Friday after Thanksgiving, Eric and Sofia took a weekend snowboarding trip to a resort in Big Bear with Angel and Sarah, compliments of Angel’s parents who owned a timeshare up there. They stayed there until Sunday. As romantic as the weekend had been, Sofia made a few comments about the holidays officially starting and how much she loved this time of year. It dampened the mood for Eric. He hadn’t planned on telling Sofia about Spain until they were back home alone, but on the ride home, Angel brought up the New Year’s/birthday party.

“So you can get a long enough play list with just the good stuff together for me, right, Eric?” Angel glanced back at him. Eric sat in the back seat. Sofia leaned against him, holding his hand. “This way we don’t have to have anyone manning the music all night,” he chuckled, “or worse, have Romero take over.”

Eric shifted in his seat. “Yeah, I can do that. I’ll just email it to you, so you can download it to your laptop.”

“I’ll probably need to borrow your speakers, too. Mine blew out.”

“Yeah, I’ll bring them over when we get home if you want.” Sofia snuggled into him. Even with the windows all closed and them bundled up it was still cold.

“Nah,” Angel said, “Just bring them over the day of. I don’t need them this soon.”

Sarah turned around tu A to face Sofia. “You think we should give the party some kind of theme? You know, like eighties or a masquerade or something.”

Sofia straightened up and moved closer to the edge of her seat. “Oh, that would be fun!”

“Masks are kind of fruity,” Angel said.

Sofia rolled her eyes. “How about famous couples?” She turned to Eric. “Me and you can be Bonnie and Clyde.”

Ah hell.

Sarah smiled big. “I like it.” She squeezed Angel’s arm. “I’ll be Miss Bennet and you can be the dreamy Mr. Darcy.”

Eric saw Angels eyes pinch in the rearview mirror. “Who the hell’s Mr. Darcy?”

Both girls ignored Angel and went on, more excited by the minute.

“Alex and Valerie can be Danny and Sandy from Grease.” Sarah giggled. “That would be so perfect.”

Angel spoke up again. “Not everyone coming are couples. Romero, for example.”

“I’m sure he’ll find a date.” Sarah waved her hand at Angel. “The guy has a new girl every week.”

“Or maybe he can be Clyde with you for the night.” Eric squeezed her hand.

Sofia looked at him confused. “Why?”

“I’m not gonna be here for New Year’s, babe.” He rubbed his hand over the back of hers.

“You’re not?” Angel asked, looking into the rearview mirror.

He glanced back from the rearview mirror to Sofia, who was staring at him. Noticing Sofia’s sudden change in mood, Sarah went back to facing forward.

“My dad got me an internship in Spain.” Sofia didn’t say a word, just sat back.

“No shit?” Angel looked in the rearview mirror. “For how long?”

“Just four weeks. I leave the day after Christmas. ”

Sofia attempted to pull her hand away, but Eric held it firmly.

“Well that sucks you’ll miss the party, but that’s pretty cool. Spain. Wow.”

Eric smiled at Angel’s comment, but he knew the conversation he and Sofia would be having in private was going to be tense.

She didn’t say much the whole way home. A few blocks from his house, Eric whispered to Sofia, “Get off with me at my house so we can talk. I’ll take you home later.”

Sofia nodded, but didn’t say anything else. Eric was happy his dad halk. wasn’t home when they got there. Ironically, during the summer when he and Sofia’s relationship almost fell apart, his dad had met someone and was seeing a lot of her lately.

As soon as they were in the house, Sofia turned to him. “Why haven’t you told me?”

“I just found out on Thanksgiving.” He pulled her in his arms. “I wanted to wait until after this trip. I had a feeling you wouldn’t be happy and I didn’t want to ruin the weekend for you.”

“Spain? Really? He couldn’t find anywhere further?”

Eric smirked. “C’mon, babe, it’s only four weeks.”

Sofia exhaled. “Is he gonna do this every time you get any time off of school? Make sure you don’t spend the time with me?”

“No.” He kissed her gently. “That’s not what he’s doing, Sof. He’s just always been like that. Wants to make sure I get the opportunities he never had. That’s all.” He pulled her with him to the sofa and sat down. She sat next to him still noticeably despondent. “Spring break next year, we’ll take that vacation we were supposed to take this past summer.”

One side of her mouth lifted slightly. “A cruise?”

“Whatever you want,” he smiled, glad that she was warming up to the idea.

She sat up suddenly and climbed over of him, straddling him. With those lustful eyes that always drove him crazy, she stared and started to unbutton her blouse. Her beautiful ample cle**age had him hard in a second. “What I want is to start making up for those four weeks you’re gonna be gone.”

Eric buried his face in her cle**age. Damn, he was going to miss her.

***

The holidays had a different feel this year. Sofia wanted so much to enjoy them as much as she always did, but knowing Eric would be gone the day after Christmas dampened her spirits.