Epilogue
Auggie
When I first retired from the military and returned stateside after spending years in an active war zone, something as simple as the pop of a champagne cork would have sent me flashing back to memories of gunfire and shouts of pain.
Now, all I could see was Mia’s laughter as the overenthusiastic bubbles spilled over the mouth of the bottle and onto his fingers.
Everyone cheered as he filled their glasses with the soft peach colored drink, while Christmas carols played in the background.
It was Christmas day. A little early for alcohol, but Chantal assured me that as long as we mixed the champagne with orange juice, then it was a perfectly reasonable breakfast drink.
Well, she’d called it brunch, but I’d never understood where the cutoff between breakfast and brunch stood. Either way, it had taken so long for everyone to gather together this morning that it was definitely at least time for late breakfast.
My apartment was too small to host a large group, so Chantal had agreed to host a get together Christmas morning.
It had started with a debate about which of us Melody was going to spend Christmas with—which was decided when she pointed out my apartment didn’t have a chimney so Santa wouldn’t be able to visit—that eventually, led to us just deciding to all celebrate Christmas together.
We were both her parents, after all, and Chantal’s husband, Matt, didn’t mind sharing the Holiday, so there was no problem.
Unfortunately, at almost the same time, Mia had agreed to meet up with Eli for Christmas.
He’d been so distressed about the idea of having to choose between Eli’s invitation and Chantal and Melody’s invitation, that we’d ended up extending the invitation to Eli and his partner, Alex, as well, so everyone would be together and no choices would have to be made.
It was an eclectic group, to say the least, but with everyone decked out in Santa hats and ugly Christmas sweaters we looked as uniform as a military parade.
As the only child in the group, Melody loved all the extra attention.
Her dance studio had put on a special Christmas performance last night, which Mia and I had both obviously attended, and she insisted on continuing to wear the costume today.
The little red dress with white pompoms was especially festive, so neither Chantal nor I had the heart to tell her to change.
After all the money we spent on those costumes, she may as well get extra use out of them.
The white pompoms on Melody’s costume bounced as she dragged me by the hand over to the Christmas tree.
“Come on. Come on. It’s present time.”
Her whole hand could only grab onto a few of my fingers, and I had to bend over to keep from accidentally pulling her off her feet, but I still let her drag me across the room.
“Present time? Already? I don’t know. I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to wait until after dinner for presents.”
A few pieces of loose tinsel blew across the floor like tumbleweeds in a western standoff as Melody stared up at me and stomped her foot.
“Noooo. Presents now. Dinner is in, like…” She glanced at the clock, but she didn’t know how to read an analog clock, so she had no idea what time it was.
“Like, a whole lot of hours away. We can’t wait that long for presents.
They’ll get lonely sitting there if no one opens them. ”
“Well, we can’t let the presents get lonely,” Mia agreed, as he came up next to us. “Melody, how about you start handing the presents out while we get your mother situated, that way we’ll be ready to start once everyone’s sitting down.”
We needed some time to get Chantal from the kitchen into the living room where the tree was set up.
In the last few months, Chantal’s pregnancy had progressed very smoothly, and she now had a very pronounced stomach.
According to her doctors, she was as fit as any pregnant mother could expect to be, but she was still slow to get from place to place, and it was hard for her to get comfortable.
The fact that there was only orange juice in her glass and no champagne didn’t help. I knew she missed drinking. It had been the same when she was pregnant with Melody, but the new baby’s health came first.
Unfortunately, Melody struggled to understand that her mother wasn’t always immediately available when she wanted.
So far, this hadn’t caused too many issues, but we did have to keep her distracted when Chantal needed our attention more.
Assigning her to distribute gifts was a perfect solution.
A precocious six-year-old, as she’d just celebrated her birthday last month, Melody could read, but sorting gifts was still a slow process, so it would take her a little while to work through everyone’s names.
I could have kissed Mia for coming up with this solution. Then, realizing there was nothing stopping me, that’s exactly what I did.
“Eww,” Melody complained. “Why are adults always so yucky?”
She turned away and focused on her task of sorting through the presents, picking up the nearest box and carefully sounding out each letter in the name written on the nametag.
After a few minutes, we managed to get everyone seated on various pieces of furniture we’d dragged around the tree.
Chantal of course had the most comfortable spot on the largest couch, propped up on either side by many pillows and with an ottoman under her feet.
I managed to snag a loveseat for Mia and myself.
It was a tight fit. The furniture was not built for someone of my size, even with Mia’s slight frame, but we managed to make it work.
As presents were distributed, the living room quickly turned into a mess of colorful wrapping. To no one’s surprise, Melody had more presents than anyone, but there was no shortage of gifts for the adults, either.
At my side, I heard Mia gasp as he opened the gift Chantal had given him. “This is too much, Chantal. I already have one that works, and you should be saving for the new baby.”
In his hands sat a box for a brand-new sewing machine, and not a cheap one, either. I’d seen him casually looking at different brands online, so I knew how expensive they could get, and Chantal had chosen one of the better ones.
With a wave of her hand, Chantal dismissed Mia’s protests.
“That old thing you got at the flea market barely works. If you’re going to be using it regularly, you need something more reliable.
I asked around and this one came highly recommended.
Besides, I’ve already got plenty of stuff for the new baby, so don’t you worry about that. ”
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Mia eventually took up sewing as a hobby. Every piece of clothing he bought inevitably had to be altered to fit him, and he got tired of taking his clothes to the tailor all the time. So, he decided to learn how to alter them himself.
What I didn’t expect, was where this sewing hobby eventually led.
As Mia learned more about how clothing worked, he was particularly horrified by the concept of Fast Fashion.
Clothing that was specifically made to fall apart quickly so that it would have to be replaced more often, forcing consumers to have to buy more.
After living on the streets, where warm sturdy clothing could be the difference between life and death, the idea that companies would intentionally make their clothing unreliable was like a personal insult to him.
This had then led him to the movement of upcycling clothing.
He would rescue quality clothing from thrift stores and then redesign it into something with a more modern style.
Originally, he’d only done it for fun and then donated the clothing to homeless shelters, but with Eli’s help, he’d managed to build a small online fan base that liked his work.
It turned out that Eli had a knack for computers and managing social media, so the two of them had spent the last several months building a platform for Mia to sell his work and promote awareness for the struggles of the homeless community.
I honestly wouldn’t have cared if he never made a dime and his hobby was never anything more than an amusement to kill time. However, watching him turn that hobby into something productive filled me with a sense of pride.
I slipped my hand into my pocket, feeling the edges of the box hidden there. I’d been nervous when I bought it, but now that I was here watching Mia already discussing his plans with Eli from what he was going to make first with the new machine, all my nervousness vanished.
“Hey, Mia,” I said, soft enough so that only he would hear me. “Actually, there’s one more present for you.”
“What?” Mia looked confused at the empty space under the tree where all the gifts had already been distributed. “I don’t see anything.”
“You don’t? That’s funny, because it’s right here.”
From my pocket, I pulled out the box and placed it into his hand. It was small enough to fit squarely into his palm. The box had no wrapping, but it was decorative enough on its own.
It was also unmistakable. Only one thing came in a box this size and shape, but Mia still stared at for several seconds with a completely blank look.
“Wha… uh… what’s this?”
“Open it.”
He grasped the lid, though his fingers were so stiff it took several tries before he got the it to stay open. Nestled inside was a simple, yet elegant, diamond ring.
Mia stared at the ring for a long time without saying a word.
For once, I was the one who felt the need to fill the silence.
“I know we’ve only known each other less than a year, and we can have a long engagement if that will make you comfortable. But I love you, and I want to marry you, whether it be tomorrow or ten years from now.”