Page 32 of A DIY Christmas Miracle
“Shall we start opening the presents?” Marc asked, effectively pulling me out of my thoughts.
I was almost surprised Eli hadn’t been the one to ask since everyone kept telling me that he was crazy about Christmas. However, everyone else also seemed to know why Eli wasn’t acting like himself at all, showing no real interest in Christmas even though it’d been his idea to celebrate together in the first place. Well, actually, he hadn’t shown any genuine interest in it since yesterday morning. He’d been just fine before.
“Yes,” Cassy immediately agreed, grinning broadly. “I’m the Christmas elf.” She pointed at the red-and-green striped Christmas hat on her head, then at the red-and-green striped tights she was wearing under a red miniskirt. “That means I get to hand out the presents.”
“But you do realize that the distributor is the one who gets their own presents last, don’t you?” Jack said, an evil glint in his eyes as he grinned at his sister.
“Oh, Christmas elves need breaks, too.”
“Ah, ah, ah.” Josh shook his head. “Work first, pleasure second, Cassy.”
“You all suck.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave Eli a pleading look. “Come on, say something. You think Christmas elves deserve breaks, too, right?”
“Hmm?” He looked up at her, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. “What’s wrong?”
“Just say I’m right,” Cassy said with a grin.
“Hey, no, I’m right,” Jack said.
“Hmm… nah, I’m on Cassy’s side.”
“You’re fucking biased!” Jack accused, pointing his finger at Eli.
“Can we just start handing out the gifts?” Juliet asked, shaking her head in amusement. “If you keep arguing, Christmas will be over before we even unpacked a single gift.”
Linda giggled affirmatively, resting her head on Juliet’s shoulder. “Get started, Cassy.”
And she did. One after the other, all the boxes, envelopes, and gift bags were distributed. A perfume or cologne here, a new book there, an amazing new sweater, a wonderful CD, DVDs, gift cards… all the typical things people gifted their friends, the creativity of the individual directly influencing how creative the gifts were. In principle, most were things you couldn’t really go wrong with.
Of course, the couples gave each other more personal and unique gifts, which was to be expected.
Between us friends, we’d set a strict budget we all had to stick to.
Or should’ve stuck to.
I was getting increasingly more nervous while watching Cassy hand out the gifts. My present for Eli was still sitting under the tree, waiting to be taken to its new owner.
I might’ve slightly… exceeded the budget. However, in my opinion, the budget was more of a guideline than a firm rule. Besides, the gift had been too perfect to pass up.
“Here…uuh, Eli, there’s something big coming your way.” Cassy giggled and winked at Eli as she picked up my present and dropped it into his lap.
Luckily, it wasn’t fragile.
My heart started pounding in my chest, hands growing sweaty as Eli looked at the box in his lap and began to carefully and thoughtfully peel the paper away.
Eli had just ripped the paper off of the previous presents, but he was taking his time now. I almost wished he wouldn’t treat my gift like… like it was something special. It made my heart skip a beat, but at the same time, I was afraid.
What if he didn’t like the gift? What if he hated everything inside? That’d be the final piece of evidence that I didn’t know him as well as I thought. It’d be a clear sign that everything I thought I knew about him was wrong.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Eli removed the last strip of tape and the wrapping paper fell away, revealing the box that contained his actual presents.
Originally, I’d stuck to the budget, but then Eli had given me a new, much better idea, and the rest was history.
My breath caught in my throat when Eli opened the brown cardboard lid of the box and gasped.
Was that a good or a bad sign?
“What is it?” Cassy asked curiously. “Show me!”
