Excerpt:

Four days later, and Adele still hadn’t decided whether she was going to stay with Ráichéal’s family, or return home to France for the few days she had off between Christmas and New Years’. Raich had continued to try and get her to make a decision, or, failing that, call her family and ask them whether if they were planning anything special – or if it was okay if she stayed in Ireland for Christmas.

Truth be told, Adele couldn’t decide for love nor money, and it was beginning to frustrate her, too. She was expecting a letter or a phone call from home any day now, and she was sure they too would be sure to bring up Christmas at some point in the conversation. Sooner or later she was going to have to make a decision, and it wasn’t going to be an easy one – no matter who forced her to make it.

“Adele,” Raich whispered loudly as she sat down next to her in class this particular morning, “Have you called your parents yet?”

Adele looked nervously down at her desk, “No,” she replied quietly, feeling inexplicably guilty for making Raich’s family wait.

“’Del, I told them you would have an answer by the weekend. It’s Friday morning. If you haven’t called them yet, when are you planning to?”

“This weekend.”

“This weekend is too far away! You’ll need to call them today. I can’t put my parents off much longer than the end of tomorrow.”

“I can’t – Raich, I still haven’t made a decision yet – I don’t know what to do!”

Raich sighed, and Adele wished as hard as she could that she wouldn’t get angry.

“Okay, alright, I’m sorry. It has only been a week or so. I’ll talk to my parents. But please promise me you’ll talk to yours this weekend? I’d really, really like to have you come stay with us.”

Adele nodded furiously; turning her attention to the teacher as a slamming door abruptly ended their conversation. She still had not quite worked out the pros and cons of each situation, and the more she thought about it, the more she didn’t want to upset anyone – and the more she realized that no matter what decision she made, she was going to upset someone.

“Thanks,” Raich whispered back quietly, smiling as brightly as she always did.

Adele breathed a sigh of relief that was as short lived as she expected it to be – as she remembered that this wasn’t going to be over for at least another twenty-four hours.

Later that day, Adele found herself back in her bedroom quietly wishing she wasn’t alone. Being alone meant she had to think about the things she had been putting off for the last few days. These things were among the highest on her to-do list, but the lowest on her list of things she would really be doing.

But quickly she had remembered her promise to Raich – she was going to talk to her parents about what was going to happen at Christmas. Adele was sure that no matter which way she approached this conversation – whoever she talked to – was going to have a problem with it.

Etienne would be sad – and probably the best person to guilt her into staying. Collette would give her some guilt trip that would only sort of work about how she needed to be with the family at the important family times (especially, she thought with dread, now that she was living in Ireland), and her father would guilt her by telling her the only people in his family he ever had any interest in knowing were his wife and his two children. Adele winced at the thought of her family’s reactions to it, and quickly decided Raich would understand that her family would not like it if she were to spend Christmas away – even if she hadn’t spoken to them about it.