Page 25 of You Can't Ruin Christmas

Chapter Eleven

As we ride in the cab to my parents’ house, Sven and I are holding hands and snuggling up blissfully in the back. Needless to say, that was the best plane ride of my life. I feel so warm and satisfied that I barely notice the dramatic temperature shift from California sun to Minnesota snow. I feel like there is warmth spreading through me to the very tips of my hair.

Talk about a major afterglow.

My skin is alive and tingling all over. I feel damn near radioactive.

And I know it’s about to get even better, because we’re close to Snowflake Creek.

“Mary,” Sven says softly.

“Hmm?” I respond, still not feeling like using real words.

“I don’t want you to lie to your parents about who I am,” he says. “I know that’s why you brought me out here, but I don’t want to begin our relationship on a lie.”

I am just so happy that he wants to begin a relationship that it’s hard to focus on the rest of his words. “I just don’t know if they would be happy for me,” I explain, “or take this seriously if it’s something that just started, versus something solid that they’ve known about for years.”

He frowns. “What happens when you actually want to introducemeto them at some point in the future? And they already met me, playing the role of Sebastian?”

“I don’t know, Sven. But you heard my mom. We are here to cheerthemup, and make them feel happy. Especially while my dad’s health is failing. We just need to bring them some hope that their daughter isn’t a total failure.”

“But you’re not a total failure,” he says. “You’ve got that audition lined up, and I’m sure I can get you many more. Romantically, if you end up with me instead of Sebastian, is that a failure? Are you embarrassed of me?”

“No, Sven,” I say, sitting up and looking at him. I take his hands. “I’m not embarrassed of you at all. It’s just really new, and I don’t know how it would look to them. Hey, Mom and Dad! Remember that guy I was dating for years? Well, he just dumped me, so I started boning his brother instead! But Sven’swaybetter, and this time it’s for real. We just hadgreatsex in an airplane bathroom, so I’m sure he’s the one.”

“Okay, you’re right. That does make you look a bit like an idiot,” he says with a grin. “I mean, I am the one, but not just because of the airplane. And you’re not boning me, I’m boning you.”

“Having a bone doesn’t automatically mean you’re the one doing the boning,” I inform him. “Don’t be sexist.”

“Alright,” Sven concedes. “We can tell your parents that we are boning each other.”

“That’s acceptable.”

Noticing that our cab driver might have heard some of this, I blush.

“And I was majorly an idiot,” I tell Sven, linking my fingers with his. “For not realizing how awesome you were sooner.” As I say this, the cab begins driving through the center of downtown. A huge smile takes over my features as I get flooded with nostalgia for the place I grew up, and sheer joy to be home.

Every single shop on Main Street is decorated with a ridiculous amount of Christmas lights. They never take them down, and they just add more each year. To make things even better, there are elegant arches throughout the boulevard, and each of those is covered ineven morelights.

We are arriving while it is still dark, so luckily we get the full effect of how magical it is here.

“What on earth is this place?” Sven asks in amazement, staring out the window. I can see the colorful lights reflecting in his eyes, and he looks like a little boy on Christmas morning.

“Welcome to Snowflake Creek!” I announce with a big smile.

“You didn’t tell me it was… like this,” he says, gesturing around us.

“You wouldn’t have believed me. You kept saying that Minnesota was the middle of nowhere with nothing to do except have sex, remember?”

“Well, I mean, just because it’s beautiful and festive doesn’t mean there’s anything to do,” he responds.

“Excuse me, but you cannot talk about Snowflake Creek that way. In fact, we are stopping to grab tacos at my favorite place, just because you said that.”

“I am always down for tacos,” Sven says. “But where are you going to get any at 6AM?”

“We have a 24 hour Mexican restaurant,” I tell him, as I lean forward to redirect the cab driver. “It would suck to live in a place where you can’t get good tacos in the middle of the night.”

“Truer words were never spoken,” he agrees. “Maybe we can consider this our first date.”

“So, your taco place is named Away in a Manger?” Sven asks, as our food arrives.

“Well, technically, it’s Manger—which is French for ‘to eat,’ but they put the rest of the sign up for the holiday season.”

“That’s adorable,” he says.

“It is not adorable,” I inform him seriously, as I pick up one of the hard shells. “Each taco is a little bundle of magic, delicately holding perfect ingredients together in a combination that is so scrumptious, it will make you believe in all that is holy.”

“That is a really good sales pitch,” Sven says, as he picks up his own taco.

“I used to work here in high school,” I admit, closing my eyes as I take my first bite. “Mmmmm. Yes.”

Sven chuckles. “I didn’t realize you were so religious about tacos.”

“Who isn’t?” I ask, with my mouth full.

After enjoying our food together, Sven brings up the subject of not lying to my parents again, and we begin to argue slightly. His position is still that I should tell them the truth, but I am worried that it will disappoint them and make them worried about me, which is the opposite of what we came here to achieve.

Finally, I offer a compromise. “How about I tell my sister? My sister, Eve, who lives in Alaska. That way, I’m not lying to my whole family about you, and you can know that I’m serious about you and you’re important to me. We can also gauge Eve’s reaction, and use that to determine whether we should tell my parents the truth, and maybe ask her advice on the situation. She’s the one who sent me over here to Minnesota, and she’s really worried about my dad.”

“Hmm,” Sven says, still negotiating. “I’ll see your sister, and raise you an Instagram post.”

“What?”

“A selfie, taken right here at your favorite taco place, posted to Instagram as a memory of our first date.”

“Sven,” I say softly. “Your brother could see it too.”

“I don’t care,” he says, taking my hand. “That’s the whole point. I want to be with you and don’t care what anyone thinks.”

“Okay,” I say with a smile. “I’ll call Eve first.”

“Isn’t it too early in Alaska?” he asks.

I wave my hand dismissively. “Eve is a writer. She works at all hours and has no concept of day or night. It doesn’t help that there’s virtually no sunlight.”

Sven nods. “Some parts of Sweden are like that too. Okay, go ahead and call her.”

When I dial Eve, I wrinkle up my face anxiously, knowing that she’s going to make fun of me for this. I might never live it down. I put her on speaker.

She answers almost instantly. “Mary? Are you in Minnesota? How’s Dad?”

“I am here in Snowflake Creek, but we haven’t gone home to see them yet.”

“We?” Eve repeats. “Is Sebastian there with you?”

“No, Eve. Not Sebastian. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” I say awkwardly.

“Not Sebastian? Then who the hell is with you?” Eve asks.

“His brother, Sven.”

“His brother?” Eve exclaims loudly.

“Look, Sebastian dumped me a while ago and became a massive jerk, and Sven was there for me…”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Eve yells through the phone, making me flinch. “Do you have a fetish?”

“Sorry?”

“Dating men named after animals from Disney movies! First Sebastian the singing crab from The Little Mermaid, and now Sven the reindeer from Frozen? Who’s next? Olaf? Simba? Abu?”

Sighing, I slap a palm against my forehead. I see that Sven is chuckling beside me. “I didn’t choose their names, okay?”

“Are you going to call me one day and say you’ve hooked up with Nemo? Iago? Mushu? Stitch?”

“Stop it, Eve. It was completely unintentional, and that is also not the whole point of this phone call. You see, Mom was pressuring me to bring Sebastian because she thought it would cheer up Dad. So, I was planning to just… pretend that Sven is Sebastian. So that Mom and Dad don’t know how complicated everything is. But Sven says we shouldn’t start our relationship on a lie, and I know it’s not fair to him. What do you think I should do?”

“That is… a tricky question,” Eve responds. “Can you turn on video, so I can see your reindeer?”

I press the button to allow Eve to see us.

“Hello, Rudolph,” she says, when she sees Sven. “Don’t you have some muscles.”

“Am I going to have to deal with reindeer jokes for the rest of my life?” Sven asks with a groan.

“Probably,” Eve answers. “So, what are your intentions with my sister?”

“I’m just going to try to make her as happy as I possibly can, for as long as she’ll let me,” Sven responds.

“Good answer,” Eve says, nodding with approval. “Okay, you can keep this one, Mary. He’s a good reindeer.”

“That doesn’t help me decide what to do with Mom and Dad,” I inform her.

“Hell if I know, sis! You’re on your own.”

I sigh, kneading my forehead. “Okay, fine. How’s Adam, by the way. Are you pregnant yet?”

Eve grimaces, glancing back over her shoulder to where Adam probably is, in the next room. “One crisis at the time. I’ll tell you everything later.”

We say our goodbyes and hang up, and then Sven takes my phone away from me and holds it up. “What’s going on?” I ask him.

“You promised me a selfie, remember?”

“Ahh, okay. Let me just make sure there’s no taco on my face.”

Sven grins. “I want to get your taco all over my face later.”

This makes me smile, and he snaps a photo.

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