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“Okay kids, time to clean up all the glee debris!” said Amy. Parker and Todd were sitting on the floor of their living room, playing with their new presents and completely surrounded by shredded wrapping paper.

“Mom, do we have to?” whined the kids in unison.

“Yep. That’s the way it is. But I’ll let you throw the wrapping paper into the fireplace and watch the flames turn different colors, okay?” she said, not above bribery by way of pyrotechnics at all.

“Yeah!” cried the boys, who were suddenly picking up the trash from the floor at warp speed.

“Speaking of flames, Kate Henry, what’s going on with yours?” said Darren with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

Darren Davidson was a childhood friend of Rick and Amy’s who was a very talented musician and the music pastor at a church in Rocky Mount. He was one of the first people that the Baileys introduced Kate to when she moved there after college, and the two became fast friends. They were both fond of reading mysteries and legal thrillers and watching classic movies, which they often quoted to each other in context of normal conversation. They also discovered their mutual love for word games. Kate and Darren had spent many hours over the years bent over a Scrabble board in fierce competition.

“Shut your mouth, Double D,” said Kate, hurling a big red bow at Darren. He caught it in midair and stuck it on top of his blond head.

“How many times do I have to ask you not to use that horrible nickname?” said Darren.

“Oh, two or three thousand more times oughtta do it,” said Kate. She saw Darren as the brother she never had, and the two fought like siblings all the time. Even though there was lots of teasing, they had developed a mutual respect and affection for each other much like a brother and sister would have.

“Oh leave her alone, Darren,” said Brooke, always one to stick up for her friends. Brooke taught second grade at the school where Amy worked and was Amy’s next door neighbor growing up. She never missed a game night at the Baileys’. “If Kate had anything to share I’m sure she would. Now make yourself useful and help pick up some of this wrapping paper.”

Rick entered the room with a big trash bag for everything that didn’t make it into the fireplace. “Thanks for coming over, everyone,” he said. “I’m glad we got to do a little Christmas celebration early this year since you’re all ditching us.” Darren had planned a fishing trip to Florida with some of his church friends for the holidays, and Brooke was going to Arizona with her family to visit her grandparents.

“Rick baby, will you help the kids take their toys to their rooms and get them ready for bed?” called Amy from the kitchen.

The boys scurried off with their dad while Kate got up from her perch on the couch to help Amy with the pile of dinner dishes from their Christmas feast. “Don’t you dare try and help,” said Amy. “You did most of the cooking. Brooke and I will clean up.”

“What about me?” cried Darren from the living room.

“You just stay out of the way,” said Amy. “This kitchen isn’t big enough for three people. Besides, you’ll just end up trying to hit Brooke and me with a wet dish towel instead of actually helping.”

Darren shrugged, knowing that Amy had just spoken the truth. “Come on, Kate Henry,” he said. He typically called Kate by her first and last name. It was something he started doing with her years ago and for some reason it just stuck. Suddenly speaking in a foreign accent, he said, “Allow me to pour us some coffee and retire by the fireplace.”

When he came back a minute later with the coffee, Kate followed him to the living room, asking, “Was that accent supposed to be Spanish or Russian? Or maybe Jamaican?”

“Scottish, obviously,” he replied. “It’s not my fault you’re so uncultured that you don’t can’t distinguish between all of my accents.”

“
Right
. Uncultured. That’s it,” she said, making sure to deliberately lift her pinkie as she carried her coffee mug. “It couldn’t possibly be that all your accents sound alike.”

With all the other adults busy with their various tasks, Darren and Kate settled down in comfortable armchairs by the flickering fire.

“I wasn’t trying to give you a hard time earlier,” offered Darren in his native dialect. “I really do want to hear how things are going with you and Ian.”

“Oh bless your heart, Darren. Don’t go getting all worried about offending me all of a sudden. That would completely ruin our dynamic.”

Darren smiled and nodded in agreement. She continued, “It’s actually getting really difficult. He’s just been nothing but wonderful to me ever since he moved here. We’ve gotten extremely close emotionally, but nothing has happened beyond that. To be honest, I’m just scared to death to talk to him about it.”

“That’s not the Kate Henry I know!” said Darren.

“I know,” she replied. “I just feel like he needs to be the one to initiate the conversation. So I’m just being patient. Maybe he just needs time to figure things out, you know?

“It’s entirely possible,” said Darren. “But don’t wait around forever. If he’s not smart enough to figure out how amazing you are by now, then maybe it just isn’t meant to be.”

Kate nodded and considered his words while she sipped her coffee. She valued Darren’s opinion very much, and he was usually right (even though she’d never admit that to him).

“Actually, I have a confession to make. He’s just getting close to you to do research. I hired him to sue you for all the pain and suffering you’ve caused me over the years for the many times you’ve massacred me in Scrabble.”

“Why must you make a joke out of everything?” she said, hurling a throw pillow at his head. “This is no laughing matter!”

Catching the pillow and using it as a shield to block the second pillow that Kate flung at him, he said, “Well, if you look at things technically, I am matter and I am laughing, so, science and logic would lead us to the conclusion that this is, indeed, a laughing matter.”

“Oh something is the matter all right, and it’s you,” said Kate with a devilish grin. The friends bantered back and forth mercilessly all of the time. It was one of the things that she liked most of Darren. He knew he could give her a hard time and that she would give it right back to him, but he also knew when to stop.

“I just want you to be happy. Does Ian make you happy?”

Kate thought about the question for several moments as she picked lint off of her sleeve before answering. “He does. Being with him is the most natural thing in the world for me. Being with him makes me happy.” But even as she was saying those words, she didn’t look happy at all. She looked anxious and unsure.

“I’m glad,” said Darren, hoping that his friend wouldn’t have to wait much longer before Ian made up his mind. One by one, the other adults trickled into the room and gathered around the fire.

“Have I mentioned how much I love all of you? And how blessed I am to have you in my life?” said Kate once everyone was in the room.

“If we’re about to have a group hug, I’m going to go on record right now that I will
not
be a participant,” said Darren.

“Will you accept a verbal hug?” asked Kate.

“Well…maybe,” said Darren. “Just don’t get too mushy. You wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself,” he said with a wink.

“I mean it, though. I never feel completely alone in this world because I know I’ll always have all of you. I don’t think life is meant to be lived alone. So I…I just love you guys, okay?”

In a rare moment of seriousness, the friends all glanced around the room at each other with smiles and nods. They were all suddenly very aware of how very lucky they were to be in each other’s lives.

“Okay!” cried Darren. “We can hug! But if you tell anyone about this, I’ll deny it ‘til the day I die.”

Although completely unplanned, Rick, Amy, Brooke, and Kate all simultaneously catapulted throw pillows at Darren, who wasn’t prepared for the surprise attack. “Hey! Hey!! Cease and desist! This is pastor abuse! Pastor abuse!”

Laughing, the friends all got up and helped Darren put the pillows back where they belonged. “Merry Christmas, you crazy bunch of people,” said Rick. “We love all of you very much, too.”

~~~~~

Ian mopped up the very last of the coq au vin from his bowl with a crusty piece of French bread. Still chewing, he said, “That was so good. Where did you learn how to make it?”

Kate felt a sense of pride from his compliment. “Oh, just from a cookbook I got down at the store. Meredith was telling me stories one day of the summer that she and Mark spent in the south of France, and it made me want to try some of the things she described eating.”

“Well, I fully support your endeavors. Support, and am a willing participant in their execution.”

“Is that your way of saying you like my cooking, counselor?”

“Let the record show it to be true.”

Kate’s phone buzzed and she saw Brooke’s name flash across the screen.

“Go ahead and get it,” said Ian. “I’m clearing the dishes.”

She picked up the phone. “Hey Brooke, what’s up?”

“I’ve got a question for you. Are you busy?”

“No, not really. Ian’s over here, but we just finished dinner. He’s doing the dishes. What a good boy he is.” She was speaking loudly enough so that Ian could hear her, and he turned around from the sink and rolled his eyes.

“Well, this is interesting timing for this phone call seeing that Ian is there…”

“Why? What’s going on? You said you have a question for me?”

“Okay, do you remember how I was telling you about that new teacher at my school, Jason?”

“I think so,” said Kate. “He’s the one who teaches math, right? And has dimples, if I remember correctly.”

“Exactly. Gotta love dimples. Anyway, after months of thinly veiled flirting, he finally asked me out.”

“He did?! That’s great! I’m so happy for you, Brooke.”

“I know; I’m pretty stoked. But here’s the thing. He has a roommate, and he asked if I could find a friend so we could double date for our first time out. You know, less pressure and all. And…I was wondering…”

“A double date?” Realizing she was still talking loudly, she hissed, “But what about Ian?”

“You know, I think this actually might be a good test for Ian. You should tell him you’re considering going out on a double date and see how he reacts. Maybe it’s just the push that he needs to get over himself and stop stringing you along. Look, I know he’s there right now and you can’t really talk, but just think about it, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll think about it. No promises, though.”

“Totally understandable. All right, I’ll let you go. Have a good night.” “Thanks, you too. Troublemaker.”

“Chicken.”

Kate hung up the phone and wandered into the kitchen. “What did she want?” asked Ian.

Pursing her lips, she pulled herself up by her arms to a seated position on the kitchen counter. “Well…she had an interesting…proposition, if you will, for me.”   “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“Well…this guy she’s had her eye on at school asked her out on a date, but apparently he wants to double. So Brooke wanted to know if I was interested in going out with his roommate.”

Ian’s expression did not change in the least. “Really? What did you tell her?”

Furrowing her brow, she said slowly, “What do you think I should tell her?”

Ian shrugged. “I think you should tell her…whatever you want to tell her.”