The Orphan Club

Christmas: Off to Grandma's House

Four months have passed since the wedding. I have been busy with the renovation of my apartment—yup I started cleaning out all of Harry's stuff with the help of Eddie. Who, in place of the eleven million dollars, has offered to help me with the renovation and find a location for me to start my tutoring business. What is my life? Anyway, my apartment no longer looks like it belongs to an eighty-year-old biddie. It's less pink now, and more white, which makes the place look even bigger.

The rest of the Orphan Club was also busy at their original locations. Macy is back in Ohio, poor her, and she's got one more promotion. She bought a bigger place—makes sense as Matty is there more now. Liam is in South Carolina but has been in the city several times to set up his new business—and see the girl he hooked up with at the wedding. Yeah, I know. He seems to be serious about it. He even told me he called Macy, apologized, and said he was happy she was with Matty. So I think that drama has been settled.

Heidi and Kristen are also back to traveling like crazy. Since Kristen already worked from home—did I mention she is a teacher? She teaches kids art via Zoom. Heidi got promoted at the nonprofit she works at so she doesn't have to go into the office anymore—as much. So my married sisters—I know, weird—were renting a flat in Poland for the past three months and just got back today.

Matty and I have also figured out how to be friends. We make sure to talk to each other every time he is in a new location. Our conversations are light. We mainly gossip about the models he works with or a new "hole in the wall" restaurant he discovered in Mykonos, where he ate the best Kremidopita made by a British expat who's lived there since the 80s. He also video-called me from London when he was on the street where Harry Potter was filmed, "Are you still a dorky fan of this?" He asked. Of course, I am still a huge Harry Potter nerd so I screamed when he showed me the 9 and 3 quarters sign at Kings Cross Station. So I think the events of the weddings are slowly being left in the past. It hurts less now too when he mentions mornings with Macy, or how Ohio has some nice restaurants because he and Macy had a date night there.

Now a week before Christmas, my new modern apartment is filled with holiday cheer in the form of my large classic Christmas tree—even though it is fake—that you can see from my windows while holly garlands and twilinking lights hang from various door frames. As I walk to my sister's apartment, a baked ziti burning my hands, there is light snow on the ground. It's only sticking to the small patches of grass that can rarely be found in New York. Still, it's setting the scene up for Christmas.

I knock on the door, not using the extra pair of keys they'd given me because the last time I did I regretted it—they are still newlyweds after all. I shake off the few flakes of snow that survived the heat of the inside as I wait.

"Ahh Rob!" Heidi opens the door and exclaims. She hugs me. "I've missed you!" She looks whiter than before, her hair is even a lighter color. "Come in! Come in! You came at the right time! We've video-called Macy and Matty!"

"Hey," I hear in unison. Kristen is sitting at the dining room table, holding her phone high. In it, I see Matty and Macy waving back at me.

"Hey guys!" I wave back as I get closer to Kristen. I notice Macy is holding Matty's hand.

"Guess what Rob! We are coming to the East Coast for the holidays! My grandma has officially moved into a retirement home in Maine with her best friend. So I am going down there to clean out her house and move everything to storage. If you are all free we can celebrate Christmas there!" Macy says.

"Really? It would be so great to go back to town to see if it's changed." I say. Kristen and I haven't gone back to RidgeRiver, our hometown, in years despite living about an hour away from it. We have no reason to go back. All our aunts and uncles whose houses we were ping-ponged to hate us, and we hated them.