"Clementine!" Everett shouted through the phone.
"Um, hi." I rolled out of bed, rubbing sleep off my eyes. Glancing at the screen I saw it was only seven-thirty. "Why are you awake so early?"
"I'm outside your house!"
The bell rang simultaneously as he said it. I could also hear him smacking it through the phone. I smiled, imagining him jumping up and down as he did so.
"Oh! I'm coming!" I ran down the stairs. "Give me a minute, uh—"
Stuffing my feet into a pair of sneakers, I opened the door. "Hi."
Everett beamed back at me. "Surprise!"
His eyes were dewy in the gentle morning light. Birds sang somewhere up above, their lilting melodies carrying in the wind. Or perhaps that was just the song that played in my mind whenever I stared at him for a little too long.
"It's a lovely surprise." I leaned in to kiss him, wrapping an arm around his waist.
"I don't mean me," he exclaimed, grinning.
Everett stepped back till I saw his dad's car in the driveway. Mr Jones waved as me as he got down from the drivers seat and went towards the back.
"Er. Do you mean your dad?"
"No!" Everett burst into giggles, dragging me by the hand. We rounded the car to see his dad unloading several boxes.
"Good morning! We have an early Christmas present here for you." He winked.
"Huh?" I blinked in confusion, still half asleep.
Neither of them let me help as they dragged all the nondescript cardboard boxes into the house. It made a large pile in wthe living room, towering over the sofa.
"Wha- what's all this?" I tried asking again, peering at the boxes.
Mr. Jones ignored my question, instead clapping me on the back. "I didn't get a chance to congratulate you the other day, Clementine. The workshop was fantastic! It went really well."
I flushed slightly. "Thank you."
"Best of luck! Though I heard you got a lot of sign-ups already so I'm sure it'll go great." He glanced at Everett. "Well, I should get going. Don't be too late coming home, I think it might rain tonight."
"Yes, the sky looks bad," I agreed as I opened the front door, peering up.
"The sky always looks bad." Everett hopped impatiently on his toes. "Open it!" he exclaimed as soon as his dad left.
I peeled the tape off the first cardboard box and opened it to find a bunch of green brush. "Is that a...." I pulled out the branch of a Christmas tree.
"Christmas tree!" Everett burst out before I could say it. "And I brought some decorations and stuff too."
"Wha- I—" I was speechless. "Why?"
He pouted. "You said you didn't put up deco anymore. I just thought it would be nice to."
"But you brought a whole tree." I gawped at him and then at the large pile of boxes. "You didn't have to do that."
"I wanted to," he insisted. "It's your Christmas present. Anyway, it's only a small tree," he lifted his hand up to his cheekbone, parallel to the ground to show it's height, "and it's not real so you can use it every year."
"Um...thank you." My voice sounds choked up, oddly strangled as it comes out. It's been years since I had celebrated Christmas. And it seemed that Everett had brought Christmas to my doorstep.
"Oh wait." He ripped open the side of another box, not bothering to peel off the tape. A rush of garlands fell through the hole. Glittery balls bounced along the floor and promptly rolled under tables.
Everett lifted the box and shook it to help everything spill out faster. A candle in a glass jar fell out but was luckily cradled in the mess of garlands so it didn't shatter. He thrust his hand in impatiently and yanked out something from the bottom of the box.
"There they are," he said, handing me one. It was a pair of reindeer antlers. "You have to wear this for the rest of the day."
"I won't take it off," I promised, albeit a little faintly as I gazed at the mess he had created on my living room floor.
Everett put on the antlers and beamed. He looked adorable with the little brown ears sticking out of the side of his head and the sparkly antlers that grew through his messy curls. I pulled mine on too and he suddenly pinched my nose.
"Ow!"
"Now you're Rudolph the red nosed reindeer."
"Everett!" I tussled with him trying to reach his nose, but he was too squirmy. We fell onto another box and it broke down the middle, spilling sparkling tinsel around us. Everett was momentarily distracted by the shiny plastic and I took the opportunity to wrestle him to the ground.
"Don't!" He exclaimed, wriggling his hands free to cover his nose and mouth.
"I won't pull it very hard," I teased as I pried his fingers off.
"We have to start decorating, there's lots to do," he insisted, as if he had ever once paid heed to time. "You have to assemble this whole tree."
I leaned down to catch his lips in mine for a sweet, fleeting moment. "I have to assemble it myself?"
"No I'll help! Like, a little—I'll help a little with the decorating...after you finish the assembly—" Everett started giggling at the look on my face, unable to finish his audacious sentence.
"Hm?" I slipped my hands in his shirt, brushing my fingers lightly to make him laugh harder. "What did you say?"
"No! Nothing. Just that," he laughed sharply as my hands danced over a particularly ticklish spot, "you can probably finish faster without my help."
I kissed him hard, his mouth still open from laughing. It muffled his chuckles against my lips in sweet vibrations.
I pulled back, and taking on a joking tone asked, "So, your Christmas present to me is more work?"