Page 42 of Christmas Cheer

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Evan

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Evan

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Ryan

ok I don’t understand what’s going on, but I was just told Mark and I are gonna be guncles and you’re playing an integral role in that but blocked dipshit’s messages

Ryan

can I get you anything?

Keira

I’m ok ty

Ryan

I have a bye week coming up. I want to come see you. We haven’t hung out in years. Have you even met Mark? No, right?

Keira

Once. 3 Christmases ago, remember? You came down to campus to get him bc idk something w his car I think? And we went out for drinks

Ryan

OMG DIPSHIT HAD THAT LOW PROFILE CAR AND GOT IT STUCK IN A SNOW DRIFT AND WAS BEING A LITTLE BITCH ABOUT IT

Keira

oh right and the 3 of you and a couple of his teammates ended up just lifting it out

Ryan

damn I wish you could have seen how hot Mark was lifting that tail all by himself. We’ll see you in 2 weeks ok

Keira

no you guys are busy I’m sure. You don’t need to do that

Ryan

get a week out of Minnesota in March? I assure you we do.

Moving to a foreign country I’d never been before and didn’t speak the language of at the very moment I became pregnant has been an adventure. I’m eternally thankful that most people here do speak enough English that we can make it work, but learning German has been proving more difficult than I expected.

The women I’ve talked to about it have said it’s pregnancy brain, and maybe they’re right. It’s hard to tell.

It’s also hard to tell why I’m so sad all the time. Hormones? Homesickness? Existential dread? The unending logistics dance I’m having to play? Missing the dipshit, as he’s become in my brain thanks to Ryan?

Seeing him and Mark was great, but they’re so damn happy together, and every old high school memory we laughed over was tinged with the realization that the dipshit was always there. No matter what we did, he was somehow involved in it.

“You should talk to him,” Ryan said after about the fiftieth time we had to stop in the middle of regaling Mark with our teenage shenanigans because there was no way to navigate the next part without bringing the dipshit into the story.

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