Five Star Hotel

15. Merry Christmas

December ended up turning into one big snowy nightmare. Three days in a row the clouds dumped that cold wet stuff all over the city. As much as I didn't like it, it was a great excuse for getting out of plans that you didn't want to follow through with.

Mother had invited me to her house, but I was able to cancel thanks to the snow. I knew that it wouldn't just be the two of us, she'd be inviting the rest of my family and they would no doubt, all show up. Maybe it was childish- the fact that I was avoiding them, but I didn't really care. Life at the moment was better without them.

I hadn't seen much of Dante the week that followed our date night. I had work and assumed that he did too. We talked over the phone and he texted me, but that was it. I still felt like I needed to get him something, so one day after work I went to the mall with Jade and bought him a gift.

"Why are you getting him something if you barely know him?" She asked.

"I do know him. I think we're a thing now."

"You think?" Sometimes Jade could be annoying.

"Yes." I walked into another store, still not sure what I was looking for her.

"What is he like? Do you realize that you still haven't described him to me yet. I know he's Italian with a big–"

"Shhh!" We were in public. I didn't need all of these strangers listening into our conversation.

Jade just laughed. "Do you have a picture?"

"I'm not a stalker."

"That's not being a stalker. You yourself said that you guys are a thing, whatever that means. Besides haven't you already slept together like a thousand times?"

"Not a thousand."

She laughed as she held up a comically ugly Christmas sweater. "Not." So she held up another shirt. It was nice, but I couldn't picture him in it. "He likes batman." I said. I wasn't planning on getting anything batman related but that's the only thing I was sure he liked.

"Leave me to the shopping. Go get something for your mom and I'll pick something out for him."

I was a little hesitant about leaving her alone with my credit card but she managed to convince me. I roamed around the stores and ended up picking out a blouse with matching earrings for my mom. Mother was easy to shop for.

Somehow I ended up in a Brookstone, and after browsing around at the massage chairs and weird wine glasses I came across a really fancy looking coffee maker. A smile crept onto my lips as I remembered our conversation that morning at breakfast. Beside it lay hundreds of flavors of different types of blends. I wasn't a huge coffee drinker so I wasn't sure what tasted good and what didn't. I decided to get him a box that was a mixture of multiple different flavors so that he could decide what he liked.

I bought Jade a pair of shoes that she's been wanting and a bunch of lotions and perfumes from Victoria's Secret. I felt bad for her around the holidays. Her mother and father died in an accident when she was really young and her foster parents kind of sucked. Luke planned to go down to Jersey spend it with his family and although he invited her, she wasn't ready to meet his parents. Jade was terrified of the word commitment. I still wasn't sure how Luke managed to make their relationship monogamous.

We ended up meeting at the food court. "What did you get?" I asked.

"It's starting to rain so we'll share once we get back to the hotel." She looked like she was up to something. "It's cool if I stay over, right?"

"Yeah I have no plans." It was Christmas Eve. I was that person who saved all her shopping for the last minute.

"Not even with your Italian friend?"