“There is no doorbell to ring, and I spoke to the guy downstairs and he said it was fine for me to come up.”
“Harry, you don’t know, I could have had someone here.”
“Sarah, you never have anyone here.” He walked over and gave me a big hug, pulling me close into his body and then gave me a kiss on the cheek. “So I have the credit card for you. I’m going to give you each of their names. You can spend, I think maybe fifty on each present.”
“Fifty dollars, Harry? That seems really cheap.”
“Fine. Seventy-five.”
“I was thinking more like more like five hundred dollars each.”
“Five hundred dollars. Are you joking? I’m not marrying these girls.”
“Oh my gosh, Harry. Really? These are girls that you are dating. These are girls I’ve seen you in the newspaper with. You can’t even spend five hundred dollars on their Christmas presents?”
“When you’re dating three men and you have to buy them Christmas presents, you let me know if you’re going to spend five hundred dollars on each of them.”
“Well, if I was dating three men, they would all be buying me Christmas presents. And if they weren’t buying me good presents, they’d be out.”
“Oh, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were some sort of gold digger.”
“Oh, Harry, Harry, Harry. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were some sort of pauper.” And then we both laughed.
“Oh, Sarah, it’s so good to see you. So what are you doing tonight?”
“I told you, I’m supposed to go to a show.”
“Who are you going with?”
“I was going to go by myself.”
“Well, do you want me to come with?”
“Are you sure you don’t have a date tonight?”
“There might’ve been some girl I was going to see, but that’s not as good as going with my best friend to a show.”
“You’re going to blow off one of your ladies to go to a show with me, and you don’t even like shows.”
“Well, hold on. What’s the show that you’re going to see? I thought you were going to see a movie.”
“Well, it’s kind of a movie, kind of a show. It’s this new one-man play, but he recorded half of it on his iPhone, so we’re going to watch half of it on the screen, half of it in person.”
Harry groaned out loud.
“Oh no. Sarah. That sounds absolutely awful.”
“What? It sounds really cool. It’s about him imagining what his life would be like if he was a fly.”
Harry just stared at me.
“You’re joking, right?”
“No, I’m not joking.”
“You want me to come to a movie slash play about a man who’s thinking about what it would be like to be a fly?”
“Okay. When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be absolutely amazing, but I saw the flyer and I thought it might be cool. Plus, I had nothing else going on tonight.” I tugged on my nightgown and sighed. “I mean, I guess I could just go to bed.”
“Well, you don’t have to go to bed. How about we just stay here and watch a movie. I’ll order in a pizza as a thank you for doing the Christmas shopping for me.”
“And wings as well?” I gave him my grin.
“Sure. I’ll get wings. I’ll get cheese sticks. I’ll get whatever you want.” He looked at me and then squeezed my cheek. “That’s why I love you, Sarah.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t care what you eat. These girls that I go to dinners with, all they want to get is a salad. No fries, no steaks. Not like you.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I’m not sure I consider that a compliment.”
“It is a compliment. You don’t care what you look like. You don’t care how much weight you gain.”
“Harry. Really? Are you calling me fat and ugly now?”
“No, of course not. You’re not fat. You’re not ugly. You’re just cool. You’re a regular girl. Other girls should be like you.”
“Harry, that’s not a compliment. One, I’m not a girl. I’m a woman and...”
“Okay, Sarah? Yes. You’re a woman. Oh yeah. By the way, I forgot to tell you. My mom wants to know if you’re going to come home for Christmas with me.”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Because she knows your parents are going to be in Europe this year and she thought you might be lonely.”
“That’s okay. I was just going to stay here.”
“Nope. You’re coming home with me.”
“Harry. I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Why not? You always come with us for Christmas.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know. I just feel like I don’t really fit in. Your mom’s going to have one of her dances and her dinners, and everyone’s going to look at me like, who’s the ugly duckling.”
“Sarah. You’re not an ugly duckling.”
“I am, look at me.” I could feel my lips starting to tremble. I was really upset. It really was getting to me. It’s not like I was going to tell Harry that it bothered me that neither he nor his brothers saw me as a woman, just some little girl, some tomboy fat ass. I wanted to be looked at as someone sexual, as someone cool. I wanted to be asked on dates. I wanted to be bought Christmas presents. I didn’t want to have to be buying the Christmas presents for the other people.
“Come on, Sarah. You know I don’t want to go if you’re not going to be there.”
“Why don’t you just take one of your girls?”
“Yeah. Right. There’s no way I’d take any of them home.”
“You took me.”
“But that’s because you’re my best friend. You’re special.”
“Well, yay for me, I’m so special.”
“Sarah, are you okay?” There was a stupefied look in his eyes. There was a confused look in his eyes. “I don’t remember you being like this. Don’t tell me, you’re not on your period, are you?”
“Every time I’m like this doesn’t mean I’m on my period. I just mean I want a different... oh, forget about it.” I let out a sigh. “You go and call the pizza place and make an order, and I’ll go and look and see what’s on Netflix.”
“Well, there was a movie that I did want to watch, if you were down with that.”
“Oh boy. What’s that, Harry?”
“Well, we haven’t seen Die Hard in a really long time, and you know Bruce Willis is one of the best actors in the world.”
“I am not watching Die Hard another Christmas. We’ve been watching that since we were little kids, Harry. Come on. Let’s watch something new.”
“I always watch Love Actually when you want to watch it.”
“Yeah, but Love Actually is actually a classic.”
“Did you just say Love Actually is actually? Hahaha.”
“Harry. Okay. What about this? No Die Hard and no Love Actually. We watch a movie that we’ve never seen before.”