"As I recall, the most important part of Christmas dinner is the dessert anyway," Carlos said as he took his glass of wine and took a sip. "At least that's how it used to work." It was probably a sign at how well the evening was actually going - now that they were mostly past the panic - that his expression didn't even flicker at the reference to his family and he rounded the table to sit as Gael followed suit.

The steak wasn't overdone, like Gael had feared, and Carlos led the conversation away from how the evening had started and to other topics - their friends, what Gael had done with his family the day before, and then the upcoming Boxing Day. That, again, was normally just another day for him - but since he'd worked Christmas, Ty had put his foot down and they were both off.

"Boxing Day isn't particularly a thing in my family," he said. "So, no, I don't think Ali and Matt are going to be doing anything, unless they've made plans. Matt has a new girlfriend, I think." Ali was perpetually between boyfriends, and might be working herself - she'd not been cast in the winter play, so she'd been scrambling most of the winter.