World of If

Aglow

Sunday evening bustled with activity. Danny had been home most of the day and it was a typical weekend; at least what had been typical of the past few weeks.

Dahlia was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.

"You guys ready to go?"

"At least get the cookies out of the oven." Elsie reminded her, "I'd like to come home to a house still standing thank you."

After the cookies had been left on the counter to cool Danny, Dahlia, Elsie and her boyfriend Derek piled into Elsie's car and they headed back towards town. Along the way Dahlia and Elsie argued about which direction to go.

"Let's do the streets around here first and then we can go back towards town towards the shopping center." Elsie reasoned. "You know that's the path we always took when we were kids."

"So I guess this is a pretty big tradition." Danny commented.

"The biggest!" Dahlia exclaimed as a grin split her face.

Danny couldn't help but smile in return, he loved her enthusiasm.

As they headed down each street (Elsie was driving) Danny watched Dahlia's face as they passed each display, she seemed enchanted by each one. Some of the displays were simple, like the ones he saw in his own hometown, while others were white extravagant like they would black out to the entire city block.

"Can you imagine how long that must've took?" Dahlia asked as they passed a particularly extravagant display a few streets over that filled an entire front yard.

"Yeah I can." Elsie replied in her typical dry tone.

"Someone has a lot of free time." Derek mused. He looked vaguely impressed. "They got Santa and elves and all eight reindeer."

"I like that better than some of those blowups." Elsie commented, "they look tacky, like a bouncy house exploded."

As they headed towards town they stopped at a small park that had a gazebo on the one side.

"Let's get out and walk for a bit." Dahlia suggested I think my legs are starting to cramp with all of us squeezed in here."

So Elsie parked the car and they walked along the walking path heading towards the gazebo.

Then Dahlia pulled out her phone and took a picture of her and Danny and Danny surprised her by kissing her. When she had gotten over her surprise they kissed again and she seemed to melt into him her arms wrapping around his neck.

As they headed through town Danny didn't notice the lights anymore he was lost in his own thoughts. He really liked Dahlia, he really did, he had felt attracted to her ever since he had seen her on the bus, but where did that leave his relationship with Beth, whatever it was. He wished he could talk to her, but anything he could do would be too risky.

He was still turning this over in his mind when they returned to the house and was snapped out of his thoughts by Dahlia.

"Who wants cookies! I'll put on some carols, and Derek, can you start the fire? It's actually getting quite cold."

Danny pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, he was supposed to be in the holiday spirit after all.