Page 23 of Dark Time

It wasn’t a very excited fine, and I pushed up off the bed with a slight glare in his general direction. “I’m up! Let me have a minute in the bathroom, and I’ll come out. Is there coffee?”

“Indeed, there is, Em. I’ll go and prepare a cup for your majesty.” He bowed as he slid from the bed and left me to it. I couldn’t help but forgive him for waking me up.

He’d spent the days leading up to Christmas the happiest I’d seen him. We’d started work on the resort, yet, somehow, he’d managed to add a present to the growing pile under the tree every day. I went to work with him, to lunch, and came home with him, but every single day, he walked into the apartment with something in a bag that he’d leave under the tree.

I’d never been the kind to sneak a peek at the presents. My brothers would try to lift the tape from the edges of the presents to have a quick look at what they were getting. I’d always looked at the pile of presents under the tree and thought the whole presentation represented our family well.

The boxes weren’t decorated with cheap and somewhat gaudy paper, as my mother called it, that other families had. Oh no, we had white boxes with silver, gold, red, or green ribbons. The colors were never mixed up, and the ribbons were never large or ostentatious. The whole display was cold to me, clinical, and the bare minimum of cheerful. I hated it. That’s why the presents I’d bought for Dylan were decorated with paper that was printed with brightly colored Santas and snowmen, holly and snowflakes, and all sorts of colors. I’d even put a rather lurid amount of ribbons on the presents.

It was an in your face extravaganza of Christmas cheer, and I couldn’t help but smile as I joined Dylan in the living room. He was surrounded by a fort of boxes that had started to call my name. The pile of boxes I had from Dylan were similarly decorated, and I knew he must have spent a fortune on wrapping materials. Some of those ribbons actually looked like necklaces. He smiled up at me from the floor and patted a spot at his side.

“Sit here. I know we should probably eat first, or do something that says we know how to adult properly, but I don’t want to do that. You’ve inspired me to find that kid in me again. For once, I want to be completely immature and break into these boxes you’ve brought for me. Since it’s just you and I, well, we can do what we want, can’t we?”

Dylan had explained to me the week before that his adoptive parents had flown down to Puerto Rico for Christmas, which meant I had him all to myself. Later we planned to make dinner and sit in front of the television watching dated Christmas movies and cartoons.

I placed my hand on his smooth cheek and looked into his smiling gray eyes. He really was magnificent. I could see the little boy that he’d never been allowed to be in the face of the grown man and finally got my brain into gear.

“Fuck adulting, Dylan. Let’s do this.” I leaned over, kissed him quickly, and reached for a box with the gaudiest amount of ribbons. It was the sweater I’d bought for him, and I gave it to him now. He probably wouldn’t get much of a kick out of it, but I knew he’d like it. “Here, open this one first.”

“Okay, you open this one.” He handed me a large, thin box that looked like a clothing box and when I felt how light it was, I knew it must be some kind of clothing too. I went to pluck the ribbon away, and found out I was wrong. It was a thin gold herringbone chain necklace. I looked up at him, my eyes round with awe.

“I had to do something awesome didn’t I?” he asked with a jaunty smile and just a tiny amount of cockiness. “I can’t do things completely normal, now can I?”

“Thank you.” I leaned over, kissed his cheek, then opened the box.

It was filled with multicolored tissue paper, and when I didn’t find anything, I looked over at him perplexed. “Was the necklace the gift?”

“No, go back through the paper; it must have got stuck to one of the pieces.” His eyes conveyed a message, something I didn’t quite understand.

This must be something important then.

I squished the paper around until I found a round, flat piece of plastic. I dug it out of the paper and looked down at it. It was a name tag for the resort, and on it was a title and five letters I never thought I’d see.

EMILY-Director of Marketing and Sales

“You don’t have to actually wear it, but all of my staff will have one. I thought you’d like to see yours now.”

“Dylan…” I was speechless. Not because he’d given me a nametag as a present, but because he was giving me a chance. I’ve never had a real job, not one with office hours and benefits, and things like that. I was always working when it came to my family, but that wasn’t the same thing, not to me. This was a real job, one that I could be proud of. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“It’ll be my pleasure, Emily. If there comes a time when you want to move on or do something else, you just let me know. We’ll figure out what needs to be done.”

“This might be the best present I’ve ever been given.” I looked down at the thin piece of plastic and really meant what I’d said. I wasn’t quite sure he realized it, but that name tag was a promise of a future far more solid than the words he’d put into the last contract we’d signed.

This nametag meant permanence, home, and a place where I was needed and appreciated. It meant I was home, at last.

“Thank you, Dylan. You’ve given me the world on a platter, do you know that?” I meant it too. He’d opened up my eyes and given me so much. I’d started this journey on my own, but when I met him the future had changed for me. Now he was going to give me a chance to prove myself.

We went through the rest of the presents, and I was surprised when Dylan really gushed over the sweater and scarf I’d bought him. He wasn’t usually a gusher, but he really liked the handmade presents.

“You know, I’ve been given so many things in my life, but nobody has ever bought me anything so … suitable.” The sweater was nice, and it fit him perfectly; I knew that because he’d put it on immediately. The color made his eyes stand out and enhanced his muscular physique.

“I’m glad you like it,” I said with a pleased note in my voice.

“I do. Now, let’s see what else is in here.” He smiled a happy smile, and we went on with the opening of boxes.

I had enough jewelry now to start my own store, dresses, lingerie and a few things that didn’t make sense at first, but then I thought about them and realized what they meant. There were picture frames and a very expensive vase, as well as a few figurines of lighthouses that reminded me of our time on that little island we’d visited together.

They were the kind of things his mother would have destroyed during her rages, things he’d learned long ago to put away or not purchase at all. Another promise of a very different kind of future for both of us.