Club Endless Fantasy

“Yeah.” Elly nodded. “There were a few that I made in school. It would be fun to have those on my tree, even if they’re not the best.”

“Is there anything else that you want?” I motioned to the premium ornaments.

“I see a few…” She sighed. “I just don’t think I can blow a whole paycheck in one aisle.”

“If there’s something you really want, I don’t mind buying it for you.” I took her hand. “Seriously, it can be part of your gift.”

“Nah, I don’t want to take your money…” She shook her head quickly.

“Fine, then I’m just going to buy all the ones that you were looking at.” I started loading them into the cart.

“I really didn’t like that one…” She picked one of the ornaments up and put it back on the shelf.

“I know you liked this one.” I picked up the Beauty and the Beast ornament.

“It’s just so expensive.” She sighed. “Disney certainly loves to slap a high price on everything they own.”

“We’re getting it.” I put the ornament in the cart.

Elly and I had some tug-of-war over what I wanted to buy for her, but she finally stopped fighting when she realized that I wasn’t going to put everything back. She had a tree, and she needed ornaments, so I had no intention of giving up. Christmas lights were next, followed by a few decorations for her apartment, and I convinced her to let me buy the nice stocking that she wanted to put back. The compromise was that she would pay to have her name embroidered on it. What she didn’t know was that it was going to be temporary—my grandmother made stockings for everyone in the family, and I was pretty sure that Elly was going to have one of her own at some point.

She started working on my brother-in-law’s stocking before he even popped the question.

After our trip to Dillinger’s Department Store, we made a few more stops to pick up additional decorations, and the stores were starting to get crowded. Elly disappeared on me when we got to the outdoor mall, and when I finally found her, she had several bags of stuff that she purchased on her own. I assumed she was just trying to make sure I didn’t buy everything she looked at—which was kind of cute in a way. I wanted to give her the world, and she wouldn’t even let me swipe my credit card for a few nice things that I felt like she deserved. She had to know that I wasn’t going to break the bank—unless she didn’t realize how successful Alexander Software really was.

“I think we’re all set.” I loaded the last few bags into the car—and shifted a wrapped present that was already in my trunk into one of them.

“What was that?” She tilted her head inquisitively.

“Something for later…” I looked at her and smiled.

“Is that my present?” She narrowed her eyes and leaned forward.

“No peeking.” I nudged her.

“I guess I do need something under the tree.” She bit down on her bottom lip and grinned.

“This won’t be staying under the tree long.” I shook my head back and forth. “I’m giving it to you tonight.”

“Interesting.” She nodded. “I was planning to give you your gift tonight too.”

“You bought it?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“You’ll just have to wait and see…” She laughed and walked towards the passenger side door.

“Oh, we have two more stops.” I walked over and opened the door for her.

“More stores? If they’re as crowded as this place, we may not be able to find a parking spot.” She sat down in her seat.

“You can always find parking at the liquor store—and the grocery store.” I laughed under my breath. “We need to pick up the stuff for George Washington’s famous eggnog.”

“Ah, I forgot about that.” Elly grinned.

I drove to the liquor store, and Elly was pretty surprised when she saw how much liquor was in the eggnog, she got pretty worried. The recipe called for brandy, whiskey, Jamaican rum, and sherry wine. The grocery store was a quick run-in to grab eggs, sugar, milk, and heavy cream. Elly thought she had some of it already, but I didn’t want to have to go out again because we were missing an ingredient. It took us several trips to get everything from the car to Elly’s apartment, and as soon as we were settled, we ended up on the couch—not thinking about Christmas decorations at all as our lips made up for the time they had spent apart while we were shopping for holiday cheer.

“Thank you for today.” Elly looked up at me when our lips finally parted. “That was a lot of fun—even if you did spend more money on me than I wanted.”

“You’re going to have to let me spoil you some.” I brushed a strand of hair out of her beautiful misty gray eyes.