Chapter 9: Best Christmas Ever

As I woke up on Christmas morning, I noticed the fantastic smell and realized that Cade had brought us breakfast in bed. Smiling at him, I said, “I could get used to this. Breakfast in bed and you included all of my favorites.”

“This is just the beginning.” he says as a teasing smile fills his face. 

After the two of us finished eating, we both headed downstairs and in addition to the gifts we had already placed under the tree, I could see that he had also bought a bouquet of my favorite flowers. Going over to them, I couldn’t resist picking them up and smelling the beautiful fragrance. 

“Thank you for the flowers too.” I say as I walk over to him and give him a kiss on the cheek. 

Going over to the tree, I begin to pull out the presents that I bought for him. Gesturing at the couch, I tell him to sit down as I begin to hand him his gifts. After I made sure we were surrounded by his gifts, I sat down next to him to watch him open up everything. Settling in and pulling out my phone to take pictures I say, “You can open them now.”

“Why do I have to go first?” he asked as a blush filled his face. 

“Because I said so. Now open them.” I demand with a grin. As I watched him open the things I got for him, I couldn’t help but take way too many pictures. After getting to know each other a bit, I had a rough idea of what he would like and I decided to get him some things from his favorite videogames and I even got him a game that I wanted to play together with him. Along with the gaming stuff, I also got him some clothes that I thought would suit him along with a matching Christmas sweater to one that I had gotten for myself. As he opens the sweater, I say, “Now that we have matching sweaters, I thought that we could wear them to dinner with your parents this evening.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” he says as a smile fills his face.

After he opened all of his presents, he brought all of mine over to the couch. In addition to the flowers and breakfast in bed, he got me some gaming stuff as well, along with my own controllers and a headset. As I opened these he said, “These are for when you’re at my place, so you have some stuff of your own.” Touched at the gesture I couldn’t help the smile that filled my face. He also got me some clothes, specifically ones that I looked at or said were cute when we went shopping. For my last gift, he got me a beautiful set of jewelry with a matching necklace, bracelet and pair of earrings. 

“Thank you for all of the gifts.” I tell him as I reach over and give him a hug. 

After unwrapping everything, the two of us begin to clean up all of the wrapping paper. Fortunately with the two of us working together, it didn’t take long. When we finished cleaning, I grabbed my phone and posted a few of the pictures of us together before messaging my cousin Noel. I knew that she was planning to spend Christmas with our family and her boyfriend Chris, so I had already sent her gift ahead of time. So I just sent a picture of Cade and I and wished her a Merry Christmas before turning to Cade. 

“What do you say we try out some of our new gaming stuff?” I ask as I pick up my new controller and headset. 

“Sounds good to me,” he says. After he grabs his stuff, the two of us head upstairs and get our new stuff set up. Before we knew it, it was already time for lunch which means that we are already much closer to dinner with his parents. 

As we head downstairs, I once again join him in the kitchen as we prepare some pasta for lunch. We wanted to make something easy and filling, especially because he wasn’t sure how long we’d be at his parents for. As the two of us eat, he begins to tell me a little more about his parents. 

“My parents were pretty strict growing up, and they always had high expectations for Chris and I. Unfortunately they also had high expectations for any friends or girlfriends we brought over and for them, no one was ever good enough. You already know about what happened with Chris and after seeing how they sabotaged his relationships, I had always been reluctant to begin a relationship with someone for my parents to ruin it.” he said. 

“Yeah, I can’t believe that they did something like that.” I say as I twirl more pasta on my fork. 

“I can. Unfortunately they are crazy and once they found a girl that was “perfect” to them, they refused to consider the possibility that he wouldn’t find her attractive. Unfortunately, this behavior has ruined what little relationship my brother and I had with them. We still visit on holidays typically as a formality, but we don’t see each other much otherwise. They did try to justify their behavior later, saying they were exposing his girlfriend’s true nature, but the damage had been done and there were other ways they could have approached that situation.”

“Wow, that’s ridiculous. They didn’t even think that they could just talk to him about it?”

“Nope, apparently that’s not a part of their thought process. Which is why I am trying to warm you ahead of time. Sometimes there is no hope in reasoning with them. They are just crazy.”

Reflecting on all of the information he had just told me, the two of us eat the rest of our meals in silence. After eating lunch, we both head upstairs to start getting ready. He was clearly much faster than me and was already dressed and ready to go by the time I finished getting my curly hair to look decent. Fortunately for me, there was a list of things we needed to get loaded in the car, including gifts and the food we prepared so he began to take everything out to the car and I finished getting ready. 

We were able to leave on time and made it to his parents place by 5:15. One of the first things he told me was that his parents were extremely punctual and disliked people who were late so I was glad that we made it fifteen minutes early. Helping him carry everything to the door, I was surprised to see his parents open the front door as we were coming up the front steps. 

To my surprise, they didn’t seem upset to see me there and they both actually offered to help us carry everything inside. As we get everything inside, his parents help us put everything down. As they look over at us, his mom says, “Cade, I believe that we owe both you and your brother an apology. We actually visited Chris and Noel and we’ve done a lot of thinking the past few days and realized that we have been going about everything all wrong. We know that an apology will not fix everything but we’re hoping that with our actions moving forward we can regain your trust. We’ve both spoken to therapists, both alone and together and have been able to recognize that we were never good parents. I just hope that someday, you two will forgive us.”

Despite the fact that an apology will never fix the damage they have done, it was a good first step in making a positive change. I could hear the sincerity in his mother’s voice and if the tears in his father’s eyes were anything to go by, I’d say that he was feeling remorseful as well. As I looked at Cade, I could see tears in his eyes as well and I immediately reached over and gently squeezed his hand. 

As I was looking over at him, he took a deep breath before speaking. “Although I appreciate the apology, I did not receive anywhere near the worst of how you treated us. Chris is the one who needs to hear this apology the most, and I encourage the both of you not to expect much from him. Honestly, I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t talk to you guys again after your most recent stunt. That being said, I am willing to give you guys a chance to prove that you can change for the better.” 

As soon as he finished talking his mom immediately rushed in for a hug, and he let go of my hand to hug her back properly. After hugging his mom, he moves over to hug his dad as well. Despite feeling a bit left out, I knew that this was an important moment for all of them. 

After they all finish hugging, Cade returns to my side and grabs my hand before introducing me to his parents, “Mom, Dad, this is Lila, my girlfriend. Lila, these are my parents.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” I say awkwardly. 

“Likewise,” his mother replies before continuing, “You look lovely and the matching sweaters you two are wearing are adorable.”

Exhaling a sigh of relief that she seemed to like me at least a little bit, I could feel myself relax. After all that they had done to Chris, I was genuinely surprised that they had made such a change on such short notice. However, I decided to believe that they genuinely wanted to change and resolved to enjoy the evening.

To my surprise, everything went well and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, before opening presents. They had even bought me a small gift, which I hadn’t been expecting at all. We stayed and talked for a bit and they had even asked for advice on how to properly apologize to Chris. After a lengthy conversation, we stayed as they left a voicemail with a sincere apology in the hopes that he will listen to it. 

On the way home, I couldn’t help but reflect on everything that had happened. Although I’ve only known Cade for a little over a week, I couldn’t imagine my life without him anymore. I had become so invested in his family and their problems that I felt so relieved that they were planning to change. Simply seeing how happy Cade was to finally have his chance to be close to his family was infectious. With a massive grin filling my face, I couldn’t help but think that this was the best Christmas ever.