Until the Stars Fade

Chapter 14

Time flies and Christmas is weeks away. Asher has two weeks off at Christmas and will be flying home to Indiana to spend time with his family. Gogo always goes on a two week Caribbean cruise with her closest friends and is insisting that I spend my school break in Atlanta with my parents.

Asher and I have decided to gift each other with experiences instead of presents for Christmas and I have no idea what he's planning, but I think he's really going to like what I planned, with Gogo's permission of course.

A few days before Christmas, we go out to dinner and Gogo joins us. We go back to the condo after to exchange our gifts. Gogo gives Asher a gift card to a swanky restaurant she loves on the ocean and some biographies. The two of them learned they both love reading biographies so they have been exchanging them and it couldn't be cuter. Nothing warms my heart than seeing Gogo reading a biography of Jim Morrison or Asher reading one about JFK. Asher is thrilled with the new books and proceeds to gift Gogo with his own biography choices. Looks like the two of them will have lots to talk about in the coming months!

Gogo hands me her gift and I open an iPad. She laughs when my eyes get wide with glee.

"Now you don't have to drag that old laptop everywhere and you and Asher can FaceChat or whatever it's called," she says to me.

"It's FaceTime Gogo," I laugh, "thank you so much, this is awesome. We will definitely be putting this to good use over the next few weeks when we're apart."

"Definitely," affirms Asher with a smile.

"Ok," he says, "open mine now." He hands me a box with a ribbon on it.

I open the box to find a picture of his family inside. I recognize the picture from his apartment, he has the same one on his desk. I glance up at him, a little confused as to what this means.

He smiles warmly at me and says, "I'm taking you to Indiana to see my family. For a long weekend in March when I have some days off and it's your spring break. What do you think?"

"Seriously?!" I exclaim, jumping off the couch to hug him. "That sounds amazing, I'd love to visit your family and see where you grew up."

"Ok, here, open mine," I say handing him an envelope. He carefully opens it and unfolds the paper inside. It's a one day itinerary for St. Augustine. It's less than an hour from Jacksonville but Asher's never been and it's considered the oldest city in the United States. Given that Asher loves history, I thought it would be perfect.

"St. Augustine? For real, that's amazing. You know I've been talking about going there," he says as he puts his arm around me. "It's what, an hour from here? That will be an awesome day trip. Thanks Kins!"

"Umm, actually, it's an overnight trip," I say softly, suddenly nervous. His eyebrows raise higher than I knew was possible and he looks between me and Gogo.

Gogo has the audacity to laugh.

"Don't worry," I say, "it's Gogo approved."

Asher and I have never spent the night together. He's crashed on the couch at our place a few times when he was too tired to drive home, but Gogo has never let me stay at his apartment. I promised her if she let us stay together overnight, she would have nothing to worry about. She included the stipulation that it had to be after my birthday in January. Apparently, me being 17 seems to make her feel better about the whole thing.

"Oh, wow, that's cool," Asher says as he drags his hands through his hair. Apparently, he's nervous now too.

After our gift exchange, we indulge in ice cream and Asher heads home. He's leaving the next day for Indiana and still has some packing to do.

When I walk him downstairs, he pulls me into a tight hug and kisses the top of head. I hold on tight because I won't see him for two and a half weeks. It might as well be a lifetime.

"I'm going to miss you so much Kins," he says resting his chin on my head, "I wish you could come with me."

"I know, me too, but I'll be stuck with Max and Olivia in Atlanta. A root canal might be more enjoyable," I pout.

His soft laugh warms my heart and he says, "You'll be back here before you know it. And now we can FaceTime every night."

I squeeze him one more time and say, "You better go before I lock you in the condo and don't let you leave. Safe travels and tell your family I said Merry Christmas. I'll see you in a few weeks. I love you."

"I love you, Kinsley Rose Davis," he says as he leans down to kiss me one last time.

"Bye Asher," I whisper as a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Hey, no crying ok? We'll be back here in a blink. And then it will be your birthday and we can go to St. Augustine. And trust me, I can't wait for that," he smiles at me as he walks backwards towards his car and blows me a kiss. And with that, he drives away.