“Girl, I think I’ve told you this before, but lighten up.” She laughed. “I know that’s rich coming from me because I’m the queen of overanalyzing everything, but lighten up, have some fun with it. You never know what’s going to happen and hey, maybe ...” she paused.
“Maybe what?” I asked her.
“Maybe both of them will suck in bed and the decision will be easy. Maybe you’ll drop both of them and then find someone new and it won’t even matter.”
“Thanks girl, that makes me feel much better. Not.”
“I’m just saying. I mean, maybe you’ll have the opposite problem. Maybe both of them will be absolutely amazing in bed and you’ll want both of them and then you’ll have some sort of orgy or something.” She laughed. “Could you imagine?”
“Yeah right, that is never going to happen.” I rolled my eyes and then I stood up from the couch. “Oh man, I’m feeling so tired. I think I’m going to head to bed, but let’s talk later, yeah?”
“Yeah, girl.”
“And I guess good luck next week.”
“I know, I can’t believe Christmas is coming up so soon.”
“Have fun with Harry and his family.”
“Thanks, I’m really looking forward to it. Not.” She said sarcastically and laughed.
“I’ll speak to you soon, yeah?”
“Okay, bye.”
“Bye.”
Chapter 24
“Gemma, you make it at what time? Look at the time.” My grandma said as she opened the door on Christmas Eve. “It’s nine o’clock in the morning.”
“Grandma, I had to get here from Manhattan. It’s early still,” I yawned as I walked in.
“Ah, come here, give me a hug, my darling. But I tell you to be here at eight a.m.”
“Grandma, I didn’t need to be here at eight a.m. I’m going to be here all day.”
“Yes, but we’ve been waiting to start the Christmas carols with you, eh? We want you to sing.”
“Oh Grandma, I’m too old to be singing.” I looked at her. Being from a traditional Greek family meant that on Christmas Eve, every morning bells in the house would start ringing and then a group of us would go into the living room and start singing Christmas carols to the rest of the family. When I was younger, because I had the nicest voice, which wasn’t even that nice, I would always be the lead singer in the family. But it was meant to be something for kids. Somehow, I was still the lead singer with all my little cousins’ kids. There was just something wrong about a woman in her mid-twenties singing Christmas carols with a bunch of little kids.
“She’s here! She’s here!” Grandma said, as we walked into the living room. All my little cousins came running and hugged me. I hugged each one of them, feeling happy to see them. We really didn’t get together often enough. My grandpa stood up and walked over to me.
“Ah, my beautiful Gemma, it’s good to see you. What’s this I hear? Your boyfriend’s not coming today, I would like to meet him.”
“Grandpa, I don’t have a boyfriend.” I looked over at my grandma. “Grandma, I told you I don’t have a boyfriend yet. I said, I’m dating. Dating is not the same as having a boyfriend.”
“Well, Gemma, you know Aristotle is a good man if you not find anyone better.”
“Grandma, I don’t even know who Aristotle is, aside from the philosopher and I’m pretty confident he’s not the person you’re saying you’re going to hook me up with.”
“Gemma, Gemma, Gemma,” she shook her head. I saw my parents on the other side of the room, drinking some tea and I could tell that they were already overwhelmed. It was a lot to have our family here all together on Christmas. My mom spent the entire day cooking food with my grandma and my dad sat with my grandpa and his brothers and all the kids and talked about the old days. It was exactly the same every year, but I loved it. There was nothing better than Christmas with your family. I looked around the living room and smiled as I saw the tall Christmas tree, festive with lights and then next to the Christmas tree on the mantelpiece on top of the fireplace, there was a large boat that had also been decorated. It was a custom that my grandparents had brought over from the old country. Normally it was a small boat that got decorated, but every year my grandma seemed to find a larger and larger boat.