The Winter tale of the curious Amber Perking

Part three

Only a couple of minutes later they were all seated around the dining table, for the second time that night. Everybody dug in greedily, each of them succumbing to the silky soft texture of the cake. It was an exquisite composition. The texture was moist yet not squishy. It was light and had just the right amount of sweetness to it. Needless to say, it was perfect.
Amber actually had to suppress a moan, that's how good it was.

All of them praised Aden for his skills and the idea to make such an exquisite cake. He positively started glowing with pride. Amber almost caught herself thinking that the crinkles around his eyes, when he smiled so contently were beautiful.
Quickly she averted her eyes and sipped at the glass of wine which she had continued to empty over the course of the night. She pinched herself. Don't be ridiculous.

It seemed like mere seconds when the cake in front of them had turned to crumbs, the whole party feeling like having eaten a whole pig.
Breathing out slowly Catherine started, "Wow that was amazing, we'll have to do something like that again."

"Absolutely." Amber was surprised when she noticed that she herself had said that.
Normally, she didn't do things like that, but somehow she had found herself enjoying the evening more than usually.
She felt daring.

As Bryan scrambled up from his chair, collecting some dishes with one hand, he looked at them with a smile,
"I know this is a wiered preposition, but I thought we could celebrate Christmas together this year. Susanne and I talked about it just this afternoon."

Quickly his wife added, "Its just an idea of course, we still have time so no pressure."

Catherine's mouth only morphed into a soft, thoughtful smile as she looked at her daughter carefully, "Maybe, we'll see, won't we?"

Yes, we'll see, Amber thought.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~*

The rest of the evening was spent with unrestrained laughing and careless chatter about God and the world. It was a joyous atmosphere in the room, everybody hanging in their own minds, entangled with their thoughts, yet not in a bad sense.
They were all quite content. Even Amber, who had settled on the couch sometime after finishing her dessert.
In her hands she clasped a mug filled with hot chocolate, the vapor rising up into her nostrils, filling her up with a cinnamony aroma, an aroma that smelled like Christmas, like happiness.
The hot beverage had been made by Aden, pressed into her hands with a coy smile, only a quick thank you and a you're welcome exchanged between them.

She had gotten the book from the library upstairs and was fully entangled in an anthracite colored blanket, which was so big that it seemed to swallow her up. She looked like a human burrito.
Cosima had briefly sat down next to her, creeping a look into the book lying in her lap, but after discovering that it had no pictures she had stood up again to continue building her fortress behind the sofa.
It basically looked like a mountain of blankets with a child's head peeking out at times.
Inside -Amber had been granted only a fleeting look- was a maze made out of cushions and stacks of children's books, scattered as if by a hurricane.

Bryan had taken the old gramophone player to the living room and had carefully set it up on a stool in front of the big window front.
Smiling bash fully he had put on the song from when he and his wife had first met on a holiday in Kuba, years ago.

Susanne, immediately noticing the familiar melody, smiled flirtatiously, while exaggeratedly batting her eyelashes at him.
He chuckled and carefully took her hands in his. They started swinging to the music, the rhythmic salsa music leading them ahead.