Page 42 of The Holiday Boyfriend

The square was built around the Christmas tree that stood taller than any of the buildings on Main Street. Every year, they would decorate the tree with lights and ornaments. And, of course, the Doves of Destiny sat at the top, watching over the entire town.

I followed Jim's finger to a pair of ornaments that were nestled together on one of the lower branches. They looked vaguely familiar, so I walked forward to take a closer look.

“Wait, are these…?” I asked as I studied the balls hanging on the tree. A faint memory surfaced in my mind.

It was a tradition of sorts for our town’s residents to contribute something to the tree, as a way to get the Doves' blessing for another year. Jim and I usually bought something from a small business as our contribution, and we did the same this year as well. Or so I’d thought.

I looked at the painted ornaments that clearly weren't the ones I remembered buying. During our junior year of high school, our art class decided it was a great idea to make handmade ones.I vaguely recalled painting mine to look like a snowman, but a kid had bumped into me after class and made me drop it.

The ornament shattered, but thankfully, nobody was hurt. I was a bit sad to see all my hard work going to waste, and that night, Jim surprised me with supplies to make new ones.

We'd made a night of it and had each painted a new snowman ornament that we used to decorate the giant Christmas tree that year. It had been a long time since I'd thought about them and didn't remember what had even happened to them, but here they were.

“Yep! I found them in the back of the closet in Mom's house. Thought we could maybe get double the blessing this year,” he said with a cheeky grin.

“I can't believe I'm seeing them again,” I mused as I continued to look at them. We'd been fooling around while painting the glass, and Jim had accidentally gotten a spot of red paint on the bottom of my snowman. He'd laughed and said now he could always find my ornament from the red mole on its bum.

I smiled as the long ago memories played like an old VHS tape. The memory was fuzzy but still warming nevertheless.

“We have Mom's hoarding tendencies to thank for that. She probably kept all the trinkets from when I was a kid, says ‘they're memories’,” he said with mock exasperation, but I could still hear the affection in his voice. He loved his mom, and that was just another thing that made him even more endearing.

We walked around the tree for a bit, looking at all the different ornaments our fellow townsfolk had contributed. Jim pointed out the professional, clear glass ornaments with dried flowers inside that were Edna's new project. She grew her own flowers to make crafts and sell online, and she was very skilled in her craft.

After about an hour of walking around the main square and checking out the stalls and their wares, Jim led me to a little alleyway that was tucked behind Main Street, where we used to hang out and chat when we wanted to be alone.

Yes, scary movies would advise people tonothang out in alleyways, but we were young and our little town had basically no major crime. It was the perfect place to get away from the crowd while still being able to people watch.

We used to sit here for hours talking about everything and anything. During our senior year, this was also the place Jim told me he didn't plan to go to college and wanted to work at Snowfield Farm instead.

Sitting here now at twenty-eight, it really put into perspective how young and naive we were back then. And those two foolish teens had now become foolish adults, still trying to figure out life.

Next, he brought me to the fanciest restaurant in town. The waiter led us to a seat in the back by the windows that I realized was the same table as the last time we'd come here for Jim's twenty-first birthday.

Neither of us were the type of people who enjoyed fine dining—good food was delicious regardless of price point—but I'd saved to take him here for his twenty-first birthday. He was about half a year younger than me, so it was the first time we drank together in public.

We'd gotten drunk on red wine that was much too expensive and filled up on steak that cost an arm and a leg despite the portion being smaller than my fist, but we'd still enjoyed our time with good conversation and so much laughing that the other patrons had given us dirty looks.

Now that we were finally eating at the same place seven years later, not much had changed. The wine was still ridiculously priced and the steak portion seemed even smaller than it had back then. Jim joked that my steaks were better than the pigeon food they served us, which made me laugh a bit too loudly for this establishment.

Jim had insisted on paying for lunch despite me trying to persuade him to split the giant bill, but he wasn't having any of it. He quickly paid and dragged me off to the next activity he'd planned for us.

We walked around the park where we'd watched countless movies on the lawn, got dessert at the bakery we’d frequented, and stopped by the coffee shop I used to study at for my online college courses. Back then, Jim would sit with me to keep me company when he was free, even though he wasn't attending college.

The small town I'd lived in my entire life was filled with countless memories of Jim and I from the past ten years. Not much had changed, but at the same time, nothing felt the same either. We'd aged and grown into adults with completely different mindsets and thoughts than our younger selves.

The one consistent through it all was Jim, the strong pillar of strength that always stayed by my side. Even before we’d started this “situationship”, he had always been the person I came back to.

He was the rock that had stayed my safe place throughout all the years of change and growth.

We spent the entire day in town like Jim had planned, and we'd passed countless familiar faces. There were no strange looks pointed at Jim and me holding hands and nobody even commented when Jim snuck a kiss on my cheek in the middle of the square.

Everything was business as usual. So much so that I almost believed that this wasn't the same curious town that I’d been born in. I thought there would be dozens of questions to fill their gossip-hungry minds, but the townspeople merely greeted us, making small talk about the weather or how their business was going.

Jim was full of smiles all day, which only got brighter with each person that greeted us. I had a suspicious feeling that he was somehow involved in how strange they were all acting today.

As darkness fell onto the town, Main Street was still brightly lit from all the lights that were strung around the Christmas tree and the square. Even though this was a familiar scene that I'd experienced every year, it never stopped feeling magical.

We weren't the only couple that stood around the large Christmas tree, admiring the bright twinkling lights that chased away the darkness.

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