Alia slept late the next morning, enjoying the respite from classes, research and papers. As she showered she thought about Tieran's behavior the night before.

The kiss had been wonderful, their first one really. He had kissed her before at the party, but did that really count? It had been playacting, at first anyway. Then it had released emotions that she, for one, hadn't fully acknowledged until then. But since then he had limited himself to chaste kisses on the cheek or forehead. Which had been nice enough in their own way, but now that she had had a real, intended kiss, well… the nice little pecks weren't nearly as nice. She decided he could kiss her like that any time.

What if he suddenly decided he wanted to do more than that?

Alia's stomach did a flip-flop and she leaned against the cold wall of the shower to think about it. "I can't imagine him doing that, but what if he did? What would I do? What do I want to do? What do I want him to do?"

She shook her head and resumed lathering her hair. "I haven't the slightest idea," she told herself. "I'll just have to wait and see how I feel if it happens." She rinsed her hair under the hot water and got out of the shower before her imagination went any further.

As she dried off, she had another thought. She had finally decided the day before that she would not invite him home for Christmas, rationalizing that this might just be some crush and that she should not introduce someone to her family during the holidays. "But if this is going to be serious, maybe I should. Besides, that was just a lame excuse anyway. It's not going to get any easier or be a better time if I wait. I'll just have to explain why I didn't mention him sooner. Question is – will he want to come?"

.….

"Of course I will come home with you if you want me to." Tieran looked up from his writing. "When will you go?"

"This weekend, actually," Alia said stroking the kitten in her lap.

"That is rather short notice."

"Well, I wasn't sure I wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact I had pretty much decided not to, so I thought it wouldn't matter much. I'd just tell you where I'd be and that would be it. But I changed my mind."

"Why?"

"I decided that introducing you to my family wouldn't get any easier if I waited longer. And then, there was last night."

"What about last night?"

"All of it. That you took me to see the dance and told me about your mother. That was a little like taking me to meet your family. Is the rest of your family still alive?"

"My father is gone. My brother and sister do not live nearby."

"Ah. I'm sorry."

"I told you we were not close. Though I do wish you could have met my mother. I think she would have liked you."

"Can I ask you something else?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"Have you found a name for this kitten yet?" About to ask him about the kiss, she lost her nerve at the last moment.

"No, not yet." He looked at her quizzically, but she avoided his gaze, intently playing with the kitten instead. He wondered what her original question had been.

.….

"Tell me about your family," Tieran requested as they drove to her home several hundred miles away.

"What do you want to know?" asked Alia, not knowing where to start.

"Siblings?"

"Two, a younger brother, Albert, and an older sister, Marie. Albert should be at home, so you'll meet him, but Marie is married and going to her in-laws for the holidays, so she won't be there."

"How old is Albert?"

"Um... let me see, he's... I guess he'd be almost 20 now. He's a sophomore in his second year of college. There's one in my hometown, that's where he went. I could have gone there, but I didn't want to. Cara and I wanted to go out of state instead."

"What do your parents do?"

"They teach at the college. Mom has a doctorate in history – that must be where I get it – and Dad has a doctorate in physics. What else do you want to know?"

"If I think of anything else, I will ask you. Did you tell them I was coming with you?"

"Sort of," she admitted. "I called them this morning and told Albert I was bringing someone home, but I didn't say who. Luckily I talked to him and not Mom or Dad. They would have wanted explanations over the phone and we never would have left. Albert, on the other hand, takes a message and leaves it at that. So they know to have the spare room ready, but nothing else."

She drove on in silence for a while, then asked, "Are you hungry? We can stop up ahead and eat when we get gas or we can wait until we get home."

"How much longer will it be?"

"A couple hours."

"I can wait."

"All right."

They stopped for gas and then continued on their way. Tieran, hypnotized by watching the leafless trees slide by, dozed off, his head propped against the passenger's side window. Alia let him sleep until they drove into town.

"Tieran, wake up. We're almost there."

"Already? How long did I sleep?" He stretched and rubbed his neck where it was stiff from the odd angle.

"About an hour."

"This is where you grew up?" he asked looking at the stores, houses and apartments as they drove by.

"Yeah, they moved here shortly after my sister was born. That's one of the schools I went to up ahead."

She turned down a side street, then turned again, and slowed in front of a large two-story house, with a covered porch running the whole length of the front and a detached garage off to one side. She pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine.

"You go tell them, I will get the bags out of the car," Tieran told Alia, squeezing her hand on the steering wheel and opening his door.

She pulled the lever to pop open the trunk for him, but remained where she was. He walked around to the back of the car and lifted the trunk lid, then peeked around it to see how things were going. Alia still sat in the car. He opened her door.

"It is not going to go away. You have to tell them. What are you worried about?"

"I don't know."

"That they will not like me? I am not that odd, am I?"

"Hardly. It's just that it's a change, I guess. And all the questions." She sighed.

The front door opened and a small, woman with graying dark hair appeared in the opening.

"Now you must do something. Go on."

Alia got out of the car and climbed the porch steps. The woman opened the screen door to greet her with a hug.

"You made it, dear. I was beginning to wonder. Your father is at school finishing up some paperwork. He should be home soon. So, that's who you brought," she said, watching Tieran pull bags and boxes out of the trunk. "All Albert said was that you were bringing someone home."

"That's all I told him."

"Come inside. Albert! Come help take the bags out of Alia's car." Alia heard a loud thumping, as of something heavy falling down the stairs and a young man appeared in the entryway.

"Hey, Sis."

"Albert. You're still growing?" Alia asked the tall young man.

"Go help with the bags and show him where to put them, please. I think he is still growing, though he has slowed down," Alia's mother added as he jumped the railing at the end of the porch. "So, are you going to tell me anything about him? What's his name?"

"Tieran S'Artali."

"And is he boyfriend or just a friend?"

"Both. He's become a very good friend. It seems odd to think of him as a boyfriend. The word doesn't fit him very well." They stood in front of the living room window watching the unloading and sorting of the bags. Alia had thought of Tieran as a little over average in height, but next to her dark-haired brother he looked so much smaller.

"How long have you known him?"

"About three months. I met him at the hospital when Alia was sick."

"He's a doctor then?"

"No, I just met him at the hospital. He didn't work there. He... was visiting someone."

"Why didn't you tell us about him sooner?"

Alia could hear footsteps in the hall and going up the stairs. Albert asked Tieran a question at the top of the stairs that she did not quite catch. She strained to hear Tieran's accent answering, but heard nothing from upstairs.

"There wasn't anything to tell until Halloween and then I just didn't want to play twenty questions."

"Sorry, dear. I'm just interested. Why don't you go up and find out what Albert's done with him?"

Alia climbed the stairs and walked down the hall to the spare room that used to be her sister's. In passing her own old room on the way, she looked through the doorway and saw her things sitting on her bed. She heard voices down the hall and followed them.

Albert was helping Tieran put things away and talking about school. By the sounds of it, things were going the same as usual – Albert was doing well in his classes and the sports he played. Currently, Tieran was receiving a play-by-play of his last basketball game.

"Following any of this?" she asked Tieran as she leaned against the doorjamb.

Tieran looked up from his suitcase. "Not really. Another thing to learn."

"If you're going to learn about a sport to keep up with him, you'd better learn about all of them. If he doesn't play them he's a fan." "What's up, B? Besides you, I mean. I thought for sure you would have stopped growing by now."

"Hey!" Albert got up off the bed and gave her a bear hug. "I've missed you. A little."

"Yeah, I can tell. So much that you forgot about your sports and came downstairs to get me."

"I thought Mom would want to talk to you. She was dying to know who you were bringing, really annoyed that I didn't think to ask. And then when I saw who you brought I thought I'd better stay out of her hair for a while until she got all her information."

"So I guess you guys introduced yourselves?"

"Yes, we did and the car is empty, so I believe a formal introduction to your mother is next."

"Dad, too," Albert added from the window overlooking the driveway. "He just got home."

"Think we should let Mom talk to him first or go downstairs now, B?"

"I think we leave it to Mom for a little while. If we stop and put your stuff away on the way, our timing should be about right."

They walked down the hall to Alia's room where she hung a few shirts and pulled out the gifts she had brought for Christmas. Albert started looking at the tags, but Alia grabbed them away from him.

"No peeking. You can wait a few days or at least until they're under the tree." She handed half of them to Tieran to carry downstairs and took the rest herself. "I swear, sometimes he's like a big – a very big – five-year-old," she told Tieran.

They deposited the gifts under the tree and herded Albert away from them into the kitchen where she heard her father talking.

"Alia!" her father said as he saw her walk into the kitchen. "Your mother tells me you brought someone home with you? Ah, there he is," he added as Tieran came out from behind her brother.

"Yes. Mom, Dad, this is Tieran S'Artali. Tieran these are my parents Elizabeth and Peter Gardner. And you and Albert have already met."

After the introductions Elizabeth got Alia and Tieran something to eat and they spent the rest of the afternoon in conversation catching up on each other's lives.

The next day Alia sat in the family room and played a game with her father. Albert had gone out to do some last minute shopping – his usual Christmas routine – and she thought she could hear Tieran in the kitchen with her mother.

"It's serious, isn't it?" her father asked suddenly.

"What?"

"This thing with Tieran. This isn't just dating for the fun of it, is it?"

"Mmm. I don't think so."

"How serious?"

"I'm not sure exactly."

"True love?"

Alia moved a piece on the board. "That's the question. I'd hate the mess it would make if it wasn't. The pain it would cause. It would hurt him badly enough if I let go now, but I'm sure we would hurt each other more fighting each other if it wasn't."

"You're thinking about not hurting him. I think that's a good sign."

"But what if we marry and it isn't true love?"

"What if it is and you don't?"

"You're starting to sound like him."

"Is that a compliment or a complaint?"

"I don't know. It's kind of annoying. I mean he's right – you're right. It's just that it doesn't help much."

"Some things you have to decide for yourself. As convenient as it would be to blame someone else for making a bad decision, you can't do that."

"I know. I just wish it was more obvious."

"Maybe all the important decisions are the hard ones. Maybe that's what makes them important. Or because they are so important, because so much depends on them, they're hard."

"Whatever it is, I just need a hint."

.….

"See you roll it out like this," Elizabeth demonstrated to Tieran. "Then you cut out the pieces the size and shape you need and bake them."

Tieran nodded. "And then you build with them?"

"You glue it all together with frosting and decorate it with candy. There are some pieces done over there already if you want to try it." She pointed to the kitchen table where she had spread out some slabs of gingerbread to cool. "Or you can use cookie-cutters and make them into little boys and girls and decorate them."

Tieran sat down at the table and surveyed the building materials in front of him. He selected two slabs and began building a small cottage.

"Alia said she met you at the hospital. Were you visiting someone?"

"Yes, I was – a friend."

"I hope it turned out well for them?"

"Yes, a complete recovery."

"Just like Cara, then. That's good. We were really pleased to hear she made a full recovery. It was amazing." Mrs. Gardner rolled dough and cut out cookies silently for a moment then she asked, "What are you doing with Alia?"

Tieran calmly continued building his gingerbread house and waited for Alia's mother to clarify her question.

"Are you just passing time, amusing yourself for a while? Playing the field? Or are you looking for a serious relationship?"

"I am not just passing time. I take Alia very seriously."

"What are your future plans with her?"

"That depends entirely on Alia and what she wants," Tieran answered as he placed the roof on his cottage.

"What does she want?"

"I have not asked."

"Asked what?" Alia inquired as she walked into the kitchen.

"What you want for Christmas, dear. I was wondering if you had dropped any hints. Finished your game with your father?"

"Yeah, he won. One of these days I'll beat him. Oo, a gingerbread house. I haven't built one of these in ages."

"There are enough pieces left for another one, I believe," Tieran pointed out. "I will even share my candy with you."

Alia sat down at the table across from Tieran and he passed her the frosting.