Baby, It's Cold Outside
Sing Along.“Yah! Ginger! Give it back!” I howled after the black poodle as it scampered away with a snowflake ornament in between its mouth.
“Good boy, Ginger!” a loud laughter rang across the room, “Now go give it back to noona!”
I huffed in frustration. He was supposed to be listening to me more than her. I watched him release the ornament in front of me and went back to Tiffany, throwing a glare at her.
As I stared at them in disbelief, she cooed into the dog’s ears while scratching its ears and then it scurried off towards the other room where Sunny and Prince was.
Tiffany plopped down beside me on the wooden floor, rummaging through the box of Christmas decorations. She passed me a coil of colourful Christmas lights, “Let’s hang this around the tree.”
She held the end of the coil as I went around the Christmas tree, ensuring that the lights would not slid off the plastic branches of the tree. When I was finally done, she took my arm and hugged it while admiring the tree.
“Switch it on!”
I plugged the lights into the socket nearby and switched it on. She hugged my arms again and gazed at the tree in awe.
“Fany-ah, there’s another set of Christmas lights left in the box. Help me hang them on the wall!”
A bark emitted from the other room and Prince came out, “Hey, boy. Mommy is putting up pretty lights.”
“She’s only doing that because you can’t reach the hooks on the wall!”
I scoffed at Sunny, “Please, I’m still taller than you.”
“Hah! What difference does 2 cm make?”
The doorbell rang, interrupting our argument that had took place countless of times over the same thing. I strolled to the door, checking the peephole. It was my brother.
Ginger dashed towards the door, wagging his tail at the sight of my brother and welcomed him with a wet to his cheek. I went to my room to take his grey shirt and his other necessities.
“Be good to your hyung while I’m gone, okay?”
He whimpered slightly as I brought him to my lap to put on his shirt, knowing that he will be going away without me. I scratched his ears after I straightened the sleeves on his legs. I let him go and took his picture near the tree.
Jiwoong picked him up and his stuff, heading towards the door. I waved to my brother and Ginger as they got into the elevator, “Bye, my man!”
Arms wrapped themselves around me and I leaned against its owner. Tiffany felt warm against my back and she twirled me around to face her, “Baby, let’s go for a ride.”
The offer was tempting. She brought me into the house and gave me a peck on my lips as if to persuade me further, “But what about Prince?”
“Go on, you two. I’ll take care of Prince till my schedule. Prince, come and play with Sunny daddy!” she called out for the white maltese and it followed her into her room.
“Let’s take my car!”
The snow fell gently down from the sky onto the car’s windshield. It was mildly freezing although I already had my coat on. Tiffany turned up the stereo and the car’s heater.
Her car was a lot more comfortable with more leg space than my car has, even though I do not really need that much to begin with. The stereo drowned out the noise from outside.
Baby, don’t hold out.
Oh, but it’s cold outside.
I reached for my phone on the dashboard and took a picture of the song displayed on the screen. Tiffany directed a smile at me and took off her right hand from the steering wheel, palm facing up. I took the offered hand, bringing it near my thigh and squeezed it.
It was near the end of the song and I sang along the last line, “Oh, baby, it’s cold outside~”
She laughed at my antics; her laughter drowning the drum beats of the song that came next. I gazed at her face, she had stopped laughing but she still had her wide smile.
It’s hard to do these things alone.
Just hold on, we’re going home.
“Baby, we gotta go home now. Sunny is going for her schedule soon.”
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