Christmas Break

End of the break

Jack and Gabrielle's flight landed in a snow storm. When they met his parents at the baggage claim they could see that they both seemed to be bundled up and luckily were carrying two winter jackets for them.

"Welcome back Gabrielle, son. Here put these on. You are going to need them. It's cold out there."

Jack took one coat and held it open for Gabrielle to slip her arms in before taking his own.

"Thank you Mr. B. I really, really didn't want to go out there in this lighter coat. I am trying to hold onto the Florida warmth as long as possible."

"Thanks Dad. I was thinking about that when we were landing. It wasn't too bad when we left so we really didn't have the right clothes for snow."

"I figured that Jack."

He then leaned in and talked softly into his ear.

"I am glad you finally grew up and figured out how to be a gentleman. Keep doing the little things like that. Girls love it"

"Always will Dad. We just traveled together and do you know how many fights we had? None. That was the first time that ever happened. It was nice. In fact we haven't fought since we got back together. Disagreements? Yes, fights? No. Someone should have told me this was how things should work years ago. It would have saved us a lot of trouble."

"Son, that is something every man needs to learn for themselves."

Jack's father leaned back and spoke louder again.

"All right... It's time to brave the snow. You can tell us all about the trip in the car."

...

Luckily it seemed that most of the hate had died down now. After the three videos were uploaded and them then giving it a few days, most of the vocal haters seemed to lose steam as the vast majority that cared, defended Gabrielle and Jack with almost religious vigor. Most people seemed to understand that things just happened. Most had taken everything with a grain of salt anyway. There were of course a few that persisted, but they were the really small minority overall and nothing they couldn't deal with.

All of their online friends had come out in support of Gabrielle and Jack, especially Katie and Julia. Their heartfelt statements even got their fans behind them so the subs on their channel had jumped back up well over two million again. Everyone seemed to like the new laid back vlog style. When Jack uploaded the simple video about them setting up their new apartment the views reached a hundred thousand in an hour and was well past half a million already.

Now Jack had some video from their Florida trip to make into a video or two out of. Gabrielle had actually felt a little weird for the first day of the trip. Jack was very specific on limiting the amount of time they devoted to recording. Gabrielle felt like they were slacking until Jack summed it up to her.

"This trip is for my fiance and myself to unwind sweetheart, not to force us to work for content."

After that Gabrielle just went with the flow and stopped asking about it. In the end they still had a few hours worth of video to break down and at no point did she feel like there was 'work" involved or any pressure to record. They just did it as the feelings hit them and had fun with it. Jack and Gabrielle both agreed that this was how they would treat making content from now on. When they did specific things like retreats or trips for YouTube, then they would concentrate on it, but the rest of the time, they would let it happen naturally.

They had even been talking to a couple of new YouTube couples. Those couples had reached out in support because of what had happened. That started them talking and becoming fast friends over the last few days. They then brought them into 'the group' and introduced them to the others. They had found out that 'the group' was what the other couples called the four that Katie and Josh had brought together for that first retreat. There were discussions going on about another retreat happening, probably not until early summer due to Katie and Josh's wedding, but the seed was there. This one promised to be larger.