Christmas Delights 3 (32 page)

“Thanks,” he said awkwardly.

“Go ahead and put it on,” Rhys said, ushering him into the
powder room under the staircase located on the other side of the room from the
fire place.

“It’s a little tight,” Liam said a minute later. The shirt
was snug across his chest, wrapping tight around his torso.

Rhys smiled. “Yeah, I did that for me,” he said, giving Liam
a quick kiss. “Come on though, we should get going.”

“But it’s so early,” Liam said as he reluctantly put his
coat on.

“Still think we’re early?” Rhys asked as he navigated his
car into one of the last three spots available.

“Are you fricking serious?” Liam exclaimed when he saw the
line was half way around the building. “We’re going to stand outside for four
and a half hours in the cold? I can see my breath!” He complained as he shut
the car door.

“Well if it wasn’t cold then the snow would be rain.” Rhys
said as he looked up at the night sky so snowflakes could fall on his face.
“And besides, the doors open at midnight.”

“Midnight is the same as three in the morning when you’re
shopping this late.”

Rhys rolled his eyes. “Come on, when’s the last time you
tried catching snow on your tongue?”

“Never,” Liam admitted. “I never really thought it was sanitary,
what with falling through all of that smog and pollution.”

Rhys let out a loud laugh. “Seriously? Come on!” He grabbed
Liam’s hand and pulled him into the middle of the parking lot; his tongue stuck
out, eager for a snowflake to land on it.

Liam checked to make sure no one was looking before he stuck
his tongue out for a second. “I feel so stupid doing this.”

Rhys dove for a snowflake and caught it on his tongue, where
it immediately melted. “You’re missing out,” he said with a shrug. He ran back
over to his car and pulled a backpack out of the back seat. “Come on,” he said
as he slipped the bag on and locked the door.

“What do you need that for?” Liam asked.

“Supplies for tonight.”

“What kind of supplies?” Liam pulled a pair of gloves out of
his jacket pockets and slipped them on as they joined the end of the world’s
longest queue.

Rhys shrugged the old black JanSport off and unzipped it. He
pulled out a big fluffy red felt blanket and unfolded it onto the ground. He
knelt on the blanket and patted the ground next to him for Liam to join him.
Once Liam was seated, Rhys pulled a thermos out of the bag and poured two cups
of hot cocoa.

“Oh my gosh!” Liam laughed. “But I like marshmallows in my
cocoa.”

Rhys dug in the bag’s contents and pulled out a baggie full
of marshmallows.

Liam smiled when Rhys dropped a couple marshmallows in a red
plastic cup. “Thanks. You’re a Black Friday pro,” he said. Rhys watched Liam as
he lifted the cup to his face and breathed in the warmth before taking a
tentative sip.

“I’ve gone out every Black Friday for as long as I can
remember. Usually I would go with my mom, sister, aunt, and grandma.” He drank
from his cocoa to give himself a chance to collect his thoughts. “We’d have
Thanksgiving at my grandma’s and grandpa’s house every year – the whole family
would be there. The guys would be in the family room watching football and the
women would be in the living room gossiping about life in general. We grandkids
played games together in the spare room until it was time to do dishes – we
always got stuck doing dishes at Thanksgiving and Christmas.” He blinked and a
tear fell down his cheek. He glanced away from Liam and surreptitiously wiped
his eye.

“Go on,” Liam urged, a warm smile on his face.

Rhys shrugged. “It’s not important.”

“It’s your childhood, of course it’s important.”

Rhys gave his eyes another quick rub before he continued.
“After dinner we would all gather around the dining room table and read the
Black Friday ads. That was my favorite part of Thanksgiving. I liked the
togetherness…the laughter at the stupid gifts in some of the catalogs. My
favorite part of Christmas is buying the perfect gift. I mean, don’t get me
wrong, I love presents, but I really love finding that perfect gift for someone
and anticipating their reaction.” He trailed off, lost in memory of one such
perfect present. “One year I got my grandpa a first edition signed book from
one of his favorite authors.”

“Wow, that’s cool,” said Liam.

Rhys smiled. “Well, it’s not that big of a deal. He’s a
local author and not very famous, so I think there were only two editions of
the book anyway,” he said with a laugh.

Liam smiled.

“But he loved it more than I thought he would. Grandpa was
never the biggest at showing emotions, but that stupid book…” he sighed. “He
made everyone stop opening their presents and look at it. It had a spot of
honor on the mantle until he died. He left it to me. Can you believe it? He
actually put in his will that I got this cheap book that no one else in the
family would want.”

“How long ago did he pass?”  Liam asked.

“Just before I started college, so I guess about four and a
half years ago. That year was the last year we all did Black Friday together;
Grandma died that next February.”

“I’m sorry,” Liam took Rhys’ hand and gave it a squeeze.

“So while reading the ads we’d map out the stores we wanted
to go to, the order we needed to go to them, the shortest route,” he laughed to
himself. “My mom and her sisters really got into it. When I was really little
Mom would make Dad take me and Marion out shopping so that we wouldn’t slow her
down. He usually took us somewhere like the corner store so he wouldn’t have to
wait in line.”

 Liam chuckled as he lifted his cup to his mouth. “So why
are you out with me tonight? Why aren’t you out with the rest of your family?”

“I wanted to spend the night with you.” Rhys leaned against
the wall of the building, pulled Liam closer to him and wrapped an arm around
his shoulders.

“I don’t feel real comfortable being all cuddly in public,”
Liam said as he made an apologetic face.

“No one is even paying attention to us,” Rhys said as he
looked to the line ahead of them. In front of them, a larger woman with big
black hair and her husband were huddled together, shivering in the cold. Behind
them were two teenagers wrapped in so many layers that their genders were
impossible to identify. “So how was it spending Thanksgiving away from your
family?”

“It kind of sucked,” Liam said as he leaned his head against
Rhys’ shoulder. “But they understand that I can’t really afford to drive all
the way from Ohio to New York just for three days. Besides, I’ll see them in a
month for Christmas.”

“I’m going to miss you at Christmas.”

“You could come to Niagara with me.”

“Dang,” Rhys said to himself after a moment.

“What?” Liam asked

“I never thought about spending Christmas without my
family.”

“I was just kidding. I didn’t really expect you to come to
Niagara with me.”

“No, I know. I mean, let’s assume that we do get married and
live happily ever after.”

“Okay.”

“I never actually thought about what would happen when I got
married and had kids and a family of my own. I never thought I’d not be with my
parents for Christmas.”

“So you want kids?”

“Wha – uh…I don’t know. Kind of. Why, do you?”

Liam shrugged. “Yeah, I think so.”

“I wasn’t planning on having the ‘do you want kids’
conversation tonight,” Rhys laughed. “Especially after only going out for four
months.”

“Well, we’ll call this a prelude to that conversation. We
can continue it a few years from now.”

“Sounds good,” Rhys nodded.

Rhys watched as Liam drank from his cup some more before he
frowned into it.

“What’s wrong?” Rhys asked.

Liam looked up at the snow that poured down on them. “The
snow has turned my hot chocolate into cold chocolate.”

“I think you’ll find that’s called chocolate milk,” Rhys
laughed.

“You have anything else to drink in that bag?” Liam asked as
he looked to the bag.

“I should have some Coke.”

“Oh. I’m more of a Pepsi fan.”

“I know,” Rhys said. “But it’s like a law or something that
you can only drink Coke at Christmas.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Liam said with a laugh.

“Because, like the judges on American Idol, Santa only
drinks Coke. But come New Years day, you can drink all the Pepsi you want.”

“Not Crystal Pepsi,” Liam said with disdain in his voice.

“No, not Crystal Pepsi,” Rhys laughed.

“Fine. Give me a Coke,” Liam said as he held out his hand.
Rhys pulled a can out and gave it to him. Liam popped the top and took a sip,
his face scrunched when he lowered the can.

“What now?” Rhys asked, still laughing.

“Coke is too strong, it burns my throat.”

“Maybe this will help.” Rhys turned so his back was facing
Liam.

“What?” asked Liam. Rhys turned slightly so that he could
see Liam leaning forward from the corner of his eye.

Rhys spun completely around with a snow ball in his hand
that he smashed in Liam’s face.

“Oh my God!” Liam yelled. He jumped up and ran down the curb
from the sidewalk to the parking lot. He turned to face Rhys and wiped the snow
from his face.

“Are you okay?” Rhys asked as he walked out to Liam. He used
his mitten to wipe a chunk of ice off of Liam’s cheek.

“That was really cold,” Liam answered, annoyance in his
voice. “Literally and figuratively.”

“Fine. You can get me back,” Rhys said. He stood straight
with his arms at his sides. “Go ahead, throw it at me,” he said, his eyes
clenched tight.

“I will,” Liam said as he walked past him. “When you least
expect it.”

“That doesn’t sound fun at all,” Rhys said as he walked back
to the blanket and sat down. From the expression on Liam’s face, Rhys could
tell he was no longer in the mood to cuddle. Rhys watched Liam, his knees
pulled to his chest, pour some more cocoa, which he drank quickly. Probably so
the snow doesn’t get a chance to cool it again, Rhys thought.

Rhys unzipped the bag again and pulled out the Black Friday
ads and flipped through them. “So tell me about what Thanksgivings were like
for you when you were younger,” Rhys prompted after a few minutes of quiet.

Liam shrugged. “Nothing special, really. It was just me and
my parents usually. Both of their families live all across the country, so it’s
really hard for everyone to get together. We usually try to all get together
once in summer and then around Christmas.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So most Thanksgivings we would have our dinner and
then either go to a movie or watch one at home if there wasn’t anything playing
we could all agree on. If we watched one at home it would always be Miracle on
34th Street.”

“I love that movie,” said Rhys. “I just watched it at
Halloween.”

“You are a giant nerd,” Liam said. He leaned forward like he
wanted to give Rhys a kiss on the cheek, but instead dumped two giant handfuls
of snow down the back of his coat.

Rhys  leaped up and started to jump up and down to try to get
all of the snow out of his shirt. “That was mean!” Rhys laughed. He stepped off
the curb and started jumping  again in the parking lot to get the last few
clumps of snow out of his shirt when he slipped and landed hard on his elbow.

“Crap! Are you OK?” Liam shot up and ran over to help him
up.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said as he rubbed his elbow.

“Are you sure? I feel like a jackass.”

“You are,” Rhys teased.

“Do you have a first-aid kit in your bag?”

“Yes,” Rhys blushed. “I told you I had everything in there.
But I don’t think I need first-aid.”

“Let’s see.” Liam pulled Rhys’ arm out of the sleeve of his
jacket and looked at it. “I guess it looks fine. Wait.” He pulled his cell
phone out of his pocket and used the screen as a flashlight to look at Rhys’
arm. “I don’t see anything, but just in case…” he leaned down and kissed Rhys’
elbow. “There we go, all better!”

“Thanks,” Rhys laughed as he put his jacket back on. He sat
against the building again to cuddle with Liam. “Hey, we’re last in line
again,” he said when Liam was once again secure under his arm. He motioned to
where the two clothes creatures had been previously.

“You must have forgotten it!” the lady in front of them
yelled to her husband as she rejoined him in line.

“Did you look in the back seat too?” he asked.

“Yes,” she sighed and handed him the keys. “You apparently
didn’t grab it like I asked you to. All the other ones were there but not the
one for Green Mart!” She stood next to her husband, arms crossed, and mumbled
something.

“Excuse me?” Rhys said.

“Hmm?” the lady turned to face him.

“I couldn’t help but overhear…” he reached for the ads at
his feet and picked up the Green Mart one from top. “If you want to borrow mine
you can. We’re not using it right now.”

“Oh, thank you!” she exclaimed as she took it from him and
turned to face the front of the line again.

“You’re welcome.” Rhys pulled a shivering Liam closer to
him.

“It quit snowing,” Liam said through a yawn several minutes
later. “Sorry. I’m not usually this tired by eleven. But I’m also not usually
sitting in the dark in below zero weather.”

“Not below zero,” Rhys said. “It’s probably in the
twenties.”

“So much better,” Liam yawned.

“Come on,” Rhys said as he stood up. He grabbed Liam’s arms
and pulled him up. “Um, hi?” Rhys said as he tapped the shoulder of the woman
in front of them.

She turned around to face him.

“I know this is kind of against the rules, but seeing as how
there’s currently no one behind us in line and I let you use my ad, would you mind
saving our spot? You can use my blanket while we’re gone if you want.”

The woman looked unsure, clearly aware of the ‘No Saves’
Black Friday rule.