Thank you for the reviews.

So back in time from the last chapter... And I am with Rachel right now. Other than I am struggling to think of something to buy my mum...

Set during 2009 and slightly before all the other chapters set in 2009.

Day Seventeen
Impossible To Buy For

Rachel finds Eddie impossible to buy for, leading her to ask whether she can give him £20 for him to buy himself something that he actually wants.

Word count: 1,188

Their first Christmas in each other's company, Eddie had given her the idea of what to get him with regards to the aprons that she had brought for him. The second Christmas, when they had only been together for four months, she had managed to find something stupid for her new stupidly soppy boyfriend, which he loved more than she would have ever imagined.

If Rachel was being honest with herself, Eddie was the longest boyfriend that she'd had for a while. She'd never had more than one Christmas with a boyfriend (if they even got that far).

She had struggled to think of something to get him for his birthday (especially as it was his 40th), calling Alice in the end just for an idea after Eddie kept being really unhelpful by saying 'What more could you give me?' whenever she asked him what he wanted.

She felt like she was going to get the same answer but she had to ask him before she asked his sister or sisters-in-law.

"Eddie, what do you want for Christmas?" Rachel asked as they walked toward his classroom and her office after the staff briefing.

"You." He said.

"Seriously Eddie."

"I don't know."

"If you don't know, then how am I meant to know."

"Then maybe that is it."

"What is it?" She asked, unsure where it was heading.

"Maybe we won't do presents this year."

"Oh don't be ridiculous Eddie. Because I bet you've already got my present."

"I haven't got it yet."

"But you have an idea."

"Yeah…"

"Oh, God. Now I look like the awful one."

"It's fine Rachel."

"No, it isn't. What sort of a girlfriend does that make me?"

She was glad that Eddie didn't answer that because she was sure that he would only try and tell her that it didn't matter. It did and she was feeling like an awful girlfriend as she could not think of anything to get him.

"Maybe a new shirt or something like that. You are always telling me that I have to smarten up at some point."

"Maybe I've accepted that you might never do that."

"Alice, Zoe and Claire have always moaned that I am not easy to buy for."

"At this rate, I am thinking about giving you £20 to buy yourself something."

"Only 20."

Eddie had said it in a jokey way but it made her worry about how much he had or was thinking about spending on her. She really was an awful girlfriend.

"I am sure you will think of something," Eddie said as they reached his classroom, stealing a quick kiss off her. "You know, you could always buy yourself something."

It took her a while to catch on to what he was saying and she lightly hit his arm, trying to look like she was mad at him.

"None of that talk in school." She said.

"What? Are you going to discipline me?"

"You are awful."

"And as Alice once described me, I am a red-blooded male."

"That you are." She said as she carried onto her office, knowing that Eddie was going to try and put off starting his lesson as much as he could.

She sat down in her chair and looked at the paperwork, really not in the mood to do any of it. It wasn't helped when Joyce walked into her office with more.

"Joyce, what do you get a man that doesn't want anything?" Rachel asked.

"He must want something."

"Me. That is all he wants."

"Then there is your answer."

"But he already has me." Rachel said, unsure about what the other woman was on about.

"Well, yes, he does. But maybe, he is waiting for you to move onto the next step."

She allowed Joyce to leave and it hit her afterwards. They were already trying for a baby but the other next step was to be engaged and to get married. With another glance to her paperwork, she knew that it could wait for a little bit before she turned to her laptop, wondering whether that was the route she could go down.

Eddie only knew what he was going to get Rachel for Christmas because his family kept bugging him as to when he was going to propose to Rachel. So much so that Alice had found him a tape measure so that he could get the right sized ring for Rachel (which wasn't as hard as he imagined. Mainly because Rachel was such a light sleeper but she had been sleeping a bit more heavily over the last week or so, allowing him to get her measurement).

Which is why he found himself in town, meeting up with Alice, Zoe and Claire.

"I don't understand why I need all three of you," Eddie said.

"Because you are doing this right this time," Alice said.

"You know that the reason my marriage with Alison broke down was because of Stephen's death, not because I chose the wrong engagement ring."

"But it wasn't the best engagement ring in the world."

"I am wondering whether you are saying this to wind me up or not."

Zoe walked over to him and slipped her arm around his to get them moving. "Eddie, the problem is Rachel is one of us now. Alison might have joined the family but I don't feel like she joined it like Rachel has. This is as important to you two as it is to us. She is going to be our sister-in-law."

"So am I proposing to her or is the whole family?"

"I definitely think it is something you should do privately," Claire said as she fell in step next to him.

"Wait, are you asking anyone for permission?" Alice said.

"Philip would be the only person I could ask," Eddie said over his shoulder before he turned to Clarie. "And how am I meant to do it privately if I am going to do it Christmas Day?"

"I think, Edward, you need to grow a pair and tell your parents that you will be over late morning on Christmas Day," Claire said as they turned into their first shop.

Eddie didn't quite know how he was going to do that but it was the best way to go around it. It was either that or he would have to propose on Christmas Eve and that wasn't what he wanted. Because he knew that Christmas wasn't the same magical time of year for Rachel as it was for him (with her confessing that the last two Christmases with him had been the best in her life), so he wanted to build on those Christmas memories. He wanted to continue to make amazing Christmas memories for Rachel and he felt like this would be the way. Just how was he going to convince his parents and Rachel that they should be at theirs, not at his parents, on Christmas morning?