Evening came fast and the Anderson household was in all cheer for the Christmas dinner.

The women of the house were in the kitchen while the men sat in the living room and when it was almost time for dinner, they set the table and chose the drinks we could have during the meal.

The adults would have the best wine the Anderson's had while the ones below the legal age would have grape juice in their wine glass.

It was time to pull the turkey out of the oven. Sarah placed the turkey on the kitchen counter and Juliet got the roast vegetables. We walked into the dining room with the turkey, the vegetables, little jars of gravy that held and the basket of bread by Jessica.

The table was set beautifully. Jasper told me about how Sarah had special plates, glasses and cutlery for Christmas. There was candles lit and the room was dim. We placed the food on the table and I noticed that beside each plate there was a card with names written on them.

Once everything was in its place, the ladies walked to where they were to sit. Peter stood behind Sarah's chair and pulled the chair so that Sarah could sit.

I checked out where I had to sit, I was sitting beside Juliet. Michael was made her sit and he placed a kiss on her hand.

I noticed Jasper standing behind my chair. When I got near mine, he pulled the chair so that I could sit. Jesse did the same thing his father did and made his twin sister sit beside me. I smile and sat down and thanked Jasper.

Everybody was soon in their seats except for Peter. He stood at his place and closed his eyes and began to say a prayer. Everybody at the table closed their eyes and joint their hands together. After a minute or two, Peter finished the prayer which was very beautiful.

He took the carving knife and carved the large turkey that was roasted for dinner. It reminded me of the books I read when I was eight. Every birthday, my grandparents sent me books to read, well as a child I read that was way before my mind got consumed with the world and more. I've always read that the man of the house or the father always carves the bird.

Peter served us all a portion of the turkey he carved and then once he sat down, we passed around the other items to each other.

Having dinner with the Anderson's was always amazing. There was always something to talk about, something to laugh about and today there was a lot more to talk about since it is Christmas.

"The first Christmas I had with Sarah was a bit well, it wasn't how we had planned," Peter spoke and we have him our attention.

"We wanted a very quiet, cosy Christmas and Sarah was very excited to roast the chicken we bought." He continued to say.

"We had planned it all. The table had candles, the fireplace was on and we were helping each other in the kitchen." He looked at his wife, who was sitting across him at the other end of the table.

"The chicken decided to burn in the oven and we had some mash and vegetables as our Christmas dinner." Sarah tells us.

"And she was very excited to show me her skills at baking." Peter tells us.

"Well if you hadn't distracted me, we would have had some chicken." She playfully argued.

"Are you tell me that you did not enjoy it?" He pretends to gasp.

Before Sarah could even answer, Juliet stepped in, "Let's leave that there shall we." And everybody laughed, even James, though I'm sure he understood nothing of it.

There were more funny stories to laugh while everybody at the table enjoyed the dinner.

A little while later, Juliet and I cleared the plates from the table, Jesse and Jessica placed the dessert plates in place and Sarah served some Christmas pudding.

Oh what a delight! The pudding was amazing and the custard just complemented the pudding well. You could say this was the first time that I've had some homemade Christmas pudding.

Once we were done with the meal, Sarah, Juliet and I collected all the dishes and went into the kitchen to wash them. It was almost eleven in the night and James and the twins were tired. Peter, Jasper and Michael put them down to bed while we cleared the dishes.

The leftovers were put in containers and and placed in the refrigerator. The table was wiped and the dishes in the dishwasher was wiped, dried and placed back in its places. There were a lot of plates and dishes. Juliet explained Sarah's love for buying the right dinner set for every occasion.

After almost an hour, we were done with everything in the kitchen. I offered to wipe the workstation so I told Sarah and Juliet goodnight and they left the kitchen. I wiped the kitchen counter and as I thought about all the amazing day I had today, I remembered that I had to meet Jasper at the back porch.

I spoke to Emma about it. As expected, she was extremely excited to hear all about it. When I asked her about it, as in as to what could it be that Jasper wants to talk to me about what I wanted him to talk about then I also step in and tell him about my feeling for him.

Maybe it may not be even about that.

Once I was done with what I was doing, I switched off the lights in the kitchen and walked towards the door that would lead me to the back door.

My mind had many thoughts going on, thoughts that told me that it would be better to climb the stairs and get under my blanket but I put that thought aside and opened the door of the back porch. I scanned the area as I stepped out into the cold porch, I wrapped my arms around myself and walked in and closed the door behind. Nobody was there, I let out a little sigh and sat down on the chair.

I take my phone out from my pocket and check out some posts on Instagram while I wait a bit for Jasper to come.

Emma had a lot of pictures put up today, each of them with her family. I double tapped on each of her pictures and went through some funny posts that came along in between while I scrolled.

Giggling without making much noise, I heard Jasper. I looked up from my phone and there he was standing there in his beanie and a hoodie with sweatpants.

Damn! Did he have to look attractive in everything he wore?

"Hey." He greets me.

"Hey." I smile and got up from the chair.

"I thought you wouldn't come since it was a long day, I thought you'd want to sleep." He spoke and I shook my head. "I'm not that tired and you did mention that you wanted to meet me here after dinner. Sorry for the delay." I tell him.

"It's alright and it was an option, you could have chosen to not come here."

"But I chose to be here," I say. He let out a sigh as he nodded his head and looked out at the lighted backyard.

There was silence between us. I locked my phone and put it in my pocket and stood beside him and looked at the same view he saw.

"What did you want to talk about?" I slowly ask him.

"Nothing important." He replies.

"I just wanted to know how your day was by the end of it." He turned and looked at me.

"It was great." I smile. "It felt good to relive the moments I had back when I was five." He smiled a little. "I'm glad that you did."

"I uh, I liked the jumper," he says, I mentally let out a sigh of relief.

"I was hoping that did, I mean I'm not the best at choosing a present for someone. Especially jumpers." he chuckled. "And as you described, the day was exactly like that. I've got so many memories from this, I'll miss it the minute I get back to New York." I tell him, he looked down.

"I'll try and pack as many as I can in the book you gave me."

"But there will be moments that cannot be photographed so that it can be kept in books." He looks at me. His blue eyes sparkled even in the dark, I couldn't think of looking away when I came in front of them.

"I know." I chuckle. "And I do not know how I'm ever going to be able to thank you for this gift, Jasper." I say. At this moment, I really wanted to kiss him and tell him how much I liked him but since the topic never went in that direction, I decided to leave it untold.

"You don't have to. I'm your friend and I just helped you out with something that you did not have much experience with." He tells me, I smile and remembered about the little holiday homework that made this all happen.

"Thanks to you, I have something for it in the theme we decided on." I smile and say, he smiles as well.

We stood there for a minute in silence. I waited for him to say anything but he didn't, I realised that this was going to be a one-sided winter fling.

"It's pretty late, I guess we should go to bed." I say and turn to leave, "Night Jasper." I say and before he could respond, I started to walk towards the door.

Just when I reached for the doorknob, I heard him call me. I stop right where I was, I wasn't sure if I heard him or if that was my mind.

"Holly, wait." I heard it again. That was definitely him.

I slowly turn around and my eyes met his. He walked towards me but not even for a second did he look away. With every step he took, my heartbeat was faster and I could hear it in my ears. He stopped a step away from me.

"You wanted to say something?" I ask him, he nodded his head and let out a sigh.

"I uh- I didn't want to meet you here just to know how your day was. I wanted to tell you something and I'm not sure of how I'm going to." I watched him, he seemed nervous.

"This might go terribly wrong but I'm going to do it anyway." He quickly tells me, I slightly nod.

"Ever since what happened in school, I've kept myself away and decided that I concentrate on myself and my career." He begins to say. "But that day when you introduced yourself after the meeting, I wasn't sure of how it's going to work." He shook his head and then looked at me again.

"I felt that if I got too close to someone, especially if they were a girl, I would lose them but that changed since Thanksgiving. I got to know a little about you, you're different and not like the other girls I've seen." I blink my eyes, that's all I could do.

"And ever since then, you haven't left my mind. It sounds cheesy, I know." He chuckles and looks down. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to listen to what my heart was telling me and Holly, I tried my best to keep these thoughts away because you came here with your assignment partner, a simple friend. You wouldn't want to hear that your partner has developed feelings for you." He continues to say and I couldn't believe it, he actually does like me.

"Y-you like me?" He looks at me.

"No, I like your friend." He blankly replies, I frown.

"Seriously Holly, I've been talking about you and only you and yes, I like you. A lot." I smile and giggle a bit and look away for a moment.

"What?" I heard him ask.

"Nothing." I shook my head. "I was wondering if we were on the same page because I like you too." I tell him.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I tried to not but my heart is hopeless." He laughs.

"I really like you, Holly Anne."

"I really like you too, Jasper."

We look at each other, that's all we were doing. I was still processing everything that just happened. Jasper actually likes me and for once it wasn't like the crushes I've had.

"So, now what do we do?" I heard him ask. I shrug a bit and just looked up at the ceiling and noticed a little mistletoe there. I look back at him and tell him to look up at the mistletoe.

"I haven't taken you out properly Holly." He chuckled and looked at me.

"It's a mistletoe, Jasper." I remind him.

"Well, I was thinking of taking things slowly but since it's a mistletoe" he stops and brings both his hands to my face and cups it and then, I felt his lips against my lips.

I felt sparks as I kissed him back. It did not feel wrong at all.

Jasper pulls away, keeping the kiss very short.

"Merry Christmas Holly." He had a smile on his face, I chuckle.

"Merry Christmas Jasper."

---