by kristimcmanus

Stepping through the doors, I felt overcome by the sense of the season. Everywhere I looked I felt it; on the walls, covered in red, green, gold. The music played softly in the background, a white noise to height the sense of frivolity that could only come with this time of year. I knew a smile was already on my face before I walked into the shop I had passed countless times, but now, I could feel it aching my cheeks.

He stepped up behind me, his hand placing softly at my lower back. I didn't look over to him, still enthralled with the excitement of our plan. I could feel his eyes on me, and didn't need to look over to know he was grinning. He knew Christmas was my favorite time of the year, which was probably why he suggested this little adventure today.

This would be our first Christmas as since moving in together six months prior. To me, this was another step in solidifying our future together; decorating our home, our tree, as a couple. I knew it was silly, and didn't hold any significant meaning in the grand scheme of happiness and long lives, but it was exciting to me to think that we would be building this symbol of the season together.

When Cole suggested coming to Christmas in New York the week before, I was surprised. He had always left all the planning, all the decorating of our home to me. His easy going nature perfectly balanced my attention to detail and 'type A' master of lists and control habits. I had assumed, maybe foolishly, that he would just leave all the planning of our Christmas to me like he had everything else. But this, he explained, he wanted to do together. To take this latest venture hand in hand, no matter how small it was.

Standing here now, looking out over all the ornaments, décor and sense of the festivities that seems to hang from every corner, I was on cloud nine.

Finally, I looked over to find him smirking at me.

"What?" I asked, feeling my cheeks flush.

"Nothing," he shook his head. "This was the look I expected to see on your face when I brought you here. You didn't disappoint."

I laughed as I gently elbowed him in the side, unsure if he was teasing or complimenting me.

"How do you want to tackle this?" I asked, stepping to the side to pluck one of the little red baskets from the stack. "Do you want to browse the aisles and pick what we like? Do you have any idea for theme or color? What do you think about-"

Reaching out, Cole covered my mouth with hand in a teasing manner to silence my rambling. Once certain I was calm, he released me before picking up his own basket.

"How about this? We divide and conquer. We pick out the things that we like, then meet back here in about half an hour and see what we got."

While I liked the idea, the lack of coordination and planned execution left me feeling uncertain. I was an executive assistance to a VP at NBC; I thrived, and required, organization and plans to live. Cole knew this, but the smirk on his face left me certain that was the entire purpose for this suggestion of 'free for all shopping'.

"That way," he continued. "We will have built something together that is actually a little bit of both of us. If we walk around together, we will agree to like what the other suggests and maybe not pick things that we really like. This way could be fun."

Cole's idea of fun was sometimes quite different from mine. But if there was one thing I had learned over the last three years of our relationship, it was that sometimes his adventurous and spontaneous suggestions worked out being some of my best memories. Even if I felt like I was going to combust at the time from the lack of pre-emptive plotting.

Reaching out my hand, I took his with a firm shake. "Deal."

With that, we set about the Fifth Avenue shop as though on a mission. I already had my game plan in my head; I would start with the tree. We didn't have a lot of room in our tiny Manhattan apartment, so I knew there wouldn't be a lot of space for figurines and decoration. But the tree; the tree is the centerpiece of the season for me, and had been since I was a child. Everything else was just extra; the tree was the star.

Scanning the endless options of ornaments, I felt a little thrill overtake me. So many options! One of the greatest things about New York was that you could literally find anything you could ever want, even the things you didn't know you needed. Slowly, I walked through the aisles, plucking ornaments in reds, golds and greens. Soft, warm, theme colors, all that blended together seamlessly. I could picture the finished product in my mind as my fingers toyed with each new addition, the basket in my arms becoming weighted down with my treasures. Rounding the final corner, I glanced at my basket. I probably had more than I needed, but was excited to show Cole what I had found.

Heading back towards our entrance meeting point, I found him already finished, a wide smile upon his face. He seemed to pleased with himself, his green eyes shining, I felt a little tingle in my stomach. He was so cute when he was excited like this.

Holding his basket behind his back, he waited for me to set mine on the shelf beside us.

"So?" he asked with a raise of his brow. "I assume you were successful?"

I snickered. "I was. And by the look on your face so were you."

His grin only grew at the implication.

"On the count of three, we trade baskets?" he suggested, causing me to nod.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

Reaching out, I handed Cole my basket, taking the one he offered. My smile was again aching in my cheeks, excited to see what he had picked. I had already imagined how perfectly our choices would blend; his favorite color was red, so I had assumed that he would gravitate to those shades. But looking down to his basket, I felt my smile fade.

Where my choices had rhyme and reason, Cole's had no theme what so ever. There was no color scheme, no matching, no sense at all. If anything, it looked as though he had simply picked things at random, and I felt my heart sink.

I glanced up to find him looking through my choices, his face impassive. Every once in a while, he could hold up an ornament, examine it, before putting it back in the basket. I tried to keep my face impassive of my disappointment, the image of the perfect blend of us together displayed on our tree obliterated from my mind as I took in his complete randomness of choices.

Turning to me, he snickered. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised we picked completely different options."

I didn't say anything in response, as he glanced towards his basket.

"Did you look at them?" he asked, turning towards me.

Looking back into the depths of the color menagerie, I sighed. There was a little New York taxi cab, a blue ball with a painted skating scene. Another that resembled a s'more, and a Tiffany's box. They were all cute, but had no theme or reason to them. I felt guilty for being disappointed, but couldn't help myself.

Glancing back to Cole, I found him frowning.

"You don't like them." He stated firmly.

"It's not that," I responded quickly as I looked back to the basket. "I guess I just thought...there would be some kind of theme to them. Like color or something that had meaning."

Looking back to him, he was frowning.

"There is a theme." He defended.

"How? Cole, none of these go together."

He spared a glance to my basket, before looking back to me. "And none of these have any meaning."

"Of course they do. They all go together, red is your favorite color, gr-"

Reaching into his basket, he pulled out the little taxi cab.

"This is for our first kiss," he interrupted. "In the back of the cab on the way home from Steph's birthday party when we met." Placing it back in, he pulled out the s'more. "This is for your favorite snack, and the time I made you a little bonfire on the roof of my building so we could make them. Before we got caught and the super called the fire department." Picking out the skating scene, he held it up. "This is for the stories you told me of you and your sister skating on the pond at your grandparents farm every Christmas."

Setting the ornament back in the basket, he looked at me with a calm expression. "I picked out ones that meant something to us. I know you like theme and colors and organization, but this is our tree. I want it to represent us. So I picked things that show our relationship that things that have meaning to us, not just pretty colors."

I felt a little ripple of surprise, and admiration for his insight. Turning my gaze back to his basket, I started to see our relationship come to life. Like the little Rockette from our first Christmas together when he took me to see the New York icons. A Grinch, symbolizing our favorite Christmas show. And even an 'Our First Christmas' ornament tucked into the corner. Suddenly, my disappointment for the lack of meaningless theme and color dissipated to a warmth of happiness and elation.

He remembered all these little things from our relationship, and put them together to build something amazing. Memories I had nearly forgotten now sat immortalized in front of me in tiny figurines.

Glancing back to him, I felt the tears well in my eyes.

"I love them," I said softly, reaching out to wrap my arms around his middle. Tucking my head against his chest, I felt him chuckle at my emotion as he rested his chin on the top of my head. "They are perfect."

Kissing my head, he pulled me back slightly. "You didn't think I remembered half that stuff, did you?" he teased, his grin causing the dimple in his cheek to pop.

"Not really," I laughed. "Guys don't usually."

"I'm not most guys," I said firmly with a wink, taking my hand. Turning back to my basket, he started to root through my choices. "Let's pick a few of these that are our favorites to add. We can start new traditions with them now."

For the next few minutes, we picked out some of our mutual favorites of the items I had chosen, adding them to his basket. With each addition, I could see the tree reform in my mind, and it was even better than I had originally hoped.

Finishing our mission, I went to pick up our now completed basket to take to the cashier, when Cole's hand stopped me.

"Wait a second," he said, gnawing at his bottom lip. "There is one ornament you didn't look at yet."

Furrowing my brow, I set the basket back down on the shelf and peered inside. "Which one?"

Cole reached inside, rummaging towards the bottom, before pulling out the little blue Tiffany box I had noticed when first looking at his choices. Holding it out, I took a moment to examine it. It wasn't made of plastic as I had originally thought. In fact, it didn't really look like an ornament at all. The blue was smooth, the perfect and iconic shade the world recognized. Looking at it now, I saw no string to attach it to the tree.

My eyes darted to Cole, only to find him smiling at me with a teasing grin. I saw a nervousness in his eyes that hadn't been there moments before, which caused a thrill to rise in my stomach.

Surely, this wasn't what I thought? Certainly, he wasn't about to-

"Eva, I have loved you from the first time I saw you, from that first kiss in the back of that cab. I have thought long and hard about how I wanted to do this, and wanted to make it something original that even your analytical mind wouldn't see coming." He paused, lowering onto one knee, before pulling a black ring box from within the iconic blue one. Opening it, I was left speechless as the glittering diamond shone back at me. "Will you marry me?"

I could feel eyes from other shoppers now turned to us, the excitement in the room enveloping us. But somehow, I felt as though we were trapped in our own little bubble. The world of New York City faded away, the busy streets and the traffic. The Christmas music dissipated, leaving only Cole and I.

No matter how different we were, we always found a way to come together and make something amazing. Even a Christmas tree. And I couldn't imagine my life with anyone else.

The word slipped from my lips before it had even formed in my mind.

"Yes"

Cole was on his feet, pulling me off the floor and into his arms before I could even take a breath. I laughed against his neck, feeling his heaving breathing of relief against my body.

Setting me back on my feet, he took my hand and slipped the ring onto my finger.

"I've been dying to do this all day." He laughed, leaning down to kiss me.

I could hear the cheers and claps from the patrons around us, reminding me then that we were surrounded by other Christmas shoppers. I felt my cheeks flame with embarrassment, but kept my lips connected to his. This was our moment, and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Taking our purchases up to the counter, the girl behind the till smiled at us.

"What was the cutest proposal I have ever seen," she grinned as she began to ring through our items. Finishing, she reached out her hand to Cole. "Hand me the ring box for a moment?"

His brow furrowed, but he obliged, watching as the girl disappeared through a back door, only to return a moment later. Handing the box back, we found that she had now attached a hanger to it, making it into an ornament.

"I figured you might want to add this to your collection." She commented, before handing us our purchases. "Congratulations."

*** Remember to hit the star and leave a comment to be eligible for prizes! ***