After so much time of waiting, the time was finally counting down from ten seconds before Christmas Eve. Stefan, for the first time after 15 years, he's got someone to celebrate Christmas with. It was a bittersweet feeling. He had been wanting to celebrate Christmas with his family but they never care about him. Just year. He didn't even receive a single message from them.
And now, the person that he knew few months ago cared so much about him. She was like Alexander in his life - his light and guidance.
"10..9..8..7…3..2..1! Merry Christmas!"
Stefan opened a bottle of champagne and poured everyone except for Cayenne's mother. "Sorry Auntie. I can only serve you with fruit juice. Ayen, will kill me if I let you drink wine."
Cayenne's mother laughed at the mention of this from Stefan. "It's fine. I can understand that. Cayenne can be very frightening when she's mad."
Stefan nodded his head in agreement. "I still like when she's angry."
"I hope you won't give up to understand her."
"I promise I won't let her suffer when she's under my care, auntie. I'll always listen to her."
They continued to talk while drinking wine and juice. Cayenne approached them with a frown. "Why are you guys just standing here? Don't you have plans to eat? Drinking juice and wine with an empty stomach isn't good." She scolded her boyfriend and her mother. "Let's go to the dining room and eat."
"Yes. Yes." Cayenne's mother nodded her head as she walked towards the kitchen. Watching her walk away with slow steps, Cayenne felt so helpless. But she was still thankful because she got to spend another Christmas with her mother.
"Let's eat." She poked Stefan's waist with her index finger.
He caught her finger, pulled her closer to him and intertwined their fingers instead. "This feels better."
"Are you planning to hold my hands for the rest of the night?"
"If you allow me to."
"You'll have a hard time eating." Cayenne retorted.
"If there's a will, there's a way." The two of them walked towards the dining. Others were already eating and chatting.
Luna looked behind her and found Cayenne and her boss walking slowly as if they're walking down on a red carpet towards the altar. "Alright, stop flirting already. Flirting won't fill your stomach." She commented which made Cayenne blushed but she only lowered her head because no matter how much she tried to pull back her hand, Stefan won't let her go.
"Let's eat properly. I'll let you hold me hand later." Cayenne whispered softly, just enough for Stefan to hear.
Stefan agreed immediately and let go of her. They sat beside each other and helped each other with food. Stefan was busy getting food for Cayenne, specially the shrimps and scallops, because Cayenne loves seafood. The shells were already removed so Stefan didn't have to peel the shells for Cayenne.
Cayenne was also placing food on her plate, basically, the two were like exchanging plates to serve.
Kyle was happy for his sister but Luiz couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes. 'Even during dinner, they're still flirting.' He thought to himself. Luna thought the same.
They continued to eat and chat with everyone else. Sometimes, Stefan would feed Cayenne some food whenever he found something interesting.
After an hour, they finished eating their Christmas Eve dinner and went back to the living room.
"It's time to open gifts!" Luiz exclaimed. Even though they weren't rich, Cayenne would always save some money to buy presents for her family. She never skipped a year. This year was a bit different because Stefan bought gifts for them, too. "Sis, what did you get for us?"
"Why don't you get it and open it yourself?" Cayenne retorted. She just didn't want to stand up because Stefan was holding her hand again. She promised and now, he's getting what she owed him.
Luiz jumped on his seat and went to the side of the small Christmas tree and looked for his gifts. "I have four gifts?" He questioned since he found four gift bags with his name on it. He was the youngest among the group so they let him open his gifts first. "I have one from my sister. Oh! You have something for me, Kyle?
I wonder what this is." He looked the other bag which was from Luna. "Thank you for this Lulu." There's one more box without the sender's name. he looked towards Stefan who only smiled to him. "Thank you, big bro."
"Alright. Just open it so we can see." Kyle nudged him with his elbow.
"Now that the boss has his own gifts, I'm starting to feel embarrass with my cheap items." Luna mentioned with a faint and helpless smile.
"It's the thought that counts." Cayenne told her. And of course, she got a gift for her best friend and Ali. She just didn't tell them yet.
Luiz opened the gift from his sister first. It was a new backpack with an additional compartment for his laptop. It was waterproof as well. Next was the gift from Luna. He got two branded white shirts and a denim pants. "You really know me." Luiz told Luna with a wide smile.
Luna chuckled with his response. "Just make sure you wash them properly." Among everyone, only Stefan had no idea that Luiz was also obsessed with white. In fact, majority of his clothes are white with different prints and from different brands. Some of them were bought from thrift shops and the others were given to him as presents.
Luiz just smiled and opened the gift from Stefan. It was a limited rubber shoes from one of the most expensive shoe company. Luiz blinked his eyes, and blinked it again before everything sank in his mind. "Really? This is mine?"
"Your name was written on the box, right?" Luiz nodded his head. "Then, that's yours. There's no way I'd mistake the names I wrote on it." Stefan responded which made Luiz jumped up and down.
"Thank you. Thanks a lot." Luiz mentioned while hugging the pair of shoes.