was left to make up their own traditions
,
"
he told me. “What about your family?"

“Christmas Day,
"
I said.

“Really?"

“Yeah.”

I smiled at him as we walked along the street
, my gloved hand in the crook of his elbow
. I
couldn't
get over the fact that
JT
and I were dating.
On the one hand, we’d had our first date only two nights ago. On the other, we had known one
another for a year-and-a-
half
so i
t wasn't like we were strangers. We were just
new
to
being together in this way
.

Of course, we’d have the long-
distance challenge to deal with, but I wasn't really worried about that. I just felt so…
happy
.

J
T
looked over at me
curiously
. "What are you thinking?"

I stopped and turned to look at him. “I’m just…” My sudden stop almost caused the person walking behind us to run into me, and JT pulled me forward
a few
steps
into the doorway of
a
closed cigar
shop
.

He was laughing.
“
Are you okay?"

"Yes," I
laughed
. "I'm just really happy."

He wrapped his arms around me,
drawing
me
to
him
and taking in a deep breath, his face in my hair
. “I'm happy, too." After a moment, he stepped back and took me by the hand. "Come on. There's something we need to do."

We walked down the street, and JT slowed down just in time to step into the doorway of a
jewelry store
. “I need to pick up one last gift,” he said. "I hope you don't mind."

I shook my head. "Not at all."

JT excused himself to talk with the proprietor. I absentmindedly wandered around the store
examining
the
display
cases.
A few minutes later,
I stopped and looked at
a delicate
antique
gold
choker with blue t
opaz
and tiny diamonds
.

JT walked up beside me. "That's
beautiful
," he said, looking over my shoulder. “Do you like blue topaz?"

I nodded. “
It’s
my birthstone."

“When's your birthday?"

"November 22
nd
.”

He smiled. “It doesn't surprise me that you were born
around
Thanksgiving."

I smiled back at him and continued to wander around the store while he
returned to the
proprietor
and
finished his business there. Then, we button
ed
our
coats up to our chins and walked back out into the cold.





That evening, at my apartment,
I made some popcorn for us, and we watched
Love
,
Actually
and
A
Charlie Brown
Christmas
. Neither of us was very hungry for dinner after the popcorn
,
and
we
finally
washed up and got ready for bed.

JT got in on one side of the bed, and I carried his gift behind my back into the bedroom. “What are you hiding?" he asked
, a
n inquisitive
smile on his face
.

I
grinned
and sat down on the bed beside him.
“It’s Christmas Eve, and
I know
that’s when you
r family
used to
open gifts.
Since
you’re not with
them
tonight
,
I wanted to give you your gift now.”

He looked surprised when
I handed him an envelope and a box
. Shaking his head, he said,
"You didn't have to get anything for me
.
”
Then, h
e kissed me tenderly on the lips before turning his attention to the card. When he
pulled the card from the envelope
, two things fell out on the bed.
He read the
front of the
card
before opening it and reading the inscription
. He
smiled and kissed me again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," I said
before pointing to the two things o
n his lap. "Don't forget those."
He reached down and picked
up
a piece of folded
paper.
As he opened it, I said, "I hope I'm not being too presumptuous."

It was a
refundable
round-trip
ticket
that would
fly
him from San Diego to Chicag
o and back. He looked at
me
in
amazement
. "I can't believe you did this
,” he said, reaching for my hand
.
“
No,
this isn’t
presumptuous at all.
It's perfect
." He kissed me
, again,
before reaching down and picking up the second item in his lap. He laughed. It was a gift card to the
Dragon Chef
restaurant that used to deliver to our office whenever we worked late.

I smiled at him. "I want to know
that
you’re eating."

He reached for me and kissed me
as
I slid one hand
behind
his neck.

"Don't forget – there's one more thing." I
told him
.

He shook his head. “This is more than enough.”
Then, he became
serious. "
You’re
more than enough. You really didn't have to….”

I put my finger to his lips. “Just open it. You'll
understand
why I had to get it for you
.”

When h
e opened the box
,
he
pulled aside the tissue paper to find an antique
brass
spyglass. The look on his face was priceless.
He
was like a little boy
who’d
just
received
the best
Christmas gift
in the world
. “Where did you get this?" he asked
,
grinning
broadly
.

“
At
an antique store here in Chicago. I knew
what
I was looking for, but it
wasn’t easy to
find."

He turned it over and felt the weight
of it
in his hands. “
Broadhurst, Clarkson & Co
," he said quietly.

"It was supposed to be
one of
the best spyglass
es
made
at
the time."

He nodded
enthusiastically. "Yeah, it wa
s
.” He looked at me
and said,
“Thank you
.
” S
omething shifted in his eyes
, and
h
e set the spyglass and his card on the table beside the bed.
“Come here,” he said quietly.

I moved
a little
closer as
he reached over
and
switched
off the light
on the bedside table
before
turning his attention to me
.
He
slid one hand across my back and pulled me toward him,
and I hiked up my
short
nightgown and sat on his lap facing him. I
unfastened
the tie
on his bathrobe
, and it fell open
.
He closed his eyes and put his face against my neck.

It didn't take much to reposition myself so that I was directly over him, and I
gingerly
lower
ed
myself
down onto him while he
moved his hands
all
over my body
.
As he kissed my neck and breasts, I began moving in a slow and deliberate fashion while his breathing became increasingly
uneven
.

Wrapping
one arm around me
, he
lifted me off of him and
rolled over until I was on my back in the middle of the bed.
As he lay over me, he kissed me deeply before
easing
himself
into
me
gently
.
Then, h
e moved quickly, feeling
wilder and less
inhibited than he had the first time
we’d made love.
He looked into me the entire time, maintaining eye contact until he finally
he
cried out
.
When h
e
pulled himself out of me
, he
lay down beside me and
wrapped
both
arm
s
around
me
.
Then, h
e held
me as close
ly
as he could
, our
bodies pressed
together
with
his
face
buried
in my neck
.
H
is heart continue
d
to
pound
against my
shoulder
.

I
slid
my
arm beneath his neck and
rolled onto my side to face him, wrapping
my other arm over him
.
“Are you okay?" I asked him
softly
. “JT?"

He lay quietly beside me.
As his heart slowed, he rolled over onto his back and pulled the blanket up to cover both of us. I watched him for a moment. He lay looking at the ceiling,
and
a
tear
r
an
out of the corner of his eye
.

“Do you want to talk about it?" I asked
,
stroking his
chest
with one hand
.

“No,” he said. “Not tonight.”





Sometime around midnight, I awoke alone. My bedroom door was closed, but
I could see
the living room light beneath it
.
When
I got up and
left
the bedroom
,
I
found JT sitting at the dining room table
with
a glass of water.
He smiled a little as I walked over to
him
,
reaching
out his arm and
slid
ing
it
around my waist
while I
rested my
arm
across
his shoulders.

“Hey," I said softly.

“Hey,” he said
, looking up at me
.

“JT – did I do something wrong?"

He shook his head. "N
o
."

“Do y
ou want to talk about what happened?"

He nodded and
reached around the table
to pull a
nother
chair out for me. “Here
,” he said
.
“
Sit down." He took another sip from his
glass
and stared
down
for a moment
before
looking at
me
. "I was married once
a
long time ago. Lucinda
was
from Spain, and
we got
married a few years out of college.
I was crazy about her.
She left after
nine
years
because
she didn’t love me anymore
.
”
H
e looked at his water glass.
“It was excruciating.”