"What do you want for Christmas?"

 

"Ugh. Nothing. I don't know." Lili flopped on the couch, sending clouds of cat hair into the air. Snuggie jumped on top of her and started kneading her belly. Petting his ginger neck, she asked, "Do we really need to celebrate Christmas every year? I'm just about done with holidays. What a waste of time."

 

I took two steps away to show her I was literally taken aback. "You're kidding, right?"

 

"And money," she added. "Christmastime is such a drain. I don't see what you get out of it, Nor."

 

"You mean beyond the fact that if it wasn't for the mad, frantic Christmastime mentality we'd never have met?"

 

A smile broke slowly across Lili's lips. "True."

 

She didn't say anything as Snuggie made her belly his own personal cat bed. When she closed her eyes I knew she was remembering the day we met, remembering the way we met. So I turned up the Christmas music on the radio and I lifted her shoes from her feet and sat at the end of the couch to rub her ice-cold toes.