“Today? Red."

He said that with a lasting little glance over her dress and the devastating curves it clung to. That widened her grin and then brought it up to a small laugh when she saw his cheeks flush and he quickly turned back to the oven.

After pouring them two glasses of red wine, she handed him one and glanced over to the oven.

“How Long until everything's ready?"

“About half an hour. Want to watch The Snowman?"

“I think I've seen enough snow for a lifetime. Thought I'd break my neck coming up the stairs to get here in these heels. It really came down heavy this year, didn't it?" She took a sip of her wine. "That being said. I'd Love to watch The Snowman with..."

Her words faded as she looked between them where it appeared to have started snowing in the kitchen. Suspecting that wasn't supposed to happen, they both Lifted their eyes to look at the crack that was developing in the ceiling. The light sprinkle of plaster had been the snow, though thankfully it didn't mess up dinner and fell harmlessly onto the floor.

“What the hell?" Hugh said with an understandable degree of alarm as they both stepped backwards.

Trish had stepped toward the window over the kitchen sink, and for a moment she thought she might have heard bells outside. Something rather large whooshed past the window behind her, but she couldn't turn fast enough to catch a glimpse of whatever it was. Though it did sound Like a fighter jet doing a fly-by.

“What is that?" Hugh asked when it became clear that nothing was going to fall through the ceiling.

“Did you hear..." Trish turned back and fell silent once again mid-utterance as she looked at the crack and saw something begin to sprout from it. "Wait a second, is that mistletoe?"

“I have no idea. What does mistletoe Look like?"

“Like that." She pointed at the little plant that was growing at a prodigious rate.

“That's pretty not normal, isn't it?"

"I'd say so. It's almost as if... Wait a minute. Did you do this?" She raised a brow and a slight wry smile came over her lips.

“Did I do what?" Hugh turned his features from observing the growing plant to the woman.

“Huh?"

"You didn't make it so that we'd both wind up here standing under the mistletoe together?" she asked.

“Oh yeah! I know how to make plant Life grow like that. I spent all those years getting the degree in computer science with a minor in botany, because computer science is a notoriously easy course to take.

Needed something to fill in all the extra time I had." He chuckled slightly before Looking back up at the plant which had thankfully stopped growing after sprouting a number of white berries. It only then occurred to him the true meaning of what she was suggesting.