Chapter 72

“Whew! Thanks for your help Fran.” Kim let herself fall onto the couch in her office. The floor was covered with neatly wrapped presents and expensive looking small bags.

“No, problem Kim. Gave me some time to relax before we are leaving.” Fran and Richie would fly out to LA together with Jason and Richie’s mom tomorrow afternoon. Right now, the boy was in New Jersey with his new grandma and baking tons of Christmas cookies and he promised Kim to send her some before they had to leave tomorrow.

Kim and Jon would have a quite Christmas celebration the day before for Christmas here in New York, before Dot would drop the kids off in New Jersey the next day and get some rare alone time.

Kim shook her head. She would never understand how Fran could relax while wrapping Christmas presents. However, compared to the last couple of weeks it sure was relaxing.

She had done tons of Christmas shopping, wanting to find the perfect gift for each of the kids as it would be their first Christmas together. Jon tried to tell her to relax about it, but she couldn’t. Besides she did the decoration in their apartment as well as the New Jersey house. When Jon spotted the two enormous trees she had managed to get into both living rooms, he could not help but stare at them.

As her dogs had never been in the house she made sure to find a quiet spot for them which they could use to relax from all the kids around them.

Her boss was not happy that she was quitting and had the impertinence to offer her more money. She laughed about it and asked him if he had any idea who he was talking to. At least he had the grace to look contrite and admitted that the hospital administration told him to make the offer.

The stupid realtor they had to deal with had nothing better to do then to go with Jon’s ‘my future wife’ comment to the press and now the paparazzis were following her wherever she would go, because they had the absurd idea of a wedding at New Year’s Eve.

She sighed lightly. Hopefully everything would be much calmer next year. She couldn’t wait to start re-doing her apartment so Jon could really feel at home, even though he still thought it was complete unnecessary.

“Oh, before I forget it. These are for Jason, Ava, Rich and I’m sure you find something for yourself in there too.” Kim grinned and handed her two huge plastic bags which contained lots of presents. Fran smiled.

“Here are yours…I added something for Jon and the kids.” Fran gave her two bags as well.

“Oh, Fran you shouldn’t have…” Kim protested.

“It’s ok, the presents for the kids are actually from Rich and I. He knew very well what each child would like.”

“Thanks, Fran.” Kim gave her a long hug and together they walked into the living room where Jon and Rich were patiently waiting for them to get ready for hours already.

“Are those the presents for Lloyd and Ed?” Fran wondered and pointed at two envelopes at the sideboard.

“Yeah, Lloyd’s flight for the Bahamas will leave tomorrow and Ed and his wife will get a candle light dinner delivered at New Year’s Eve.” Kim explained.

“I thought they always go out?” Fran said surprised.

“They do, but his wife doesn’t wanna leave the twins at home alone for their first New Year celebration, so I made sure the restaurant delivers.”

“You really got them to deliver? Wow!” Fran was impressed.

“Yeah, you just gotta know how.” Kim laughed lightly and knew they could no longer pro-long their goodbye.

An awkward silence filled the room and made Jon and Richie stop their conversation and look up.

To their surprise their two girls were staring at each other with tears in their eyes. Both got to their feet a little confused.

“So, that’s it.” Kim whispered and grabbed Fran’s hand. Her best friend only nodded.

“The first time in 13 years we won’t spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve together.” Her voice trembled when she finally said it out loud. Rich and Jon looked at them surprised.

“Honey, why didn’t you tell us?” Jon asked irritated. Kim smiled softly at him with tears shining in her eyes.

“Because Fran and I both knew this day would come, ….actually, well we dreamed, hoped this day would come, because it means we both are no longer alone.”

“We knew we would only be a short-time-family.” Fran whispered and pulled Kim close.

“But that’s bullshit!” Richie said forcefully. Three sets of eyes looked at him surprised. “You two are close like sisters, you are a family, so you will spend the holidays together!”

He couldn’t stand those sad eyes of his girlfriend. Fran smiled and squeezed Kim’s hands before walking over to Richie.

“And how should we do it, Rich?” She wrapped her arms around his waist and searched his eyes. “We will fly out to Ava, and Jon and Kim will be first in New York and then in Jersey.”

“We can’t just squeeze the kids into a plane, just because Fran and I wanna be together at Christmas. It wouldn’t be fair.” Kim told the two frowning men softly and stepped closer to Jon.

“But…” Jon wanted to protested.

“No, Jon. We’ll be at the East Coast and Fran and Richie will be at the West Coast.” She sighed and looked over at Fran. “It’s just a little hard this year, because it’s like a new part of our lives begins.”

“But we are with the ones we love and it’s not like we won’t see each other again.” Fran said softly and searched Kim’s eyes.

There was an uncomment exchange between them, they both knew that sooner or later they would no longer live in the same city together. Fran would move in with Richie in LA by the end of January. The whole country would separate them then, sometimes they wouldn’t even be on the same continent when Kim was travelling with Jon. They both had to move on with their lives alone.

While the two women shared another hug they missed the silent exchange between their two men. They would make it happen. Their two ladies would see each other between Christmas and New Year's Eve. They had no idea how. But they would make it work.