December 14th
James and I walk into his parents' house. The first to greet us is Julie, her arms wide open, ready for a hug. "There's my favorite person!"
James steps ahead of me, arms spread for his mom, but she brushes past him and comes straight to hug me.
I suppress a laugh at James’s offended, indignant expression—his arms still outstretched in disbelief. "Hi, Mom. It's so nice to know you care about me."
Julie lets me go
December 15thJeremy“Wow, so many elves!” Aisha looks excited.The room is filled with people dressed as elves. I’m not sure I still like elves, not after they ate my cereal and tried to dunk my toothbrush in the toilet.“There are so many people,” I say, watching the line of people in front of us. James and Brianna brought us to Santa’s house, and now we’re waiting in line to tell him what we want for Christmas.“Lots of kids want to see Santa,” Brianna says, running a hand through my hair.“Why are we waiting in line when we could just wait for him at home by the fireplace?” That way, we could eat chocolate chip cookies and drink milk together—hoping the elves don’t steal my cookies.“Because this way, he can hear what you want today and then bring it to you on Christmas by coming through the chimneys,&rdqu
16 | COMETDecember 16I park the car in the driveway and turn to the back seat, looking at my gift. A Golden Retriever puppy meets my gaze, wagging its tail.“Now let’s go surprise your owner, shall we?” I reach toward the puppy and gently scratch its muzzle. “But first, we need to finish getting you ready.” An adorable bark fills my ears. I grab a reindeer antler headband from the seat next to me and place it on the puppy. I check that the tag with her name and number is secure, then pick her up and step out of the car.I walk up to the front door and, instead of using the keys to get in, I ring the doorbell.“I’m coming!” I hear James’s footsteps approaching. As soon as he opens the door, his eyes lock on the animal in my arms, and he looks shocked.The puppy keeps wagging her tail, so I hand her over to James and exclaim, “Merry Christm
December 18Once, as teenagers, Carly and I had a delay, so we took pregnancy tests. Actually, the delay was one day for her and two for me, and at the time, our cycles weren’t regular. But once you start having an active sex life, anxiety is always lurking around the corner. Those minutes of waiting were endless, and seeing the negative result was a relief. We were teenagers, too young for a pregnancy, and not independent.But now I’m an adult—although my parents would have something to say about that—I live with my partner, and I have a job. Yet, as I sit on the bathroom floor with a positive pregnancy test in my hands, I feel like a teenager: terribly scared. Why did I take the test this time? Because the delay was a week, and ironically, many of the symptoms of a period are the same as those of pregnancy.James is out with his brother and my cousin, and the only sound in the house is Cometa barking, looking f
December 19thWhen the alarm goes off, I feel nausea sweeping over me. And it’s not morning sickness, but anxiety from the blood test.Damn needles.“What time is it?” James mumbles from under the covers.“Seven twenty in the morning.”He slowly turns toward me. “Why are you waking up so early?”Oh nothing, just going to check if you got me pregnant.“Because I have a tyrannical mother who decided to go shopping early and will pick me up in twenty minutes.” I rub my face with my hands, trying to wake up. The only thing I want to do right now is go back to sleep.“And since when does your mom want to leave the house this early?”I look at James with one eyebrow raised. Why the hell does he need to ask so many questions so early in the morning? I’ll run out of answers soon. “The real question is: has she ever acted norma
December 20I’m three weeks pregnant. This is the result of the blood tests I picked up this morning. There are no longer any doubts that a life is forming inside me.Since I found out, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my future as a mother. I already see myself tumbling down the stairs with the baby in my arms. Or forgetting to pick him up from school, like a couple of times happened with my brother. Or forgetting that I’m a mother and freaking out when I find a child in my house.The last one, though, happened to my mom.One thing is certain: James will want to dress him up as a consequence.Even though his last name will be Reid, he still has the blood of the Lester family. This means that from the moment he steps into the outside world, his life will be a series of bad luck, crazy events, falling paintings, people seeing ghosts, restaurants banning him, alcoholic relatives or ones with onlin
December 21"I saw a video where this guy was hiding gifts inside household items, wrapping them up and making it look like the gift was something else. Do you think we could do that too?" I glance away from my phone to look at James, who’s lying next to me on the couch."And what exactly would you want to do?""I don’t know, like, we could put the wine-tasting tickets on a ladder and wrap the ladder up."James looks at me, confused. "But we don’t even have a ladder.""Well, this is the perfect chance to buy one.""You should think of something else." He adjusts himself on the couch, folding his arms behind his head. His shirt lifts slightly, revealing a part of his stomach. I get distracted from my idea and stare at him, hoping his shirt will lift more."Brianna?""Yes?" I look up and meet his eyes."When I told you to think of something else, I meant the gifts." He smirks.
22 DecemberJamesWhile Skyler is responsible for keeping Brianna away from home until evening without making her suspect anything, I prepare the surprise for my girl: a romantic dinner to give her my Christmas gift in advance.I’ve set up the small table in the living room and scattered candles and rose petals all over the room. I’ve already lit the candles, tempting fate. I hope the house doesn’t catch fire while I’m not looking.Comet has already eaten, so she’ll be in a food coma all evening and won’t try to steal our dinner.I go upstairs to grab the gift, but before reaching my nightstand, I stop in front of the mirror. I examine my figure carefully, making sure everything is in order. I want this night to be perfect. Once I’m satisfied that everything is good, I open the third drawer of my nightstand and retrieve the little box hidden under my underwear, sli
December 23I touch the ring on my left ring finger, happy. Last night was one of the best moments of my life. I can't believe that James loves me so much that he wants to spend his entire life with me and my bad luck.We're starting our family, and today I plan to tell him I'm pregnant. This morning I went to buy a sombrero, just in case he wants to run away to Mexico. I've been feeling nauseous ever since I thought my period was coming, but I haven’t started running to the bathroom every morning yet. I just had to hide the nausea and dizziness and pretend everything was fine so I wouldn’t worry James or make him suspicious.I’ve hidden the test in the bathroom, among the pads. There’s no reason for him to open that drawer.Now, in my hands, I have a little box with the proof that I’m pregnant. I walk out of the bathroom and go to find James, who’s in our room. He’s lying on the bed, loo
Set years later, Liam (the son) is a child, Aisha and Jeremy are teenagers.James and Brianna's HouseWhile James carries out the boxes with the Christmas decorations for the garden, Jeremy and Aisha are in the middle of a snowball fight with little Liam, with Cometa running and barking happily nearby.Brianna stands aside, watching the scene, sitting on the porch with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. Even though Liam is already a few years old, it's still hard for her to believe that she's a mother. The past few years have been a whirlwind of emotions. Many times, the couple has felt panicked and like terrible parents, just like anyone raising a child for the first time. Especially during Liam's first year. Then things started to improve, and James and Brianna began to experience parenthood more peacefully. Even when Liam fell down the stairs. Because yes, from the moment the child started walking, falling
December 25Have you ever regretted a decision? Like, thinking it would have been better to listen to the person who said your idea was terrible? Because right now, that’s exactly how I feel, as an ambulance loads Grandpa Carl to take him to the hospital.From the moment Grandpa Carl and Grandpa Sean arrived, people started drinking. It’s normal for things to get out of hand quickly in our family, but it’s never happened this fast.We didn’t even have time to sit down at the table and start eating the appetizers when the tragedy happened. Grandpa Carl and Grandpa Sean, probably already drunk, challenged each other to see who could do the best handstand. Grandpa Carl went first, but since he’s old, his mind refuses to accept he’s getting older, so he tried it anyway. He ended up falling badly and hurting his leg, so we called an ambulance.The paramedics just loaded my grandpa into the ambulance
December 24We called Jase, Skyler, and Connor to help us prepare tomorrow's lunch. We spent the afternoon cooking, and while everything is ready, we also made a lot of disasters.Skyler burned two oven mitts; James mixed up the salt with sugar in the cake batter, which we had to redo; I, to avoid letting the egg roll off the table, dropped the pack of 6 eggs I was holding, and I couldn't even save the one that was rolling away; Jase put the turkey in the oven but forgot to turn it on, realizing after an hour; and Connor decided to taste everything instead of cooking, which is why we discovered James's mistake before it was too late.Before the guys arrived, I took off my ring with James's agreement. We want to tell our families at tomorrow's lunch, when we are all together. As for the baby, we won’t say anything until the first trimester is over. We're willing to pay a criminal to kidnap our moms for three months to avoid the pre
December 23I touch the ring on my left ring finger, happy. Last night was one of the best moments of my life. I can't believe that James loves me so much that he wants to spend his entire life with me and my bad luck.We're starting our family, and today I plan to tell him I'm pregnant. This morning I went to buy a sombrero, just in case he wants to run away to Mexico. I've been feeling nauseous ever since I thought my period was coming, but I haven’t started running to the bathroom every morning yet. I just had to hide the nausea and dizziness and pretend everything was fine so I wouldn’t worry James or make him suspicious.I’ve hidden the test in the bathroom, among the pads. There’s no reason for him to open that drawer.Now, in my hands, I have a little box with the proof that I’m pregnant. I walk out of the bathroom and go to find James, who’s in our room. He’s lying on the bed, loo
22 DecemberJamesWhile Skyler is responsible for keeping Brianna away from home until evening without making her suspect anything, I prepare the surprise for my girl: a romantic dinner to give her my Christmas gift in advance.I’ve set up the small table in the living room and scattered candles and rose petals all over the room. I’ve already lit the candles, tempting fate. I hope the house doesn’t catch fire while I’m not looking.Comet has already eaten, so she’ll be in a food coma all evening and won’t try to steal our dinner.I go upstairs to grab the gift, but before reaching my nightstand, I stop in front of the mirror. I examine my figure carefully, making sure everything is in order. I want this night to be perfect. Once I’m satisfied that everything is good, I open the third drawer of my nightstand and retrieve the little box hidden under my underwear, sli
December 21"I saw a video where this guy was hiding gifts inside household items, wrapping them up and making it look like the gift was something else. Do you think we could do that too?" I glance away from my phone to look at James, who’s lying next to me on the couch."And what exactly would you want to do?""I don’t know, like, we could put the wine-tasting tickets on a ladder and wrap the ladder up."James looks at me, confused. "But we don’t even have a ladder.""Well, this is the perfect chance to buy one.""You should think of something else." He adjusts himself on the couch, folding his arms behind his head. His shirt lifts slightly, revealing a part of his stomach. I get distracted from my idea and stare at him, hoping his shirt will lift more."Brianna?""Yes?" I look up and meet his eyes."When I told you to think of something else, I meant the gifts." He smirks.
December 20I’m three weeks pregnant. This is the result of the blood tests I picked up this morning. There are no longer any doubts that a life is forming inside me.Since I found out, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my future as a mother. I already see myself tumbling down the stairs with the baby in my arms. Or forgetting to pick him up from school, like a couple of times happened with my brother. Or forgetting that I’m a mother and freaking out when I find a child in my house.The last one, though, happened to my mom.One thing is certain: James will want to dress him up as a consequence.Even though his last name will be Reid, he still has the blood of the Lester family. This means that from the moment he steps into the outside world, his life will be a series of bad luck, crazy events, falling paintings, people seeing ghosts, restaurants banning him, alcoholic relatives or ones with onlin
December 19thWhen the alarm goes off, I feel nausea sweeping over me. And it’s not morning sickness, but anxiety from the blood test.Damn needles.“What time is it?” James mumbles from under the covers.“Seven twenty in the morning.”He slowly turns toward me. “Why are you waking up so early?”Oh nothing, just going to check if you got me pregnant.“Because I have a tyrannical mother who decided to go shopping early and will pick me up in twenty minutes.” I rub my face with my hands, trying to wake up. The only thing I want to do right now is go back to sleep.“And since when does your mom want to leave the house this early?”I look at James with one eyebrow raised. Why the hell does he need to ask so many questions so early in the morning? I’ll run out of answers soon. “The real question is: has she ever acted norma
December 18Once, as teenagers, Carly and I had a delay, so we took pregnancy tests. Actually, the delay was one day for her and two for me, and at the time, our cycles weren’t regular. But once you start having an active sex life, anxiety is always lurking around the corner. Those minutes of waiting were endless, and seeing the negative result was a relief. We were teenagers, too young for a pregnancy, and not independent.But now I’m an adult—although my parents would have something to say about that—I live with my partner, and I have a job. Yet, as I sit on the bathroom floor with a positive pregnancy test in my hands, I feel like a teenager: terribly scared. Why did I take the test this time? Because the delay was a week, and ironically, many of the symptoms of a period are the same as those of pregnancy.James is out with his brother and my cousin, and the only sound in the house is Cometa barking, looking f