Marley checked and then re-checked the address. She didn't need to. She had it memorized but still, she double-checked that the tall brownstone that she stood in front of was indeed Felix's house. It was.

She could see movement inside, warm lights emanating from the bay windows on both sides of the front door, a Christmas tree standing in the left one.

Marley had never had much of a reason to explore this particular neighborhood. She didn't know anyone wealthy enough to live here nor did the catering company she worked with occasionally ever do parties in homes this nice. She had taken her time wandering down the street, admiring the Christmas decorations lighting up the homes, looking up into the bare branches above to the pitch-black sky overhead.

Even at a leisurely pace, meandering from the subway stop three blocks away, Marley still arrived at the bottom of the stairs leading up to Felix's home right on time, 7 o'clock.

Dang it.

She was going over train schedules in her mind (having spent a third of her afternoon memorizing Felix's address, the second third memorizing that evening's train schedule and the last third vaguely attempting to work on her schoolwork) when the front door opened.

There stood Felix with what looked like a little boy attached to his leg and an even smaller girl attached to his back. Light poured out around him, floating along with it faint strands of some kind of Christmas music.

"So they weren't lying. Gabe here was certain there was a stranger standing at the bottom of the stairs looking at the house. What are you doing down there? Come on in!"

Felix lifted his right leg first, taking with him the small boy holding on for dear life, to move out of the doorway and gesture Marley to welcome.

She found she was smiling and already climbing the stairs before she could remember when the next train back to the Hamptons was.

"Thanks. Wow. This place is incredible."

Looking around, the chill Marley had brought in with her melted off her shoulders in the warm atmosphere and her eyes widened at the sight of the entryway, living room, and dining room all decked out, floor to ceiling, in Christmas decorations.

She was calculating whether or not her apartment could fit in this entryway when Felix gestured for her jacket. She let him take it, along with her scarf and beanie.

"I'm glad you could make it. Ivy, you want to show our guest to the living room?"

Felix had to coax the little girl down from his back before she finally slid down to the ground. Felix could, once again, stand up straight.

"This way," The small girl pronounced with an air of grace and poise. Marley was aware that her posture was straighter than her own and pulled her shoulders back self-consciously.

"Marley, I'd like you to meet my niece, Ivy, and this rascal here," Felix introduced his nephew through gritted teeth while he struggled to get him to detach from his leg. "This is Gabriel. Can we say hi to Marley?"

"Hi, Marley," They sang out in unison if a little off-key.

"It's nice to meet you."

"Why don't you two go see if your mom needs any help?"

They scampered off in the direction of the dining room and left Marley and Felix alone in the living room.

She couldn't help but look around. The ceilings vaulted overhead and ornate molding lined the top of the walls. The Christmas tree standing in the corner towered almost to the ceiling and all Marley could think about was the squat little blue spruce, decorated haphazardly with home-made ornaments and the strings of lights that only half-worked, that stood wilting her own living room.

"Wow, this place is..." Marley couldn't finish her thought.

Felix followed her eyes as they roved around the room. As if his own thoughts went to her apartment that he had been in only a few hours earlier, his hand landed on the back of his neck and he looked almost awkward, embarrassed.

"Yeah. My mom's kind of a big Christmas person. She tends to go overboard. I don't even know why, we're not ever here for Christmas."

"It looks... it looks nice."

Marley couldn't think of anything else to say. Luckily a man looking exactly like Felix, only a few years older, popped his head into the living room and declared it dinner time.

"You must be Marley. I'm glad you could make it. I'm Mathias."

Marley met his outstretched hand with an equally firm shake. Felix was missing the wrinkles around the eyes and the deep dimple in his chin but other than that they were the spitting image.

"This is my older brother," Felix didn't need to explain.

"I figured. You guys look a lot alike."

Mathias laughed, his smile reaching all the way up to the signature gray Reigns eyes.

"I'll take it as a compliment. Felix here got all the looks in the family. But I beat him in the brains department."

"No, that would be Winter."

Mathias nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, no, you're right."

Mathias gestured for them to follow and led them into a long dining room with a dark wood table extending down the center of it. Plate settings were laid and candles were dotted among the dishes of food.

Marley was introduced to Mathias's wife, Caroline, and officially welcomed to Felix's first of many birthday dinners. Felix answered Marley's quizzical expression by explaining that his and Winter's birthday was on the thirtieth, in just a few days.

After saying grace, Gabe and Ivy took over most of the conversation. They talked all about the ski resort they were headed to the next morning and how excited they were. Gabe went into detail about all his friends at school and how they were spending their Christmas break.

In between, Felix and Mathias shared old fond memories of other Christmas breaks past, times when Felix had gotten sick in the Bahamas or when Winter had broken her arm snowboarding. Marley did her best to add what family stories she could.

The three adults paid attention and laughed when appropriate but Marley could feel that her stories were nowhere near as exciting or exotic as Felix and his brother's

Throughout the meal, Marley caught Felix glancing over at her, frequently, as if to check on her, gauge her reaction, see how she was holding up in his natural environment.

Marley did her best to stay afloat, to keep up with the conversation, to stay engaged but she couldn't ignore the feeling of relief when Caroline called bedtime for the kids and declared dinner officially over.

Felix was quick to call dishes duty and asked Marley to help. They cleared the table while Caroline and Mathias led Ivy and Gabe upstairs, Ivy already falling asleep on Mathias's shoulder.

"This is what my grandmother would call roughing it," Felix said, talking over the stream of hot water that slowly filled the sink.

"What, doing dishes?"

"My parents are in the Hamptons for the holidays, the house was supposed to be empty for the week. My mom gave our usual help the week off before she knew Mathias planned on staying here. Caroline's been doing all the cooking and I'm guessing making Mathias do all the dishes."

"That's what your grandmother considers roughing it? I call that a regular Tuesday night."

Marley regretted the statement as soon as it was out of her mouth but Felix smiled and even granted it a half-laugh. He washed while she rinsed and placed the dishes in the rack to dry, aware that they were probably more expensive than anything she was currently wearing.

"So does Mathias work for your dad, too?" Marley asked once they were in a natural rhythm.

"He heads up the marketing department, took over for my grandmother when she retired. He actually went to college and so is, therefore 'qualified'."

"Are you not in school?" Marley asked. She had assumed he was. Maybe she had assumed wrong.

Felix shook his head.

"I am not. I am currently in the middle of my second gap year."

"You're embarking on a series of gap years?"

"That would be correct."

"How come? Did you not get into the school you wanted?"

"The opposite, actually."

Marley's face quirked up in a confused expression.

"What do you mean, opposite?"

"I got in, it's just not the school I want to go to. Every single Reigns has gone to Columbia, studied business, graduated with honors. Winter's there now and she's thriving. But I didn't want to go. It felt too constricting, like I couldn't breathe, the thought of following the path someone else had picked out for me. I barely managed to get my dad to agree to let me take the year off. When his determination to make me go to Columbia didn't wean by this past fall, I extended the gap year. Now I work as a part of his 'administration team'."

"What does that mean?"

"I get coffee, I run errands, I take notes during boring board meetings. Since I'm not going to school, I'm supposed to be learning the company from the ground up so I can take over one day. Just like my dad did for my grandfather."

"Wow."

Marley was at a loss for words. Her own chest felt tight thinking about someone else making her own life decisions for her.

"Where would you want to go, if not Columbia?"

"NYU has always been on the list. Anywhere, really, other than Columbia. Anywhere other than where my father wants me to go."

"NYU's pretty great, not gonna lie."

"You go there?"

"Started my second year this fall."

They had moved on to drying the dishes and stood across from each other, lazily wiping soft towels over the expensive china.

"What are you studying?"

"Business, right now. But I want to make it more specific next year."

"Specific how?"

Marley looked down at the towel in her hand and wished she another dish to dry. But they had been more efficient than she had realized.

"Um, restaurant business. Specifically."

"You want to run a restaurant someday."

Marley waited for the response she heard every time this idea was mentioned.

Restaurants are the riskiest investments.

Most restaurants close after one year.

You want to open a restaurant, in this economy?

But it didn't come. Felix didn't say anything else, he merely looked at Marley, waited for her to respond.

She nodded. It was a start in the right direction while the words figured how to form.

"Yeah, I do. I love food, I love serving food. I've only ever worked in restaurants. First, it was the deli down the street when I was fourteen. And then it was the cafe in Park Slope after that. And it's been Marguerite's for the past two years. And my sister...."

Marley stopped. This was where the dream turned into a pipe dream. It was one thing to say she wanted to run an already existing restaurant, it was something else entirely to say she wanted it to be her own restaurant.

"Which sister, the older one or the younger one?" Felix prompted.

Marley took a deep breath before answering, mustering up her courage. So far she hadn't seen a hint of condemnation or judgment in his eyes. He was curious, interested and she liked talking about this. It was all she and Stella ever talked about.

"Stella, the older one," Marley finally answered. "She's an apprentice at this really fancy French bakery in uptown. The owner's this world-renowned pastry chef. She went to cooking school, over in Jersey. The two of us, we want our own shop. Someday. Maybe. I'd be happy with our own lemonade stand if that meant I got to help get Stella's culinary creations into other people's hands."

Felix was smiling, almost laughing with Marley at her joke.

"I like it. It's ambitious, to say the least, but cool nonetheless. You know what you want to do. I admire that. I envy it, even."

Before he let her ask a follow-up question to his statement, he nodded towards the exit.

"We should be going if we wanna catch the last train back."

Marley glanced at the clock and saw he was right. During their conversation, not only had she lost track of time but she had completely forgotten the train schedule.

Bundled up, with Marley's suitcase full of family necessities trailing behind them, they left the cozy house behind. Walking to the train station, they each, in turn, pointed out various decorations that lit up the city, shining bright up into the sky. Avoiding the worst of the crowds, they managed to catch their train right on time and sat side by side as it pulled out of the station, headed back to the Hamptons.