Kindred Spirits | Juan Toscano-Anderson

32 x Anything for You

With only a few days before Christmas, there were some things that Cynatra needed to get done. She needed to finish her tree, cook, clean and wrap presents, speaking of...

She sat on Juan's living room floor helping him wrap gifts for the team. "What made you get everyone a gift?"

"I don't know, I just felt like it."

Juan had been in a giving mood. He had set up a community outreach and with starting his foundation long ago, his new platform was able to go above and beyond for the people he cared for.

"Do you have everything for the JTA event? You need me to do anything?"

"Just show up on Christmas Eve morning and we're good. I think I got it." He sat next to her on the floor to finish wrapping. "You're coming over for Christmas Eve dinner right? You know it's tradition."

In many Hispanic households, Christmas Eve is celebrated in hierarchy to Christmas itself. The Toscanos kept that tradition alive.

"Nochebuena right?"

Juan smiled at the fact she remembered. "Yeah, say that again for me though."

"Nochebuena."

"Damn." Was all he could say. He didn't want to tell her that her Spanish had improved let alone the way she pronounced it, did something to him. He wanted to respect their boundaries.

"You're so strange, wrap these damn presents."

"I already got you your gifts, but is there anything else you would want?" He asked.

I wonder what he got she thought.

"Nothing I absolutely need but, maybe next year going to New York for a few days. Just for that east coast winter." She always wanted a real winter Christmas. Being from Oakland, she didn't see snow growing up and while living in Atlanta it was scarce.

"Why not this year?"

"Ronel, Christmas is in three days. I'm hosting Christmas at my house, your mom is hosting Christmas Eve. You have an event on Christmas Eve."

"But you'd really wanna go right?"

"If it were possible, I would."

And that's what Juan was going to make happen. After wrapping the final gift for the team, he took an hour to plan the next few days out.

Fly into New York tonight
Do a bunch of touristy shit: shopping, caroling, ice skating,
Fly back to Oakland on red-eye Christmas Eve.

Regularly scheduled programming.

"Hey, can you do me a favor?"

Cynatra looked up from her book to give him her full attention. "What's up?"

"Can you check your email for me? I wanna see if my email sent."

"Okay." Cynatra opened her laptop that sat beside her.

She looked through her email, "I don't see anything, which one did you send it to?"

"cmallen@round1.com"

"I should've figured that one." Cyn opened her email and say the subject line.

"Delta Airlines Flight Itinerary"

"Juan, you didn't." She looked at him and back at the email. "We're going to New York?" Her eyes danced with excitement.

Something about a man doing exactly what you wanted and needed, felt good.