What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

~Dec. 31~

Donna couldn't recall feeling so flustered about an impending party. Of course, it had been a while since she had been to any party at all, but there was the added aspect of whom she was attending the party with.

Mr. Grinch - just Grinch - seemed all too good to be true. After bringing back all of the things he stole on Christmas, he had been finding so many ways of paying things back, especially for her family. At first, she thought that maybe this was his way of apologizing to everyone, but she did begin to notice that it was mainly her and her children he was focused on helping.

He was so kind, so attentive, and so refreshingly, adorably awkward that Donna couldn't help but smile at the mere thought of his sweet, nervous self.

But he was too good to be true, or at least that was what the tiny voice in the back of her mind kept saying. Ted - the twins' father - hadn't he been the same way? Not exactly the same, but everything he's said and done felt like he was reading her mind and heart, telling her exactly what she wanted to hear. He'd done everything perfectly to lure her in and make her think he was going to stick around. And where was he now?

She considered this as she tore up her closet, trying to find something appropriate to wear for the night ahead. Yes, her own history had taught her to be wary of such men, ones who appeared to want to do anything to please her. Once they knew they had her heart, it was much more likely they would be careless with it.

Coming to the far back wall of her closet, Donna found an old but well-loved dress that she remembered having worn last on a Valentine's Day. The very last one she'd spent with Louis, not that she'd known at the time. It felt like a lifetime ago as she held the purple fabric to her. Cindy Lou had been no more than two. Donna wondered how much her daughter even remembered her father if anything.

Louis was the problem, too. Even forgetting the fact that Ted had turned out to be such a complete piece of scum, Donna felt that Louis had ruined her for any other men. For what man could compete with him? He was the best husband, the best father, the best Who that Donna could have ever dreamt of.

She brought the dress from its lonely place in the depths of the closet and laid it carefully on the bed. She went to her dresser to look through her jewelry box to find something to wear with it, and the sight of her locket caused a pang in her heart as it caught the light.

A heart-shaped pendant with her initials engraved in the front, a bit tarnished from age but still just as lovely in her eyes as the day Louis gave it to her. She hadn't picked it up in years, not since she'd removed it and placed it inside the box before the twins were born. Ted hadn't liked seeing it, nor any reminders of her time before him. Looking back, Donna should have seen the signs before.

But Grinch was different, she told the voice in her head. He wouldn't be that way. Even if he couldn't take the place of Louis in her heart, he certainly couldn't be worse than Ted.

She untangled the locket from the other chains in the box and placed it around her neck. She was excited about tonight, but nervous as well, and in some way she felt that having even this memory of her late husband with her might help assuage her worries... and perhaps help her decide if pursuing things with Grinch was the right thing to do.

_____❄_____

Her hair was different, but certainly not in a bad way. Gone was the practical headband that usually adorned her head, and her hair now fell in a cascade of blonde waves and curls on either side of her face. Her coat obscured the rest of her outfit, but Grinch could see over to the side as Donna checked the contents of her purse Cindy Lou gave him a cheeky grin that clearly said, 'I told you so.'

"Now, young lady, I fully expect you to be in bed asleep by the time I get home," Donna said to her daughter as she zipped up her bag. "No sweet-talking the sitter into letting you stay up to midnight."