After having lunch with Cassidy, Iris burst the front door open.

"I'm so exhausted!" She voiced out while holding a couple of boxes.

"Iris!" Cassidy called. "What are you carrying?" She gasped.

"How'd you manage to open the door?" Leonardo asked.

"Can you just help me out these down first before you interrogate me?"  Iris growled. If not that the boxes covered her face, I'm pretty sure it'd be turned to frown.

Leonardo helped her with the boxes and now looking closer, I noticed they were wrapped presents and there were exactly four boxes.

Did she go Christmas shopping?

I glanced at the almost dry for tree at the corner of the living room. I didn't get anyone gifts yet and Christmas was barely three days away.

"Now can you tell me why you kicked the front door open like a criminal?" Leonardo questioned.

"I'm pretty sure criminals don't kick doors open like that Leo." Iris rolled her eyes at Leonardo.

"Not the point." Leo blankly replied crossing his arms across his chest.

"I used a taxi and he helped me open the door but I kicked the door close with my leg." Iris sighed.

"You went Christmas shopping without me!" Cassidy hissed.

"No, these are from Thalia. I only went to pick them up." Iris explained.

"Thalia sent gifts!" Cassidy's face immediately brightened.

"She said to only open them on Christmas morning." Iris warned.

"Seems you're exhausted, Winter wanted us to decorate the tree together." Leo's expression dulled.

"Tree?" Iris's eyes lit up. "We got a tree?!" Her eyes flickered with joy.

"Yes, my mom and Winter got it." Leo gestured to me.

"You must be really tired to not have noticed the huge tree." Cassidy pointed to the tree in the corner.

"Shut up Cass, I just didn't look around." Iris barked.

"So shall we start?" Leonardo arched his eyebrows.

"Yes!"  Iris squealed and jumped up from her seat.

We all walked towards the tree and took in the plain slight.

"Wait!" Iris yelled. "I need to take a picture and also make a TikTok of this!" She announced before whipping out her iPhone 11.

She uses an eleven? But the thirteen is out now.

She took pictures of the tree before we emptied all the paper bags on the floor watching the ornaments spill to the floor.

We stayed up till evening decorating the tree, having mid conversations while Christmas carols echoed through the speakers.

This felt like the place I was supposed to be. Watching Leo and the girls laugh and make conversations while roasting each other made my heart feel lighter. I haven't had this much fun in a really long time.

"All that's left is the star," Leonardo mentioned.

"I'll do it!" I offered.

I dragged the ladder to the side of the tree and went on to climb it. Unfortunately my hand reach the top of the Christmas tree. I went on my tiptoe and tried to lean into the tree.

"Winter be careful."

"Let Leo do it."

"I can do it, will you all chill?" I reassured them and continued to try.

As I bit my lower lip while trying to lean into the tree, it lost its balance and I tried to hold it down but in turn, the ladder lost its balance causing me to lose my own balance

In the matter of a split second, I went stumbling down and landing on my tail bone.

"I told you to be careful!" Leo yelled at me before lending me his hand.

"Are you okay?" The girls asked in a unison. Both voices laced with concern.

"I'm fine!" I assured them. "It didn't really hurt." I lied.

"Are you sure? Just go take a seat." Cassidy suggested.

"I'll put the star." Leo offered.

I walked over to the dining chair and took a seat as I watched them put all the finishing touches.

"Let's take a selfie in front of the tree!" Iris suggested.

Leo, Cassidy and Iris stood at the tree but then they all turned to look at me.

"Winter come on!" Iris groaned.

"You want me to join?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Duh! Of course, we're incomplete without you." Cassidy stressed.

Immediately she said that a wide smile appeared on my face and suddenly my tailbone didn't hurt anymore. I happily skipped to where they all stood and we took a lot of selfies.

"Can everyone make sure their airdrop is turned on?" Iris yelled.

"Mine is." Cassidy voiced out.

"Mine as well." Leo waved his phone in the air.

"Winter why can't I find your phone." Iris looked into her phone and squinted her eyes at me.

"I think I left it on the dining table but it should be turned on, I never turn it off." I hurried to go get it.

A grin made its way to my face as I swiped through the pictures. We actually looked like a perfect family.

My phone screen came alive with a phone call from Rachel. I settled into my bed as I tapped answer.

"How was you meeting?"

"It went great!"

"And how's the lady from earlier?"

"Oh Emilia? She's alright."

"She's Emilia? So why did Leo call her was it Riona?"

"Oh you're right. I didn't think of that."

"I don't know, something about that girl rubs me off in the wrong way."

"You're just seeing things, anyway, can we go Christmas shopping tomorrow? I need to get a gift for everyone."

"Sure, I'll come over in the afternoon."

"Great. I'll call you later."

"Alright then bye!"

Is Emilia weird? She seems really sweet though, maybe Rachel's just overreacting. I mean she did tell me that Leo is in love with me when we both made it clear to each other that we would stay just friends.

A knock from my door interrupted my chain of thoughts.

"Come in." I yelled.

Leo walked into the room and sat on green sofa near my bed.

"How was your meeting today?" He asked me.

"Well it was really good."

"I'm sorry my mom pulled you into shopping when you had such a stressful day."

"Oh no," I chuckled. "Going shopping with your mom was exactly the therapy I needed. I had so much fun." I nodded my head.

"Then I'm glad. I wanted to know if we could go out for dinner tonight."

I gasped at the mention of dinner.

"Sure. You guys can decide where we should eat."

"It's just us going and I wanted you to pick the place.

**
Hey guys!

I'm so sorry I didn't update this sooner, I've been busy trying to get my new book published.

Yes you read right! I have a new book and it's titled "Sweet Addiction"

You might not find it if you search for it because it's new and doesn't have a lot of reading yet but please check my profile and read the book.

Vote on it and comment as well, thank youuuu