Don't Stand So Close (completed)

Chapter 22*

Over the next few weeks my whole world was completely crazy and busy. Finals were before Christmas break, so I hunkered down and studied every night that I could. Then my parents left for vacation, and I began working evenings at the restaurant to fill in where needed. My dad asked me to work every day while they were away. So I was barely getting sleep. I'd wake up and go to classes then I'd study whenever I had space between classes. Like on Tuesdays and Thursdays I had only 2 classes. My first one started at 9:00 AM and ended at 11, then my next class wasn't until 3 PM. So from 11 AM to 3 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays I was in the library getting ready for finals. Then after classes I'd go right to the restaurant and relieve Hampton from running the restaurant all day. I'd work, get home at around 2 AM and then study for a minimum of one and half hours, which got me to bed before 4 AM and then I'd sleep until 8:30 or 9 (depending on the day and the time my first class began). Rinse, and repeat.

I felt crazy for juggling it all during finals. The restaurant was closed on Christmas Day and on New Year's Day but by that time I had already taken my finals. On Christmas and New Year's Eve I was with Harry. I loved being able to spend the full days with him. While my parents were on vacation, Harry came up to see me on Saturday. I loved having him with me, even though I had to be at the restaurant the next morning and we could only spend the night together. It was hard to get any real, quality time with him that first week. But Christmas and New Year's Day were a wonderful holiday present. Harry and I made elaborate holiday meals with all the fixings, played Christmas music, lit his fireplace, drank eggnog (which Harry hates, by the way, I forced him to try it for the first time) and made love.

On New Year's we barely got out of bed. He served me breakfast in bed, we rolled around and played in his soft sheets, we napped, we had dirty, dirty sex, he read half of a book of poems to me and made love a few more times. I really didn't want anything else for the holidays. He made everything so perfect for me. He got me a gold chain necklace with a heart charm for Christmas, as well a notebook that he'd written in. All of it was for me and about me. He wrote poems, short stories, and random ramblings. He gave me very strict rules regarding the notebook. He told me I had to keep the notebook at his house, could only read it with him around, needed to read it from front to back (not out of order), and I needed to tell him when I got to a certain part in the notebook toward the end. I didn't understand why the rules, but when I asked him, he refused to give me any kind of answer that sated my curiosity.

"Well, that just makes me want to read the ending right now. Skip the first part and come back to it after I find out why you're being so secretive..." I tease him, not really meaning it.

"I'm not going to tell you what the ending is, but if you do sneak a peek and realize what it is before you go in proper order and don't tell me about it, then you'll wind up feeling pretty bad I think. For your sake, please go in order and tell me when you get to the third page from the end. Well, for my sake too. I'd like you to take in my present how I intended for you to receive it. Okay? Can you promise me?" He knows I won't go out of order. Of course I wouldn't. If there's anyone that understands a literary mind, with precise intention and purposeful placement of phrases, it's me. I wouldn't skip order in a book unless the author wanted that and made it clear. Going out of order can ruin a masterpiece and I would never want to ruin something anyone worked hard on, especially Harry. So, I agree to him and promise I won't go out of order.

I don't get very far in the notebook on Christmas nor on New Year's Day since we are both so preoccupied with one another. When my parents get back the week after New Year's and Harry and I get back into our normal routine of seeing each other on the weekends, then I'll dig into the Christmas notebook further.

The restaurant is busy during the holidays. People wanting breaks from cooking for visitors and family come to our small restaurant for a reprieve. The food is excellent also. My dad trained the main chef well and she does an excellent job without my dad around. Things aren't perfectly smooth without my parents, but we avoided any disasters and things went mostly as planned.