"I'll get something and bring it back," Christy said. "And what do you want me to bring for you? It's my treat."

Jon looked up, surprised at her offer. "Are you SeriOUST "Of course I'm serious. I got paid today, remember? So what do you want?"

"Well, you know the Chinese place in the food court?"

Christy nodded.

"Go there and ask for Yun. Tell him Jon wants his usual. To go." Jon reached for his wallet.

"Got it," Christy said. "Hey, put your money away. This is on me, remember? Think of it as my early Christmas present to you." She emphasized the Christmas and looked at Jon for his reaction.

For a few seconds he met her gaze, a slight smile lighting his face. Putting his wallet back, he said, "Thanks, Christy. And Merry Christmas to you too."

Jon's response made her feel good all over as she quickly wound her way through the crowded mall to the food court. The line at the Chinese food counter was long.

During the five-minute wait to get to the front of the line, Christy forgot whom she was supposed to ask for. She scanned her brain, trying to find the name, and felt completely fl.u.s.tered when she reached the front.

"Hi," she said to the ap.r.o.ned clerk. "Do you know Jon?" The dark-haired guy looked at her funny and said, "Egg foo yong?"

"No, at the pet store. Do you know the guy who works at the pet store? His name is Jon." She could tell she wasn't getting anywhere.

A slender man with a kind face stepped up behind the clerk and asked, "Is there a problem?"

Christy noticed the name on the man's tag.

"Yun!" she said excitedly. "You're Yun."

The man looked at the clerk and then at Christy. 'Yes, I'm Yun. Have been as long as I can remember."

Christy laughed, relieved that she hadn't blown her errand of kindness. "I work at the pet store, and I'd like to order the usual for Jon."

"Oh, Jon!" Yun said, his face lighting up. "Sure. I'll get it for you. Will there be anything else?"

Christy hadn't thought of what to order for herself. "I guess I'll have an egg roll. Oh, wait. Do you have those little, umawhat are they called?"

The clerk stared blankly at her, and she became aware of the stares from the people standing in line behind her.

"Forget the egg roll. I'll just have the sweet and sour, shrimp. Oh, and some rice. A small. Rice, I mean. A small rice and a small sweet and sour shrimp. Please."

The clerk handed her the ticket, and motioning to the right, he said, "Pay down there."

Turning to another employee near him, the clerk rattled off something that made the other guy laugh.

No needfot a translation on that, she thought. I'd know "ditz" in any language.

Christy paid for the food, trying to be calm and gracious as Yun handed her the large bag.

"Here you go," he said, "And please tell Jon Merry Christmas for me."

Christy smiled and nodded. She would love to tell Jon that Yun wished him a Merry Christmas.

As she headed back toward the pet store, she tried to decide if she should hurry back or take a detour to see Katie, which had been her original plan for her lunch break. The smell of the hot food made the decision for her. She would wait and see Katie after work.

When Christy entered the pet store, she motioned to Jon by lifting the bag and tilting her head toward the back room.

"Go ahead," Jon said, pouring a box of rubber dog bones into a basket by the front register. "I'll be there in a minute."

She eagerly set up the Chinese picnic on the card table in the back room. Drawing in the feasts wonderful scent, she felt hungry enough to eat it all herself.

"I brought you a lunch guest," Jon said as he stepped into the back room. Christy peered around him, expecting to see Katie.

"Doug!"

"Hi, Christy!" he said, wrapping his arms around her in one of his famous hugs. "Guess I came at the right time."

Christy was so surprised that she was at a loss for words.

"You two go ahead and dig in," Jon said. Patting Doug on the shoulder, he added, "Help yourself to whatever you like. It's Christy's treat."

Doug pulled up a folding chair and said, "I already ate. Sure smells good, though. Maybe I will have a little rice. I stopped in only for a second. I'm on my way home for the holidays, and I wanted to see if we could set up something for next week." With a peek inside one of the white boxes, Doug asked, 'What is this?"

"I'm not sure. It's Jon's 'usual.' This one is sweet and sour shrimp, and this one is rice," Christy explained. "You want some?"

"Sure." Doug held up a paper plate for Christy to scoop the rice and shrimp onto.

She divided up the food and was about to take a bite when Doug asked, "Do you want to pray?"

"Oh, sure," she said, bowing her head and waiting for Doug to pray for her the way Todd always did. It was silent.

"Go ahead," Doug whispered. "You pray."

"Oh, you meant me." Christy bowed her head once more and quickly thanked G.o.d for the food.

When she looked up, Jon stood a few feet away.

"Don't mind me," he said, reaching for a box of doggie treats.

I wonder what Jon thinks of all this? Of Doug and me praying and everything?

"Remember how we all went ice-skating last year?" Doug asked. "Do you think we should do that again this year?" Christy vividly remembered that wild day with its mix-ups. She also remembered skating with Doug, supposedly to make Todd jealous. In the end, Doug turned out to be a great skater, and they had had a lot of fun together.

"Ice-skating would be fun. Or we could go to the movies, or maybe Heather would want to have another New Year's party," Christy suggested.

"Hey, you know what would be fun?" Doug said, swallowing a mouthful of rice. "We should all go to the Rose Parade!"

"That would be great!" Christy's face broke into a huge smile. "We always used to watch the Rose Parade in Wisconsin, and I grew up dreaming about going someday. Seeing all that sunshine when you're bundled up and it's snowing outside makes California seem like paradise."

"The parade is a lot of fun," Doug said. "A bunch of us went two years ago and slept overnight on the street so we could have front row seats. It's time for us to go again. That takes care of New Year's. What else do you want to do next week? Do you want to get together on Monday? I thought it'd be fun to go sledding up in the mountains."

What 5 Doug asking me? Is he thinking about a group thing, or is he asking me out? Rick wanted to get together Monday. What do I say?

"Monday?" she asked.

Doug nodded and bit into a chunk of sweet and sour celery.

"By any chance did you and Rick talk about this? Because he said something about getting together on Monday. Did you guys already have something in mind to do as a group?"

"Oh, well not really." Doug looked disappointed. "I didn't know you and Rick were, you knowagetting together. I didn't know you already had plans."

"We don't really. Rick suggested we get together Monday, but maybe he meant we could all get together, like you're saying. We could all go sledding."

Christy wasn't sure she was doing the right thing here, forfeiting her opportunity to talk with Rick. But the thought had entered her mind that if Katie came along, she might hit it off with Doug, and the two of them could kind of be together, and she could be with Rick.

"I'll stop by his house when I leave here. We'll see what we can come up with. Rick said you had a friend named Katie?"

"Yes, I wanted to invite her along to whatever we end up doing. Is that okay?"

"Great," Doug said, his warm smile returning. "The more the merrier! I'll look forward to meeting her."

Doug really was a great guy. Good-looking too. Tall like Todd but with broader shoulders and a more boyish face. Doug wore his sandy blond hair short on the sides, and he always looked as if he'd just combed it. He had a warm smile with perfectly straight teeth. The more Christy thought about it, the more she thought Doug and Katie might make a good couple. Doug had been interested in Tracy, one of Christy's beach friends. But that was a year ago, and it didn't appear that anything had come of Doug and Tracy's brief time of dating.

"I'll call you tomorrow afternoon and let you know what we've got going, okay? When are you coming up to Newport Beach?" Doug asked.

"I don't know yet. I'll find out before you call tomorrow," Christy promised.

Just then Jon walked in, and Doug rose to leave.

He shook hands with Jon and said, "Nice meeting you." Then he squeezed Christy's shoulder, "I'll call you tomorrow. See you."

Jon sat down and surveyed the feast. "So, where are the fortune cookies?"

Christy fished her hand around inside the bag until she found the two cookies. "Here you go."

Jon picked up the wooden chopsticks and started in on a box of the "usual," scooping up the noodles like a pro.

"You read yours first," he said.

Christy cracked open one of the cookies and read, "*You do not yet realize what is before you.' That's silly," she said. "What's before me? A bunch of Chinese food. I think I'm capable of realizing that."

Jon shook his head, his mouth full of noodles. Pointing his chopsticks at Christy he said, "It's not what's before you at this moment. It's what was sitting here before you, before he walked out the door."

"Doug?" Christy asked, giving Jon a skeptical look. "I don't realize what Doug is? Of course I do. He's just Doug. He's always been there. What am I supposed to realize?"

Jon raised his eyebrows and glanced at Christy out of the corner of his eye. He didn't say a word but kept looking at her as he jabbed his chopsticks into the box of noodles and stuffed them into his mouth, slowly sucking in one long stray noodle.

Christy's family sat down to eat the roast chicken Mom had put in the oven on low that morning. Several weeks had pa.s.sed since they had all sat down like this to a traditional Sunday family dinner. Everyone had been running in different directions, especially Christy.

"Your father and I have an announcement to make," Mom said as she pa.s.sed Christy the spinach. 'We talked with your Uncle Bob and Aunt Marti last night, and they've invited us to join them for a white Christmas!"

'What?" Christy asked, dropping her fork. "You mean we're going back to Wisconsin for Christmas? We can't! I have to work, and I have a lot of other things going on. Why can't we go to Bob and Marti's in Newport Beach like last year?"

"Christy, will you give your mother a chance to explain?" her father said.

He was a large man with rust-colored hair and matching eyebrows, big hands, a gruff voice, and a tender heart. "No, we're not going to Wisconsin, although your grandmother wanted very much for us to come. Maybe we'll see her next year. This year we're going to a cabin in the mountains that Bob and Marti have rented, and we're spending six days in the snow!"

"Six days," Christy moaned. "That's almost half the vacation!"

Christy's mom, a short, round woman with a plain face, gave Christy a disapproving look. "Yes, six days. We're going as a family to spend the holiday together. Your friends and your job will still be here when we come back. This is your father's first vacation all year."

Christy knew the look on Mom's face. Hushed up, Christy focused her attention on the food before her. j This is the worst possible Christmas I could ever have. I won't get to talk to Rick. I won't get to go to the Rose Parade with Doug and everyone. This is awful!

"Cool!" Christy's little brother, David, said. "Do we still have our old toboggan? Christy, remember how we used to sled down that hill out by Mr. Jansen's meadow? Don't you want to go sledding again?"

Christy shot a camouflaged sneer at her ten-year-old brother.

"Mom!" David yelped. "Christy looked at me!"

"Christy," Dad said in his firm voice.

"I'm just not real interested in sledding, that's all."

"Christy," Mom said, "it may take you a while to get used to the idea, but we are going, and it will be a wonderful Christmas."

"Okay," Christy said without looking up.

A year ago she might have fussed and tried to wiggle her way out of going. She knew now that it was better to agree and go along with the family plan, even if it wasn't her first choice.

"Try to have a better att.i.tude," Mom advised.

"I have a good att.i.tude," David said. He looked more like their dad every day. "When do we leave?"

"Wednesday," Mom said. "And I'm glad you're excited about it, honey."

"I can't go Wednesday," Christy interrupted as Mom smiled at David. "I have to work on Wednesday. We all had to agree to work one full day during vacation, and my day is Wednesday."

"Trade with someone," Dad said. "Find out who's working on Monday, and see if you can trade with that person. That way you can help your mother pack on Tuesday."

"But Dad, I can't work on Monday!" Christy spouted. "I already have plans."

'What kind of plans?" Dad asked.

"With Katie and some other people. We're going sledding. I hadn't asked you yet, but I was going to."

Mom and Dad exchanged the type of look that only parents know how to give each other.

"You just said you didn't want to go sledding with me," David said. Dramatically slapping his forehead, he said, "Women! They're all loony!"

Dad smiled, and Christy looked to Mom for support. "Mom, did you hear what David said? Why do you let him get away with stuff like that? Where does he learn these things? I never got away with talking like that when I was his age."