A Christmas in July–er, August story!

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Lily was so nervous. She looked in the mirror to see how her Christmas shirt had come together, but the present sitting on her bed, the floofed green tissue paper standing at attention caught her eye instead.

That was what she was nervous about.

But not her sweater.

Well, “sweater” was a generous term. It was a black T-shirt with five colorful squids across the front. She was wearing it over a red long sleeve shirt to make it more Christmasy. Lily had bedazzled Santa hats on top of each squid’s head, sparkly white snowflakes, and the words “Merry Squid-mas” below it.

She grinned at it, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

“Knock, knock,” her mom verbally announced her presence.

“What do you think?” Lily asked unable to contain her grin.

“Lil! It’s amazing!”

She grabbed a gray cardigan (she didn’t want to hide the Christmas squids) and the gift bag before heading to the front door for her keys and her small brown messenger bag.

“Don’t forget your cookies!” her mom called from the kitchen.

“Thanks,” Lily said, grabbing the container from her and stepped out into the brisk December air.

She drove twenty minutes to Jerry’s Coffee, the coffee shop where she had worked for the last eighteen months since high school graduation, and the location for their annual holiday party. The team crammed in as many shenanigans into one night as they could—ugly sweaters (though Lily’s was definitely not ugly), cookie decorating, Secret Santa, even Christmas carols. The owner and manager, Jerry and his wife Sheila hosted many work events here, so no employee had to worry about hosting everyone in their homes. The meal was always catered, but the dessert was potluck style.

Lily took a deep breath and grabbed the present from her passenger seat. This year, she had drawn her best co-worker friend, Lucas, out of the hat. They’d gone to high school together but life after those four years had a way of bringing people together, and it had brought the two of them together about a year ago when Lucas was hired.

There were no rules or ceremony for revealing your Secret Santa or presenting their gift. Which Lily was extra grateful for. She didn’t want her thoughtfulness on display for all her coworkers to see.

She hung her jacket and bag up in the break room and squeezed the present sideways into her locker before heading back to the lobby for food. She beelined right for the dessert table, squeezing her plate of cookies in between brownies and apple pie.

“Hey Lil!” Lucas greeted her as she slid a slice of pumpkin pie on her plate.

Lily looked up into Lucas’s grinning face, his brown eyes lit up. He was wearing a crocheted blue and white Pokémon Christmas sweater and had two paper cups in his hand.

“Hey Lucas!” Oh gosh, do I sound too excited? Am I too loud? “Nice sweater! Do you think it’ll win.”

“Nah, maybe next year’s,” Lucas said, stacking two of Lucy’s chocolate chip cookies on his plate next to a slice of apple pie. “We should definitely have a ‘unique’ category,’” he said, looking at her Christmas Squids.

Lucy beamed. “I’m so proud of how it turned out.”

“As you should be. Hey, will you try the new coffee drink I concocted?”

That explained the cups. Lily wrinkled her nose. “Lucas…” He was always making new to get her to “expand her palette.”

“Oh c’mon, you’ll love it.”

She hardly ever loved any of them but followed him… straight back to the break room?

“All clear,” he teased, turning to face her. “Tonight, all I have is our hot chocolate.”

As he handed her the festive paper cup, the confusion momentarily wiped away. “I love hot cocoa.”

“I know,” he said, with a smile.

She set her pie down and wrapped her hands around the steaming mug. Closing her eyes, Lily absorbed the chocolatey aroma.

“Oh, and this.”

Lily opened her eyes to see Lucas holding a present wrapped as a Tootsie Roll. Did he pull my name from the Secret Santa hat?

“What are the odds of that?” she asked out loud.

“‘Never tell me the odds,’ he quoted the famous rogue space smuggler. “But wait, tell me these odds.”

“It was a rhetorical question. I don’t actually know the odds.” Setting down her cocoa mug on the table next to her pie, she walked to her locker and pulled out the gift bag. She prayed her laugh didn’t sound nervous. “I pulled your name for Secret Santa too.”

Lucas’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Lily’s laugh was more relaxed this time. “Really.”

“Rock, paper, scissors?” he asked.

“What? Loser opens their present last?” she teased.

“Winner’s choice!” he declared.

“Lucas, I thought this was supposed to help us make a decision.”

“C’mon Lil.” He waggled his eyebrows and stuck out his right fist.

Lily rolled her eyes but stuck out her fist as well; Lucas grinned.

“Rock, paper, scissors!” they declared in unison, Lily’s hand forming into scissors as Lucas’s stayed in rock.

“Your default is scissors, Lil.”

Lily groaned; Lucas loved presents.

“What?” he asked.

“You know what,” she replied as he picked up the present she’d wrapped. “You love presents so much. You love opening presents. We didn’t even need the game.”

“Can I open it Lil?”

“Of course, you can goof!” She sat at the table with her pie and cocoa.

Lucas sat down across from her. “Oooh it’s heavy!”

Why did it feel like a cephalopod was squirming around inside of her? Why couldn’t she get the normal nervous butterflies like everyone else?

Why am I even nervous? It’s just Lucas.

By “just” Lucas listened to her talk about squids and the aquarium, about the books she was reading, and the art she was working on. “Just” Lucas laughed at her puns and encouraged them. He called her to hang out at the beach when they weren’t working; they talked about school and their classes. He had even come over for board games with her family. Lucas was so much more than “just” anymore. And this gift—it was a piece of her creative heart combined with something he loved.

There was every reason to be nervous. Her stomach squirmed some more, and she willed herself to eat a bite of pie. Act natural.

Lucas shook the present like a five-year-old on Christmas morning. “Are there multiple items in here?” He asked with glee. “Lily did you go over the Secret Santa budget?”

She couldn’t help but laugh; his excitement was contagious. “Just open it!”

He pulled out the green tissue paper peeked in the bag. “It’s wrapped too!”

“Only part of it.”

He looked in the bag again and pulled out the obvious not-wrapped present: a tie-dye kit and a white t-shirt that spelled out Redondo Beach in blocky graffiti-like lettering.

“Tie-dye!”

Lily laughed again.

“What?”

“You’re just so—” She’d been about to say “precious”, but her cheeks warmed and she changed her approach. “I love your excitement.”

“And I love Redondo Beach!”

“I have a sweatshirt at home. The tie dye kit is so we can make our own and not look like the tourists.”

Lucas’s eyes lit up. “Lil, that’s genius! This is gonna be so fun!”

Then he picked up the thick wrapped rectangle. He raised his eyebrows at her, but Lily just shrugged at him, chewing a bite of pie.

She knew the tie dye kit would go over well; it was this gift she was most nervous about.

Finally, he tore the paper to reveal three 5×7 framed watercolors of different places around Redondo Beach; their favorite pier, regardless that they’d lived near it their whole lives.

“Lily, you painted these.” He was just staring at her.

“Gulty as charged,” she joked.

And the weight on her creative soul lessened a smidge. Lucas had been asking her to draw him something almost as soon as he learned she was an artist. She knew he would appreciate it; it was always so strange to give a piece of herself to someone. Especially someone who was special to her.

Lucas placed a hand on her hand. “Thank you. They’re incredible.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, hating that she was blushing.

“You turn!” Lucas declared.

“Hey guys!” Their co-worker Phil popped his Santa hat-topped head in the doorway. “Caroling in five minutes!”

“Roger that!” Lucas saluted him and then turned his attention back to Lily.

She poked it mostly to mess with him. “It’s soft!” she exclaimed because it caught her off guard.

“Oh my gosh, you never do this!”

“I was just trying out your enthusiasm.”

Lucas laughed. “It’s great! I love it!”

Lily ripped the paper and revealed deep red yarn. Pulling the paper back even more, she saw a crocheted round eye looking up at her. She held up a beanie in the shape of a squid.

“Lucas, you made this?!”

“Yep!”

And she could hear the grin in his voice. Lucas had taken up crocheting to connect with his grandma.

Lily instantly placed it on her head, grinning like a kid. “It fits perfectly!”

“Your mom helped with the measurements.”

Remember to thank Mom, Lily told herself. But she was sure wearing the squid hat home would help remind her.

“It’s way better than the souvenir squid hats the aquarium has.”

“That’s where I got the idea from. I almost bought one of those, but I needed a new knitting project.”

“Thanks Luc—”

“One more thing,” he said sheepishly, sliding a card across the table.

Lily’s eyes widened. They had each made each other something. “Part two?”

“Technically three.” He nodded at her hot cocoa.

Lily opened the envelope and her mouth dropped open. “Now who went over the Secret Santa budget.”

We both made each other something and we both blew the co-worker budget.

Lucas waved her comment away. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while: I just used Secret Santa as the reason to finally pull it off.”

Lily pulled out two tickets with Saturday’s date printed on them.

Lucas cleared his throat and scooted his chair closer. The noise his chair made on the floor, caused Lily to pull her gaze away from the tickets and look at him.

Oh my gosh! Is this really happening?

“Lily, will you go on a date with me to the Aquarium of the Pacific? This weekend?”

Oh my gosh, a date! It is happening!

She had just started admitting her feelings for him to herself. Was it really possible he felt the same way about her? But he must, if he was asking her out on a date. Lily threw her arms around his neck in a rare hug. “Of course!”

Lucas breathed a sigh of relief and laughed. “Gosh, I was so worried you were going to say no.”

She melted a bit, realizing now how nervous he must have been. “You know I can’t turn down the aquarium.”

He just grinned at her. “C’mon, we don’t want to miss caroling.”

Lily tucked the tickets back into the envelope and placed them in her bag. “They’ll be safe there,” she said. Turning back to face him, she took his outstretched hand.

“Merry Christmas Lily.”

She smiled at him. “Merry Christmas Lucas.”

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Author’s Note: Last September, one of the #flashfictionmagic prompts was “Sweaters and Squids”. An idea was born around an ugly sweater Christmas party, but I never saw it through. Fast forward to this July, Katie Fitzgerald, who took over the prompts for this community, now called #flashfictionfriends, gave us Christmas in July prompts. Last week’s prompt was “Gift” and I was inspired to combine the two.

Thanks to author Katie Fitzgerald for hosting #FlashFictionFriends. Read more flash fiction on Instagram here! See other stories I’ve written over on the Story Corner of this blog!