Christmas dinner this year felt more like an obligation than a celebration. With Tara gone and Lafayette a broken man, Sookie was hardly in the mood to celebrate let alone host a dinner like she had done many times in the past. The only thing that brought a smile to her face was seeing how truly in love Jason and Jessica were with each other. Those two only had eyes for one another, oblivious to everyone else, and being a witness to it was simultaneously wonderful and painful. She remembered feeling that all-consuming love not too long ago, when the only thing that mattered was him, but then the spell broke and reality came crashing back and she knew what they had couldn't last.
After everyone left she sat out on the porch, reminiscing about all the happy Christmases in the past. The wonderful memories of Gran and Tara, laughing and cooking together, flooded over her, and she felt that familiar ache in her chest again. She swiped away the tears that inevitably followed.
"And here I thought Christmas was supposed to be a happy time for humans."
Eric was standing a few feet away, appearing bored - which she knew was nothing more than a facade.
She shrugged her shoulders. "It is."
"If this is you happy," he said, shifting his attention to the same vast emptiness she had been looking out at not too long ago. "No wonder you were with Bill as long as you were."
The way he said Bill's name, full of contempt and anger, filled her with sadness.
"I'm sure wasting miserable tears on him was quite an ecstatic experience for you," Eric continued to taunt her.
"I've cried more over you than I ever have with him," she said with a heavy sigh. "What does that tell you?"
He turned to her, leveling her with his piercing stare, gazing into her very core. "I don't want your tears. They do nothing for me."
"Liar," she smiled.
He offered her one of his own, and her heart started racing when he casually strolled over to where she was sitting and took the seat next to her. They didn't speak at all, but eventually he moved his hand to rest over hers, prompting her to lean on his shoulder.
Maybe what they shared wasn't meant to last, but for tonight he was here. With her. And that was enough.