Wait Another Day (Ender Inciarte)

8

It had been a few days since Remi and Ender's talk in the hot tub, and things had been great between the two of them. Remi spent most of the mornings trying to work on her book while Ender took Chance on long walks around the cabin and surrounding lake. They usually snuggled up on the couch together in the afternoons and evenings to watch a movie or read a book. It became a comfortable routine with no expectations, which was the best thing Ender knew he could do for Remi.

"Good morning," Ender woke Remi up one morning with a kiss on the back of her neck, snuggling up for a few minutes before they both got their days started. Remi had padded into the room where Ender was sleeping the first night the power was back on and held her hand out to him, motioning him to come lay with her.

"Are you sure?" Ender had asked, not wanting to push any boundaries now that she had opened up to him about her awful past. It broke his heart into pieces knowing what she had gone through, and he was determined to show her that it did not have to be that way. They had slept in the same bed every night since then, sharing sweet kisses and cuddles, but not going any further.

"Good morning," Remi stretched, accidentally bumping Chance with her feet. That woke him up and he bounced off the bed and ran to wait at the door for Ender.

"Let me go walk him, but get up and get dressed. I have an adventure for us to go on today." Ender patted Remi's hip under the cover, motioning for her to go ahead and get up, before throwing on a sweatshirt and boots and going outside with Chance.

Remi wondered what kind of adventure he could possibly have planned, stranded in the woods? She got up and got ready, throwing on some jeans, boots and a flannel. It was one of the few outfits she had packed that was appropriate for traipsing around in the snow.

Once Ender had walked Chance, he grabbed a saw from the pile of tools left by the owners and grabbed Remi's hand, pulling her towards the gathering of trees on the other side of the lake.

"Where are we going?" she asked, giggling at the boyish look on his face. His cheeks were rosy red from the snow and she yanked his arm to stop him, leaning up to kiss his cheek when he turned around to see why she had stopped him.

"Do you know what next Monday is?" he asked as they continued on their trek. He had found this spot yesterday and an idea had come to him. "It's Christmas."

Remi had completely forgotten about Christmas. She loved the time of the year and seeing other families make preparations, but up until she got snowed in, she had planned on spending Christmas alone in her apartment curled up with takeout and Christmas movies on her TV. She had just had too much going on in her work life to pay any attention to the holiday and her personal life certainly didn't include any time with family or loved ones.

"I'm sorry you won't get to see your family for Christmas." She could tell Ender was a family-centered guy and she felt bad that he was stuck here with her rather than his family.

"Nonsense. This is where I'm meant to be this Christmas...and today, we are going to decorate. This Christmas is going to be special."

By that time, they had come to a clearing in the trees where Remi saw the cutest little Charlie Brown style Christmas tree. It was small, maybe 3 feet max, and most of the needles were on the ground around the tree, but she loved it. Her heart skipped a few beats. No one had ever done anything like this for her before. She couldn't even move as Ender kneeled down in the snow and began cutting the tree down.