Christmas Time Is Here: Academy Exclusives

Christmas Shopping Negotiations

“Are you all done with your shopping?” Owen asked Sang as she sat, curled up by the fire.

“I think so.” She sat up, smiling at him before patting the spot next to her on the sofa. “What I’d love though, is if my boyfriend sat down for a while.”

The corner of his lips tilted upward. “I would love that too, but this particular boyfriend of yours isn’t done with his shopping.”

“You’re not?” Sang blinked at him. “How is that possible? You’ve always been the earliest to be done.”

He sat down next to her and took her hand. “Oh, I’m done shopping for you, darling. Just not the other goofballs we call family.” He joked, leaning in and kissing her lightly.

“Whatever are we going to do about that?” she asked. “It’s getting very close to Christmas. There’s less than a week to go.”

“I know.” He nodded. “I have a rough idea of what to get them, but it does mean going out tonight. Would you like to go with me?”

“Hmm…” She tapped her finger on her lips. “What exactly is in it for me if I go Christmas shopping with you?”

“Oh, let’s see. A quiet dinner out, just the two of us, holding my hand as we walk through the mall to make sure I don’t get scared by Santa.” He thought for a moment. “Oh, also, there’s at least one peppermint hot chocolate in store for you and if you play your cards right, we’ll get ice cream.”

“What an amazing offer. I need to consider that.”

“Don’t think about it too long, if we wait too long to leave, Sean will come home and try to corner you under all the mistletoe he put up this year.” He warned.

“Oh, yes, well I suppose that if you’re saving me from the mistletoe monster then I could probably handle being your line of defense against mall Santa.” Sang said. “I mean, do you really have a reason to be afraid of him, my love? Surely you’re not on the naughty list.”

He shrugged. “I don’t like to hedge my bets. Sometimes I don’t know that he likes me much, so I just try to avoid running into him during the month of December.”

She laughed and leaned over, brushing her lips against his lightly. “One condition.”

“Oh?”

She ran her fingers down the tie he was wearing. “No ties, no suits… you need to wear a sweater, the gray cashmere is fine, but I’d be tickled if you would wear the holiday sweater from last year’s Christmas party.”

He winced. “The one with all the Christmas trees and lights on it?”

“and the red light up nose on the reindeer.” She said, raising an eyebrow at him. “Are you in?”

“And you still get dinner, hot cocoa and ice cream?” he asked.

“Hey now, you get my undivided attention for the entire evening.” She said. “And since this is our 5th Christmas season together, you know how difficult it’s been for anyone to get my undivided attention all evening.”

“That is very true. I believe Nathan suggested we install a ‘take a ticket’ and reader board like they have at the DMV to monitor our time with you.” Owen said.

“Yeah, that seems like a unique idea, but I really don’t want to stand on the stairs and yell out, now serving number 5…” She shook her head. “We will come up with a different idea. And tonight, is a great night for us to do this, we have cookies to bake with Jessica and Erica tomorrow and you know that will take almost all day by the time we chase Luke out of the chocolate chip cookie tin.”

Owen chuckled. “Very true. That’s still the cookie that turns him into a raging Cookie Monster.”

“Okay, you’ve sold me on the idea. Let’s go finish your shopping and have a date night.”

“Thank you, darling.” Owen said, reaching for her hand. “You should come up to my room and look for the sweater. I’m not at all sure where it is.”

She took his hand. “I can tell you where it is.” She said, smiling at him.

“But what’s the fun of that? Isn’t it much more fun to show not tell?” He asked, innocently.

“I suppose. But we’ll need to make sure we don’t stop on the stairs or we’ll never make it out of the house before Sean comes home. You know he put mistletoe above every third step this year.”

“Well, that’s an improvement. Last year it was every other step.” Owen said, dryly.

“I’m not even sure I want to ask where he’s getting so much mistletoe.” Sang sighed as they headed upstairs, making sure to take them at a continuous steady pace.

“I’ve never figured that out either.” He admitted, pulling her to a stop on the top step. “But I can’t just bypass all the mistletoe.” His eyes locked on hers.

“You can’t?”

“No.” He shook his head, turning her a bit more so that they were facing each other. “I love you too much to not take advantage of kisses via mistletoe.” He said, running a gentle hand down the side of her face before tilting her chin up slightly and kissing her soundly.

~Fade~