***

Time passed very quickly, once you'd stopped holding your breath, waiting for something magnificent to happen. Days became weeks, became months, even became years. Rhea didn't have to wait anymore, because her something magnificent had happened years ago. Seven years, to be exact. Now she held in her hands seven years' worth of love, intimacy, and laughter, with a side of sorrow and grief, made bearable by the knowledge that someone was there to shoulder the burden with her.

Rhea looked out of the living room window of their two-bedroom apartment onto the busy road below. The noise from the hectic coming and goings of the last-minute Christmas travelers reached up to the fourth floor and mingled with the sound of the Christmas album she'd had on loop since the morning.

"Not this again," said Caleb, sticking his head out of the kitchen. "We've had four goes of it already. I cannot listen to that Bublé guy sing White Christmas one more time."

"Oh, you love it," Rhea called out without turning away from the window, smiling to herself.

"I do not," said Caleb, sounding indignant.

"Well, all I know is someone listened to it on my Spotify account last week when I was out visiting my mother, and it wasn't me."

"Okay, let's get one thing straight. I do not love Michael Bublé." His voice got closer and closer, until he was standing right behind Rhea, looking out of the window over her shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her middle and said the next words with his nose pressed against the crook of her neck: "But I do love you. I missed you while you were gone and I wanted to do something that reminded me of you. Is there something wrong with that?"

Rhea turned around without stepping out of his embrace. Her lips were stretched into a huge grin that she couldn't seem to get rid of and her eyes were twinkling. "There is nothing wrong with that," she whispered.

She brought both her hands to the sides of his face.

"Your hands are so cold," said Caleb, looking down at her through half-lidded eyes, smiling seductively.

"Caleb," Rhea whined, even though she snuggled closer into his embrace. "There's no time for your bedroom eyes. They'll be here any minute."

"All I'm saying is, I know a way you could warm up."

Rhea rose to her tiptoes and went to bridge the gap between their lips. They were a hair's breadth away from each other when the doorbell rang, making them spring apart from each other like two teenagers who'd been caught making out in the basement of their parents' house. Not a completely unfamiliar feeling.

Chuckling, Caleb went to answer the door and Rhea followed after him to greet their friends.

"Hi!" Rhea squealed as she went to envelop her best friend in a bone-crushing hug.

Willa and Wade had moved over a state when Willa had been offered a job that was too good to pass up. Wade had asked to be transferred to another branch of the company that had an office located close by their new place and they'd found themselves comfortably settled in their new home in mere weeks.

Though Rhea was over the moon for the life her friends were building for themselves, she'd taken the move pretty hard. It wasn't easy going from seeing your best friend of a decade all the time to seeing them once a month, and that is if they were lucky.

This time around, they'd been pushing two months of not seeing each other, thanks to the pre-holiday season rush at both their jobs. They just had so much to say to each other, despite talking on the phone every other night, that Rhea had even made a list to make sure she left nothing out.

The girls had been hugging for quite some time, just clinging to each other and swinging from side to side. For a while, the boys just stood there watching them with identical grins on their faces. It was a moment later that Caleb turned to Wade and said, "This could take all night man, why don't you come in from the cold?"

Chuckling, Wade stepped inside and let the door be shut behind him. Then, he pulled Caleb into a bear hug. Caleb clapped him on the back twice and said, "So good to see you, man."

"Yeah man, I missed you."

"Missed you too," Caleb replied.

What had started out as mere acquaintance and mutual respect back in high school had evolved into a very close friendship over the years. There was comfort in knowing Wade considered him the brother he'd never had, and that Caleb would be there to help out in a heartbeat if Wade ever need him.

When the girls finally pulled apart, they went to give Wade and Caleb hugs with identical sheepish grins on their faces.

A minute later, they were sitting in the living room. Rhea sat with her feet tucked under her and looked at her two best friends with contentment. Willa had already launched into a story about how they'd almost been run off the road on their ride over here by a "rude woman who wouldn't look up from her phone for two seconds to check she was staying in her lane."

***

When the sun went down, and their stomachs started to rumble, they made their way over to the dining table. The Christmas Eve pancake tradition had given way to Chinese takeout for Christmas dinners over the years. Their food had just arrived, and they had made a huge spread of the assortments of Chinese food.

"Have you heard from your parents?" Willa asked as she reached for the Kung Pao Chicken. "It's just like them to have a romantic Christmas getaway to Europe."

"I know, right? I think they really needed it after mom had that cancer scare in the spring. She says she is really enjoying the Christmas markets in Germany. I think it's mostly the mulled wine."

They chuckled at the thought of Emily and Stephen getting tipsy on the streets of Berlin, having the time of their lives. Caleb reached for Rhea's hand and gave it a squeeze, knowing that even though her parents were doing great now, she'd had a very tough time in the spring when her mother had noticed a lump in her breast and had been told it may be cancer. The days waiting for the biopsy results to come back had been excruciating. Luckily, the mass was benign and so small in size that the biopsy hadn't left any of it behind.

How's your mom doing, man?" Wade asked Caleb.

"I'd say she's doing better than she ever was. Charlie is taking her and Caroline skiing soon. Care couldn't stop talking about it—she is so much happier now that she has a proper father figure in her life."

Now it was Rhea's turn to reach for Caleb's hand. Even on Christmas, Caleb wasn't in contact with his father. Though it was for the best, Rhea knew it was hard on him.

"You fending off any boys yet?" Willa asked jokingly. Rhea smiled at her friend gratefully. She knew just the right thing to do to make the clouds behind Caleb's eyes go away.

"Not yet, thank god." He chuckled. "Though I should say, she is a much better judge of character than I am. She'll be just fine."

***

The food was delicious—they had scoured the town for the best Chinese and a year's worth of exploring had ensured that they'd have an amazing meal. It also helped that Rhea had formed a special bond with the old Chinese woman that tended the cash register and answered the phones. They were now on a first name basis, which meant free dumplings to go with every order.

Now that they were halfway through dinner, Rhea proclaimed that it was a good time to bring out the wine.

"This was a housewarming gift from my parents," she explained.

Willa looked at the label and chuckled before she said, "It's definitely an upgrade from the 8-dollar bottle we used to drink in college."

"Hey," Wade protested. "I proposed to you thanks to that bottle."

Willa laughed before she said, "Speaking of proposing, I can't believe you guys have been engaged for three years. Just tie the knot already!"

"Well, I can't believe you got hitched at twenty-one. Who does that?" Rhea countered. "Besides, we do have a wedding in six months."

"That's so far away. Your engagement will have lasted longer than that one Friends spin-off that no one remembers by then."

"So what, should we just get married tonight or something?" There was a slight pause in conversation where Rhea caught Caleb's eyes. "You're not seriously considering this, are you?"

"Am I seriously considering having you as my wife sooner? Well, yeah."

"Let's just have some of this wine, alright?" she said, smiling through the words.

She used the corkscrew to open the wine and poured herself and Caleb some wine.

"Imagine if you guys really did it though." Wade chimed in while he held out his wine glass. "In Vegas and all. That would have been hilarious."

"I'm sure my mom would have thought so. She's only been helping me plan for a couple months. And it's not like I'm her only daughter." She went to pour some into Willa's wine glass, but Willa stopped her by putting her hand over it.

"I'll pass on wine tonight," Willa said.

"What? In all these years I've never heard those words come out of your mouth."

Rhea was so surprised by the refusal that it took her a moment before she could think of a plausible reason for it. Her jaw dropped when she realized the gleam in Willa's eyes and the huge grin on Wade's face.

"No," she exclaimed. "When did you find out?"

"Last week," Willa said, grinning.

"You've kept this from me for a whole week?" She was aware that she was practically shouting at this point, but she couldn't bring herself to care about it in light of the news. "What the hell?"

"I wanted to see your face when I told you. I wish you could have seen your face when I told you. It was hilarious."

Rhea let out a laugh at her friend's words. Then, she was on her feet, rushing to give her friend the biggest hug.

"I'm gonna be an aunt!" she exclaimed. "Oh man, I'm gonna spoil that kid rotten."

"Congratulations you guys," Caleb finally managed to chime in, now that Rhea had calmed down enough to let anyone else have a turn at speaking. "So, Caleb if it's a boy and Rhea if it's a girl, yeah?"

They all laughed at that. A second later Caleb added, "Seriously though, what better people to name your kid after than their godparents. We are the godparents, right?"

"We'll have to think about it," Willa said. When this response elicited confused pouts from the couple sitting across from her, she laughed and said, "Of course you guys are the godparents. We wouldn't want it any other way."

"A toast then?" Caleb said. Everyone raised their glasses—three full of wine, one of sparkling water.

"Yes," Rhea said softly. She looked into his eyes as she said, "To many more years to come with the love of my life."

"To my soon-to-be-wife," Caleb countered. "To a life of love and laughter, surrounded by friends."

"To my beautiful wife, and the beautiful child we're having together," Wade said.

"To my dashing husband. To us," Willa added. "To having these Christmas traditions until we are a thousand years old."

"Cheers!"

"Cheers."

"Cheers."

"Cheers!"

***