To say that Olive was giddy for the rest of the night would be an understatement to say the least. She had been so afraid that he wouldn't like it, or he would make some sarcastic comment about her giving him a Christmas present that she'd almost chickened out of giving it to him altogether. His face had given nothing away when he opened it, it rarely did, but he'd actually thanked her and even put it on and that was more than enough for Olive. Never would she have expected a present from him and for a moment, before he'd opened it, she knew Enoch was thinking that. They hadn't really been going out for very long, and Enoch was...well...Enoch after all.

But something had been newer still and different from the moment she'd arrived. Enoch had stared at her like he'd never seen her before all of a sudden, he'd hardly been subtle about it so she couldn't help but notice. It was almost the same way she had, embarrassingly, found herself staring at him after walking in on him getting dressed. That kiss that left her lips tingling every time she thought about it was needy and awkward in a wonderful way and then the impossible had happened.

Enoch did have a smile somewhere under the surly, unamused exterior. It wasn't quite full and with his eyes half closed, she couldn't have said it fully reached them but it was a smile none the less and almost transformed his whole face before she'd just kissed him again.

She'd kissed him goodnight when Enoch left first, which, in front of everyone else, Enoch hadn't responded quite as keenly about and only glared over her shoulder at the others before leaving. His guard shot right back up when anyone else was in the room but she didn't mind so much, it made her feel like she knew him better.

Why Enoch was so against relaxing a little bit and having what everyone else considered fun, let along griping about having a little Christmas spirit all the time, Olive still didn't know. She lost the nerve to ask him every time she wanted to. He would only have answered with a grunt and a non-committal word or two that wasn't really an answer. She knew very well there was a lot more going on in Enoch's mind than he ever wanted to let out.

Olive loved Christmas, though Christmas morning always saw more people in their house than probably should have been able to fit in the smallish living area even without the Christmas tree taking up a whole corner. With Olive's grandparents, aunt and uncle and two blonde curled cousins, in addition to her parents and herself, it was always crowded by the time dinner came around.

Dinner was always as decadent as a typical Christmas meal with everything from ham to turkey, mince pies, roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce and then pudding to finish. Christmas crackers were lined up between the plates on the fancy china that was only used on special occasions, and by the time everyone served, almost everyone at the table would cheerfully be wearing a crepe paper crown and laughing about something or other.

"And what about you, Olive dear?"

Olive looked up from helping her youngest cousin, little Claire, serve up some turkey and across the table where her grandparents were beaming over at her. "Sorry?"

"How's school going for you?"

"Oh...fine, thank you! Very well this year actually..."

"That's good! Give you a nice leg up for university in a few years."

"And how about a boyfriend, Olive? Anything to...fill us in on there?"

"Oh don't harass the poor girl, Deidre." Olive's grandfather interrupted, shaking his head down at his plate while Olive caught her father frown down at his plate slightly and her aunt just laughed.

"Actually..." Her cheeks turned slightly pink and she couldn't help but smile to herself as she prodded a roast potato with her fork, "Yes I do now. He's from a few of my classes at school. His name is Enoch O'Connor."

"Oh, really now? See? Didn't I tell you it wouldn't be long, Hope? Such a pretty girl."

Olive went pinker and exchanged an amused smile with her aunt as he looked between Olive's mother and grandmother, who was positively beaming and continued to press in that way that only grandparents would do.

"So tell us what he's like then?"

"I could tell you exactly."

"Theo..."

"Dad!" Olive wrinkled her nose slightly and chose instead to ignore her father, very grateful that her mother at least was willing to give Enoch a chance. She looked back up into the twinkling and expectant face of her grandmother and smiled a little. "He's different-"

"-You can say that again."

"-He keeps to himself mostly."

"Is he handsome?"

Everyone at the table laughed and turned to look at Claire who was sitting on a cushion on her chair like a princess and staring at Olive with big blue eyes.

Olive smiled and prodded her little cousin gently in the side. "Well I think so."

"Hold on, hold on..." Peter Densmore was Olive's uncle by marriage and married to her father's sister. He lowered his fork, finishing a mouthful of food. "Did you say O'Connor? As in O'Connor's Funerals? I don't know many other O'Connor's in London."

"Yeah, that's his father's business."

"Well that must put a damper on things. What a business to be in. Still, someone has to do it I suppose."

xxxXxxx

She hadn't so much as heard from Enoch since the night of the blackout and had sent him a Merry Christmas message that morning, full of emojis as ever, which Enoch hadn't so much as replied to. Olive wasn't surprised at all, and having met his parents, had the distinct impression that try as he would to avoid it, they wouldn't let him just hole himself up all day on Christmas.

Olive was curled up on one side of the couch in the living room with a hot mug of tea in one hand and Claire, wearing reindeer antlers, sitting in her lap half asleep. Everyone else was talking everything from grades to business while she scanned her phone for any message from Enoch. He had seen her texts, she could see that and she shouldn't have been surprised that he hadn't responded all day but it would have been nice to get at least an "Okay" if "Merry Christmas" was too far out of his good graces.

What if...? It would never work but it would be fun anyway.

"Hey, Claire..." She whispered, prodding the little girl until she giggled and started to sit up more in her lap. "Come and take a picture with me."

Manoeuvring a little to get her other arm free, Olive pressed her chin to the side of Claire's golden curled head who was smiling so widely her mouth might have burst right off her cheeks and snapped a selfie. With a filter and some text she grinned to herself and sent to Enoch.

Merry Christmas again!!

Five minutes went by and then ten, before Olive's phone chimed on the arm of the couch and butterflies began to flutter around in her stomach. At least he'd responded.

Trying not to look too obvious, and probably failing dismally, Olive grinned to herself and pressed her screen on.

It was Enoch. With the most Enoch-like reply he could have given.

Olive couldn't help giggling out loud which drew the amused eye of a few people, including her mother who just smiled knowingly and shook her head. Enoch might be a bit of a Grinch. But he was her Grinch.

xxxXxxx

Over the days between Christmas and New Year's, Olive only saw Enoch once when she passed the funeral parlour, evidently it was not the kind of job that necessarily took a day off. She had, with some insistence convinced Enoch to go for a walk afterwards just as a little snow had started to fall, the first for the winter which mostly melted before it could touch the ground.

Her father showed no signs at all of changing his opinion on giving Enoch a chance. Every time he knew she would be spending time with him he repeated the same speech about not trusting him as far as he could throw him that was rapidly getting old.

That was exactly the reason she wanted to avoid inviting Enoch around there again.

So when an invitation for a New Year's Eve party came around, was it any surprise that the first question was: "Is he going to be there?"

And the second, "Exactly why kind of party is this?"

"Oh come on, Dad...its New Year's." Olive sighed, rolling her eyes and slumping back against the wall. "It's not even only going to be us there. It gives me something to do for New Year's."

"I just don't want him thinking he's got more to do for New Year's."

"How many times do I have to say he's not anything like you think before you believe me?" Olive wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms stubbornly. "You met him once!"

"It's not just one impression I'm basing it off, Olive, you know that very well." He frowned and looked back down at his computer screen.

"Well I've already talked to Mum about it anyway. There's a lot of people going, not just six of us this time."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better, Oli?" He sighed and ran his hands over his face before looking up at her again.

Olive held his gaze stubbornly, and then the fight seemed to go and he nodded his head a few times reluctantly.

"Okay. Okay. I'll try not to have a problem with it."

xxxXxxx

"Wait, wait, wait..."

Olive stopped on the doorstep, the door through which they could clearly hear the music inside, as Emma tugged on her arm and raised an eyebrow at her best friend. "This is the right house. We were just here, Emma."

"I know, I know, shush." The blonde brushed it off and tossed her blonde waves back over her shoulder. She was trying not to grin, Olive could read it all over her face. "I just have to tell you something."

"...Well you're kind of jumping out of your skin, what are you so smiley about?"

"...I wanna kiss Jacob at midnight."

"Y-You what?" Olive practically squealed and a grin broke out over her face. "Well it's about time!"

"I know. But it's the perfect opportunity now and I...kinda just wanna go for it." Emma might have just won a Nobel Prize she looked so pleased.

"Well he has been kind of drooling over you for ages, it's about time." Olive repeated, grinning decisively.

"This coming from a girl who refused to notice that her current boyfriend was into her for ages."

"That's Enoch. Jacob is much more obvious, you know that...and my feet are starting to freeze, can we go inside now?"

Before Olive could push the doorbell, Emma had reached around her and done it herself. Just as footsteps started to get louder towards the door, her friend leaned over and muttered.

"Wanna bet how long Enoch stares at you this time?"

"Shush!" Olive went slightly pink and was unable to keep from giggling anyway when the door opened wide and Hugh was suddenly grinning at them.

It was a very different atmosphere to Christmas the moment Olive stepped inside. For starters there was already triple the amount of people and half of them she didn't even recognise at all. Hugh was a very likeable person, and the people that he knew, knew other people in turn and in short. There were only few who were specifically not invited. At least, so it seemed. Music filled the room and it was every bit the typical New Year's party.

"Well don't you birds look nice?" Hugh was cheery as ever with a cup of what Olive assumed was punch in his hand and the top button of his dress shirt unbuttoned. It was one of the only times Olive could remember seeing his light brown hair without his signature cap covering it. "And I'm gonna say it while there isn't someone's slightly-too-jealous boyfriend around to hear."

"Birds? Where are you from? 1940?" Emma scoffed as she walked in after Olive and the red head turned around in time to see Hugh's eyebrows shoot up.

"Well what should I say? Bees? That would be less complimentary."

Olive heard Emma scoff and pulled off her coat to leave it by the door with the others as her eyes automatically scanned ever corner of the room for the brooding figure of Enoch.

"He's not here yet, Olive. Fiona is, almost straight off the plane from Ireland, and Millard..." Hugh looked around and frowned slightly. "Well he's somewhere around."

"Jacob?" Emma asked hopefully and Olive giggled quietly.

"He's not here yet either. Go have a drink or something...it is punch, just to clarify." Hugh grinned.

Olive tugged on the hem of her dress slightly and let out a sigh as she looked around the room. She recognised a few girls from her literature class talking in a corner and the immaculately dressed Horace Somnusson from History looking for all the world like he was going to lunch at Buckingham Palace.

Enoch might not take too kindly to the situation. It was probably very close to everything he hated. Olive would have understood very well if he had refused the invitation this time. Twenty plus people and counting was a very different situation to six of their friends. But he'd told her that he would come, and she had no reason to doubt that he would.