later. Your turn to open something.”
Yasmine recognized most of the boxes as things they’d wrapped last night, but one small box caught her eye. “What’s this?” she said.
“Open it and find out.”
It was unmistakably Kyle’s wrapping job, with too much tape and uneven paper alignment. She tore off the packaging and found a box filled with a little stack of computer-generated coupons.
The top coupon read, “Good for one free sensual massage.” She flipped to the next one, which read, “Good for doughnuts in bed.” And the next one, “Good for unlimited fantasies fulfilled.”
“Wow, I get to redeem these whenever I want?”
“Maybe not whenever. I mean, in the middle of the workday would be bad timing for most of them.”
She smiled, touched that he’d taken the time to create a homemade gift. “Is this why you got up in the middle of the night?”
He shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t sleep, and I felt bad for having woken you up.”
“Didn’t you ever see the episode of Friends when Joey gives coupons as gifts?”
“No, why?”
“Oh, nothing. Thank you,” she said, and she meant it. “This is the sweetest gift anyone has given me in a long time.”
She handed him his next gift.
“Is this one mine?” He made a big show of acting as if he had no idea what was in the package, even though he knew it was only the dumb key chain they’d bought yesterday.
“Wow,” he said, holding it up for her to see. “It’s in the shape of a cable car. Get it? Cable cars represent San Francisco.”
She laughed. “You’re such a dork. A cute dork, but still a dork.”
They finished unwrapping their assortment of goofy little gifts and sat on the floor beside each other, drinking cocoa and playing with their stuff. Yasmine shook up her San Francisco snow globe and watched the glitter fall on the city.
“What’s with you and the snow globe?”
She smiled. “I’ve got a collection of them. It used to drive my parents nuts that everywhere I traveled with them I could have picked out some tasteful, authentic souvenir—a piece of pottery or a local artist’s sketch or whatever—and I always wanted a snow globe instead.”
“Show me your collection sometime?”
“Absolutely!” She beamed. No one ever asked to see her snow globes.
“So, are you ready for that surfing lesson?” he asked.
“That what?”
“Didn’t you see your last coupon? It’s for a free surfing lesson.”
“Only if you meant that in a figurative sense, like you’re comparing surfing to sex again.”
“No, I mean a real surfing lesson, with ocean and waves and wetsuits.”
Yasmine looked at him as if he was speaking a foreign language. “I don’t know why you think I’d want to do that.”
“Because it’s something new? Bet you’ve never gone to the beach on Christmas day before.”
“As a matter of fact…no, I haven’t, and I don’t see any reason to break with tradition.”
“Come on, this is the antitraditional Christmas celebration. You’ve got earrings hanging from your tree, we just exchanged sex coupons for gifts, and we’ve known each other for only a couple of weeks.”
“And what does any of that have to do with surfing? Besides, I doubt any equipment rental places are open today.”
“Doesn’t matter. We can swing by my place on the way to the beach. I’ve got an extra board and a wet suit that’ll fit you.”
“Surf boards won’t fit in my car.”
“We can take my SUV.”
“Jeez, you’re persistent.”
“Aren’t you even a little bit curious about what it’s like to ride a wave?”
“After all your sex and surfing metaphors, no. I think I’ve got a perfectly good idea, and I’m happy to stick with the sex side of the experience.”
“Then come to the beach and watch me surf. Maybe next time you can try it.”
Next time, as if they’d have more than just this weekend together. The idea intrigued Yasmine. There was nothing not to love about Kyle. Aside from his slightly furtive behavior that first night at his apartment, he was altogether a dream guy.
Finally, after years of dating guys who never saw past her appearance, she was starting to let herself believe that Kyle might be a real winner. It was a crazy idea, and totally unexpected, but what the hell. Kyle seemed to be genuinely interested in her.
So, yeah, maybe they would have more than just a weekend together. Maybe this thing that had started out as purely sexual would grow into something more.
“Okay, fine. I’ll watch you surf, but if you freeze your private parts off, I have to tell you,