It was 8 pm, right after dinner...

LXXI

Christmas was approaching with every Jingle Bell played in shopping malls, every Christmas cookie eaten and every Christmas themed park the office of tourism set up in Singapore for the residents to enjoy (tourists were still rarely seen due to the pandemic, so why not do something extra for the people living here? Shorter queues too!). It seemed, the lack of any sign of winter had to be compensated with as much glitter, fake snow and ridiculously big ice rinks for a tropical country. And so many Christmas trees they could arrange them into a forest so big Santa would get lost in it.

Speaking of which, Eddy was determined to make his promise of a giant, festive tree he had given Brett via text message become reality.

"Arghh!", he groaned, while he was scrolling on his phone. Brett had moved his permanent residency from his bed to the couch and looked up from his device, when he heard his friend's outcry.
"What?"
"Those tree markets are all so far away! I'd need to carry it cross half the town to get one home."
Brett raised his brows. "You're still down on doing that?"
"You bet! It's gonna be awesome!"
"Are there even markets where they sell real ones?", Brett asked. He very much doubted that anyone would ship Christmas trees from God knows where to a place like Singapore to sell them.
"Apparently. But there are like only two and they're both really far away." Eddy groaned again.
"Hey", Brett waited, until Eddy looked at him, "you don't need to get a tree. I'm totally fine with not having any decor for Christmas."
"I know, but I really wanna have one this year!"
"Why? Isn't Cristmas about the birth of Christ and not any trees or gifts?'
Eddy winked at him. "True, but we'll need to celebrate it properly this year! No ifs or buts."
Brett sighed, giving up on helping Eddy lighten his burden. He was still pretty weak, that stroll the other day had drained him so much Eddy had to give up his hot cocoa because they had to go home straight away. There was no way Brett would survive a trip across town to help Eddy carry a big ass tree home.

"Fuck it! I'm just gonna try!", Eddy suddenly exclaimed and sprang to his feet.
"Bro! No!", Brett shouted, "you gonna kill yourself!"
"Nah! I have brains! I'm gonna manage."
And with that said, he left the apartment and a stunned Brett behind.

Brett sighed again and leant back further into the couch. At least, Eddy being gone for the next one or two hours gave him some time to ponder in peace about THAT one thing that-shall-not-be-named-in-the-presence-of-a-certain-handsome-someone.

He had briefly thought about confessing on Christmas day, fitting the spirit of the "time of love" and all that. But although he was getting better, Brett was still nowhere near being fully recovered. So he had quickly discarded the idea. It had to be done after New Year's probably. Maybe even on New Year's Eve, if he'd feel good enough?

Of course, he could wait for another two or three months. By then, he was very likely back to a hundred percent and they would surely be working again. Waiting, until life was back to normal and giving both of them some time to adjust to everything after the sickness seemed very tempting indeed. It wasn't like this thought hadn't crossed Brett's mind.

There were just one or two flaws in this schedule. Two or three months are very long when one is in love with their best friend, who is also their flatmate (and roommate for the time being. Eddy was still crashing at Brett's most of the time). Brett simply didn't think he'd be able to hold back this long. Hold back the words, which threatened to bubble up everytime a situation was anywhere remotely near intimate. Hold back his hands, which wanted nothing more than to brush over Eddy's soft hair, to place themselves on Eddy's cheeks, to get a hold on Eddy's collar, so he could draw him close and claim those kissable lips until the other was breathless and flushed with a surely very beautiful and even more tempting pink.
Brett took deep breaths and tried to cast those dangerous thoughts away, which awoke a certain body part he didn't want to have excited right now.

And as time passed, Brett felt more and more that Eddy deserved to know. He deserved all the facts and should be enabled to make decisions based on the changes happening in their relationship. Even, if those decisions would hurt Brett, had the potential to destroy him... Eddy deserved to know.

Brett sighed yet again. At this rate, he'd be an old man with all that sighing by the time of Eddy's return. He got up slowly, went into the studio and picked up his violin. Maybe some practice would keep his mind busy. After some scales and a run-through through the Bach Partita No. 3 in E Major, he tackled Milstein's Paganiniana and lost himself in the difficult tenths and runs, quickly pushing any thoughts about feelings and confessions and fears to the back of his head.

It was only when Brett heard a whistling sound and the turning of keys coming from the door that he stopped his practice. While he put his violin away and unwound his bow, he peaked into the living room and was hit by a déja vu.

There was a joyful Eddy, wearing a red Santa hat and dragging a big, fake Christmas tree behind him, his lips producing upbeat tones of "Go tell it on the mountains". A picture very close to what Brett had imagined back in the hospital.

"Dude!", Brett laughed.
"Tadaaa!" Eddy turned around and presented the tree like it was game he'd shot.
"Where did you get that from?"
"You'd never guess."
"I meant the hat", Brett said and pointed to the red item.
"Oh, this?" Eddy shook his head a little, causing the white tuft on the tip to swing right and left. "Got it as a present when I bought it. I was talking about the tree though."
"One of the markets you've researched?", Brett asked, walked to the tree to help Eddy carry it.
"Nah! Well... I actually went there first. But you know what they cost?" Eddy lifted up the top of the tree while Brett was holding the trunk, so they could get it into a standing position. Brett shook his head, after he reemerged from the plastic branches covered with countless dark green needles.
"Like 200 Singapore Dollars! 200!!! Who spends this kind of money!? Also, you know how heavy they are? I would have never gotten any tree home by myself. So I went to ikea."
"Ikea?", Brett chuckled.
"Yeah! Reasonable price and looks like a real one. I had to make compromises."
"Sure", Brett said, "and in what are we going to put this thing?"
Eddy's eyes widened. "Oh fuck!"
"What?"
"I forgot that thing! That tree stand thing!"
"You serious?", Brett guffawed.
"Totally! Nooo...", Eddy cried and looked at the tree in utter despair.
"Maybe we can just lean it on the wall?", Brett suggested.
"And risk it falling on us and hit us to death? Nah! Not gonna happen!"
"Then let me get that thing tomorrow. We need ornaments too, right?"
Eddy looked at him sceptically. "Aren't you too weak to get stuff?"
Memories of himself fainting in the middle of a grocery store made their way to the forefront of Brett's mind. He furrowed his brows.
"I think I should be alright..."
"Let's go together then!", Eddy declared.
"I thought you have something important tomorrow? Didn't you want to film the Paganini Christmas video or something?"
Jordon had composed them yet another masterpiece and had rearranged "All I Want For Christmas is You" in the style Paganini would have written it. Eddy was going to record himself playing the difficult piece and upload it on Christmas Eve on their channel as a greeting to their fans.

Eddy scratched the back of his head. "That's not gonna take up the whole day. We can go in the afternoon and I'll just film in the morning."
"True", Brett agreed.
"Great!", Eddy clapped his hands together and looked like a kid getting Christmas presents, "Then it's settled! We're gonna go Christmas shopping together!"
"Alright", Brett sniggered. How could he deny anything an excited Eddy wished for?