chapter thirty three - the return of edgar allan poe
VALERIE'S MOM HAD come into town a week before Christmas and was staying in a guest bedroom at her house.
June wasn't super set into her religious beliefs, but she was still irritated that Valerie and John had moved in together after not even dating for a year.
After a few arguments, June came around to it, especially when John had talked to her and told her how much better Valerie had gotten since the death of her father, and how she had started eating again and acting more like herself. June felt bad for getting so angry when John had told her this.
She had apologized to Valerie and John, wishing them the best in their relationship.
Those few days of tension had dissipated once Christmas week rolled around. John and June were now on good terms, and Valerie and June had started on a painting for Freddie and Mary earlier that week.
"Valerie, you really outdid yourself with decorations this year." Roger said as he stepped into her house, a container of brownies and a bag full of gifts overflowing in his arms.
Valerie always decorated her and Brian's apartment at Christmas time with lots of lights and ornaments and flowers. It was always a very beautiful display in such a small space.
Now that Valerie had a lot more space to decorate, she had gone all out with a huge tree and decorated her home with many red flowers.
"Thank you. I only put the plants up this week." Valerie said as she took Roger's brownie container from him as well as the bag, allowing him to take off his coat and many scarves.
"It looks lovely. Here, I'll take that. How've you been?" Roger asked as he took the bag of gifts back from Valerie.
"I've been great, actually. Mom and I have been working on a painting for Freddie. And she and a John have gotten along quite well." Valerie said, reaching over to brush some snow out of Roger's hair.
"That's good, really good. Sorry I haven't visited you in a while." Roger said apologetically as they headed into the sitting room where the huge Christmas tree was already overflowing with presents, most of them were from Valerie's family in Spain.
"It's okay, love. I've been pretty busy anyway with work and the holidays." Valerie said as June greeted Roger with a kiss on his cheeks.
"How've you been, love? It's been so long since I've last seen you." June said as she helped Roger unpack the gifts he had brought.
"Great. Been good. I'm glad the album's doing well. I've already started writing a few things for the next one." Roger replied with a smile as he greeted John.
"That's fantastic. I bought Night At The Opera the day it came out. I probably listened to the album about twenty times in one sitting." June said, and Roger grinned, sitting down on the couch next to John.
"And you're favourite song is I'm In Love With My Car, right?" Roger asked, and June laughed.
"Well, Good Company is the front runner, but your song isn't far behind." June replied with a wink.
"Don't humour him, June, his ego's been fed today already." John said with an exaggerated fake yawn in Roger's direction.
"Oh, very funny." Roger said, nudging John away, the two of them laughing. Valerie smiled at the two of them. John was always very comfortable about Roger, and the two of them joked effortlessly with one another.
The doorbell gave a loud ring throughout the house, and June, who was already up, went to go open the door.
"I'm In Love With My Car is my favourite song." Valerie spoke as she took a seat in her favourite chair. John looked at her, placing a hand to his chest.
"You absolute traitor. I wrote a song for you." John reminded her, and Roger stuck his tongue out at him. Valerie giggled, winking at John.
"Your girlfriend has some good taste in music, John." Roger said as he examined his tie that was decorated with daisies.
"The bar for good taste must be set very low then." John countered, and Roger smacked him lightly on his shoulder, rolling his eyes.
"Valerie, darling! You outdid yourself. I remember how you decorated your apartment, and this surpasses that entirely." Freddie gushed the moment he came into the sitting room with June on his right arm and Mary on his left.
"Thank you, Freddie, I honestly didn't know what to do with all the space." Valerie replied as she stood up from the couch to greet Freddie and Mary.
"Well, you did a fantastic job at decorating, darling." Freddie said as he gave Valerie a kiss on the cheek.
"And might I say, you look absolutely ravishing today, June. Of course, you always do." Freddie said, taking his newly freed left hand and gesturing to the outfit she was wearing.
"Off he goes doting on your mother again." Mary said to Valerie as she hugged her. Valerie laughed. It was true that June was very fond of Freddie. Mary and Valerie often lightheartedly teased her for it, always telling her that Freddie was too young. Freddie found it absolutely hilarious.
Freddie loved Valerie's mother though. The two spoke often on the phone when Freddie needed to vent to someone outside of his inner circle.
"I don't know what you expected." Valerie giggled as Mary set the gifts she and Freddie had brought underneath the tree, each one still meticulously packed into the bag.
"You been alright? I know you've had a rough time the past two weeks." Mary said as she and Valerie headed off towards the kitchen. The two of them were going to start setting things up in the dining room.
"Well, mom and John are getting on a lot better. And the only argument I've had with my mother is a debate about which shade of green the willow in my backyard is." Valerie said, remembering her late night phone calls to Mary when she'd had a particularly bad day when her mother first came in from Spain.
"So it's gotten a lot better. And you seem a lot better, too." Mary said, peeking into one of the bowls of menudo that June had prepared.
"It's been hard. My first Christmas without him, y'know. But I've got John here, and he's softened the blow a lot." Valerie said as she adjusted a basket of tortillas in her hands.
"You know I'm here for you too, if you ever need to talk. Just a phone call away." Mary said, touching Valerie's forearm. Valerie nodded, thanking her friend before the two of them set off taking the food into the kitchen. Roger joined them eventually to help them, leaving John, Freddie, and June talking about whatever art they were talking about.
"I couldn't get into the conversation. Figured I'd put myself to good use." Roger said as he carried a handful of wrapped utensils to the table.
"For once." Mary muttered, her and Valerie sharing a laugh.
The moment the three of them had sat back down in the sitting room, Brian and Payton, and a few of Valerie's aunts and cousins showed up.
"No time to relax, it seems." Valerie said, patting John's shoulder.
"And yet you still haven't moved from my lap. Look pretty relaxed to me." John teased, his arms resting relaxedly around her waist. Valerie was in fact sitting in John's lap, showing no signs of moving.
"C'mon," John said, kissing her cheek as he pushed her shoulder lightly.
"Alright, alright." Valerie said, smiling as she stood up, dragging John along with her.
"John!" Little Mary, her cousin, exclaimed the moment the two of them walked up to greet the people that had come in through the door.
"Mary! Have you gotten bigger since the last time I've seen you? I think you have." John said as he hugged Little Mary and hoisted her off the ground, spinning her around and making her laugh.
"She wasn't even that excited to see me, and I'm her favourite." Brian said with a laugh as Valerie watched Mary start to tell John about how she had grown three inches. John was listening very intently.
"Guess you aren't her favourite anymore. Tough break, Bri." Valerie said while the curly haired man pulled her into a hug.
"What a horrible way to spend my Christmas Eve." Brian replied, shaking his head in mock sadness. Payton rolled her eyes at him, grinning at Valerie.
Valerie made her rounds greeting her Aunt Reyna and her Tio Manolo and all the rest of her younger family that had just travelled in from Spain. They had all gotten hotels nearby.
"Since when are you Little Mary's new favourite? I call bullshit." Roger commented as they walked behind Valerie's family to the dining room.
"Call it all you want, but you're just jealous that all of Valerie's cousins love me." John sing-songed. Already, you could hear Freddie exclaiming to June how the food looked delicious.
"What a shame they chose the lamest of us all." Roger sighed, containing his laughter by engaging Payton in a conversation about her clothing line.
"He's not wrong." Valerie jokes to John, who shook his head at her.
"Just one thing after another today with you. The Christmas spirit hasn't gotten to you yet." John clucked while Valerie draped her arms around his waist. They had just arrived in the dining room where everyone was chattering loudly, sitting at the table.
"It has, just wait until you see the gift I bought you." Valerie said quietly as she took her seat next to June and across from Freddie and Mary. John sat next to Valerie. He was seated beside Little Mary, who was already starting to chatter away.
"Oh, what is it?" John asked, and Valerie smiled, shaking her head at him.
"I can't tell you, it's a surprise." She said, and before John could say anything else, June spoke.
"Right, Val, do you want to say a prayer?" June asked, already extending her hands out on either side of her, inviting Valerie and Reyna to take her hands. Everyone around the table followed suit and joined hands.
"Course," Valerie said, giving John's hand a a squeeze before she started on a short prayer thanking God for the food and the holidays.
"And may I survive another year of teaching. Amen," Valerie ended. Everyone around the table echoed her conclusion, laughing at the final comment she had made.
"It's time to eat! I've been eyeing those tortillas for a while." Roger said, his voice reducing to a mumble as it was buried under the growing conversations around the table.
****
Valerie, Brian, Little Mary, and Mary had made cookies while the rest of the band and the family went to play board games and chatter in the living room. Her cousins were causing chaos in her back yard. They'd been snow ball fighting for hours. Freddie and Roger has joined them for a bit.
Softly, Neil Diamond'd record Moods was playing, mixing in with the conversations and laughter of the family.
Valerie felt her heart swell with emotion. She suddenly felt like crying, not just because she had gotten a bit sad thinking about her father, but because she felt so overwhelmed with happiness thinking about how she got to spend this Christmas surrounded by all the people she loved.
"Are those cookies almost ready, my love?" John called as he came into the kitchen, snapping Valerie out of her reverie.
He set his beer bottle on the counter while he peered over her shoulder at the batch of cookies they were placing on a sheet.
"There's two finished batches over there, but make sure to save some for Santa." Valerie told him, winking when Little Mary's face lit up with delight.
"He's gonna bring me a pony." Little Mary said with finality, yawning, and Brian laughed at her determination.
"Maybe. We'll have to see if Santa can keep ponies in the North Pole." Reyna said as she came into the kitchen, scooping Little Mary out of Roger's arms.
"It's time to go. I'm sorry Val, but it's past Mary's bedtime. And Xavier is going to catch his death if I don't drag him out of the snow. We're coming over for breakfast tomorrow though," Reyna said apologetically while Little Mary whined petulantly.
"But I'm not tired." Mary said fiercely, trying (and failing) at stifling a yawn.
"Ah, you can't fool me, ladybug. Goodnight everyone. Goodnight, Val, thank you for having us over. I'll see you tomorrow, mija." Reyna said as Valerie gave Mary a kiss goodbye. She walked Reyna, her Uncle, and Xavier to the door before she headed back into the kitchen.
"She's so adorable. I wish I could give her a pony." Mary Austin spoke quietly when Valerie had reentered the kitchen. Valerie knew that Mary had started to want a child, but Freddie had said no. That his cats suited him just fine.
"Either way, she's going to love the books I got her. All about horses. Too bad I won't be able to see her tomorrow morning." Brian said as he loaded a few more scoops of raw cookie dough onto the cookie sheet and slid it into the oven.
Brian and Payton were spending Christmas morning with his parents, and were coming back over to Valerie's for a quiet dinner.
"She'll love it. I'll take pictures for you." Valerie promised Brian as she leaned against John, reaching over and taking a sip of his beer.
The rest of her relatives had left before eleven, and Brian, Payton, and Roger were gone soon after. Freddie and Mary stayed back for a while to chat with John and Valerie, as they hadn't gotten too much time to talk, but they were gone half past eleven.
"Goodnight, Val. John. Merry Christmas." June yawned, waving as she headed into the guest bedroom that she was staying in. John and Valerie went into their bedroom, stunned by the silence of the house.
The two of them slipped into their pajamas and brushed their teeth, readying for bed. Valerie was standing by her large vanity, and John had just flopped on the bed when he spoke.
"Since it's nearly tomorrow, I should give you your main present now." John said, and Valerie turned from where she was looking in the mirror, pausing the act of taking down her hair for the intricate braids her mother had done for her.
"Oh, John, you don't want to wait?" Valerie asked him as she took out the last pin that was holding up her hair.
"No, you're too special to wait. Besides, it's nearly midnight anyway."
"You're much more special than I am. I'm giving you yours as well." Valerie proclaimed, going into the bathroom and returning with two boxes. One was flat and rather small, and the other was wider.
"How the hell did you hide those in the bathroom?"
"You never do laundry, and I had it in the towel cabinet, so I knew you'd never find it." Valerie said with a shrug, and John laughed at her. He went over to the closet and produced a small box from the bottom dark corner. It was haphazardly wrapped in blue paper.
"I had to keep moving my gift around, but you never found it." John said as he sat on the bed with his gift in front of him, Valerie following suit.
"Alright, I'm excited now." Valerie said as John passed her the box, and she slid the two boxes to John.
"One, two, three." they said in unison, and tore away the wrapping paper on the boxes.
"Edgar Allen Poe. I knew I'd never seen the last of him." John said with a smile as he hefted the large book of his best works that Valerie had gifted him. There was a note tucked into it that he set aside as he tore into the next box.
"Never. Edgar will always find a way." Valerie said with a nod, smiling when John opened the next gift she'd given him.
"Oh, this is lovely!" John exclaimed when he opened the case. Inside was a guitar pick necklace that was perfectly silver except for the words engraved on the front.
It read from your Valerie. you were always my somebody to love.
"God, I love you so much." John said, leaning across the case to kiss Valerie deeply. All the while, she was grinning happily.
"I'm so glad you like it. Took me forever to decide what to engrave in it." Valerie said. John nudged her a bit and she opened the gift he had gotten her. Biting her lip, Valerie lightly tugged away the pale blue ribbon that was tied neatly around the box.
Inside was a beautiful silver ring with two small green stones on the sides of a blue stone. The light from the bedside lamp made it even more glittery. Valerie gasped, almost afraid to take it out of the box, for it was too beautiful.
"John! I don't know what to say; this is beautiful. This must have been half of you're savings if you got it from...... Tiffany's?!" Valerie exclaimed quietly as she checked the box. She looked at John, aghast.
"Only a quarter of my savings, don't worry." John joked, and Valerie gave him a look.
"It's for you, and I'm willing to spend all the money in the world on you." John told her as he took the ring out of the box and slipped in on ring finger of her right hand.
"A promise ring. It's a promise that, no matter what, I'll always be here for you. And I'll always love you." John said, kissing the palm of her hand lightly, making Valerie's heart melt.
"I love it; it's beautiful." Valerie gushed as she looked at the ring in the light, intertwining her free hand with John's.
"And I love you so much. You're too good to me." Valerie said with a laugh.
"It's safe to say this is the best Christmas gift I've ever gotten." Valerie said as she pulled John in for a deep kiss, neither of them noticing the clock tick quietly past midnight.
ahHHH I start school tomorrow jdkskskw
I'm so not prepared to socialize. I did a theater camp one month ago on zoom, but it's been too long. ewwww we gotta do those stupid get to know you exercises on zoom I -
anyway, in other news, I got a ton of new records (mostly because my dad gave me a lot of his) and now my record collection is over 60. my dad surprised me with Queen's Made in Heaven album and I listened to the whole thing and y'all it's so good. I had never listened to it all the way through. 100/10 would recommend y'all listen to it.
anywayyy, have a great day/night/afternoon.
hope y'all enjoyed!
xoxo, angelica ✨
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro