The 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party (Part III)

Start at Part I here.

    Audra’s eyes danced from person to person as they all looked back at her for instructions. Her enthusiasm was contagious, though the fact that it was Christmas Eve likely had everyone predisposed to excitement. “Okay,” she said, “I’m going to work on a bit of setup while Violet assigns the roles.”
    Six pairs of eyes shifted to Violet. She scrambled to come up with a way to randomly assign eight roles. The box of cards was already in her hands so she decided to use that. “Uh… everyone stand in front of a chair. I’ll deal out the cards face up and whoever the dragon lands in front of will be the first Great Lord. Then I’ll do it again for the Lord and so on. The empty chair will represent Audra.”
    Audra couldn’t be expected to stay still while she was engaged in preparations. She’d already replaced one chair with a pillow, presumably where the wretch would have to kneel, and had draped a blanket over the back of another chair. Violet turned up the dragon on the fourth card and congratulated Logan on starting the game in the top seat. For the next assignment, however, she went through most of the deck before the dragon landed in front of Katie.
    As she gathered up the cards to reshuffle, Alison said, “I know Audra put you on the spot to do this, but if she’d told you ahead of time, do you think you could have come up with a method that takes even longer?”
    Violet had been getting self-conscience about the delay, but the joke let her laugh with everyone. “I thought it’d be faster,” she said. “Maybe this time, we’ll just say the first ace I turn up?”
    “No!” Audra answered from where she was wrestling an arm chair in the living room. “It’s not fair if it’s not the same.”
    “It’s still fair if it’s still random,” Ryan said.
    Logan moved to help Audra get the comfortable chair to the Great Lord position at the table.
    “It has to be the same.” Audra was sticking with her logic based on stubbornness rather than actual logic.
    “Fine. Looking for the dragon.” Violet simply dealt the cards as fast as she could while sharing a few more laughs over how long her “simple” method was taking.
    Alison ended up as the wretch, which meant that in addition to the least comfortable position, she’d have to give up her best cards. “I hope you all expect me to fetch a few drinks because that’ll be the only time I get out of this spot.”
    Despite her pessimism, she moved up two spots after the first hand, and Ryan played all his cards first to dethrone Logan as the Great Lord. Violet moved up only one spot to switch with Audra somewhere in the middle. She prepared to apologize to her friend if Ryan filled the role inadequately. The one other time the eight of them had played Grand Seigneur, he’d refused to do any acting.
    This time he immediately demanded that Cameron, the current wretch, deal faster. And then he demanded he do it without accidentally dropping cards on the floor. The whole table was amused by his faux regal air. Violet knew Ryan was being a good sport for his sister mostly to make Violet happy. And that did make her happy. She also enjoyed the fact that she made it through the entire game without sinking to the wretch, even if she never made it to the top seat.
    Audra won what they’d all agreed would be the last round of the night. “Oh, nuts,” she said. “I finally get to be Great Lord, and I don’t actually get to play as Great Lord. Are you sure we can’t do one more round?”
    Alison shook her head. “My sisters’ kids are spending the night. They’re going to get me up at 5 am for presents.”
    “And I need to lead the pre-Midnight Mass caroling in like an hour so there’s no way I’d get to the church in time if we keep playing.”
    Audra rolled her eyes at Ryan’s less serious answer. Violet laughed. Katie smiled and said to Audra, “You can command us all out if you like.”
    “Oh, yes.” Audra was satisfied with that concession. “I insist that all of the gentlemen now help the ladies on with their coats.”
    They all complied, though some with more flourish than others. Ryan held out Violet’s coat even though she wasn’t leaving her own apartment. As she slipped her arms into it, Audra said, “And I command that Violet walk us all out so she has a reason for putting her coat on.”
    Several people chuckled at that, including Violet. She stepped outside with her friends. The full moon was low in the sky, perfectly framed by the houses she saw it between. It seemed to have a purplish halo. The beauty of the sight enhanced the beauty of the moment as she waved and calls of “Merry Christmas” bounced here and there. Ryan hugged her and said he’d see at church later. Audra hugged her and said, “I can’t wait for the 3rd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party!”

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Thanks for reading.  I'll leave you with a couple last minute Christmas present ideas, though any of my books make great gifts. 

The Christmas Project

Heart Games 3: A Christian Romance (Christmas) Puzzling Experience

The 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party (Part II)

 Read Part I here.

    It had been only about three months since Audra moved out, but it still felt like welcoming visitors when Violet opened the door for her and her new husband. She yelled, “Merry Christmas!” and gave her old roommate a quick hug.
    Then she hurried them both inside to see what Logan was carrying.
    “Don’t show her yet,” Audra said.
    “Do I have to wait until everyone is here?” Violet asked.
    “I hope I don’t have to hold it that long.” Logan pretended the canvas was heavy.
    “Only until Ryan comes out of the kitchen,” Audra said. Then she raised her voice. “Why are you still in the kitchen, Ryan? Don’t you want to wish your sister and brother-in-law a merry Christmas?”
    “No!” he yelled back, though they heard the laughter in his voice, and he stepped out a moment later drying his hands on a towel. “Let’s see the new masterpiece.”
    Logan began to turn it around, but Audra stopped him when someone knocked on the door.
    Violet moved to answer it. “How did you not notice someone right behind you?”
    “It’s probably Trevor,” Audra said. “He obviously didn’t come early with Ryan, and I would have noticed anyone else’s car. Plus, he’s the only one who wouldn’t have called out for us to wait for him. Except maybe Cameron…” The thought she was putting into what had been only a teasing remark reflected the nerves she still felt about showing off her new work, despite the number of times her friends had raved about previous paintings.
    And Violet did find Audra’s brother Trevor behind the door. She waved him inside as the others called out greetings and holiday wishes.
    “Now I can show this?” Logan asked Audra.
    She nodded and grinned nervously.
    Violet watched as the front of the canvas was presented. Her eyes tried to take in all the details at once so she could give an informed opinion without making Audra wait in suspense. It depicted a pristinely manicured garden with flowers and shaped hedges along an oval footpath. The side of a castle poked onto one side of the canvas with several gargoyles perched along the top. While the flowers were prominent because of the bright colors, the castle stood out to Violet as different. Audra’s landscapes rarely included buildings or other man-made structures. She’d done an amazing job with the details on the stones and the stern features of the gargoyles.
    Trevor was the first to comment. “I’m surprised it’s not a Christmas picture.”
    “I’ve been trying to get this one right for like four months,” Audra said. “I wasn’t thinking of Christmas when I started.”
    “Oh! The shadows…” Ryan’s eyes popped as he discovered what Audra had done to make her work kooky. “That’s genius!”
    Violet studied the shadows and quickly saw what he saw. The gargoyles’ wings were tightly furled on the ledge, and yet their shadows showed the wings spread as though they were about to take flight. “That is very cool,” Violet agreed.
    Audra soaked up the praise. The others admired the painting as they arrived as well. Although Trevor didn’t offer a compliment directly to Audra – he’d told his sister before that someone had to hold back for the sake of her ego – the way he pointed out some specifics to Alison showed that he was impressed.
    Violet and Ryan heard a few nice things about the meal they prepared. She would have felt bad about asking him to cook on his day off if he hadn’t repeatedly assured her that he enjoyed cooking with her far more than any of his coworkers, and that it was most fun when they sparred over how much fruit to add to certain dishes. As soon as everyone was finished eating, the group worked together to clear the table that was actually two tables pushed together.
    Trevor grabbed one end to pull the tables apart, but Ryan stopped him with a wave of his hand. “We’ll need them together for Grand Seigneur.”
    “What?” Trevor sounded more surprised than confused.
    “You told him!?” Audra stepped closer and gave Violet a friendly punch in the shoulder.
    “You knew I was going to tell him,” Violet said.
    “Yeah, but… but… I thought Ryan would have enough sense to cover for you and pretend he didn’t know.”
    Trevor glanced around the room and apparently saw no one else questioning the situation. He addressed Audra in a dry tone. “Go ahead and tell me your plan so the rest can pretend not to know.”
    “This is the 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party with a Full Moon.” Audra took a deep breath before she launched into her explanation of what that meant. “So naturally we have to do something a little different and since it’s not Friday you already had your regular Tichu and Grand Seigneur is almost Tichu anyway and… and this way we all play together, which is a very Christmasy thing to do.”
    Violet expected Trevor to go along with the plan only grudgingly. She expected him to give everyone a hard time for keeping it secret to try to trap him into agreeing. But he surprised her and everyone else when he said, “Let the 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Pary begin.”

To be continued...

By the way, did you spot Audra's kookiness on the covers when you read the series?

The 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party

If the title tells you what to expect from the following short story, you can probably skip right to the story.  If it doesn’t, this story takes place a few weeks after The Art of Proposing ends.  I don’t think there are any spoilers aside from who ends up with whom.  But you definitely want to read the entire Romance Arts series first anyway.

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    Violet looked at her phone flashing on the counter. “It’s your sister,” she said.
    “Go ahead.” Ryan nodded at the phone. “I’ll finish cleaning up while you see what she wants.”
    Violet smiled at his exasperated tone as she answered the call.
    “I have the best idea ever,” Audra said.
    “I thought the 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party was your best idea ever.”
    “I thought of a way to make it even better.” Audra squealed into the phone. “But wait… Is Ryan there? He’s not supposed to know yet. Don’t tell him about this improvement. Is he there?”
    “Yes, he’s here,” Violet said.
    “Can he hear me!? Go somewhere he can’t hear me.”
    Violet was watching Ryan and saw him nod when Audra asked if he could hear her. She wasn’t on speaker but tended to talk loudly when she was excited. Violet sent him a look that said she was going to humor Audra as she moved out of the kitchen and towards her bedroom. “Okay. You can speak freely now.”
    “So I was thinking about plans for the 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Pary and then… I looked at a calendar.”
    The pause was long enough that Audra seemed to want a prompt.
    “And what did you see on the calendar?”
    “Do you know what happens on Christmas Eve this year?”
    Violet could look at a calendar herself – though she didn’t know what it might say other than Christmas Eve – but she could tell that despite the questions, Audra wanted to be the one to tell her. “I don’t. What happens on Christmas Eve?”
    “A full moon!”
    “Oh. I guess that’s cool,” Violet said. “How does that change the plan though?”
    “Isn’t it obvious?” The excitement in Audra’s voice was building.
    “No. You’ll need to tell me.”
    “It means it’ll be the 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party… with a Full Moon!”
    Violet laughed. “That part is obvious. But what’ll be different other than adding extra words the guys will refuse to say?”
    “Instead of separate games, we can combine to play Grand Seigneur.”
    “That’s what a full moon means?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you think the guys will agree to that?”
    “Sure,” Audra said. “Logan’s already on board because I told him he’s on board. But you have to get Ryan on board without telling him exactly what’s going on because he’s more likely to tell Trevor and he really can’t know yet. If he doesn’t have time to think of arguments, he’ll be more likely to play along.”
    “Well, I think it sounds fun,” Violet said. “I’ll play along.”
    “Great! I’ll let you get back to hanging out with your brand-new fiancé.”
    “See you soon.” Violet put the phone back on the counter as she rejoined Ryan.
    He had her kitchen back in order and was waiting for her. “What am I not supposed to know?” he asked.
    “I’m not supposed to tell you.”
    “Are you really not supposed to tell me or is Audra being Audra again?” He came a step closer and took both of her hands in his.
    The proximity made her brain foggy so it was good that Violet already knew the answer to his question. She also knew that Ryan was going to enjoy the 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Tichu Party with a Full Moon as much as he enjoyed getting the information out of her. And that he’d groan at the new name.

To be continued...

Part II now available here.