Heavenly Virtues

Part 40

The weeks had passed leading up to Christmas, the twins were working non-stop, taking over time. They were rarely home anymore. Ashley had been able to secure Connor's gift with a lot of help from Rocco. She was so excited to give them their gifts and hoped they would like them.

With how much the boys were working it was impossible to get both of them together to pick out a tree and set it up so she took the time where she could with each twin.

Monday

Ashley was lounging in bed, reading her book with her tea nuzzled into the covers on the bed. She had read this book before but still found herself having to go back to re-read paragraphs as she watched the clock. The boys had promised her one of them would make it home tonight in time for them to go with her to pick out a Christmas tree. If they were able to swing it one of them should be coming through the door any minute.

As ten minutes turned to twenty, she finished her tea and went to put it in the sink. She heard the elevator door open and she hoped it was one of them because her hope for having a festive Christmas was fading. Connor came crashing through the door, making Ashley wonder if today was the day the door was finally going to come off of its last hinge.

"I'm here! I'm here lass. I'm sorry, I got off on time, then tha bus was late and traffic was shite-" She cut him off by kissing him hard, wrapping her arms around him. He had been worried she'd be mad, he was almost 30 minutes late and the tree lot was probably closing soon for the day. "You're here, that's all that matters." She smiled and pecked his lips again.

"Can we go?" She asked excitedly. He smiled and nodded as she threw on her coat. As they left the apartment she could see what had taken him so long. It was shit outside, the makings of a blizzard in the air as the cold wind burned her cheeks. She had borrowed her grandas car to tote the tree back to the apartment, so they hopped in and drove the couple minutes to the closest tree lot.

"Slim pickins lass," Connor said, unimpressed by the very few trees that were left. "That's what happens when we wait till the week of Christmas to get a tree." She rolled her eyes as she smiled and skipped around the lot. "What did ye have in mind lass?" She shrugged her shoulders "somethin small, not much room in tha apartment." He nodded as he looked through the tall yet measly-looking trees.

The twins quickly learned that Ashley was kinda crazy about Christmas. She had been baking cookies, and decorating the apartment and was found singing Christmas carols at any given time of day. Connor turned to find Ashley pushing trees aside to get to a buried one. "Ye find one?" He asked as he watched her struggle to pull one from the bottom of the pile with a smirk.

She pulled it up with a prideful smile on her face. "This one. Look at it! It's perfect." His eyes didn't move from her as he watched her eyes sparkle at finding the perfect Christmas tree. "Aye Sweetheart, it is." He took it from her, despite her protests of wanting to drag it across the lot herself.

They strapped it to the roof of the beat-up old hatchback after paying for it and drove back to the apartment. Getting it through the front of the building was the hard part, after that the elevator was spacious enough, and so was the hallway leading up to their place.

Ashley had gone out and bought a little tree stand the week before in preparation for the tree. She held it steady, giggling as Connor cursed while trying to get it to stand up. When it was firmly in place they cut the ropes around it and watched the branches fall into place.

They stood back and admired it, it stood at around four feet with a thick base of limps that were riddled with rich green needles. Connor looked to Ashley whose cheeks must have been sore from all the smiling "ye like it lass?" She nodded, pulling her eyes away from it and to him. "Thank you, I know you didn't have to take the time off to do this with me." She closed the gap between them ghosting her lips over his "but I appreciate it."