All I Want for Christmas - Marina

Chapter 14: Maya

I wake up to the sound of my alarm and find Carina standing in front of the mirror in a black sweater dress with tights on. I watch her put on earrings and then reach for her necklace. She tries multiple times to get the hook in for the necklace but keeps failing.

"Feel free to come help anytime if you're done watching," Carina teases. I feel embarrassed that she caught me staring. I get out of bed and walk behind her. She takes a seat. I move all of her hair to one side with my hand and lightly touch the back of her neck. I move my fingers from her neck to her hands holding the necklace. She watches me so carefully in the mirror as I help her with her necklace. As soon as I'm done, I set her hair back to how it was before and make eye contact with her in the mirror.

"You look stunning," I say.

"Mason said we may grab drinks after going ice skating so I wanted to look nice."

"You and Mason are best friends," I say laughing as I go to pick out clothes for myself.

"Isn't that a good thing?" She asks doing her makeup.

"The best," I reply finalizing on an outfit.

"Are your parents coming with us?" Carina asks.

"No. Dad would rather do a million other things than go to Times Square or Rockefeller Center. Mom is preparing for dinner tomorrow."

"Mason and I tried helping, but she wouldn't let us do anything."

"Yeah my mom loves babying us. She wants to cook every single thing for Thanksgiving dinner."

*

Carina stays super close to me as we walk around Times Square. She has been smiling since the second we left the house.

"I love Christmas," Carina says to me as she grips my hand tighter in the crowd of people. I try not to tell her it's not even Thanksgiving yet. I watch the light from the screens illuminate her face as she acts like a child in a toy store.

"Do you want to go ice skating yet?" Mason asks. I watch Carina for her reaction. Her smile tells me that she's ready.

"Okay heads up, I don't know how to ice skate," Carina says.

"Is this similar to how you never went mini-golfing before," I ask as we walk to the packed ice skating rink in front of the ginormous Christmas tree.

"Oh. My. God." Carina stares in awe at the tree. "Maya!" She holds my arm. "Maya this is so beautiful thank you for bringing me here!" I smile seeing how happy she is.

"We have a Christmas tree in Seattle too."

"I know but it's never as busy as this place and we never get snow like this." She waves her hand around point to the fresh snow on the ground.

"You're right," I say.

"I'm always right," she responds quickly while still admiring the tree.

"Okay I got us skates! Let's go," Mason says coming up to us. We hurry over to some seats to put the skates on. Carina stands up, and I can see she's lost. I extend my arm for her to hold onto as we get on the ice skating rink.

"Woah!" Carina says as she's about to slip. I can see Mason trying to control his laughter. I bite down on my lip trying to stifle my laugh. I skate ahead of her and come face to face with her.

"I'm gonna stop third wheeling and let you two do your thing," Mason says as he picks up some speed and skates away. I take Carina's hands into my own and start skating backwards.

"Maya, I don't know if this is a good idea!"

"You've got it. You just have to push yourself forward with one foot at a time." She attempts to push herself forward and falls into me.

"I got you," I laugh.

"This is nowhere near as fun as it looks," Carina complains.

"Just give it some time. You'll get the hang of it. Didn't Andrew says you're naturally good at everything?" I skate backwards pulling Carina with me. She smiles that she doesn't have to do anything since I'm moving her. I shake my head at her.

"What? This is more fun." Mason comes at full speed and stops right next to us.

"Don't worry Carina, you'll get the hang of it eventually. Especially if you come every year. Baby steps." Carina looks at me after hearing what Mason said. I like the idea of Carina coming with me for every Thanksgiving and Christmas family gathering.

"I'm going to start moving a bit faster now, okay?" Carina's eyes widen but before she can respond I pick up my speed.

"MAYAAAAA!" She yells making Mason and I laugh. I don't slow down and Carina has completely shut her eyes. Mason pulls out his phone to record us.

"Carina, what are you doing? Closing your eyes is going to make it worse!" She opens her eyes and holds my gaze. We smile at each other and once again, we feel like it's just us. Even in a crowd of people, Carina is it for me.

"Maya watch out!" Mason yells. A large man bumps into Carina, and I quickly grab her before she can fall. I have my arm wrapped around her waist as she holds onto my shoulders. We both laugh holding onto each other at how horribly that could've gone. Carina looks up and sees we're standing right in front of the Christmas tree. I move a strand of hair that falls on her face. She brings her attention back to me - looking at me with a warm smile.

"Maya," Carina says my name so quietly.

"Yeah?" I say looking at her face which is so close to mine.

"Kiss me," she says. I turn us around on our skates so Carina can lean back on the ledge of the rink. The last time we kissed, we had to kiss to show Andrew and Sam. This kiss... this kiss is for us. I bring up my right hand to cup her face, and I look into her eyes. "Please," she says. I close the distance between us.

This kiss is slow unlike our previous one. We both know how we feel about the other this time. We take our time knowing that this is the first kiss of many. I pull away to look at Carina, and seeing the smile on her face, I kiss her again. I wrap my arms around her waist tighter and she parts her lips to let me explore her mouth. I gently bite down on her bottom lip as she pulls away this time. I still hold her in my arms as she smiles looking down. "Don't get shy on me now, Carina." She laughs and looks back up. "You're perfect," I say.

"If only you realized it that night at the bar." We both laugh.

"From hating my guts that day I brought your patient to now kissing me in the heart of the Rockefeller Center. How do you feel?"

"Stop ittt," she says.

Mason skates up to us, and we let each other go.

"Never did I think you would show any public display of affection, but here we are." I laugh because he's so right. "Look." He shows me a picture he took of me and Carina kissing.

"I love it," Carina says.

"Me too," I say taking her hand into my own. Mason has no idea that he captured not our first kiss but the first kiss that was ours.