Page 71 of Christmas Is All Around
NEW YEAR’S EVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
This,” Ava said cheerfully, “issoromantic.”
“It’s not, actually,” Charlotte said patiently from her spot on the floor, folding up gift bags to be reused for next year’s Christmas. They’d allowed the Christmas morning mess to linger in the living room in an unseemly pile next to the tree for close to a week, but Ava had awoken this morning in a strange fit of virtuous productivity and had put them all to work. Kit was currently vacuuming in the spare room with Alice strapped to his chest, which seemed like a recipe for disaster to Charlotte, but she’d refrained from offering commentary.
“But your one true love has apologized and laid his feelings bare, and now you are going to offer him a Grand Gesture!” Ava said dramatically.
“A what now?”
Ava sighed. “A Grand Gesture, obviously. Have you never watched a rom-com, Charlotte? Wait, what am I saying? You have a cold, dead heart and you don’t believe in romance.”
This struck close enough to home to flare a spark of anger in Charlotte. “That’s not true,” she said quietly. “Also,” she added, “I’m friends with Padma, so of course I’ve seen a fucking rom-com. I’ve seen moreof them than anyone should be required to see in their entire lifetime, in fact.”
“Then you should be familiar with the Grand Gesture,” Ava said impatiently.
“It’s not a Grand Gesture,” Charlotte objected. “It’s a… declaration of feelings.”
“At a ball, at midnight, in disguise,” Ava said, snapping shut the lid on the rubber box that contained all the Christmas wrapping supplies.
“Almost none of that is true,” Charlotte said. “Also, it’s not aball, it’s a party. It’s 2024. Get a grip.”
“Hear me out, though,” Ava said, looking delighted. “You show up at his ball in your mask, allowing the minutes to tick by, leaving him to believe you haven’t shown up, and then you dramatically reveal yourself at an opportune moment and confess your love!”
“That seems unnecessarily dramatic,” Charlotte said skeptically. Drama of any sort wasn’t really her style, much to the dismay of every other member of her immediate family.
“It’s a Grand Gesture!” Ava said impatiently. “That’s what it’sfor!”
“Do Ineeda Grand Gesture, though?” Charlotte asked. “Since he was the one in the wrong, you know? With the lying and deception?”
Ava waved a hand. “Details. Have you considered nudity? Men love nudity.”
Kit chose this convenient moment to switch off the vacuum cleaner, evidently in time to overhear this last comment. “It’s true!” he shouted from the next room. “Big fan of nudity!”
Charlotte crumpled up a scrap of wrapping paper and lobbed it at her sister’s head. “I’m never asking you for advice again.”
“I think you’re discounting this too quickly. A Grand Gesture on New Year’s Eve—what could be better? It’s the stuff holiday movies are made of!”
“Have Ievergiven you the impression that I want my life to look like a holiday movie?”
Ava sat back on her heels, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Actually,” she said slowly, “don’t you think that’sexactlywhat your life has turned into, for the past month?”
“No,” Charlotte said instinctively, without even pausing to consider.
“Yes,” Ava said definitively, a gleeful smile crossing her face. “Do you remember all the things you told us youhatedabout Christmas movies?”
“Yes,” Charlotte said slowly, feeling very certain that she did not like where this conversation was going.
“Well,” Ava said, leaning forward and raising a finger to begin keeping count. “Meet-cute under implausible circumstances? Check.”
“Not implausible,” Charlotte argued. “Perfectly plausible!”
“Charlotte, he was removing afelt reindeer suit. Shut up.” Duly chastened, Charlotte fell silent. Ava raised another finger. “Some sort of festive task that requires the hero and heroine to band together and discover the joy of Christmas? Check.”
“Not check! Not check! There was no Christmas joy!”
“But you two certainlybanded together, in every sense of the phrase,” Ava said, with a lascivious eyebrow waggle. “Cast of charming supporting characters to egg the protagonists on toward their happily ever after?” Ava beamed, waving a hand at her own face. “Check.”
