I noticed that Em’s mom was just giddily gauging our reactions to what we were seeing. I could tell by the twinkle in Ria’s eyes that she was no less impressed than I was.

Em walked down the stairs with a blush on her face. “I-is this too much? M-maybe I should go and change?” She stopped on the last step of the staircase so she stood just about as tall as me with my heels on, her blush kept growing redder and redder.

I offered her my hand. “No, it looks perfect on you.”

She opened her mouth to say something but decided otherwise. Instead, she just smiled and took my hand. As she stepped down I pulled her arm a little to pull her against my body and I swiftly turned that into a kiss.

“Oh my.” Em’s mom commented with a soft giggle.

While Em did accept the kiss gladly, when she pulled away from me, her face was tomato red. “N-n-not in front of my mom like that…” She stuttered and hid her face from her mom with her right hand.

“Sorry, I just couldn’t not do that.” I smiled. “You truly are incredibly beautiful, Em.”

“Aurora, my dear, you might be overcooking her a little.” Em’s mom said to me, almost in a whisper.

In the meantime, Ria had made her way over to Em and gave her a big hug. Em was still slightly stunned by the kiss but quickly recovered in Ria’s arms. Returning the hug after a couple of seconds.

“What Rora said is true, though. Emma.” I could hear Ria whisper. “You look really amazing in that dress.”

“Thank you, Ria.” Em finally laughed. Before she broke off the hug with Ria, she gave her a quick kiss too. “And you look beautifully cute, too.”

“Hehe.” Ria giggled.

Em’s mom was really really happy to see this lovely sight in front of her. “Let’s go over to the dinner room. We can start with a starter and some aperitifs for those who want to.”

I offered Em my hand again to walk hand in hand. This time she hesitated for just a fraction of a second, pouting a little in my general direction, before she accepted.

“Don’t worry, I don’t bite…” I chuckled. “Yet.” The last part I whispered into her ear as we followed Em’s mom towards the dinner room. We’d presumably move our presents to the living room later on.

Em immediately shot me a glare. “That was terrible.”

“Really? I thought it was plenty good.”

“What did Auro say?” Ria asked, she was walking on Em’s other side. Clasping Em’s other hand in hers.

Em leaned over and whispered it in her ear.

Ria blushed. “Auro… That was so bad…”

I chuckled and looked over to Karin, who definitely wasn’t really paying attention. She was scrolling on her phone as she followed us. “Karin, your sis and your best friend think that I have terrible humour.”

Karin looked up from her phone at me for a couple of seconds, squinted, and then looked back down again. “I wouldn’t say they are lying.”

“Wow, rude.” I chuckled even harder. Even though it was an answer I had definitely expected.

We entered the dining hall where the table was already set, the rest of the room heavily decorated with Christmas decorations. While most of the house, as I’ve said before, doesn’t really show the bombastic richness like Ria’s home would, it was clear that for Em’s mom, Christmas was the exception. The lighting was perfectly tuned to not be very bright to give that cozy atmosphere while still allowing you to see what’s on your plate. Reds greens and whites were spread all around the room. It just felt like a Christmas winter wonderland.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

I must’ve been staring in awe for a little too long as Em’s mom winked. “Do you like the decorations, dear?”

“I love it.” I replied. Then I looked back over to Em. She must’ve also themed her outfit around this room, as she fit in perfectly.

“Just wait until you see the living room.” Ilse giggled.

“Did you really change it up that much?”

“Mom really likes Christmas.” Karin said. She stood next to me while still browsing her phone. “And she doubled down because you and Ria came.”

Her mom softly poked her cheek. “Don’t tell me you also didn’t get excited, Karin.”

“Maybe a little.” Karin blushed, but still didn’t look up.

“So you all decorated it together?”

Ilse nodded. “It’s a nice tradition I’d like to keep going for as long as possible.”

“You should.” I agreed.

“Next time you and Corelia should come and help too.”

“I wouldn’t want to intrude on such a nice family tradition, though.”

“The hostess is insisting. And you are basically family already.”

I smiled. “Oh well, if you can’t be convinced otherwise, I guess we’ll have to.”

Ilse just nodded with a big smile, letting me go ahead to the table to sit down next to Em. Ria sat down on Em’s other side. Em’s mom took place right in front of Em so she was at the center of the table, with Karin sitting directly across from Ria. That left the empty seat for Em’s dad directly in front of me.

The door to the dinner room opened not that long after, the chef rolling in a cart with multiple racks of plates stacked on it. Behind the chef, Em’s dad walked in with another cart carrying a couple of silvery buckets with bottles inside of them.

“Good evening ladies.” The chef said to Ria and I as he rolled the cart behind us.

“Good evening and a merry christmas.” I replied. Ria did the same.

“The same from me too.” Em’s dad added. Quite short on words as always, but again, that’s just the way the man was and there’s nothing wrong with that.

We both gave a friendly nod at Em’s father as the chef started to put the plates, which I could now see held multiple little snacks, on top of the table.

It was nothing fancy like caviar or other rich people stuff like that, but mainly little toasts with different kinds of toppings. From what I could tell there was a shrimp salad one, préparé américain, chicken curry, meat salad, and then some kind of paté with what looked like jam on top.

I thought I would just taste what that one was but Em had seen me stare and just leaned towards me. “Game pâté with jam.”

“Oh.” Well scratch the lack of rich people stuff then.

“You should try it, it’s pretty nice.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” I chuckled.

The other racks had a variety of young and old cheeses and some salami and stuff like that. Hopefully plenty of snacks to cover Ria’s hunger until the entrees arrived.

Em got up from her seat to help her dad with the several bottles of drinks. Going around to give us what we wanted to drink. It was rather funny to see soft drinks served in such a manner but it definitely helped keeping the bottles cool so why not.

Em’s mom and her dad chose for some bubbles as her dad did join us for the aperitif. To my surprise it was him who raised his glass to get the word.

“I’d like to give a toast.” He began. “A toast on a happy christmas, a toast on the nice company we have today and a toast on a soon to be new year.”

“Thank you for inviting us.” Ria replied, raising her glass of cola.

“You are precious to my daughter and thus you are precious to me as well.” He smiled. It was really heartwarming to hear him say that. People of few words can sometimes say things that really hit you.

Everyone at the table raised their glass to those nice words, after which we all sipped from our drinks. For some reason, my soft drink did taste better than usual, probably because the atmosphere is this great.

Em’s dad stayed around for a bit to eat a couple of snacks before heading back to the kitchen to help the chef a little more. I had been trying my hands, or better said my mouth, on the game pâté with jam, and just as Em had said, I quite enjoyed it. There’s something about the combination of that specific flavour with the jam that really fits well together and I couldn’t really place why. The person who ever thought about this combination was a pretty smart cookie… or someone with a rather adventurous set of taste buds.

“Are you glad we opted out of caviar, Auro?” Em asked.

“Wait, that was an option?” I looked at her while putting another toast with pâté in my mouth.

“I thought you would prefer less pretentious snacks.”

“Well, you didn’t have to cater to my tastes specifically.” I looked over to Em’s mom, who was already giggling.

She waved me away. “Don’t worry, we are not big fans either.”

-That said, I wouldn’t be against trying. Surely rich people don’t just eat it because it’s pretentious, right? Right?-