“Sorry, I sort of lost track of time.” It was true. What I hadn’t told her was that part of the reason had nothing to do with Sergei Prokofiev and everything to do with Cindy Franklin and what I was planning to give her for Christmas.

“I never would have guessed,” she commented, oozing sarcasm. “Come on to bed. You need a few hours sleep before we head out in the morning.”

We were leaving to spend the holidays with our folks. Specifically, we would be spending Christmas with my parents, then New Year’s with Cindy’s. Every time I thought about meeting Cindy’s parents I became a jumble of frayed nerves. I can’t imagine why, though. ‘Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin. I’m Kyle Bronson, the cross-dressing musician who’s shacking up with your daughter.’ Yes, any way I looked at it New Year’s with the Franklins was going to be an eventful visit. Of course, if things went as I hoped they would, it might be that way for an entirely different reason.

I followed Cindy into the bedroom, stripped down to my panties, and climbed into bed.

“You know, you don’t have to leave those on,” she purred seductively as she tugged on the waistband.

“Sorry, I forgot I had them on,” I replied as I slipped out of them.

“That’s better,” she said as she pulled me closer.

The next morning Cindy got up before me and got ready before waking me, then went to throw together some breakfast while I got dressed. Without even thinking about it I pulled on a new pair of black opaque tights before putting on my jeans.

As I was fastening the jeans Cindy came into the room and asked, “What are you wearing?”

Again without thinking I replied, “It’s cold out, and they’re warm.”

She looked at me and gave me a skeptical, “Uh-huh.” Then she turned around and on her way back to the kitchen said, “Breakfast’s ready. Shake a leg, sleeping beauty.”

I followed close behind her and helped get the food served, then we sat down and ate in relative silence. Once we were done she cleaned up the mess while I carried the bags down to the lobby where we were going to wait for the cab to take us to the airport.

As I sat there waiting for Cindy to come downstairs I started thinking about what I had packed clothing-wise. Jeans, shirts, panties, tights, bras…yeah, I guess I had everything. Then it occurred to me that I really had no need for the women’s clothes while we were on the trip, so why exactly did I pack all that stuff? It was at that moment that I finally realized what Cindy was really asking me as I pulled on my jeans.

Cindy finally appeared downstairs just as the taxi arrived outside, so I carried the bags out for the driver to put in the trunk while I climbed in the back with Cindy. The driver climbed in and asked, “Airport?”

“Terminal B,” I replied. He flipped on the meter, put the car in gear, and pulled out into traffic. We were on our way.

I took Cindy’s hand in mine and said, “Relax, my mom is starting to like you. There’s nothing for you to be nervous about.”

“I could say the same for you,” she replied.

I countered, “Not exactly. I’ve never met your folks and have no idea what to expect. Not to mention…”

Ignoring where I was heading she interrupted, “They’re going to love you, I promise. Did I tell you about the grand piano in the front room?”

“No,” I replied, my interest piqued.

“Daddy bought it when I was nine because I asked for piano lessons. I didn’t stick with them very long, but the piano sort of stuck around.”

“At least I’ll have a place to practice while we’re there,” I grinned.

It was a short flight to my hometown. We both wound up napping in flight and once we arrived, by the time we found our luggage my folks had found us.

My mom grabbed me in a bear hug, “Kyle! It’s so good to see you.”

“You too Mom,” I replied.

She then turned her attention toward Cindy as my dad gave me a hug. “Cindy, it’s good to see you to,” she said as she tentatively gave my girlfriend a hug.

“Thank you for having me, Mrs. Bronson,” Cindy said as mom released the hug.

“Call me Mom. We’re family now,” Mom said as Dad took his turn welcoming Cindy.

“Did you find all your luggage?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, we didn’t really bring much.”

Dad then commented, “We’d best get on the road before the snow starts.”

“You mean we might actually have a white Christmas?” Cindy asked.

“Looks that way,” Mom replied.

I helped Dad get our bags in the back of his Suburban, then we all climbed in the humongous SUV for the ride to my childhood home. As we got underway Mom asked, “Is it true that you’re going to have a pretty busy schedule next semester?”

“You could say that,” I replied.

Cindy added, “He’s performing with several orchestras this spring. He has to learn five new concertos.”

Dad commented, “That does sound busy. How are you going to find time for school?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out. In the mean time I’m working on learning the new pieces over the break so I won’t have to work quite so hard during the term.”

“How’s that coming along for you?” Dad asked.

“I’ve got the Beethoven pretty much ready and am about halfway there with the Prokofiev. After that I have to work up the Liszt, Chopin, and Bach, all while keeping everything else up to snuff.”

“That sounds like an awful lot of work.” Mom seemed concerned by the workload.

“It is, but it will mean that I’ll have a lot of options where it comes to music selection this summer when I’m doing all the competitions.”

Mom asked, “What competitions are those?”

Cindy answered before I did, “Dr. Caroll has Kyle applying to quite a few national and international piano competitions for the summer. It will mean a lot of travel, but could actually go a long way toward establishing him in a career as a concert pianist.”

“So what are you going to be doing this summer if Kyle’s on the road?” Dad asked.

I jumped in to handle this one, “I asked her to travel with me, but I don’t know if she’s too crazy about the idea.”

“I’d love to go with you part of the time, but I just can’t spend the entire summer running around the country. I have a job lined up already for the summer, working for my dad’s company.”

Dad asked, “What’s he do, Cindy?”

“He has a big insurance brokerage back home. He was planning on me working in the office with him this summer.”

I added, “Cindy would probably be bored to tears spending the summer living in hotel rooms. Hopefully we can figure out a way for her to join me some weekends.”

“Sounds like you’ve been planning everything,” Dad commented.

Once home I was stunned to learn that Mom had planned on Cindy and I sharing a room. Stunned, but pleased. After all, Mom is the one who always harped about the sanctity of marriage and how living together was wrong. And yet, here she was essentially saying it was all right for the two of us to share a bed in her home. I’m not sure what had changed since I’d left home, but I wasn’t going to complain.

We unpacked and I gave Cindy the ten-cent tour. We then joined my parents for dinner and a Christmas Eve full of family time.

After a huge dinner, we went into the living room and while Cindy chatted with my parents, I found myself drifting toward the piano. I sat down and started playing through the parts of the Beethoven concerto. As the music flowed from my fingers I lost myself in thoughts of Cindy and what I had planned to give her for Christmas. If she didn’t just love it, then I might be in trouble.

The present in question was an old family heirloom, which meant a great deal to me, as well as the rest of my family, and the symbolism of the gift was not lost on my mother. As these thoughts circled inside my mind the music echoed the hope, desire, and love that dominated all my waking thoughts.

Once done with the Beethoven I went straight into the Mozart, but this didn’t sound like the same Mozart I had played in concert a few weeks before. Even though the notes were the same, the emotion conveyed was something completely different, as much of the darkness was replaced by an almost manic joy and excitement.

As I finished with it, Cindy brought me back to reality by asking, “How can that be the same piece you played with the orchestra? It sounds nothing like it.”

As I looked directly at her and grinned I said, “I suppose the simple answer is that I’m in a different state of mind than I was that night.”

Later that night as we prepared for bed I commented, “You do realize what a big deal it is that we’re sharing a bed, don’t you?”

“I take it that sort of thing isn’t generally done in your family?”

“That’s putting it mildly. My mom especially is very conservative. For years she’s thrown a fit about couples that choose to live together before, or in some cases instead of marriage. For her this is a huge step.” What I wasn’t telling her was that I knew exactly why this was happening, but if I had told her it would have ruined the huge surprise I had in store for Christmas day.

We crawled under the covers as what I’d just said registered with Cindy. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“I think so, don’t you?”

“Well yeah!” she said displaying that dry humor that I’d come to find incredibly sexy.

As I reached to turn off the bedside table lamp I said, “Merry Christmas. I love you.”

Cindy kissed me gently before responding, “Merry Christmas, love. Good night.”

We then lay down and snuggled up together under the covers against the bitter cold wind that was making the windowpanes rattle with each gust. As I finally drifted off to sleep I couldn’t help but believe that this was going to be by far the best Christmas ever.

Christmas morning came, ushered in by a blinding ray of sunlight that streamed in through an opening in the bedroom curtains. I raised my head and shaded my eyes as I looked in that direction for a moment. I then looked over at Cindy lying there still asleep. I knew with more certainty than ever before that I could never tire of watching her sleep, even if I could watch her every morning ‘til the end of time.

I didn’t want to disturb her, so I just watched for who knows how long. I had started hearing noise from downstairs, which told me Mom was up and had started breakfast, yet there was still no sign of consciousness returning beside me.

In an effort to gently rush Cindy to a state of waking, I started lightly kissing first her cheek, then her ear, and finally her forehead before it stimulated her enough to wake. I continued what I was doing until she opened her eyes and said, “Good morning!”

“Merry Christmas. I wasn’t sure if you were going to wake up after all.”

“Hey, I can smell the coffee from downstairs too, ya know.”

We got out of bed and dressed as quickly as we could before joining my parents downstairs. Following breakfast we adjourned to the living room for the exchange of presents. For a couple of minutes there things looked a bit like a Chinese fire drill as we all went around handing presents to each other before settling back into our original places so we could watch as each person opened theirs.

Dad went first, as family tradition dictated. The first package he opened contained a very expensive looking necktie from Cindy. He was effusive as he thanked her, “It’s lovely dear. I’ll wear it to work tomorrow morning. Thank you very much.”

Next he opened Mom’s present to him, which was a new Blackberry. He kissed her as he said, “You always know exactly what I want.”

“Merry Christmas dear,” Mom replied.

Lastly was my present for him. My father has a ridiculous collection of printed coffee mugs, so I decided to get him one with the university logo on it. “Kyle, it’s perfect. I know just where I’ll put it.”

Mom was next to open presents. From Dad she got a lovely string of pearls for which she kissed him as she started to tear up. Then came Cindy’s present for her, which was a scarf. She said, “Thank you so much Cindy dear.”

My present for mom was an extremely hard to find high quality bootleg DVD of the Beatles movie “Let it Be” which had never been released in either that format or on tape. She lost it when she saw that. She is a huge Beatlemaniac and had lamented many times that she had never been able to find it anywhere.

My turn was next, and my folks seemed to be of like minds, as both of their presents to me were what I considered very practical. My mom got me the CD box set of Vladimir Horowitz’s complete Masterworks recordings…thirteen discs worth…and my dad had gone the sheet music route with Dover editions of Beethoven’s Complete Piano Sonatas, Claude Debussy Piano Music, and Franz Liszt’s Complete Hungarian Rhapsodies. He knew I was very fond of the Dover editions series because they seemed in my opinion to have fewer mistakes than many publishers’ versions.

Then I came to Cindy’s present. I really had no idea what it could be, but it looked a lot like a shirt box. When I opened it, I was shocked. Inside was not a shirt, but instead a fairly plain but still beautiful silk camisole. I looked at it, unsure what to say, when she saved me from further embarrassment by jumping in with, “If you wear it with your tux, it should help keep your bra from showing through once you start perspiring.”

My mom commented, “Excellent idea, dear. It’s perfect. Not too ornate, but still lovely.”

“Thanks, Cin,” I said as I got up and went over to her and gave her a kiss.

Cindy was the last to open her presents, as I had previously planned with my mother. She started with one from my mom, which happened to be a very nice set of diamond stud earrings. She started to cry when she saw them, but my mom cut her off saying, “If you start the waterworks this soon we may never get through the other presents.” This had the desired effect of causing everyone to start laughing, stopping Cindy’s tears in their tracks.

Dad’s present for my love was extremely practical…a rather feminine leather briefcase, which Cindy liked almost as much as the earrings. After all, she’d needed something to replace her ratty old backpack that she’d carried since high school. She smiled broadly at my father saying, “Thank you so much.”

Finally she came to my present to her. It was in a large paper box like printer paper comes in, which when opened revealed a much smaller velvet covered box. When she retrieved it from the bottom she opened it, revealing what had been my grandmother’s engagement ring.

She looked at it for a moment with her mouth hung open, unable to form any words. When she finally did manage to speak, she asked, “Really?”

I looked into her eyes and simply replied, “Really.”

Dad chided me saying, “Aren’t you going to ask her to make it official?”

Cindy and I smiled at each other for several seconds before I finally asked her formally, “Will you marry me?”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto No.12 in A Major, kv.414
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/mozart-kv414-1-bko...

Ludwig von Beethoven, Concerto No.4 in G Major, Opus 58
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/beethoven-58-1-hu.mp3
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/beethoven-58-2-3-h...

Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No.1, Opus 10
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/prokofiev-10-1-arm...
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/prokofiev-10-2-arm...
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/prokofiev-10-3-arm...

Franz Liszt, Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat Major
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/liszt-pc1-1-2-hu.mp3
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/liszt-pc1-3-4-hu.mp3

Frederic Chopin, Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Opus 21
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/chopin-21-1-odoan.mp3
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/chopin-21-2-odoan.mp3
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/chopin-21-3-odoan.mp3

Johann Sebastian Bach, Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D minor, BWV 1052
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/bach-bwv1052-1-set...
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/bach-bwv1052-2-set...
http://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/bach-bwv1052-3-set...

Notes: