"What the hell happened here, Joey?" Lauren laughed.
Joey looked up from his phone to see her sat by their Christmas tree, presents scattered around her from where she'd obviously been rifling through them. She was currently holding up a present that he'd had particular trouble wrapping, evidenced by the clumsily folded and generally misshapen wrapping paper.
"I tried!" he protested as she continued to grin at him. He couldn't help but notice her neatly wrapped presents with crisp folds and tidy ribbons, but he knew he could never compete with that.
She picked up another present, this one a box and so more successfully wrapped.
"You did a good job with this one though babe," she said.
She turned it over in her hands and then shook it.
"Would you put that down?" Joey said, amused. She looked up at him, still holding the box between her hands, and he shook his head exasperatedly at her.
"It's a Christmas present, not a two-days-before-Christmas present."
"I haven't opened it!" she argued as she picked up another present.
"Lauren!"
She ignored him, weighing the parcel between her hands.
"What if it's breakable?" he pointed out.
She rolled her eyes at him. "It's a sweatshirt Joey, it's not gonna break."
He sighed frustratedly at the fact that she was right, looking back down at his phone.
"What's this one?" she asked, holding up another present which he knew to be a puzzle, so he prayed she wouldn't shake it and give the game away.
"If you haven't guessed it then I'm not gonna tell you, am I?" he said with a grin, getting up from the couch to take the present off her, returning it to under the tree and then pulling her up by her hands and into his arms.
"I always get to open your presents early though," she said, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.
"When you're not here for Christmas," he gently reminded her, leaning down to kiss the tip of her nose.
She wrapped her arms around his middle, resting her head on his chest. Waiting another two days to open her presents was a minuscule price to pay for getting to be with Joey.
