Wanting You - Mandy Gonzalez X Chris Jackson - COMPLETED

31 - Gifts?

Chris took Doug into his dressing room as I got all of the cast gifts I'd made and laid them out on my dressing room table. I turned and looked at the couch finding a small box there. I picked it up and looked at it. I pulled the small card off and opened it.

'Dear mama.
Happy opening night. You are the best step-mom in the world and I love you so much. Thank you so much for making daddy happy again. I hope you like the gift.
From Dougy.'

I opened the box and inside was a heart locket. I opened it and saw the picture of Doug and I playing zoos and a photo of Chris, Doug and I all together. I began to tear up as I ran into Chris's room. I picked up Doug and gave him a massive hug.

"I love it Dougy. Thank you so much for this. It's perfect." I crouched down, so he was standing on the floor again, but kept hugging him. "I love you so much Dougy. So, so much."

"I love you too mama. You're the best."

I let go of Doug and stood up and wrapped my arms around Chris's neck and leant on his chest. "I love you so much baby. Thank you so much for helping Doug with that. I'm going to wear it under my top in the show instead of the actual necklace I wear."

"I love you too Mandy. Happy opening my love. You deserve all this." He gently kissed me and I kissed back.

"Mama?" I heard from Doug.

"Yes handsome." I smiled and crouched down to his level again.

"I made you this." He took a piece of card from Chris's dressing table. He held it up to me and I took it. "It's you and daddy in the show." I looked at the picture he had drawn. It was us at the end of 'when you're home' when we held hands.

"It's beautiful Doug. Thank you." I ruffled his hair. "Do you want to come put it up with me."

"Okay." I took his hand and we walked back towards my room. "Mama, put it on your door."

"That's a great idea. Let me grab some blu-tack." I walked in and grabbed some before walking back out and sticking the drawing on the door. Chris and I spent some time in my room with Doug before we had to get ready and do all our cast gifts. "Bye Dougy. I'll see you later sweetheart. Enjoy the show. I love you." I gave him a hug and kiss before Chris did the same. We walked down and passed him back to our parents.

We then walked back up to our dressing rooms. "Okay cast gifts. Can we start with each other's, as they are more personal I'm sure?"

"Of course babe let me go get it." Chris walked back to his room and I got out his gift and set it on the side. Chris walked in with a large box and I looked at him questioningly. "I guess you want go first to find out what this is."

"Yeah." We sit on the couch with the box in between us. I pull of the tape he had used to seal it shut and pulled out the contents. "Thank you babe. These are so cute." Inside the box there was a fluffy blanket with teal hearts all over and there were two matching teal cushions.

"I wasn't sure what to get you, so I decided on something to make the couch a little comfier for us to cuddle on."

"That's so sweet of you babe. I love it. You definitely just cuteified this room, and I know that's not a word, but I don't care." The two of us giggled. "Okay. Here's your gift."

I handed him a small box, which he opened. Inside was a double heart key ring. Engraved on one heart it said 'C & M - 8/24/07' and on the other side it said 'I love you'. The second heart said 'ITH - 3/9/08' And had 'Check 1,2,3' on the back.

"Mandy they are beautiful. When did you make these?"

"When you had your rehearsals for the opening song, 96,000 and canaval del barrio. I guess there's some benefit of me not being in the group numbers."

"Yeah. They are stunning. I love them, thank you gorgeous." He gave me a hug and we just stayed in each other's embrace for a few minutes.

"Mandy, Chris. Cast gathering for gifts and stuff downstairs in 5." I heard Karen yell.

"We'll be there." I yelled back. "What did you get everyone else?" I asked Chris softly.

"I worked with Doug on the rest and made them all mugs."

"In what way?" I asked a little confused.

"I was going to give you yours with everyone else, but I'll show you now and give it to you later." He ran and brought back a box and pulled out the mug. It had a teal water marble design and had 'Nina Rosario' written across the handle. Then 'Respira' across the front of the mug and in smaller writing 'In The Heights - March 9th 2008'. All the writing was in black calligraphy.

"That's so cool Chris. How long have you been doing these for? These must have taken hours and I never knew you had such an artistic side of you that's not performing on stage."

"Gunna be honest with you babe. Since Off-Broadway. Everyone complained that people kept taking their mugs, but no one wanted to write their names on them, so I made personalised ones for each character. They have our names on the bottom as a few are similar. The swing, standby and understudy ones are just a red and blue mix, with random quotes on that relate to their character that understudy and don't have a name on the side. Doug did the water marbling, it was mostly a distraction and something to do after Veronica passed away we also did a lot of them when you had rehearsals, or at least I did them."

"Wow. That's amazing babe. Everyone is going to love it." I gave him a kiss. "I wonder if the quotes we chose will match. I got everyone the key rings, but obviously only the Heights heart."

"Anyway lets go." I put the gifts in a box I had from when we moved our things in. Chris grabbed his box of mugs and we walked down to the stage.