Sean stood outside of a roadside rest area in rural Michigan, waving his cell phone around in search of a signal. When a single bar appeared on the display, he rushed to dial Sue's number, only to have the call disconnect immediately.

"Damn, Indiana Wireless." Sean complained as he shoved the phone back into his pocket. "Did we really have to choose the cheapest phone plan in the world?" Sean asked no one specifically, but his mom came out of the bathroom just in time to hear the last part.

"What's that about the phone plan, honey?" Nancy asked as she finished drying her hands with a brown paper towel. Soon after, Shelly, Dottie, and Ron came out of the restrooms and were ready to continue to their destination.

"Nothing..." He said simply before getting back into the car. As they drove through the snowy countryside, Sean reminisced about a few nights ago when he and Sue shared a magical Christmas kiss in her backyard. It was dark outside and the snow fell gently around them. After she had comforted him about his grades, in a vulnerable moment he had leaned in...or she did...he wasn't sure...and they kissed. The world disappeared around them and he could only focus on the fact that he was kissing the girl he was secretly in love with. Their kiss grew passionate and he felt that she was enjoying the moment as much as he was. But abruptly, they were forced apart when they heard Nancy yelling for him to get into the car to go to church. In a panic, he stupidly said he was sorry to Sue and ran off without saying anything else. It wasn't until later that he realized that his apology may have been taken the wrong way. He meant he was sorry that they were interrupted and that he had to leave, but since he knew Sue so well, he knew deep down that she would have thought that he was sorry for kissing her. He thought he even heard her say she was sorry too, and wondered if she thought it was all just a mistake. He knew she had been seeing Aiden for a while, although he wasn't sure if they were even still together. It was Christmas Eve and the rest of the night, his family never gave him a minute to himself to attempt to talk to Sue or go and see her. And he didn't want to take the risk of saying the wrong thing in a text message. He had to talk to her, either over the phone or in person. On Christmas morning, he snuck out of the house while the rest of his family was still asleep and he gently knocked on Sue's window, but she didn't respond and he didn't want to wake up anyone else, so he went home. He peaked out of his own living room window for a while, hoping to see a sign that someone was awake at the Heck's house but he knew they were late risers. When his family woke up, they opened presents and Nancy began whipping up a Christmas meal. When he eventually did see a sign of life at the Heck's house, he tried to run over there but at every attempt, he was pulled back by a family member to participate in one of their many traditions. He obsessively checked his phone, hoping to see a call or a text from Sue but none came. When he finally had a chance to escape from his house, he dashed back across the street but by then, no one was home. He took this all as a sign that Sue didn't want to talk to him and he gave up that day.

Now he was kicking himself for giving up his chance, especially now that he couldn't even get a simple text to go through. He just couldn't stop thinking about the kiss. He wondered if Sue felt the same way that he did. Why didn't she call? Maybe she regretted it and needed space. Maybe she did like it and thought that he didn't. He had no idea what to think, all he knew is that he had to talk to her.

When the Donahues arrived at the resort, he nearly jumped for joy when he saw that he had not one, but two bars of service on his phone. After unloading the luggage from the car, he plopped down on his bed and prepared to call Sue, but was interrupted when he got a text notification. His heart was pounding with anticipation as he opened the message. Flibberdo. The message said. "Flibberdo?" He asked out loud. He had waited days to talk to Sue and this was all she had to say? Before he typed a response, another message came in. How are the blopes? Sue wrote. "Blopes?" He laughed out loud because it was clearly a typo. He took this as a sign that she was thinking about him after all and typed out his response. He cringed after he pressed send when he noticed typos of his own and a strange combination of emojis. He waited for a while for her to respond but she didn't say anything else.

"Honey! Come on! We are going to get dinner at the lodge!" Nancy yelled through the door and Sean groaned in frustration.

After dinner, the family played a series of board games while sitting next to the fireplace in the common area. Nancy's phone vibrated and she took a moment to read her messages. She took a sip of her hot chocolate before speaking.

"Ohhh! The Heck's are having a New Year's Eve party! That should be sooo much fun. Hmm...I wonder if they are trying to steal the holidays from me. First Christmas Eve, now New Year's Eve...they better not be planning anything for Valentine's Day. I better get those invitations sent out ASAP." Nancy blabbered.

"New Year's Eve?" Sean asked with a smile. He figured this would be the perfect opportunity to see Sue face to face, talk to her, and hopefully share a New Year's kiss. In just a few days, he would finally be able to tell Sue how he really felt.