Lia and Mimi returned to Lia’s apartment about 3 hours after they left.  Lia felt like she’d been worked over by Mike Tyson and she just wanted to get upstairs and get off of her feet.  Maybe she could convince Dominic to give her a foot rub.

As they walked into the lobby, Lia noticed Elevator Man.  He turned to her and while his smile was friendly, there was something about the look in his eyes that made her uneasy.

“Hello there.  I see you’re without your four legged companion today”.

“Yes, he’s at home with his dad today”.

“Oh?  I wasn’t aware that you were living with a man”, his voice taking on a hardened tone.

Lia cocked her head to the side. This guy was beyond inappropriate.  “Well, why would you?”

Elevator Man chucked lightly.  “Well I suppose you’re right, Miss…”

Lia and Mimi reached their floor just as he was asking his question.

“Well, this is us.  Have a great night!”  Lia said with all the enthusiasm she could muster given the situation and rushed off of the elevator.

“That dude put the ‘creep’ in creepy”, Mimi said after the elevator doors had closed.

“I know, right?  I was bringing Seamus in from his walk and was headed into the elevator.  That guy was in there and Seamus lost his shit, barking and growling like crazy”.

“Whoa.  Seamus loves everybody”,  Mimi said as they walked into the apartment.  “They say that dogs can sense when something ain’t right about someone.  I’d avoid being anywhere alone with that guy.  AND you should tell Dom about it, too”.

“Tell Dom about what?”  Dominic said as he came out of the bedroom and sat on the sofa.

“About the creepy guy on the elevator who was looking at Lia like she was a three course steak dinner”, Mimi said.

“Mimi!” Lia admonished.

“What creepy guy?  Li, is someone harassing you?”

“It’s nothing babe.  Just one of our upstairs neighbors being a little creepy.  No real reason for concern”.  Lia sat on Dominic’s lap and turned his face towards her.  “YOU on the other hand, are a different story.  What’s wrong...and don’t say ‘nothing’ because I can tell something’s upsetting you”.

‘She knows me WAY too well’, Dominic thought.  “It’s not something I want to get into, babe.  It’s Christmas Eve, angel.  It’ll keep until after the holidays”.

Lia gave him a worried look.  Something was clearly weighing on his mind, but she wasn’t going to push.  He’d tell her when he was ready.

“Well, can I feed you at least?  I was going to make burgers and asiago steak fries”.

Seamus’ head popped up seemingly at the mention of food.

“You’re not getting any more steak, Seamus”, said Dominic. The dog whined and dropped his head.

“Meems, you staying for dinner”, Lia asked her best friend.

“Uh...yeah.  Why’d you think I kept you out so long?  I knew the longer I kept you out, the better the chance that you’d feed me”.

“Well, you WILL be making up for me having to throw ‘bows in Macy’s just so you could get your hands on that Coach bag”.

Mimi laughed saying,  “Dominic, your girlfriend is a BEAST.  She was gut checkin’ bitches and mushing old ladies in the faces just so her bestie could get her hands on the cutest red leather satchel ever made”.

When Dominic didn’t respond, they both looked up and saw him staring off into space while chewing his thumbnail pensively.

Mimi nudged Lia as if to say ‘go take care of your man’.  “I’ll take care of things in here”, she said, gently.

Lia walked over to the sofa, bent over and kissed his temple.  “Come in the room.  Let’s talk”.

Once they were in their bedroom, Lia sat Dom down on the bed and climbed on next to him.

“Tell me what’s on your mind, love.  Don’t say it’s nothing, because I know you.  If you’re this distracted, it’s not something that will keep until after the holidays”.

Dominic pulled her onto his lap and held on to her for dear life.  “I told my parents about you...about us”.

“Just in the past few day?  Why di-”

“No Li.  I told them a couple of months ago…”,  He didn’t want to talk about this.  He didn’t want to hurt her.

“I’m guessing it didn’t go well”,  she whispered, sadly.

Dom shook his head solemnly.

“Oh.  Well, that was months ago”,  Lia said, brightening.  “Maybe they’ve had time to think; to reconsider”.

Dominic dropped his head.  “I tried to Skype with them earlier.  Me da sent me an email  sayin’ that if I was going to be with you...they weren’t going to talk to me anymore.”

Lia stilled.  Her heart began to race and her breath quickened.  Anger elbowed sadness out of the way with a vengeance.

“How DARE they put you in that position!  That is the most manipulative thing I’ve ever heard of!”

“I know, Lia”, Dominic sighed, wearily.

“So what are you going to do?”

“Li, I don’t know.  They’re my family”.

“Are you saying that you’re considering breaking up with me because of your parent’s bigotry?  If you are, and I say this as someone who loves you more than life, then you aren’t the man I thought you were.  I’m not asking you to pick me over them, but I want you to see that they’re being unreasonable”.

Dominic regarded the woman he’d fallen in love with.  The woman he’d waited his whole adult life to meet.  The woman he wanted to marry and bear his children.  He couldn’t give her up.  He wouldn’t.

“No way in hell I’m even considering giving in to that manipulation, but they’re my family, Li. Call me selfish, but I want all of you.  Them AND you”.

“That’s not selfish, baby.  That’s perfectly reasonable and most people in your position would want the same thing.  Your parents are being SO unfair to you, but they ARE your parents and of COURSE you want them in your life.  You may just have to let them live with the idea of not being in your life in order for them to see how wrong they are”.

Dominic reached up and pulled Lia’s head down, bringing her forehead to his own.  “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“Yup”, Lia said with a grin.  She pulled his lips to hers and gave him the softest of kisses.  “Now, let’s get out there before Mimi destroys dinner.

****************************************

Dominic woke up to the bed shaken violently.  He opened his eyes to see a fully clothed Lia jumping up and down on the bed excitedly.

“It’s Christmas!  Wake up, Dom!  Let’s open presents!”

Dominic looked over at the clock and saw that it was 6am.  “Lia, it’s 6 in the morning!  What are you, five?”

“Get up, you grumpasaurus!  It’s Christmas and I want to open presents!”  She jumped off of the bed and skipped into the living room.  She literally SKIPPED.

Dom threw the covers off, grabbed his underwear and walked into the living room, grumbling.  Lia looked up at him and whined, “Dom, you have to get dressed.  Put on some jeans and a t-shirt”.

“Mariani, may I remind you that it is 6 in the bloody morning? Let’s open presents so I can get a least another hour of sleep before we have to head over to Brooklyn”.

Lia poked out her lip in an epic pout.  Dominic sighed, “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Dom threw on a pair of jeans and a hoodie. “You owe me, woman.  And I mean to collect.  Tonight I want sex so hot and dirty we won’t even be able look each other in the eye in the morning”.

Lia giggled and said, “Deal.  Now, put on your shoes.  I have to take you to your present”.

Dom’s curiosity was officially peaked.

************************************************

Before the pair got on the elevator, Lia tied a blindfold around Dom’s head.

“Really, Lia?” He said, incredulously.

“Really, Dom”, was her reply.  When the elevator arrived, she led Dom on to it and pressed the button for the underground garage.  Once the elevator stopped, she walked him into the garage a ways then stopped.  “Merry Christmas, baby”, she said as she removed the blindfold.

There sitting in front of him just as pretty as a picture was a fully restored, cherry red 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Super Bird.  

Dominic stood there staring at it for a full minute before he laughed and shouted, “Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME??!!!!” before he finally grabbed Lia, lifted her up and swung her around.  “I’ve been looking to buy this car for months.  There were twelve sellers in the country who had advertised that they had one for sale but had it sold by the time I could reach them”.  He looked at Lia and noticed a sheepish look on her face.

“What’d you do?” he asked.

“I called all the sellers and begged them to tell you that the car was sold.  I was already in the process of having one restored the way you described it to me the time we talked about what frivolous purchase we’d make and feel no guilt about”.

“You remembered that?”

“Of course.  It meant something to you, so...it meant something to me”.  Dominic leaned down and captured Lia’s mouth for a deep kiss.  They then headed back up to the apartment to open more presents.  Aside from a few stocking stuffers, most of the presents under their tree aside from the ones for the family were for their pets.  They were officially “those people”.

Just as they started cleaning up all of the discarded wrapping paper, Dominic disappeared into the bedroom.  When he came back, he looked a little nervous and sweaty.  Lia looked at him with a furrowed brow.  

“What’s the matter?  You feel sick?”

“Little bit, yeah.”

“Did you want to skip breakfast with my parents?  We don’t have to go if you don’t feel up to it”.

“No, it’s not that.  Listen, before I came back from Thailand, I had a long talk with your dad.  I just wanted him to know that when I say that I love you more than my life, I’m serious.  I’ve never felt for anyone else the way I feel for you.  I would never want to be apart from you.  So...I asked your father if he would be okay with me asking you to marry me.  I know it’s old fashioned, but I wanted your dad to be 100 percent sure of my intentions”.

As Lia listened to Dominic, her heart began to pound and her breath came rapidly.

“Lia Gabriela Mariani, you’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.  I can’t imagine my life without you”,  he slowly sank to his knee as he pulled the most beautiful vintage diamond ring from his pocket.  “Will you marry me?”

Lia clasped both hands over her mouth and gaped at Dominic.  She knew this would come eventually, but this had truly caught her off guard.  “Dominic!!”, she shouted.  She dropped to her knees and launched herself at him, toppling him over.  She began to kiss him all over his face.  “YES! I will marry you!”

Dominic laughed and rolled Lia over on her back.  “I have to put the ring on you, silly girl”.  He put the ring on her finger, but she never took her eyes off of his face.  “Don’t you want to look at your ring”, he asked.  

She held her hand out and looked at the sparkling cushion cut diamond ring.  It was beautiful, but not as beautiful as the man in front of her.  Her treasure.