Page 116 of Touch in the Dark

“What in the ever-loving fuck…”

“Language, Nicholas!”

“Sorry,” Nick ducks his head. “But… Sandy what the hell?”

“Welcome to Winter Rock n Roll Wonderland,” she skips over and grabs hold of Brooke, who almost drops the bag she is carrying. “Hi honey,” she kisses her cheek.

“Is that my favourite grandma I hear?” Jordan appears in the doorway. He isn’t dressed as Santa. He’s a gingerbread man cookie. Nick bursts out laughing.

“Here, take these,” he thrusts Doris’s cookies at Jordan. “You look like an idiot.”

“The Grinch is here!” Jordan shouts into the apartment.

Doris, Sandy and Brooke head inside, I turn back to help Nick with some of the bags as Jordan waits, holding the cookie tray. He ushers us inside with a huge grin on his face. Sandy is handing out glasses of eggnog or spiced mulled wine. I take a wine then turn to look around.

“This is going to take some cleaning up,” Doris points out as Brooke helps her to the only sofa in the room.

Santa’s sleigh fills up a space where there used to be another one, it’s laden with gifts and there are more mechanical reindeers lined up in front of it. There is a snow machine in the corner, gently blowing out flakes of white. There are five snowmen lined up, and behind them a big sign saying Best Dressed Snow-Friend Wins a Prize. There are six Christmas trees dotted around, all varying sizes, only two are decorated, the rest have huge boxes beside them. If I had to guess, I’d say that is another competition.

“Gifts in the sleigh,” Jordan shouts, leading us into the room.

Jenna bops over in a cute red and black sweater that looks like a chimney, there are a pair of upside-down black Santa boots sticking up over her shoulder. She gives me a hug and kiss then envelopes Nick in a tight squeeze. He then goes and puts our bags in the sleigh and slaps hands with Adam as he grabs a beer from a cooler in a pile of snow.

I greet the others as Sandy comes around with a box full of Christmas hats and headbands. I choose a green headband with glittery red reindeer antlers, Nick takes a turkey hat and plops it on his head.

“Oh, I need a photograph of that,” I say, taking out my phone.

“Hold on,” he pulls out a red and green bobble hat with Elf ears on the side and sets it on top of Doris’s head, then sits next to her and grins broadly.

I snap a few photos, then turn around and take pictures of everyone else. And the decorations. They really did go all out here. Even Alessa has a hat on, hers is a replica crown from Frozen, the ice queen herself.

“This should be yours,” she points at me. “Crown, name.”

“Heard that one before,” I laugh.

We swap hats anyway. Surprisingly, Adam starts singing Let It Go to me and Jenna joins in. Sandy offers around food and cookies and more spiced wine and beer. She has this whole night planned like a well-oiled machine and before anyone gets comfortable doing any one thing, we’re moving on to the next.

We’re put into teams of three and all take a Snow-Friend each. Some of the accessories they’ve piled in the boxes have my eyes popping out of my head. I hold up a glittery neon pink dildo and look at Sandy, who just so happens to have a camera ready as my mouth drops open.

I turn and stick it on top of Nick’s snowman, he isn’t on my team. He starts to laugh then glances around at his grandma, but she is deep in conversation with DiMarco and hasn’t noticed.

“Jesus,” Joey says as he stares at it. “That thing is huge.”

“Triple XL,” Jordan tells him. “Like me,” he grabs his crotch. Alessa slaps his ass making him yelp.

They look totally stupid when we’re all done but Doris judges them and she picks the one with the pink unicorn horn. Most of us manage to stifle our laughter but Jordan cheers and hugs her. Nick glares daggers at him. Each member on the team wins a gift card for a different restaurant in the city.

I’m feeling a little tipsy by the time tree trimming comes around, but these at least are a little more traditional. I’m on the winning team this time and am overjoyed at the miniature carved Christmas tree with a beautiful star at the top that we each win.

“Gift time!” Jordan clambers into the sleigh and roots through the bags. His Elf helper hands them out and I’m stunned to have a pile of gifts at my feet when they’re done dividing them out.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Nick kisses the side of my neck, then pulls me to the ground beside our piles. “You’re family.”

I clear my throat, not wanting to be the one who starts crying. People are already opening their gifts. Stone opens a sweater, reads it, and holds it up with a shake of his head. I read the words and laugh, ‘Security Guard, because badass motherfucker is not an official job title.’

There are a lot of joke gifts, mainly from Jordan but there are some really amazing ones too. Jenna and Adam got me a beautiful rose gold charm bracelet, which they have started off with a mini makeup brush, a tiny bass guitar and a pair of panties.

“For the photoshoot that brought you back together,” Jenna giggles as she hugs me.

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