Unexpected Encounter

The Night Before Christmas

Words in BOLD in between "quotation marks" represent thoughts of characters.
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December 24th at around seven or so at night. The party inside Eric's Bar & Grill had apparently already started. James and Alex were just about to get into the little bar when Gabriel opened the doors suddenly.

He had on a Santa Claus outfit. The large man broke down in laughter when he saw James wearing a blue Christmas sweater. James would have never agreed to even going to the party, much less wearing any kind of sweater if it weren't for Alex.

She was wearing a black turtle neck made of wool and a pair of jeans. She could clearly tell that James was embarrassed by his attire and Gabriel's comments.

"Hahahaha she really got your soft spots eh, Jimmy? Hahahaha!"

Alex quickly scolded Gabriel about his making fun of James and asked him if she needed to get his wife.

"Nono! It's all good haha! I was just on my way to the car to get something."

And just like that, Gabriel left the building. When the couple stepped inside the bar, a number of people looked in their direction, a lot of whom Alex had never seen before! She thought she knew most of James's friends already.

By the fireplace and on an armchair together with Eva, Alex saw a man who seemed to be in his mid fifties. Over to the counter were Eric and some more strangers along with Crissy, Alex's best friend, Natalie and Abigail, Gabriel's wife and daughter, Dante, and Dominic rolling around the place on his wheelchair.

James and Alex walked in a little further and began getting greetings from all the people at the party. Half of them already knew Alex, so she had no problem greeting them. But the other half was another story!

Crissy quickly ran up to Alex, hugged her and then dragged her across the room to meet her new friends. Alex instantly recognized them when she got a better look at them.

"Oh my God!"

The people at the counter all stared at her. She was in shock! Right there in front of her were the musicians of her favorite band!

"You guys are False Alarm!"

"Lex, snap out of it! You're embarrassing yourself!"

Crissy's words didn't reach Alex's ears in time. She was stuttering and muttering from the shock of being in the presence of celebrities! James caught up with them and said,

"Right, sooo that's Ro-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know who they are! Ronnie Jean, the bassist, Mitchell Keggie, the drummer and Susie Peterson, the pianist! Why didn't you tell me that you know False Alarm in person!?"

"I... Didn't think it was a big deal! You know famous people too, right?"

Alex went on to explain that her boss wasn't famous like the celebrities in front of them and that he didn't count. She watched as James gave Ronnie a hug, Mitchell a handshake, and Susie a high five followed by a fist bump.

"I'm sorry, how do you guys know each other?"

"Oh, they used to play with Elena."

Ronnie jumped in and continued talking for James.

"More like we used to play with her! Yeah, she used to be our vocalist! Oh, voice like an angel, that one! It's because of an inside joke with her that we came up with our band name!"

For a second Alex completely forgot that James's last girlfriend was killed. She never quite got her name, but it was plain to see now that it was Elena. James took Alex away from the celebrities for a minute to introduce her to the other people at the party.