Mistletoe

December 16th

Tuesday December 16th

11.35am

There was an evident skip in my step as I walked through the rows of flowers.

I'd turned in my exam paper three hours early, and as a thank you to my mother for dealing with my freak out late last night when I thought my entire high school education was going to go down the drain - of course today I too could agree with her that the meltdown might have had something to do with too little sleep - I was now hunting down flowers to give her as a gift.

I was opting for a bouquet of roses, but I still strolled through the rows of different flowers that I knew nothing about to see if anything else came up. When I came to a tray that was crowded with red and green flowers I stopped to get a closer look at the vibrant red color.

Leaning in I inhaled and was surprised to discover that it smelled amazing. The scent was soft but potent, but not at all empowering. Curious I tried to find a label that held information on the plant.

"It's a poinsettia," a female voice clarified. I turned to find a smiling woman with curly blonde hair, and a name tag that stated she worked her and that her name was Natalie.

"I've never heard of it," I admitted, but then again I knew nothing about flowers so it was of no surprise.

"It's in season now, it's also nicknamed the "Christmas Star", as the red and green colors are very representative."

"They smell amazing," I told her and brushed a finger across the vibrant leaves.

"We have some that are sprinkled with glitter as well if you're interested."

I grinned, "Seriously?"

Natalie nodded and gestured for me to follow her. She eventually stopped in the last row of flowers before the check out point and before me were the same red and green poinsettias, except these ones were shining due to a sprinkle of glitter.

I murmured a thank you and she went off to help somebody else. After some thought I decided to get one glittering poinsettia for myself and a set of white roses for mom.

At home I arranged the flowers in a vase and put the arrangement on the kitchen counter with a small card resting against the vase for mom to find when she came home. The poinsettia went in a flowerpot I found amongst mom's various vases in the cupboard, and I put the plant on my nightstand, smiling at the vibrant creation.

03.47pm

Even though my shift was only three hours, it had flown by. My good mood was coming off of me in waves and Emma caught me whistling a few times. When we'd had a few moments to take a breather she'd proceeded to interrogate me on the reason behind my state, I had not been reluctant to give away the details.

I wasn't sure if it was my mood or not, but the customers had seemed uncharacteristically amazing today. There hadn't been a single negative comment, or anyone being difficult, which was practically unheard of as people took their coffee to the point of seriousness that it just became ridiculous.

But today there had been none of those people, and that only made my mood that much better, not to mention I'd be seeing Parker for the first time since Sunday in just a few minutes.

When there was only five minutes until my shift ended I steamed us two lattes as there was no line of people waiting to order that I needed to be considerate about. I put aside the takeaway cups before going to change, humming quietly to myself.

"I wish you were contagious," Emma said as I came back out, shaking her head in amusement. "I could do well with a dose of that joy."

I gave an exaggerated shrug, tilting my head while smiling, "Nothing I can do about that, sorry."

She whipped my leg with the dishtowel, laughing, "Get out of here, you."

"Going!" I grabbed the two coffees and wished her a great day with a sing-song voice, and went outside to sit and wait for Parker. Sitting on a bench outside my ankle began bobbing around to the beat of a song I was humming. I tugged my scarf tighter around my neck, making sure there were no gaps for the chilly air to seep through.

I stopped mid hum as two arms sneaked around my shoulders and a pair of lips came down at the top of my head. "Hello," Parker murmured.

My greeting, however, wasn't nearly as composed. All the feelings I'd grown accustomed to since Sunday rushed to the surface and with them I stood up and threw myself around him in response.

Leaning back enough to look into his smiling face I said, "Hey yourself." And then I closed the space between us and kissed him. There wasn't even a shred of doubt inside of me that wondered if this was okay since I hadn't seen him in two days, because with feelings like these there was no way that this was one sided. If he felt all these things at the same magnitude remained a mystery, but I knew for a fact that Parker and I had something together. I would've known even if he hadn't confirmed such a thing himself.

Parker hugged me tighter for a fraction of a second before releasing me. "Well this reunion was better than I could've imagined," he confessed.

"You plucked the words right out of my head. Coffee?" I picked up the cups from the bench and offered him one, which he took gladly.

We walked hand in hand through town as he listened to me talk about my English exam, mostly because he'd asked how it'd gone, but when I got to my breakdown he looked thoroughly shocked.

I waved a dismissive hand at him, "Don't worry about it. My head's an intense one. Pair little sleep with stress and I'm a goner. I'm completely fine now." My face must've convinced him because he just shook his head like he didn't know what else to do.

04.37pm

If it hadn't been for the cold weather we would've sat together in the park, but instead we'd ended up at a café in the mall. The place was fittingly called Retro and it was like we'd gone back in time fifty years, it had a really nice vibe to it. On our way there we'd stopped by Build-a-Bear and I'd picked up the stuffed Toothless I'd completely forgotten about for Penny.

"So, what did you do?" I asked Parker as I sipped on my strawberry milkshake. I was going to be so high on sugar and caffeine by the I got home, no doubt about it.

"I went to the town's homeless shelter yesterday for the most part."

For a moment I just stared and felt the sensation of my heart throbbing as another puzzle piece that was Parker revealed itself.

"I'm going back on Friday with some baked goods," he continued, not noticing my silent reaction.

My eyes began pricking and I held back the overwhelming feeling that was ready to eat me alive. "You are?"

"Yeah. My family has a tradition of bringing presents, but I thought I'd do something else while I'm here. Will probably spend most of Thursday baking, so that it's all relatively fresh when I bring them over."

"Can I help?" I didn't process the request in my mind before it was out of my mind, I was just consumed with the need to contribute as well.

Parker smiled at me, he seemed to be a little surprised as well. "Of course you can, there's nothing I'd love more."

"We can bake at my house if you want," I told him. "My parents are at work during the day and my sister still has school."

"Sounds like a brilliant plan," he answered and snaked his hand across the table, intertwining his fingers with mine. It amazed me how well his fingers fit in between the empty spaces of my own; a perfect match. Like my hands were finally complete, the empty spaces of air filled at last. My frail hand completing his as well. With him I felt complete.