Magnolia was trapped.

She wasn’t trapped in the sense that she needed to get out of a room, but more so in the sense of she needed to get out of the country. Magnolia needed to go home, but in her current state nothing Magnolia wanted or needed was happening. She was trapped in the country, no flights were currently heading to Toronto due to inclement weather conditions and the last flight that had just come from her city was not flying back. It was soon that Magnolia came to the realization that she was going to miss Christmas with her family.

A frown had occupied her face for the past four hours as she sat in the airport, hoping by some slim chance someone would announce over the intercom that her flight was ready to board, but that never happened. Magnolia grumbled as she walked out with the last flight that had just landed from Toronto. She watched as the passengers greeted their loved ones and friends, but kept her head down while she sulked her way to her car.

“Magnolia?” she heard from behind her.

With a slight lift of her head she turned to see who had called out her name and saw the familiar face of none other than Tyler. There was a small group mainly made up of women around him, who Magnolia assumed, taking in their resemblance were his family.

“Hey Ty,” she offered a smile that didn’t necessarily hold true to her mood.
“I thought you were going home for Christmas?” he questioned, and at that Magnolia felt tears brim her eyes at the thought of missing Christmas.

She cleared her throat before explaining that flights to Toronto were cancelled until further notice, and that by the time flights were resumed she’d have to head back to Dallas for school anyways.

“Come over for Christmas,” Tyler blurted out, leaving Magnolia stunned for words for a few seconds.
“I don’t want to intrude,” she mumbled “it looks like you’ve got a full house already. I’ll be fine on my own, don’t worry.”
“I’m not letting you spend Christmas alone,” he responded defiantly “just come, please? Don’t make me drive to your place and drag you out of your apartment, because I will.”

Magnolia mulled the thought of spending Christmas with Tyler’s family over. She pictured all the awkward conversations she’d have to endure, but the look on Tyler’s face was as serious as his threat and so she gave in, asking what she could bring.

“Just yourself,” he smiled and started his trek back to his car where his family stood “I’ll text you!”

//\\

Standing empty handed in front of Tyler’s door waiting for him to open and invite her in, felt wrong. The two had fought back and forth through text about the fact that Magnolia needed to contribute something to the Christmas dinner she was attending very last minute, but alas she stood bringing only herself.
Tyler opened the door grinning ear to ear as Magnolia stepped in and toe’d her shoes off. Her stomach was a bundle of nerves at the thought of meeting Tyler’s family and when she tried to walk behind him Tyler took notice and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, holding her tight to his side.

“You’ll be fine,” he mumbled into her ear, giving her shoulder a little squeeze.

Tyler led the way into the kitchen where his family was congregated, making last minute touches to the dishes spread out on the counter and stove.

“Everyone, this is Magnolia,” he announced to his family.

At his voice all heads turned in their direction and Tyler was quick to make the introductions. A blush covered Magnolia’s face as she recognized Tyler’s sister as the one who walked in on her while she was doing her homework weeks ago, but thinking at the time that it was another one of Tyler’s hook-ups.

“Is there anything I can do?” Magnolia offered, feeling bad for just standing around.
“Everything is finished sweetheart,” Jackie smiled “you just go find yourself a seat at the table.”

Magnolia hesitated in her spot, but followed Tyler’s sisters as they made their way into the dining room. Dinner was spread out before them and the room was quiet as they passed food to the person next to them. She waited until everyone had their food before beginning to eat, not sure if they were a religious family and said grace before they ate.

“Alright everyone’s got everything?” Jackie asked as she looked around the table “Okay.”

She reached out her hands, taking one of Tyler’s and his sister Cassidy’s and Magnolia watched as the rest followed suit. Magnolia quickly wiped her hand on her pants, hoping Candace wouldn’t feel how damp her hand was.

“Lord we would like to thank you for bringing us together once again for another Christmas. We thank you for our good health, the food you have blessed us with on this table, and for new friends. Amen,” Jackie ended and waited for the mumbles of “Amen” from the rest of the table.

The group began scrapping their forks and knives against their plates, taking bites of the different foods that filled their plates for a few minutes before conversation began to flow.

“So how did you and Tyler meet?” Cassidy questioned before stuffing a piece of turkey in her mouth.

Magnolia thought about how she was going to answer that, because if they were being technical, the first time they had met was at The Goat, but she didn’t think she wanted Tyler’s family to know that they first met at a bar.

“I actually clean his house?” she answered more as a question, hoping they wouldn’t judge her “I go to school here and needed some extra cash so I got a job with the Maid Masters.”
“Well I feel sorry for you,” Cassidy replied as laughed as Tyler questioned why “because you’re a pig, a mess, it’s like a tornado wherever you go.”
“Hey! I am not!” he objected “Tell them Magnolia, I am not.”
“He’s not that bad,” she relented “but that’s only because he knows what’s coming to him if it gets that bad.”
“I wasn’t aware this was pick on Tyler night,” he mumbled to himself “I thought it was Christmas.”

Magnolia snickered from beside him, nudging her elbow into his side, telling him to drop the “poor me” act. After talking about herself, she felt content to just sit back and listen, and sometimes laugh, at the way Tyler’s family interacted and the stories they shared with one another. After they were all finished eating Magnolia began to gather the plates and took them to the kitchen, discarding leftover bits into the garbage and rinsing plates and cutlery off.

“Go sit, I’ve got this,” Tyler said, coming from behind her with the leftover plate of turkey.
“It’s the least I can do,” she responded and went looking through drawers to find containers to place the leftover food in.

The two worked side by side, chatting amongst themselves as the rest of his family came in and out of the kitchen bringing the rest of the dishes and glasses. Whatever Magnolia could fit into the dishwasher she did and the rest she filled the sink with soap and water and washed by hand. By the time she was finished with the dishes Jackie announced that it was time for dessert and Magnolia felt that she had a little bit of room left in her belly for something sweet.

After another round of food and cleaning up, they all settled in the family room filling up the couches and chairs to watch The Christmas Story, which was apparently a tradition with them, and was also the worst Christmas movie in Magnolia’s opinion. Of course she wouldn’t say that out loud, so she sat quietly and watched with everyone else and listened as they laughed along to certain parts and cringed when the poor boy stuck his tongue on the icy pole. As the credits rolled Magnolia sent a silent “thanks” and stood up from her seat and stretched before mentioning that she was going to head out. She made sure to thank everyone and offer them best wishes for the new year before making her way to the front door with Tyler following in her tracks.

“Here,” he said, thrusting a box wrapped in Christmas paper into her hands.
“You didn’t have to,” Magnolia said, although she was slightly happy that he did.
“I guess I’ll see you around?”he asked.
“Yeah,” she smiled and wrapped her arm around his shoulder, before pulling away and heading out the door.

Once Magnolia had made it back to her apartment she sat on her bed and ripped into the gift Tyler had gotten her. When he first handed her the box she noticed that it wasn’t too heavy, so she thought it was most likely some Dallas Stars gear. Instead she found an assortment of things; some were things she remembered telling him she needed but never thought to actually buy, like the set of white Apple headphones or the three multi-coloured notebooks that he had stashed at the bottom. Then there were items that reminded him of Magnolia, like the six pack of mini cans of Diet Coke, or the giftcard to Barnes & Noble. And lastly there were a few items that Tyler wanted Magnolia to know they were just for him, like the keychain he had made with a picture of them both, or the Victoria Secret giftcard he had stashed away.

Tyler Seguin confused her to no fault, but she couldn’t help but smile at each gift she pulled out.

Thank you. It was a simple text, but Magnolia knew he would understand how much she appreciated everything with those two words.

Notes

Chapter Outfit

This is SOOOOOOOO long overdue and I'd like to apologize. I've had major writers block and it's taken me awhile to actually start writing again. Obviously this chapter is shorter, but it's something eh!?!?

Anyways, if you've come back to read this THANK YOU FOR STICKING BY AND WAITING!! I don't think the gap will be as long with the next chapter...I really just made this one short so you guys could have something to read.

- Brooke