1960

Everything was freezing cold, but Jennifer felt warm and happy. She could feel the comforting heat of Jonathan's hand through their gloves as they held hands, skating around and around the skating pond at Rockefeller Center. To her mind, there wasn't a better possible way to spend Christmas.

Jennifer had woken up in her luxury room at the Carlyle and picked up the phone before she even got out of bed. She and Jonathan had promised each other on Christmas Eve, when Jonathan and Max had come for dinner uptown with Jennifer and Aunt Renee, that whoever woke up first would call the other in the morning. Though, to be fair, that's what they'd done almost every single day of their holiday break. Jennifer was fairly certain that she had not gone even twenty-four hours without getting to see Jonathan the entire time they were in New York.

"Good morning," came Jonathan's sleepy voice when he answered on the third ring.

"Merry Christmas," Jennifer replied with a smile. "I can't wait to see you later."

"Me too," he responded. He yawned, which made Jennifer giggle. She had fantasies of what it might be like to wake up with Jonathan and actually see him first thing in the morning sometime. Maybe (hopefully) for the rest of her life.

"So I think Aunt Renee and I will open our presents and then have breakfast here, and then we can all meet at Rockefeller Center in the afternoon?" Jennifer suggested.

"Yeah, Max and I make pancakes for Christmas morning, so we'll do that and open our presents and meet you after that. I'm excited to give you your Christmas gift," Jonathan said.

Jennifer gasped excitedly. "What is it?"

He laughed, "I'm not going to tell you, silly. You'll find out soon enough."

"I love surprises," she said.

"I know you do. That's why I'm not going to tell you what your Christmas present is. Besides, I'm sure you're going to get a mountain of presents from your family this morning before you see me. Mine will surely pale in comparison," he teased.

Jennifer faltered slightly. She knew that Jonathan still sometimes was insecure about not being from the same wealthy background as their peers at school, but she really had tried to reassure him over these last few months they'd been dating that what mattered to her was being with him and knowing that he loved her. "Whatever you got me for is going to be my favorite Christmas present because it's from you," she said. "I love you more than anything, and even if you just got me a cup of coffee, getting to spend Christmas with you makes it the best Christmas I've ever had."

"You don't like coffee."

She chuckled, "I was just making a point."

"Well, I will get you some hot cocoa later today," he promised. "But that's not your Christmas present."

And so it was only a few hours later that Jennifer and Aunt Renee had taken a cab to Rockefeller Center and Jonathan and Max had taken the subway, and they all met up at the café. It was terribly crowded, of course, so they were lucky to snag a table. Jonathan ordered a hot cocoa for Jennifer and a spiced hot cider for himself while Max got a mulled wine and Aunt Renee got a hot buttered rum. Perfectly Christmassy.

While they waited for their drinks, they opened presents. There were two gifts for Jennifer, one from Max and Jonathan both and one from just Jonathan. She opened the one from both of them first.

"I dunno if you'll get a lot of chance to use this, but we thought you'd like to have it," Max said as she ripped off the red wrapping paper.

It was a rather beat up copy of Irma Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking. Jennifer laughed, "Well, you certainly know I can use all the help I can get. This is wonderful, thank you so much!"

"A cookbook?" Aunt Renee asked, confused by the gift.

"This is the cookbook that Max and Jonathan had me use to help them for Thanksgiving," Jennifer explained. "Because I can't cook at all."

"But why would you need to cook?" Aunt Renee pressed.

Jennifer shrugged. "I don't want to be completely useless in a kitchen. And who knows, maybe I'll grow to like cooking."

"Max and I know all the recipes in there by heart," Jonathan said, "so we thought the book would be more useful to you."

Until that moment, Jennifer didn't realize that they'd given her their copy. She just assumed they'd bought a used book. And the gift was all the more special for that. "I'll treasure it forever," Jennifer vowed. But she didn't want to get too emotional, so she handed over a small box to Max. "I got this for you, Max. I hope you like it."

He untied the ribbon and opened the box. Inside was a silver money clip engraved with a horse. "Hey, this is real nice!" he exclaimed.

"I noticed that you tend to come back from the track with a sizable wad of cash, so maybe this'll help you keep it organized and safe," she said.

"It's perfect. Thanks, Miss Edwards." Max got up to give Jennifer a hug and a kiss on the cheek, which she warmly returned.

Jennifer insisted Jonathan open his present from her next. He ripped open the present eagerly, which Jennifer found extremely adorable. Like a little kid at Christmas. Though being an orphan, Jennifer wondered how many Christmases he'd had where he'd gotten to open presents picked out by someone who loved him. She imagined not many before Max came into his life. Well, as far as Jennifer was concerned, Jonathan would have a wonderful and magical Christmas each and every year with Max and herself, the two people who loved him most.

"Oh wow, Jennifer, this is wonderful!" Jonathan said, clearly thrilled with the gift. She had been able to find a first edition of The Thin Man in great condition. It had been so cold and snowy in New York over the last week that they'd ended up going to a movie theater down in Max's neighborhood that played old movies. Jonathan had invited her to come see The Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy, which was apparently one of his favorite movies. He had mentioned that he'd never read the book, so when Aunt Renee took Jennifer to The Strand to buy some books—a tradition that the two of them indulged in whenever they were in New York—Jennifer knew she had to get a copy for Jonathan.

Jennifer smiled, pleased that he liked her gift. "Enjoy it, darling. And I might like to read it myself if you'll let me borrow it sometime."

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Absolutely. Thank you so much."

And then it was Jennifer's turn to open her gift from just Jonathan. It was the largest of all, but based on the size and shape, it was fairly obvious that it was a record of some kind. Jonathan had wrapped it in pretty red paper covered in white snowflakes. She ripped the paper with a little less gusto than Jonathan had, but she couldn't help but watch him as he watched her. His sweet blue eyes were sparkling with eager excitement and his lips were pressed together to suppress a smile. His reaction alone made Jennifer excited for whatever he'd gotten her.

The cover of the album was revealed and Jennifer was indeed very surprised. "How did you…?!"

"There's a record store over on Delancey a few blocks down and I hunted through it all afternoon after had lunch the other day," Jonathan said. "Do you like it?"

Jennifer had to laugh. "Of course I like it! I can hardly believe it."

He had gotten her the soundtrack to An American in Paris. That was another of the films they'd seen together over the last week while hiding from the snow. They'd caught a musical double feature. Jennifer had been pleased to learn that Jonathan enjoyed musicals, so they'd both enjoyed watching An American in Paris as well as Guys and Dolls. With Jennifer's love of travel and Europe and ballet, An American in Paris was one of her favorite movies, and she had told Jonathan that it had been so special to her because she'd seen it originally with her mother. She'd loved the music in it and had the soundtrack as a girl, which was one of the reasons she was so excited to learn that Max had grown up with the Gershwin brothers. But when Jennifer's mother had died, she had gone through a period where anything that made her think of her mother had made her sad and angry, and in a fit of emotion, she'd broken the record in half. She hadn't been able to find another copy of it, and she missed having it. Jonathan had heard that story and made the miracle happen. He'd found the soundtrack. He'd given her this beautiful, meaningful, perfect gift. And funnily enough, they'd both had similar ideas of getting each other something meaningful based on their time together watching old movies that they both loved.

Overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of her wonderful boyfriend, Jennifer grabbed Jonathan's face and kissed him soundly. Almost immediately, Aunt Renee scolded her.

"Jennifer, we are in public!"

The couple pulled apart, blushing.

And Jennifer still felt like she was blushing. Though now her cheeks were pink and hot thanks to the cold air and the exertion of skating. She just couldn't stop smiling.

"This is the best Christmas I've ever had," Jennifer said.

Jonathan gave her hand a squeeze. "Me too. And I'm so glad we've got another week of break before we have to go back to Gresham."

"Eight more days before we're away from chaperones," she noted.

"Yeah, but only eight more days before we go back to being busy with school and my jobs and your newspaper work," he pointed out.

"True. We do have a lot more time together here than we do at school," she conceded.

"But," he countered, "you are right that it's easier to be completely alone at school when we do have time together. I can't wait to get you up at Lookout Point in the T-Bird again."

Jennifer felt her stomach churn with arousal with the knowledge of what she and Jonathan had already done during their alone time in her car at Lookout Point. "It's been snowing up in Massachusetts. It might be too cold to go parking."

"Oh I think we can keep each other plenty warm," Jonathan answered.

It was in Jennifer's mind to say that Jonathan was very good at getting her pretty hot, but she bit her lip and decided not to say anything. After all, they were skating in public right now, and if this conversation went much further, she'd just end up ruining Christmas by being frustrated that she and Jonathan couldn't escape Max and Aunt Renee to be alone. Jonathan was right, they'd have to wait until they were back at school to get that. And she was certainly eager for it, whenever they could find a way to make that happen.