Archive of Our Own

“...has to be from 20th century.” Nina completed his sentence. “You have been saying that since you started there.” She turned her head and noticed that Gastón’s work ID was still laying on a bureau in the living room. “Don’t forget this. This is probably the second time this month.” She picked it up and walked over to Gastón and put the lanyard around his neck, “Someday you’ll actually forget it.”

“What would I do without you?” Gastón smiled at her.

“I don’t know, be late to work.” Nina got up on her tiptoes and kissed him briefly. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

***

“You are performing at the holiday party this year right?” German asked Violetta after Olga had served the dinner.

“Of course Dad,” Vilu answered and rolled her eyes at Leon. She and Leon had arrived for dinner on Tuesday to her dad’s place. Her father had been asking for confirmations about the party every week, when they had fixed the plan a month ago. “Fran and Diego, and Ludmi and Fede are performing with me and Leon. Like we have every year, so don’t worry. We’ll entertain all of your important engineers.”

“How is it going with the company, German?” Leon asked and Vilu hid her groan. The last thing she wanted was to be talking about her dad’s work, but it was too late. 

“Well, the last construction project got just finished, but one of my engineers is retiring, so that brings it own set of things to settle. This will leave an empty vacancy to the team so I have to find someone to fill it. And recruiting so close to Christmas is not fun. We can’t leave the spot open, since we need all hands on deck as the energy crisis gets worse.”

“Dad, do you know what your problem is?” Vilu piped up. 

“What?”

“I don’t pretend that I know about the engineering or whatever you do, but most of your engineers are your age. No wonder you are getting nowhere.” She continued. 

“Are you calling me old?” German responded, half offended.

“Yes, I am Dad. It is almost like writing a song. If you keep using the same words, the song will never be done. Basically, what I am trying to say is that you need some new blood, someone our age.” Vilu gestured to herself and Leon. She could not really believe that she was giving her dad hiring advice right now, but he was painfully clueless of the modern world. Someone needed to wake him up. 

“Didn’t you have that program to recruit just-graduated college students?” Leon continued to ask German. 

“Yes, it was implemented five years ago.”

“Promote one of them,” Leon continued and Vilu smiled at him proudly. Given that neither of them had any idea what they were talking about, they were doing a very good job at helping her dad. “There must be somebody who has proven themselves. You hired them for a reason after all.”

***

“And if we change this variable, the costs would go way down.” German pointed on the board at the meeting with his executive engineering team. “And I think thats it.” He looked down on his tablet. “Next thing on the docket is the CO2 emissions, but we need to wait for the Energy Preservation to bring in the figures, we will have to leave it until…”

“Haven’t you noticed?” One of his engineers suddenly said, “The numbers came in earlier this week.”

“Really?” German opened the folder on his tablet. “Well, that was fast. They are way ahead of the deadline.”

“Energy Preservation has been surprisingly efficient this whole year,” other one of his engineers noted. “It is after that new member of theirs started. He apparently even improved the algorithms they have been using.”

“Hmmm, this is really excellent work.” German raised his head up, “What is his name?”

“Gastón Perida I think. He is one of those college program recruits, from Oxford—”

For some reason, the last name “Perida” sounded familiar to German. Maybe Ramallo had once mentioned it. 

“—I think the case with him was that he actually declined the job offer the first time around, right after graduation. Something about not wanting to come back to Buenos Aires yet. He worked a year at London, before coming to us.”

The words that Violetta had said about him needing younger people in his team echoed at German’s mind. “What was the firm he worked at in London?”

*

“Ramallo?” German asked as he and Ramallo were sitting in his office later in the day. “Didn’t you used to work with someone called Perida, before you came to work for me?”

“Oh, yes I did. Marco, a really nice person. It was almost twenty years ago, and I understand that he and his wife have done quite well for themselves, she is a real estate agent if I am not mistaken. I think he works for the government right now. Why do you ask?”

“I think I am employing his son,” German answered.

“Really? I do remember them having a son… is he that old already?” Ramallo straightened up in his chair.

“Almost two years out from Oxford.” German said, “He really seems to be an efficient worker.”

“Not surprising, given who his parents are. In this case, he also is the nephew of Tomas Perida.”

“The software engineer?”

“Mr. German!” All a sudden Olga burst into German’s study. 

“Olga, we are in the middle of something.”

“Little I care about your something! I can’t work with these conditions! The tree has not yet arrived so I can’t start decorating for the party!”

***

“Gastón?” Gastón looked up from his computer to see their floor’s front desk secretary in front of his desk.

“What is it Melinda?”

“The boss wants to see you.”

“Okay, uhm,” he quickly looked back at a diagram he had been working on his screen, “Can you let Mr. Gomez know that I’ll be there just in a second. I’ll just upload this.”

“No, it is not him,” Melinda seemed to be twisting her hands nervously, “It is THE boss.”

“Mr. Castillo?”

“Yes.”

“What on earth? I’ll be there at once.”

Gastón got up from his desk and walked through the hallway to the elevator. He had no idea what this could be about. Was this good or bad? He definitely was not a senior enough employee to have the CEO concern himself with him. The only times he had actually heard of Mr. Castillo himself were in the annual company-wide emails and a couple of video conferences. He also was not aware of anything he had done wrong.

Well, whatever this was about, he was about to find out. Whatever happened, he’d have a story to tell Nina at home, and he had good connections with lawyers.

“Mr. Castillo? You asked to see me?” He stepped into a big office on the top floor of the building.  

“Yes, come on in.” Mr. Castillo looked up from his desk. “Gastón, isn’t it? Perida?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, sit down.”

Gastón, who still had absolutely no idea what this was about, took the chair he was offered. Mr. Castillo’s face was quite unreadable, but a couple of business classes all the engineering students had been forced to take at Oxford had taught him that those incidents where someone got fired out of the blue only happened in the movies. 

“So, I understand that you are responsible for the latest data on the carbon dioxide and monoxide emissions.”

“Yes, I was the one who submitted the last figures,” Gastón answered, trying to keep the confusion out of his voice. “If… if this is about the excel, I cleared it with my supervisor. I was under the impression it was fine—”

“It is.” Mr. Castillo interrupted him. “I was actually quite impressed. But this is not about that. You were originally recruited to work for us through our college recruitment program, but started working for us a year later after the initial offer. And you worked in London for a year after you graduated”

“Yes, that is correct.” Gastón answered, still not fully following.

“Well, I’ll just cut to the chase then.” Mr. Castillo turned on a tablet that had been on his table and turned towards Gastón. “I would like to offer you an assistant engineer position in the executive team directly under me.”

“What?” Gastón stared at the contract that was displayed on the tablet. “I’m sorry. I am just surprised, I have barely been here a year.” 

“Your employer at Renishaw spoke very highly of you. Didn’t want to let you go.”

“Yes, they did offer me a full-time place, with a raise, but my timing with the move back to Buenos Aires had nothing to do with a job I had at that time, or would have in the future. It was a personal choice considering the stage of life I was in and my family.” Gastón started explaining.

“I understand that,” Mr. Castillo continued. “We have been more than happy with your work here, and I think these talents are going to be wasted at the Energy Preservation Division. We need young minds to battle the crises we will continue to face. So, you accept the position? You can sign now, since we have a separate contract for the executive team, and start after the new year.”

Gastón looked down at the contract again. “Can I take 24 hours before I sign it?”

“This should not be a hard decision.”

“It is not, I just want to take the time to read it over. I don’t like making fast decisions.”

“That is okay,” Mr. Castillo nodded, “I’ll send all the forms to you and you can sign them on Sunday.”

“Sunday?” Gastón was 100 % certain that everyone was going to get off on FRIDAY for the holidays. 

“I host a holiday party every year for friends and family, my engineers in the executive team are always invited. We’d be honored if you and your wife would attend. You’ll get to know the team before you start.”

Even if he had already been married six months, it still took Gastón off guard how everyone just knew that he was married, until he remembered that he literally wore a ring visible to everyone, signifying that he was as taken man as could be. 

“This is a great honor, all of this, amazing opportunity.”

“It will be good to have you on board.”

As Gastón exited the office, he still was not fully sure what had just happened. 

“What?” He let the words fall out after the elevator doors had closed. Honestly, he did not know how to feel, as this was definitely not how he had expected this day to go. He was half wondering if this was a dream or some kind of holiday joke and if he should ask Ambar to go through the contract, just in case.

***

Nina was erasing a typo on her file of the chapter she was working on at the moment when she heard the door open. 

“Hey! You are back already?” 

“I didn’t interrupt you right?” Gastón said as he hung his keys on the rack and pulled out his ID over his head.

“No, I was just doing proofreading today really. I haven’t made any further leeway.” Nina closed her laptop, “I try to pretend that this isn’t a start of a block.” She got off the sofa and walked up to Gastón. “So, how was work tod—”

She was interrupted because Gastón pulled her into an extremely passionate kiss with no warning. 

“You are in a good mood,” she said after she was able to catch her breath. “I am not complaining.” She slid her arms around his neck as he had not let go of her yet, and seemed like he was not going to. 

“I think I just got a promotion.” He said before leaning down to kiss her again.

“What?” Nina asked in disbelief, but Gastón did not look like he was kidding. “You've barely been there 12 months                .”

“That’s what I said, but they want me to start as an assistant engineer, in the executive team,  after the new years,” Gastón continued. “Apparently they have been impressed by what I have been doing at Energy Preservation.”

“That is amazing!” Nina jumped to hug him and he picked her up twirling her around. “I knew you were good, but not this good.” She said after he put her down.

“Auch, that hurt,” Gastón laughed, “especially coming from my own wife.”

“I was just joking. I am so proud of you.”

“I mean this is nuts, absolutely crazy,” Gastón continued, “I am 25 and barely two years out of university. I would not promote myself. I thought I would be on Energy Preservation for at least five years, it was not a bad placement.”

“Stop right there. That clearly doesn’t matter to them.” Nina interrupted his spiral, “You clearly have proven yourself, otherwise they would have not offered you the spot. You were literally one of the tops of your class at Oxford, that's the reason why you have this job in the first place. You are extremely good at what you do.”

“Oh, one more thing,” Gastón pulled the invitation out of his pocket. “This invitation came with a fancy cocktail party on Sunday.”

“Sunday?” 

“It is pretty much mandatory, given the circumstances.” Gastón continued, “But you don’t need to come, if you don’t want to. I can go alone.”

“No, I am coming.” Nina shot him down. It was true that she still did not exactly feel the most comfortable in a big crowd of people she did not know, but she had gotten much better in the years, that did not happen if you just sat at home. “You always support me, there is no question about me not doing the same.”

***

“I think we are ready!” Violetta squealed after she, Leon, Francesca, Diego, Federico and Ludmila finished rehearsing the last song. “Thank you guys so much for doing this again!”

“Your dad’s parties are always fun,” Diego said as he got off the sofa to put the guitar he had been playing. “It is always nice to do some more low-key intimate performances.”

“Even if that means performing to a bunch of 40-plus engineers.” Vilu laughed. “The party starts at seven.”

“Diego, we really need to get going if we want to be at Art Rebel for five,” Fran jumped up from the couch as well. “We’re giving a dance tutorial there.”

“Wow, Gregorio is letting you do that?” Leon joked. 

“Apparently.” Diego nodded. 

“Wait, before you go,” Ludmila piped up, “Fran, sent me a picture of what you are wearing, Vilu you too, so I can make sure it is appropriate.”

“Oh and Vilu,” Fran stopped as she was about to walk to the door. “did you make to the book store on Monday? I was so mad I got stuck in that production meeting.”

“I did,” Vilu shook her head, “But they were already out of the Si Pudieras Tener un Deseo’s second print. It is not that mainstream yet that they’d have ordered more copies. We have to wait for a restock.”

“Awww, really?” Fran groaned, “I had such high hopes. I just wish we could get them signed… but it is still almost impossible to track her down.”

“Well can’t blame her for being a private person.” Diego noted. 

“Actually, I think I might have an idea why it is so hard to find her,” Vilu suddenly pondered. “I looked at the sample piece at the bookstore, and you know how there is that small info box about the author there. In the second edition, the wording was bit changed and it kind of sounded like she is using a pen name.”

“Nina Simonetti is not her real name?”

***

 “Absolutely not.” Nina crossed her arm as she shut the guys’s idea down. 

Luna and Matteo had come over to their house to help them decorate their Christmas tree. Matteo and Gastón had suggested that in order to place the star on the top of the tree, they’d climb on each other’s shoulders. 

“Why not?”

“Because I doubt that Luna wants to lose her groom, and frankly, I don’t wanna become a widow.”

“Okay, okay,” Gastón raised his hands in surrender, “We’ll go get the step stool.”

Luna burst into laughter as Matteo and Gastón disappeared into the kitchen. “What are we gonna do with them?”

“I don’t know,” Nina shook her head and bent down to pick up another ornament to hang on the tree. 

“Have I already mentioned how happy I am that you are here for Christmas!” Luna jumped up and down excitedly.

“Well, we are back and here to stay.” Nina smiled at Luna. Truth be told, in some way, she would always miss the Christmasses in England, but she was more than happy to be back. “I will feel a bit strange that it is summer and not winter as it is supposed to be, but I know I won’t miss the flat. We can actually have a tree here, in a proper house.”

“I wanted to have a tree at our apartment but Matteo said that we would not be able to get it there,” Luna continued as she almost dropped a gold glitter star she had been trying to hang on the tree. “And I guess he is right. We live on the top floor and there is no elevator.”

“It is going to feel a bit weird to not have any snow. Not that we always had that in London, but when we did, it was one of the most magical things I have ever seen.” Nina said, looking out of the window.

“You know, I have never seen snow in my life, but it seems cold.” Luna noted, “By the way, how are you spending Christmas day? You do remember that you are all invited to the mansion on Boxing day. Mom is making a huge dinner.”

“Of course, I remember that,” Nina laughed, “We’re going to Gastón’s parents in the evening of Christmas day.”

“What about your parents?”

“Dad won’t be able to come here from Miami until little before the New Years. Mom is going to some event with Mora. I can’t believe she managed to convinced her of that, but we’re going to spent the Christmas Eve with them, so Mom won’t have any reason to complain.”

“What about Christmas morning?” Luna asked. 

“You are coming here,” Nina said amused. Luna really had forgotten that? Well, she would have not been surprised. “We fixed that two months ago.”

“Oh, riiiiight,” realization seemed to dawn on Luna, “I forgot.”

“What are you doing for the evening?”

“Matteo’s parents.” Luna explained, “Mom and Dad won’t mind as Ambar and Simon will be with them and everyone will be there on Boxing day. Just wait until you get to taste mom’s Christmas cookies … oh that reminds me, Matteo gave me the go-ahead on making our own gingerbread house. I thought I’d ask Jim and Yam to come over and we could make one together on Sunday.”

“Sunday?” Nina asked. “I am sorry, but I can’t. We are invited to Gastón’s CEO’s Christmas party on that day. It is this whole big fancy cocktail party.”

“Since when does your CEO invite you to fancy parties he is hosting?” Matteo asked as he and Gastón had just arrived with the step stool. 

“Well, since I got a promotion,” Gastón said nonchalantly, but Nina could see the small blink in his eye. He had not yet told Matteo, she realized. 

“WHAT? You got a promotion?” Matteo questioned.

“Yeah, a couple of days ago. One of the engineers in the executive team is retiring so they promoted an assistant engineer and offered that spot to me. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know myself, but it happened.”

“OMG! Gradulations!” Luna ran to hug Gastón and Matteo followed her quickly.

“Well, that is awesome,” Matteo said enthusiastically, “I knew you were overworking. You really are an overachiever.”

“The party was at six, I think. I never actually fully read the invite. Hold on, I’ll go grab that real quick.” Gastón said and walked out to the chest of drawers in the hall. He grabbed the invite that had been in the top drawer. 

Nina saw his face change as he opened it up. 

“No way. Matteo, you won’t believe this.”

“What?”

“It is the Castillo House.”

“What, no way!” Matteo grabbed the invitation from Gastón. “That's him? What did your parents say?”

“What is going on?” Nina questioned.

“Oh, right.” Gastón raised his head. “I guess we should explain. So, my boss, German Castillo’s house is like a couple of blocks away from Mom and Dad.”

“Really? But what about it?”

“Well, this is a bit of a long story. I didn’t realize, that it was him, but Mom and Dad always told me, when I was growing up, that owner of the house was a bit strange and if we saw anything odd happening there, just ignore it and not to get involved.”

“How did Isla and Marco think he was odd?” Nina still did not fully follow all of this, “You work for him. Should I be concerned?”

“Yeah, how did they react?” Matteo questioned too.

“I don’t think they have anything against him as an engineer or anything against him at all.” Gastón sat down on the sofa. “I honestly don’t really remember and I can’t believe I never realized that they were talking about Mr. Castillo. It was so long ago. I guess it was just about the fact that he apparently had lot of engagements after his wife died really long time ago. They went to an engagement party where he ran after his daughter who ran away, and the fiancee went crazy.”

“Oh, I remember that too.” Matteo piped up. “Dad was invited too, but couldn’t go. Sofia went on his behalf.”

“And in the end he never ended up marrying that woman. He jilted her on the altar. Then he had a couple of other engagements and then some celebration of love or something. I don’t really know how accurate this is.  Mom and Dad never told me this directly, I just heard them talking about it, so I could be wrong.” Gastón continued. 

“Hey, remember that weird flashmob we saw in 2014 when we skated past it?”

***

“Honestly, I can’t believe I have walked past this house so many times, and never realized it was my boss’.” Gastón laughed as he parked the car on the side of the street next to Mr. Castillo’s house. “Castillo is not that common of a name, and I have worked for him for a year.”

“Well, it does not matter.” Nina said from next to him, “You are really sure we should not be concerned about him?”

“Mom and Dad never knew him personally,” he reached to take her hand, “They only really met him in some charity functions, so in the same circles, but not friends or anything. Anyways, we should go in, so you can make judgments yourself.”

Gastón got out of the car and opened the door to Nina and they walked inside the house. 

“Welcome. Glad to see you made it!” Mr. Castillo said as he shook Gastón’s hand.

“Again, thank you for the invitation. I don’t think I am in any position to refuse it. This is my wife, Nina.” Gastón kept his hand on the small of her back when Mr. Castillo also shook her hand. “She is an author and lyricist. Works for a couple of musicians.”

“This is not the first time I have heard of an engineer and an artist. My late wife was an opera singer.” Mr. Castillo smiled, “Gastón, would you mind stepping into my office so we can get that paperwork done.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll be right back.” He said to Nina and placed a light kiss to her hair.

“How long have you been together?” Mr. Castillo asked as they got into his office. “We are all in first name basis in the executive team. I like to know my engineers.”

“That is actually a more complicated question than you think.” Gastón was bit taken off by a direct question, but he figured that there was nothing wrong with getting a bit more personal level with his boss, given his promotion. And this was at least better than the usual small talk. “Married for six months. That I can say for sure. But how long we actually have been together is a bit more complicated. I could say a little over five years, and I could say nine years. We went to Blake South College together, but after I graduated I made couple a of really stupid decisions. Broke my own heart, but she is a determined woman. We reconnected back in university and I could not risk ever letting her go again. Fate was really on my side.”

“It is good to hear that.” Mr. Castillo said as he pulled a tablet out. “So, the contract. I take it that you read it.”

“Yes, I did.” Gastón nodded, “One of my friends is a lawyer so she scanned it really quickly too.”

“You really came prepared. So you are ready to sign it?”

“I like to know what I get into sir. This is a big ascension for me, especially this soon.” Gastón responded, “But yes, I am ready to sign it.”

“Lets get to it then.” Mr. Castillo offered him the touch-screen pen.

Gastón took the pen and signed the contract on the tablet. 

“I am looking forward to working with you.” Mr. Castillo shook his hand.

“Me as well, Mr. Cast—”

“Please, call me German.”

***

“Vilu, seriously, if there is one thing I love about your dad’s parties—” Francesca said as she picked up another cupcake from the table, “—it is the food.”

“I know.” Violetta agreed. “Olga is the best. This is the only reason I tolerated them for so many years.”

“I have been trying to teach Diego to cook.” Fran continued, “Do you think Olga could give us lessons. I mean, my family owned a restaurant, but we know what happened to that…” Fran’s gaze travelled across German’s living room. Vilu’s dad’s house was decorated beautifully with all kinds of Christmas lights and decorations. The tree in the middle of the room was huge. 

Suddenly her eyes fixated on a brown haired young woman, who was wearing a red dress. She was standing around and ever so slightly looked like she was not sure where she was supposed to be. 

“Vilu!” Francesca grabbed Violetta’s arm and pulled her closer, “Are you seeing what I am seeing?”

“What am I supposed to see?” 

“There,” Francesca pointed to the woman, “red dress, black heels, black bag. You did not tell me your dad knew Nina Simonetti.”

“He for sure does not know her. Fran, he is over 50.” Vilu hushed, “You are sure that’s her?”

“I mean she does look like her, just with no glasses.”

“Should we go and ask?”

“Vilu, are you crazy?” Francesca shook her head, “We can’t do that. What if it is not her? That would be so embarrassing.”

“Girls, what are you doing?” Ludmila, Federico and Leon came over to them with Pablo. “Pablo was just asking about our performance?”

“We're trying to figure out if that girl is our favorite author,” Vilu hushed the others. 

“Oh, the one you can’t track down?” Ludmila asked. “Is she an engineer, because why else would she be here?”

“We don’t know.”

“Hold up a second,” Pablo suddenly started speaking, “It can’t be…” 

“What is Pablo doing?” Fran asked as Pablo started walking towards the woman.

“Well this is your chance to talk to her,” Ludmila stated and started pushing Vilu and Fran toward where Pablo was walking.

***

“Nina? Is it really you?” Nina had been carefully looking around at the house while waiting for Gastón to finish up with his boss. She turned around as she heard suddenly a familiar, buts still a voice that she had not heard in a long time.

“Pablo?” She turned around and saw one of her dad’s cousins standing in front of her.

“It is you.” Pablo hugged her, “It has been years. I almost didn’t recognise you. You have grown up. Tell me, how is Ricardo?”

“Dad works in Miami these days.” Nina explained, “He got a big job offer there in 2017.”

“Well, I see dear cousin is doing well.” Pablo laughed. “I should talk with him more often.”

Nina saw more people come behind Pablo. Two women with black and light brown hair were pushed by a third with blonde hair. They all seemed slightly older than her.

“Guys,” Pablo turned towards the people since he seemed to know them. “This is the daughter of my cousin Ricardo Simonetti, Nina Simonetti”

“So you really are Nina Simonetti?” The black-haired woman asked excitedly. 

“Yes, I am her…” Nina said, a bit taken aback by the sudden attention on her. “Well, actually it is Nina Perida, like this, in person.”

“These two were nervous to come and say hi to you.” the blonde said behind the others.

“Nervous?”

“We love your book.” The brown-haired one started talking. 

“Hey, you have gathered quite a crowd.” Nina felt a hand being placed on her waist.

“Did you get everything done?” She asked Gastón.

“Yes, the paperwork is all signed. The work stuff is done.”

“Uhm, so this is actually Dad’s cousin, Pablo Galindo.” Nina figured some introductions were in order. “Pablo, this is my husband, Gastón.”

“Gastón Perida, good to meet you.” Gastón shook Pablo’s hand. “I can see the family resemblance.”

“Ricardo and me always got confused as brothers when we were growing up.” Pablo laughed. “I really should talk to Ricardo more often, I didn’t know you had gotten married.”

“Yes, Six months ago. It was a really small wedding.” Nina explained, “Gastón works for Mr. Castillo, thats why we are here.”

“So are you the one Dad promoted?” The brown-haired woman asked of Gastón. 

“Yes, I believe I am.”

“That is great news.” the woman smiled excitedly, “Most of his employees are dinosaurs. They need younger people. German Castillo is my father, I am Violetta Castillo.”

“Oh, how silly of me, I didn’t even introduce myself yet,” the black-haired woman started excitedly while offering her hand for a handshake for Nina, “Francesca Caviglia, my husband Diego Hernandez is somewhere in here, but who cares about him? As I said, I am a huge fan of your work. It is really inspirational how a young artist gets her work published while still being in school.”

“Well, thank you.” Nina shook Francesca’s hand, “I didn’t really think it would actually happen, but you can blame him for that.” Nina said looking at Gastón. 

“I forced her to give it a shot with the publishers,” Gastón smiled at her, “World needed to see her talent. But did you say Francesca Caviglia?”

“Hello, what are you talking about?” Two guys came to join them. Nina and Gastón both stared at the curly-haired man for a second… he looked uncannily like Matteo. 

“Excuse me, but you don’t happen to be Federico Paccini?” Gastón was the first to speak. 

Right, Nina suddenly remembered that Matteo had talked to them about his second cousin who apparently looked a lot like him. They had met through his friend he had made through the Eurovision… right, Francesca Caviglia.

“I am Federico Paccini.” the man responded. “How did you know?”

“Our friend Matteo has told us about you.”

“Matteo, as in Matteo Balsano?” Francesca asked. “You know him?”

“He is my best friend.”

“What?”

“Not to throw my hat in this ring of very strange coincidences, but you two look very familiar to me.” The other guy next to Federico started speaking. “I am Leon Vargas, by to way. This is crazy, but you were not in my cousin’s wedding in Mexico a year ago, were you?”

“Are you talking about Simon Alvarez?” Nina thought it was better to let Gastón do the talking. 

“Yes, I am. He is my cousin from my mother’s side.” Leon continued. 

“Simon and Ambar are old friends of ours. I started at the Castillo corporation a week after the wedding.”

“How is world this small?” Violetta exclaimed.

“Oh my god! How did I never realize?” Francesca suddenly uttered. “Matteo briefly told me during the Eurovision auditions that his friend Nina wrote lyrics with him often. It is you isn’t it?”

“Yes, I work for Matteo as a lyricist.”

“Anyways,” Francesca continued, “Would you mind signing the book? It would mean so much to have it.”

“Of course.”

***

“And then it completely toppled over,” Luna explained animatedly as she, Matteo, Nina and Gastón were sitting on the floor of Gastón and Nina’s living room, next to the Christmas tree on the morning of the 25th of December. “It happened right after we had just finished cleaning the kitchen… so we had to do it again.”

“We saw the pictures Matteo sent to us of that gingerbread house,” Nina laughed, “It looked… impressive…”

“I do have a couple of questions about the stability of that construction,” Gastón laughed as well. “But I promised no work talk for today.”

“By the way,” Matteo asked as he sat back down next to Luna after getting another cup of hot chocolate. That was still absolutely necessary at Christmas, whether it was summer or winter. “How was the fancy holiday party?”

“Nice enough,” Gastón responded. “Got the papers signed and the food was good. But guess who we met there?”

“Uuu! I wanna guess.” Luna was already raising her hand, “The president of United states? The Kind of England?”

“No, Mr. Castillo’s—” Gastón knew that he was supposed to call him German now, but it still sounded so weird, “—daughter is Violetta Castillo.”

“The singer?”

“Yes her. She and her friends performed some songs at the party and those friends just happened to be Francesca Caviglia and Federico Paccini, and their respective spouses.” 

“What? Really?” Matteo asked in disbelief, “How did you figure this out.”

“Well, Federico looks quite like you, like you told us,” Nina explained, “And Francesca seems to be a bit of a fan of my book. She asked me to sign it and everything. Honestly, it was a bit nerve-wracking. I didn’t think I’d have fans.”

“Oh, also Simon’s cousin was also there.” Gastón continued.

“Which one?” Luna tilted her head. 

“Vargas. I think he is dating Violetta Castillo.” Gastón explained taking another sip of his chocolate. “He and Federico are also in the same band. We had a nice discussion with them.”

“Simon’s cousin is in All Four You?” Matteo furrowed his brow and opened his phone, “So Leon Vargas? He is related to Simon?”

“Was at the wedding and everything.”

“Anyways… this gives me an idea,” Matteo pondered to himself “I should ask them if they could take part in the new years concert…”

“Matteo, no work.” Luna said firmly, “It is Christmas! Okay, so I just have to tell you what Matteo got me for Christmas!”

“Tell away.”

“So… I took them with us because I wanted to show you,” Luna started digging in the bag she had brought with her and pulled some cards out of it. “So these are like vouchers I can redeem in…”

“Only valid until our wedding.” Matteo smirked. “So she has a year to use them.”

Luna handed the cards to Nina so she and Gastón could look at them. They read stuff like “Three guitar lessons” and “one date night under the moonlight”. They were extremely corny, and exactly something you could expect from Matteo. Gastón thought it was really brave of Matteo to promise to teach Luna with an instrument.

“Very original,” Gastón remarked to Matteo as Nina handed the cards back “Good job Matteo. So what did she get you?”

“A new notebook to write my songs in,” Matteo answered a smile on his face and opened a picture on his phone of a black notebook decorated with strawberry stickers. 

“I decorated it myself.” Luna declared proudly. “Now, your turn. What did you get each other.”

“Well, he got me five new writing journals,” Nina turned to look at Gastón, “Now I will never run out.”

“Well, I happen to know my wife.”  Gastón smiled and placed a kiss on her temple. 

“And you can explain this one,” Nina continued, pointing to her right hand.

“That is so pretty!” Luna gasped.

“Okay,” Gastón said and took ahold of her right hand. In her right ring finger, she was wearing a golden signet ring that had a carving of a rose on it. “So, there is a bit of a story behind why I gave her this.” He looked up at Luna and Matteo. “So, do you remember how both of my paternal grandparents died of cancer while Mom and Dad were still at university?”

“I thought your granddad died in a car crash?” Luna questioned.

“That was mom’s dad.” Gastón corrected, “Anyways, after they died, Dad and Uncle Tomas, of course, inherited everything that they had, which was not much of course, but when they were going through the stuff, dad found an old signet ring, that had a sun on it, from Granny’s things and he did not tell Mom about it. Instead, he got it cleaned up and kept it hidden. He gave it to Mom on the first Christmas after they had gotten married. So I thought, I’d make it a tradition.”

“Aww, that is so cute,” Luna tilted her head and squealed. 

“She got me a watch,” Gastón continued, “After making me believe that I had enough.”

“You would have bought it on your own, so I had to play a couple of physiological games with you.” Nina defended herself. 

“Well, I can forgive you because of the second gift.”

“Uu, what is that?” Luna was jumping on her knees. Almost like the Christmas gift reveals were the most exciting thing in the world.

“Do you wanna explain or do I?” Gastón asked Nina.

“You can do it.”

“Okay,” Gastón got up and walked to get a card from the top of some drawers. 

He handed it to Luna and Matteo.

“OMG! Really?” Luna shrieked while Matteo just looked shocked.

“Yes,” Gastón said as he sat back down next to Nina and wrapped his arm around her waist. “We’re getting a dog after our first anniversary. I have Nina’s promise on writing, and I will hold her to it.”

“What breeds are you considering?” Matteo asked finally recovering from his shock. 

“We have not really talked about it yet,” Nina said looking at Gastón, “But probably a retriever of some sort.”

“You need to let me help with it!” Luna started full on jumping up and down. “I have always wanted a dog!”

“Now as that is out of the way, we should probably exchange our gifts.” Matteo started speaking after Luna had calmed down, “Isn’t that why we are here?”

“Oh, I thought you were here for our company.” Gastón joked. 

“Anyways…” Matteo laughed and pulled a present from the same bag Luna had pulled the cards from. “This is from me and Luna to you two. It might be a bit cheesy, but it is your first Christmas as a married couple so it should be allowed.”

Matteo handed the present to Nina and she opened the wrapping carefully. The wrapping revealed a picture frame and inside of it was a picture of four of them that Luna had taken on, at the time, her a brand new polaroid camera in Matteo’s mom's hometown on their Europe trip a year ago. The picture was on a white background and there was text surrounding it. The text was the lyrics to the song Luna and Matteo had written for Gastón and Nina’s wedding. To the frame was tied a red ribbon and there was a silver pen drive hanging off it.

“That is the official produced recording of the song.” Matteo explained pointing to the drive, “It is officially called Two Hearts, One Story. Like I said before, it will be coming out on my next album, so you can tell me sometime what you want to be said or not said in the song description.”

“The picture was my idea.” Luna piped up.

“This is beautiful.” Nina said looking at the picture frame.

“You really outdid yourselves,” Gastón agreed with her. 

“We do have to admit that Flor helped with the design of that,” Matteo pointed to the picture frame. “It doesn’t hurt that your cousin has masters in art history and that she is dating a graphic designer.”

“Oh, so you don’t hate Oliver anymore?”

“I have never hated Oliver or Jacob or James.” Matteo countered, “But I am your best friend.”

“And no one is challenging that.”

“I think we can talk about that some other time,” Nina said, moving them away from the topic and pulled a wrapped present from under the tree. “Hopefully this will measure to your gift.” She gave the present to Luna and leaned on Gastón’s shoulder while watching Luna excitedly rip the paper off the present. 

“Uuuu, pretty… What is it?”

“It is a photo album,” Gastón explained while Luna handed it to Matteo. “Those may seem bit old-fashioned, but we thought since you will be getting married in a year, you should have a place to store some memories.”

“You can just print some pictures that you take with your phones or use that polaroid camera,” Nina explained. “Concrete photos are always better than digital ones. We took the liberty to start this for you.”

She took the book from Luna and turned it around opening it up. On its first page was a picture of four of them that had been taken in Gastón and Nina’s wedding. 

“I love it!” Luna screamed taking the album from Nina. “I need to start taking pictures of stuff right now.”

“And that was not all,” Nina continued, “You two never had an engagement shoot.”

“I guess we didn’t, what about it?” Matteo asked confused.

The original plan had been for Luna and Matteo to have a professional photographer to take their engagement pictures, but their busy schedules had gotten in the way and, in the end, they had kind of just forgotten about it.  

“You need something to fill that album,” Gastón continued, “So we are going to take your engagement photos.”

“What?” Matteo looked flabbergasted, “You are serious?”

“Yes,” Nina smiled, “One full day, whatever you want. The sky is the limit on the pictures.”

“As long as no one gets hurt, so no fence climbing.”

“OMG! This is Amazing!” Luna jumped on her feet. “Best Christmas ever!”

Luna’s excitement ended up escalating into a huge group hug.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

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