Day 24
Shards of wrapping paper, shiny and half-torn, cover the living room floor and stick to my thighs whenever I change positions.
How is it that scissors and scotch tape disappear when it’s time to wrap gifts, when you know you have multiples of each somewhere in the house?
It leaves Daniel and I stealing them back and forth as we scramble to wrap Violet’s presents before the big reveal in the morning.
“You know this is dumb, right?” I say to him as I fold a neat crease and tape it on the side of a brand-new picture book.
“Vi is going to care more about crumpling the paper and playing with the boxes than she is the toys. We could’ve saved so much time and money.
Wrapping paper, cardboard, and a fake tv remote, and she would’ve been thrilled. ”
He tosses a balled-up wad of paper over my head to the trash pile. “But isn’t this part of the fun? I’m having fun.”
“I’m getting paper cuts,” I reply, a chuckle tumbling from my lips.
“Want to take a break for the last card?” he asks, stopping his work with a cardboard tube in one hand a pair of scissors open in the other.
“I’ve been avoiding thinking about it. I’m nervous, almost. What if we wrap up the experiment and the magic leaves? I don’t want to stop feeling like this.”
“Then we’ll start the whole thing over. Amorous Advent can become…” he thinks for a minute before a devious smile graces his face. “Juicy January and Flirtatious February.”
“Oh my god, you did not just say Juicy January.” I accompany the reply with a gag, and his lips rise further, the apples of his cheeks on full display.
“You know what I mean!” he says. “We can keep this thing going. That’s what we decided, right? We’ll keep doing this.”
With a quick dart into the kitchen, Daniel returns with the deck. It’s not the nice, smooth rectangle it was twenty-four days ago—some cards are bent, others stick out haphazardly. It’s the living embodiment of our effort, imperfect but complete.
“Yessss,” he says as he reads the day’s prompt. “Grab a scrap of paper. We’re coming up with our own ideas.”
I take the card from him and my eyes linger on the words. I guess it really is up to us now.
He finds the pens buried under a stack of to-and-from labels and hands one to me.
Armed with a very jolly and not-so-wrinkled piece of reindeer paper with white on the back, I start to draft my list. The words flow quickly, much more fluidly than I expect.
With each new idea, excitement tightens against my ribs:
Go to a bar and do trivia
Discuss ways to hold each other accountable to our goals
Visit an adult shop together and buy each other something
Watch a re-run of How I Met Your Mother
Give each other massages (do a better job this time, no fighting)
Have sex somewhere risky
Build the back patio (this will take more than a night, I know)
I blindfold and tie you up
Wax play?
Make Violet’s first birthday cake together
The list feels exactly right. It’s emotional, nostalgic, sexy, and fun. I’d propose starting on it tomorrow if tomorrow wasn’t Christmas. I glance at Daniel and he’s got on his thinking face again, this time with the pen tucked between his teeth in between bursts of writing.
“Can’t think of anything?” I tease.
“Nah, I’m trying to narrow it down. Creating an A list and a B list. We can use the other one for Mesmerizing March.”
My eye roll is slow and dramatic. “You’re ridiculous,” I say.
“You love me,” he counters.
“I do. Please, can we switch?” I fold my list in half and hold it between my fingers like I’m offering money for drugs or something similarly illicit. He offers his paper freely. His handwriting, neat and familiar, spells out the following:
Blow job in my office, after hours
Share the best and worst things that happened that day
Recreate our first date
I restrain your hands AND feet and have my way with you
Finish watching our wedding video
Role play
Bring Violet to see fireworks
Organize the hall closet to create a dedicated space for my golf bag
Talk about our goals for the next year
Give you a five orgasm night
“Coming five times feels a bit ambitious,” I say to Daniel as I hand his list back. “But I’m very happy to try.”
“We’ll get you there, baby, one way or another,” he replies with a wink. “But why does wax play have a question mark? If you’re in, I’m in. I’ll buy some sex-safe candles tomorrow, Christmas or not, if that’s what you want.”
“I wasn’t sure if it’d be too weird for you. Didn’t want you to feel pressured to do something you’re not into.”
“What I’m into is you. Whatever you want, I’m open to try.”
“Same.” Then I backtrack and add, “Well, mostly. How about we both get veto power?”
“Always. So when should we start?”
“Want to kick it off in the new year? We have lots of family time this week anyway, then we can go out on New Year’s Eve, have fun, and then buckle down for these new prompts on day one. Make a nightly connect our New Year’s resolution.”
“Hell yes. I can’t wait.”
“I can’t wait to never stop.”