I couldn’t help the laugh that rumbled in my chest. “Yin, you were the one who came up with the rule that we couldn’t give any clues about what we were getting each other for Christmas, even though you hate surprises.” That reminder got me an adorable pout, which I had to kiss him for. “And then you made it into a competition.” He opened his mouth to protest, but I leaned in and kissed him again, sliding my tongue with his until I knew he was properly distracted, then pulled back. “You have to be patient.”
There was a huff and then a familiar grin, “Fine, but you were supposed to buckle under my charms and tell me.”
I squeezed him tight as I bit back a smile at his very serious tone. “You’ll find out tomorrow. I have to get ready.” I gestured to the small bathroom, before grabbing a clean towel. “I told Nesto I’d help out with the catering orders.” That was a cover of course. I was actually going to meet up with Carmen, who had part of my present for Yin. Carmen was a good friend of Nesto’s. Nesto was more than an employer actually, he was family. Carmen too. And they’d both been assisting me with the gift that would blow my man away. I had tricks up my sleeve too.
“I thought you said you were off today?”
I could practically see Yin’s antennae pinging, but unlike my boyfriend, I had a pretty good poker face. “He’s short on some staff and wanted to be done in time to get to Nurys’s house early to help her set up.”
Yin narrowed his eyes like he could tell I was fibbing.
“You still want to go tonight?” I asked, hoping to distract him. I knew mentioning dinner at Nesto’s mother’s house would mollify him.
He nodded cautiously, still not looking too convinced. “Yes, Maiah is making rolls and laphet thoke.” I groaned at the mention of his sister’s delicious tea leaf salad, then panicked, wondering if I’d forgotten to get part of our contribution to the dinner. Yin smiled and shook his head as he signaled to the little kitchen. “We got some wine and I got a cake from Philmans.”
As always my man was on top of all social engagements. “You’re the best. I did get something for the White Elephant party, even though I’m still not sure what it is.” He snorted at my puzzlement over the weird title for a gift exchange event.
“You’re really worried about that,” he said happily and brought me down for a kiss after I crawled back in bed. Within seconds we were tangled in each other again. Until the alarm on my iPhone went off telling me I needed to meet with Carmen in an hour.
“I have to go, bébé,” I said regretfully, and pulled back, eliciting an unhappy moan which almost managed to convince me to forget my plans and stay in bed. But I had to get moving. The last—and most important—part of the gift that I’d been planning for weeks was with Carmen, and I’d be damned if I didn’t make sure that Yin’s Christmas morning went perfectly.
Chapter Two
Yin
“Did you bring it?” I asked as soon as I caught sight of Marty preparing a drink for a client. I’d waited until Ari left to help at the restaurant before taking the bus out to Trumansburg to pick up his gift. I’d been planning this for so long I could barely keep my excitement at manageable levels.
Marty rolled his eyes at me as he pushed a glass full of a pink cloudy liquid across the bar and turned to me. “Yes, I brought it. It’s not like you texted, emailed and called me in the last two hours making sure I didn’t forget the package.” Marty was one of my best friends and also a huge pain in the ass, but he was the only person I could trust with my Top Secret gift since everyone else I knew would blab it to Ari. I’d given my sisters minimal information about what I was getting him. Ari’s smile was like kryptonite for both of them. They would crack within seconds of him even hinting he was curious about his present. And the rest of our friends weren’t any better. So Marty had done me a major solid, despite the snippiness I’d had to put up with.
“You’re so exaggerated.” I pursed my lips and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. He pulled back and gave me a thorough once over. “Is that the one you ordered?” he asked, pointing at my Sailor Moon sweatshirt.
I grinned as I ran the palm of my hand over it. “Yes. Did yours come?” He shook his head but looked down at himself as if he expected to find a matching sweatshirt plastered to his own chest.
“Not yet, but we have to plan when it does, so we can be matchy matchy.” Marty, like me, tended to be a bit extra, which is why we got along so well.
“Sure, but where are the boxes with...‘the stuff’?” I actually made air quotes, like a total goober, then extended my hands, opening and closing them compulsively as he looked at me with feigned confusion. “Stop playing with me, Marty! Let me see.”
He held up his hand and then signaled to one of the empty leather booths on the right side of the bar. “Go sit over there. Jen just got here and she can handle the bar for a half hour, so I can take my break. I’ll bring the boxes to you. Mojito, hold the rum?”
I nodded with a wink at his offer to make me my favorite mocktail, and went to sit down. I’d been growing more and more nervous about my present for Ari. I’d put a few things under the tree and just let him think one of the small boxes held my gift for him, but the real one was what Marty had been keeping for me. No matter how I wrapped it the thing was going to be massive and even Ari’s patient self would probably snoop a little bit once he saw the big boxes. And I knew my boyfriend well enough to know that once he did, he’d think it was too much, or that I shouldn’t have spent all my money on him like that.
My sisters always teased me about how much Ari spoiled me. That he treated me like I was made of spun sugar. And they were right, he took such good care of me in every way possible, but this time I was going to be the one to do something amazing for him. Sure I’d bent the rules a little—okay a lot—when it came to keeping the gifts simple, but I couldn’t help it. Spending less than a hundred dollars had seemed like a good idea when we first planned it, but when I started looking for soccer gear to get him, I realized that wouldn’t buy more than a few socks from the brands Ari loved. And in my defense, he deserved this and more. He never ever did anything for himself. Getting to do something over the top for my man was a goal I’d had all year and I couldn’t wait to see that big beautiful smile when he saw everything I’d gotten him.
“You look so serious!” Marty’s voice startled me out of my fantasy of seeing Ari rapt with happiness opening his gifts. When I looked up, I found him holding two huge canvas bags filled with the boxes I’d had delivered to his place in one hand. And right behind him was Jen, bringing us the drinks Marty prepared. She only stopped long enough to put them on the table and rushed back to the busy bar.
“Thank you, friend,” I said, already getting up to take some stuff off his hands.
Once we’d both slid back into the booths I made a grab for one of the boxes while Marty looked on with an amused expression. “I can’t wait to see this. You’ve been so secretive.”
I side-eyed him as I focused on peeling the packing tape off the first box. “I didn’t tell you what it was in case it slipped if you saw Ari,” I said, giving him a pointed look. “I know how hard it is for you to keep your head when you see my man.” I was mostly teasing, but Ari was fit as hell. “Not that I’m jealous, I’m very confident in the fact that he only has eyes for me.”
“Show-off.” He balked, but didn’t take his eyes off the cardboard flaps of the box I was opening. I carefully lifted the lid off the Nike box inside.
“Damn those look fancy. I could wear these to a club.” I grinned at that, because Marty was ridiculous. The cleats were kind of over the top. The shoes were actually gold and had Mbappé’s—Ari’s favorite player—number stitched on the side in bright red thread. “I know being Honduran I should be more aware of the soccer world, but I’m really not. So are these like super special?”
I didn’t roll my eyes at Marty’s lack of knowledge of hig
h-end soccer gear, because I’d been clueless too. Until two months ago when Ari talked my ear off for an hour about his dream cleats, the Nike Superfly model that his idol wore, I was none the wiser. “Ari’s favorite player wears these.”
“Ah.” Marty gave me that same smile that my sisters gave me, the one that seemed to say “you guys are the cutest.” And we were kind of cute, but I was nervous about this gift and really hoped my Ari liked it. Especially because these cleats were a final sale and they’d cost me almost a third of my savings.
“I sort of blew out my savings on them—well, and the other stuff.” I waved a hand over a smaller and flatter box. That one probably contained some new jerseys and shorts, also the same kind that Mbappé wore. “He signed up for this soccer clinic in Arizona. I thought I’d get him some new gear to get him excited for it. I bought him the plane ticket there too, I’d been watching flights for months and got him a super saver fare a couple of months ago. With the ticket and the gear he’ll have everything he needs. He was so unsure about spending the money on it, or if he could even swing the plane ticket. You know how he is.”
Marty’s face softened at that last part. “You are a really good boyfriend. I hope someday I find something like what you and Ari have, you’re just so perfect for each other. Meant to be.”
I almost laughed at that, because the road to this, to where we were right now had been long and not exactly smooth sailing. That first year we knew each other, Ari would not hear of taking our relationship beyond a friendship. No matter how close we got, or how many times I told him that I wanted him in that way. It had been months of almost kisses and frustrated attempts to get closer, before he recognized we were a perfect match.
“It took us a long time to get to here, and even now we have our moments,” I confessed. “I love him and he loves me, but we both work all the time and it can put a strain on things. I have my sisters for support, but Ari’s here on his own, and even with Jude, Nesto, Patrice and Easton constantly telling him and showing him that they have his back, it’s still hard for him to ask for help. Even from me. And now with this move to Syracuse looming large, I just wanted to give him a chance to take a week for himself before all that starts.”
“But you guys are excited about that, right?”
I nodded, even as I felt a little frisson of fear in my belly. “We are, I mean it’s the dream we’ve been working toward for years. Before we even met each other.”
Just a couple of months earlier Ari and I had been accepted to our first-choice programs at Syracuse University. In the fall he’d be going to law school and I would finally start my nursing degree. It was everything we’d busted our butts to achieve for so long, but it would mean moving away from our support system.
“It’s just a big change. After leaving the refugee camp in Bangkok and coming to Ithaca I thought I’d never move again, and even though we’re just an hour away it feels big, you know?”
Marty’s eyes had widened at some point during my overshare, and my face felt hot with embarrassment. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to go on and on. I just wanted to make this holiday special for the both of us.”
He put a hand up, and smiled again. “You didn’t go on. It makes sense that the holidays are feeling like a bigger deal than normal. And, point taken. Love takes work, but you’re both committed to each other and doing the hard stuff, and it’s clear as day that you’re both crazy about each other. Not to mention the chemistry. I swear when you two are together... Fuego.” He fanned himself while I laughed, and because he was a clown he pressed the icy glass in his hand to his forehead.
“I hope he likes his gift.”
Marty patted my hand with a wink. “I’m sure he will, and if he’s not fully convinced you can always throw in some hot Christmas morning sex to seal the deal. Nothing gets me in a merry mood like a good dicking under the mistletoe.”
I almost choked on my mojito while Marty fellated a straw. “I need better friends.”
He winked again and gestured to the box I hadn’t opened yet. “Your friends are dope and you know it.” My friends were the bomb. “Open that one, I want to see what else you got him.”
I made quick work of opening the rest of the gear and by the time I was done I had a pile of colorful soccer clothes all over the table. Marty leaned back with a grin, admiring it all like he was the one who had just gotten all the goodies. “He’s going to love it, but hon, this must be a hell of a credit card bill.”
I cringed at that because, yes, this had certainly depleted my reserves. “I have a plan for that.” Marty nodded in a “do say more” expression.
“I signed up to work at the February break hockey camp Cornell runs. It pays well and since I won’t be in class and Ari will be at the soccer clinic it’ll be perfect timing.”
“Nice,” Marty said, impressed, and even gave me a thumbs-up. “That should help fill your coffers again.”
“Yup,” I said as I worked on getting everything back in the boxes, so I could wrap them with the paper and ribbon I’d brought from home.
“Wow, you came Martha Stewart prepared. All right, I see you,” Marty said approvingly while I just cut my eyes at him, then handed him a roll of tape and pointed at a second pair of scissors on the table.
“Cut me some tape and ribbon. I only have like an hour before I have to head back.”
Marty gave me a surprised look as he started getting the tape pieces ready for me. “You’re not really nervous, are you? He’s going to love it.”
I grimaced, thinking of my teasing about the gifts this morning. I wondered if Ari would feel bad for getting me a regular present—like we’d agreed—while I’d gotten him almost two grand worth of soccer gear.
“I turned the whole thing into a contest this morning and now I’m worried he’s going to feel bad about not getting me something super fancy.” Marty’s mouth twitched, and I balled up one of the napkins on the table and threw it at him. “Don’t laugh at me, you ass.”
He put his hands up, palms out. “I’m not laughing at you. I’m just gagged that you’re serious. You know that man worships the ground you walk on. He’ll love anything you get him.”
And that was kind of the issue. We said we’d get something small, and Ari was always so careful with money. Having come to the US on his own at eighteen and ending up in an immigrant detention center for almost a year made him cautious about everything. He constantly worried that there would be an emergency to deal with, so he made sure he always had savings. And even though he was much better now, he was not one to splurge. I was mindful too. It’s not like living in a refugee camp as a kid won’t teach you some lessons. But I was more of a live in the moment type of person and Ari was...careful.
I leaned against the leather booth and sighed, not even sure why I was getting all revved up now. It was done. The gift was here and I’d talked it up so much it wasn’t like I could just not give it to him. “You’re right. He’s going to love it.”
I just hoped I hadn’t ruined whatever he got me by going completely over the top.
Chapter Three
Ari
“Yin is going to flip out when you give him these.”
I laughed at the happy dance that Carmen was currently doing in the restaurant’s office. “You think so? He hasn’t talked about it in months.” I was sure at this point I had to be annoying everyone I’d asked to help with this gift with my constant need for reassurance. But I wanted to get it right. “I just hope I made the right call with this extremely over the top present.
Carmen gave me an incredulous look and came over to where I was sitting. She looked primed to launch into a pep talk when Jude walked in.
“What’s going on in here? Did the tickets arrive?” I had to smile at how thrilled he sounded.
“Yep!” I responded as Carmen nodded. Jude grinned when I handed them over for him to see. “Wow, your c
ousin really came through with those,” he said to Carmen, as he looked at the orchestra-seat Hamilton tickets she’d secured. Carmen’s cousin worked for the Richard Rodgers Theatre and had been able to get them for her at a discount. They had still cost an arm and a leg though. Which was only one of the like five different reasons for my fretting.
I was still trying to manage the pit that opened up in my stomach when I thought about the current state of my bank account. But Yin had been wanting to go to New York City to see a Broadway show since we’d met. His dream was to see Hamilton, and we’d been talking about it for so long but it never seemed to be the right time. The truth was that finding a four-day period when we were both free and had enough funds to take a trip wasn’t a challenge. But I wanted to do this for him and to celebrate the major milestones we’d both reached this year. Getting into nursing and law school were the dreams that we barely dared to dream and yet, next fall that’s exactly what we would be doing.
I’d been thinking about getting show tickets from the moment he got his acceptance letter, and then when I got mine, I knew I had to find a way to make Yin’s dream happen. He deserved it. He deserved everything. And sure, I’d had to forego signing up to the soccer clinic in Arizona that I’d been talking about all year. But getting Yin something he wanted so much was worth losing my spot in the clinic.
We’d earned this, and it was high time I stopped living like catastrophe was just around the corner. So I’d splurged on my man. The one person in this world who was everything to me and I refused to let guilt or dread steal my excitement.
“Ari.” Jude’s voice ripped me out of my internal pep talk and I found both him and Carmen looking at me with concern. “Are you okay?”
I shook myself and for a second tried to check in with what I was feeling. Yeah, I was nervous and every time I thought about the money I’d spent on this gift I did get a little nauseous, but I knew what that was. It was what I’d gone through in the detention center. Every step of the way it felt like I never had enough money to get what I needed. No enough money for a lawyer, not enough money for food, not enough money for phone calls to my family. Everything I’d needed that year had a cost and most of the times I could not cover it. I’d come to America with an idea of arriving at a place where people could find a way forward. But from the moment I’d arrived in the US, I’d learned that forging a path usually required payment, even for the most basic things. Since then, I’ve always made sure I have money set aside for an emergency.
American Christmas (Dreamers) Page 2