For the next hour, we watched the last bit of A Christmas Story that was still on while eating the cinnamon rolls and drinking coffee. But, as soon as the credits came on, Gray jumped to his feet and crossed to the tree, where I had just noticed there were a dozen more presents than there had been the night before.
After rubbing his hands together in excitement, he grabbed two presents, handing one to Alicia and the other to me. “I hope you like them,” he grumbled, a sheepish look on his handsome face.
The box wasn’t heavy. If anything, mine barely felt like there was anything in it at all. It wasn’t overly large, but it wasn’t small, either. Carefully, I tore the paper off while Alicia destroyed her wrapping and quickly dug her present out. It had always amused me, the way Alicia acted like a kid when she got a present. She couldn’t seem to wait to find the surprise inside, and now was no different.
“Gray!” she cried when she pulled out a vibrant-red silk scarf. Red was her favorite color, and she was crazy about scarfs. “This is perfect, sweetheart. I love it. Thank you.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
I was still carefully unboxing my own gift. After pulling the top off, I found Styrofoam and carefully eased the two thick halves apart. When I saw the purple glass figurine of a butterfly, tears burned my eyes. It looked delicate and was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
Alicia took a peek at my present and gasped at how lovely it was. “Gray, where did you find something so beautiful?”
“I had it commissioned,” he said with a shrug, as if it weren’t a big deal.
But it was, at least to me. He had been thinking of me when he had ordered this little butterfly; I had been on his mind. I had known that he missed me, but I couldn’t have imagined he missed me as much as I missed him. He was having fun. Living his dream of playing his music and partying every night. Why would he possibly miss me as much as I missed him?
But this little butterfly?
It showed me that maybe I was wrong.
Maybe he could miss me as much as I missed him.
***
We never had a big feast for Christmas day. To us, that was what Thanksgiving was for. Everyone was usually so tired from getting up early and the excitement of opening gifts that no one felt like cooking. Alicia had started the tradition of having Chinese for dinner, something I figured she had taken from A Christmas Story, but I wasn’t going to complain.
I could tell that her head was starting to ache from the way she kept dropping things. She wasn’t a clumsy person, and I had watched her closely over the last few months, so I knew the signs of when she was about to crash and burn with a headache that left her moaning in her room.
She tried to put on a brave face for Gray’s sake, but I could tell she was about to give up and go to bed even though it was barely six o’clock. As soon as the food arrived, she took one whiff of it and turned green.
“I think I’m going to lie down for a little while,” she muttered, swallowing hard as she put a hand to her mouth to drown the smell of the food out.
Gray’s eyes narrowed on her as if he were trying to read her.
But I hugged her goodnight. “Sure. You rest up. I’ll clean up down here.”
She gave me a weak smile before kissing Gray on the cheek and hastily leaving the kitchen. Gray stood at the counter, an eggroll in his hand, trying to slyly dip it in my sweet and sour sauce, but his gaze was still on where Alicia had just disappeared. When we heard her door shut upstairs, he turned his gaze on me.
“She’s having a headache, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” I confessed. “I told you and Jace she hasn’t been well in months.”
He turned and leaned back against the counter, the eggroll in his hand almost forgotten. “I know, but when I’ve talked to her, she’s seemed fine. Cheerful, even.”
“Because she doesn’t want to worry you.”
“What does the doctor say?”
I shrugged and stole his eggroll, which was still coated in a little of the sweet and sour sauce. “I don’t know. She won’t let me go to her appointments with her. She told me it was just migraines caused by stress from work, but she’s had a lot of migraines lately.”
“And that’s all it is? Migraines?” He looked just as suspicious as I felt.
But Alicia had never lied to me before, so I had to believe that she was telling the truth.
“It’s what she said, Gray. Why would she lie?”
“I don’t think she would lie. Just not tell you everything.” Something dark crossed his face, but I knew what he was talking about, what he was thinking. He was remembering the promises she had made him after his mother had died.