Spotlight

46

***Tristan's POV***

I put the dishwasher on a rinse cycle when there was a knock on the door. I looked at the idiocy on my face when I realized I still had the red Santa hat on my head when I walked past myself in the mirror. I tossed the hat into the room beside the front door before opening it.

I unlocked the latch and opened the door, to reveal a face that I thought I had forgotten. Michelle, from the first season of Spotlight, stood at my door. In her hand was a large box that was wrapped with a bow.

"Michelle?" I asked as if her name were a question.

"Long time no see!" she exclaimed. She motioned to come inside so I opened the door further open so that she could fit the box in her hands in the door. "Is Mae here?"

"She's just finished filming for the day so she's in the shower. She won't be long... what's up?" I asked, throwing my hands in my pockets.

"I have something for you two for Christmas. This is your first Christmas together isn't it?" she asked. I nodded. She walked through to the old music room and set down the box in the middle of the room. I heard the bathroom light go off, meaning that Mae would be out here soon.

I knelt down on the carpet where the box was and suddenly sensed what it was. A smile grew to my lips at the thought of Mae opening this present. She entered the room and exclaimed how much she had missed Michelle so much over the past year. Ironic how I'd never heard her mention it once.

After hugging for nearly a million years, Mae followed her down to the carpet where I was sitting on my legs. Michelle lifted the lid on the present and it was exactly what I suspected it to be.

The leaping bundle of joy hopped straight into Mae's arms. Its blonde fur was shining in the light reflecting from the fire.

"Oh my!" Mae excitedly exclaimed. She was pushed over by the small puppy, who left a thousand kisses on her face.

"I know how much you wanted a Labrador Mae, so I thought I would get you both one to share this Christmas," she smiled, "If you guys break up for the hundredth time though, this dog is totally in my custody," her tone changed.

Mae was the happiest I had ever seen her. It would have been nice to get a heads up from Michelle so that I knew to buy newspaper or even a puppy bed for it to sleep on.

"She's a girl, and I haven't named her yet – so that one's up to both of you," Michelle smiled. Surely she won best friend of the year. Mae had mentioned to me a couple of times how much she wanted a puppy of her own – I just never thought the time was perfect to adopt one together.

The puppy pranced around the room like it owned the place, or as if she was looking for something to chew.

"I love her, thank you so much Michelle!" Mae said. I continued to going back to what I was doing before, which was making Eggnog for us before we celebrated Christmas, but now we were probably going to go and get some puppy supplies before the night even clocked over to Christmas. It was nearly seven and the shops would be closing for a day very soon.

Michelle left in no time at all, and Mae collected the puppy so that we could drive to the local pet store. Although I argued with her the whole time about what color we were buying for the pup, Mae got her way and we bought all pink.

I really was a sucker.

We spent nearly three hundred dollars on a puppy bed, training mats, a leash, puppy food and dishes for her to drink out of. Even though she wouldn't fit on the puppy bed in two weeks, Mae still convinced me to get the most expensive one in the entire store. The things she could do to me.

On the drive home I came to the realization that all the rugs, throws and blankets in my house would soon be the puppies – as well as my collection of expensive and unchewed shoes.

By nine p.m. we were cuddled up together on the couch finally drinking our eggnog watching Elf on the television. The puppy was crawling around the floor in front of the television for the entirety of the film.

When we decided to go to bed, we once again argued on where the puppy would sleep.

Of course, I gave in and somehow the puppy ended up sleeping in my room – or should I say our room now that Mae had practically moved in with me. I didn't bother to ask what the living arrangements between us were – because since she knocked on my back door a month ago, she hadn't exactly left.

There was no way that I was complaining, because as I lay in bed that night trying to sleep I realized something. Mae was the only one that I ever wanted to be with, and I wasn't sure if she knew that. Tomorrow night we planned to travel to the ski lodge so that we could have some time away from the rest of the world.

She shuffled in her sleep, so I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her closer to me. I could smell the vanilla essence in her hair from her shampoo job earlier.

Tomorrow was Christmas, and our first Christmas together was going to be something to remember.