Page 89 of All I Want Is Love
We eat for two hours, then take a coffee break with coffee that tastes a lot like someone mixed rum into it, and exchange presents.
“It’s Francesco in miniature!” Robin yells. “Look, Francesco!”
Francesco doesn’t seem to care for the mini ostrich, but Robin looks happy. Aspen gets tears in his eyes when he sees the watch and Soren—
“Seems like we share a braincell,” he grins when he hands me a box. In it is a handcrafted bracelet and… a key to his place.
I laugh. “Now we can both come and go as we please.”
Soren hugs me close. “Yeah, but let’s keep each other updated, or I will end up alone at your place and you at mine.”
Aspen gifts me a set of spices, where he crafted the small boxes himself out of wood, while Robin bought me a sweater with a Bernese pup and ‘Dog Dad‘ written on it.
As we are about to have dessert, Michael arrives, and Aspen brings out the main dishes again. “I think I lost the ability to breathe,” Robin mutters.
“Me too. I am having trouble eating some cookies, let alone an actual main dish,” I say, So, he and I keep eating dessert while Aspen and Soren join Michael by having a second go at turkey, mashed potatoes and beans.
It’s a long afternoon and evening, and while I love every minute of it, I feel my batteries running on low eventually. Aspen’s garden is quiet and beautiful though, and I take the opportunity to sit at his terrace, looking into the night. With the moon high in the sky and the snow on the ground, it makes it look like it’s not even night yet. Somehow, it’s never fully dark when there is snow. Or maybe that’s just my perception of it.
Eventually, I take out my phone and look at it, my heart clenching painfully when I notice there are no notifications, nothing.
“Leo?” I turn my head to meet Aspen. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I say.
He sits down next to me. “And really?”
“This morning I wrote to Mom,” I tell him. “I just wished her Merry Christmas, nothing more. That was stupid, huh?”
“No, not at all,” he says.
“She hasn’t replied. She hasn’t even read the message.” While it gives me a twinge to my chest to say it aloud, it’s not as devastating as it used to be. “It feels lonely sometimes,” I admit. “Like I am an orphan, but I am not. Does that make sense?”
Aspen pats my head. “It does,” he admits. “It feels the same to me.” He pauses. “We did not choose to be born into this family,” he says. “We could have been born into a different family, and bethe same person we are now, and be loved and accepted there. It’s not us. We are not the problem.”
“I know,” I say before groaning. “Sorry for ruining the mood.”
“You didn’t ruin anything,” he says.
“You know, Aspen, you are a little too perfect sometimes,” I say.
Aspen snorts. “If you tell that to Soren and Robin, I bet they would oppose.”
“As a big brother you are,” I say.
“We have each other,” he says. “And we have Soren and Robin, and our other friends in this town. A chosen family might not be the same as an actual family, but with time, it can become even more. It’s people you choose to have around you, and who choose you to be around them.”
Right at that moment, the door opens, and Robin and his ostrich come running outside. Soren follows them. He bends down to squeeze me in a hug. “Are you okay?” he asks, looking from me to Aspen and then back to me.
“Yeah,” I reassure him. “I was just feeling a bit… emotional, I guess. Probably because it’s Christmas.”
Barkley comes trotting outside, burying his head in the soft snow first and rolling around, until he is covered in snow. It’s always funny when he has his zoomies.
“Okay, guys,” Michael puts a box on the ground. “Since I couldn’t bring any presents, I brought something else.”
Robin scoots closer, eyeing him curiously. “What did you bring?”
Michael hands us each a thin, metal stick before looking at Barkley and Francesco. “I just wonder if the pets are going to be okay?”
