>This Gift by 98°<

"I only have two rooms with two single beds and one room with a double bed available," said the porter of the small hotel, which was now the third in Quinton near Birmingham that they had visited. Everyone else was already fully booked, which was not least due to the many people passing through who had initially given up due to the weather.

"Let's take it! Which of you two snores?" Ellie exclaimed enthusiastically, turning to her sister and Penny, who both raised an eyebrow to look at her skeptically.

"You!" Penny and Jodie replied at the same time and grinned at each other. "Maybe we both should share a room then?" Penny said with a grin to Jodie.

"I thought that after the action in the passenger seat this morning, Sam might like the double bed room and could still use a bit of warmth?!" Ellie countered Penny with a cheeky grin and wiggled her eyebrows meaningfully while she took the key for that room off the counter and waved it in front of Penny's blushing face as if the key posed a temptation.

"And for that saying, I think Penny deserves the best room!" Sam objected angrily, who was also blushing slightly, and took the key from Ellie and handed it to Penny. "Ben and I will share one of the other rooms."

"That's not necessary. I can actually share a room with Jodie so that our snoring nose doesn't keep her awake," Penny interjected and promptly received a punch on the shoulder from her best friend. "Ouch, Ellie!", she grumbled offended and rubbed the spot while Sam pushed himself between the two with a stern look in Ellie's direction.

"Leave it, Penny. I'm used to it. We always have to share a room when we stay at our parents' house for family celebrations. That doesn't bother me. But I haven't even noticed once that you, unlike all of us, has had much of sleep. So I guess you could really use some peace and time for yourself," Jodie turned to her reassuringly and Penny gave her a grateful smile.

"Oh yes she did, when she..." Ellie immediately jumped in, in a last attempt to get the double bed away from Penny, when Sam glared at her again and she immediately flinched under her superior's strict gaze and raised her hands in silence resignation. "It's okay!", she gave in annoyed and grabbed her suitcase, but then couldn't stop herself from muttering: "Everyone knows what I mean anyway."

Now it was Penny who gave her friend a nudge on the shoulder, which Ellie responded to with another cheeky grin and even Penny couldn't help but smile.

"If you are interested: We are holding a small Christmas party for our guests in the restaurant after dinner. Since most of them are stranded here today and therefore cannot be with their families, we wanted to at least give them this little joy. You are warmly invited ", the porter then called after them.

"That sounds fantastic. Let's do it!" Ellie enthusiastically turned back to her colleagues and was almost as full of anticipation as a small child.

"Didn't we want to go to bed early so we could get out early and get back to Pontypandy early, Ellie? After all, the three of us are on call tomorrow," Penny objected skeptically, pointing at Sam, Ben and herself.

"Oh, come on. An hour or two won't do any harm! If we can't be with our families, we can still have a nice evening with friends. Don't take everything so seriously. Pontypandy certainly won't burn down, just because we'll get there an hour later," Ben also jumped to Ellie's side and she high-fived him, grateful for his support.

"Actually, Ben is right," Sam now gave in calmly and Penny turned to him in surprise. "Why should we do without some distraction? Most missions on the holidays only come in in the evening, when the lights and candles are turned on. At least because there's never anything going on during the day, Steele changed the shifts to on-call duty," Sam explained his reasons for taking a more relaxed approach to everything than they were all used to from this workaholic.

"They also said on the radio that the storm should stop in the early hours of the morning and then the road clearing should begin immediately. We should be able to do the last 100 miles in no time," Jodie immediately reminded her of the news they have had just heard before reaching this hotel.

"Okay," Penny also gave in, but she wouldn't tolerate any further delays. It was bad enough for her that she hadn't been able to show up for her shift today. Not being able to be reliable tomorrow even though she was on call would only cause her more mind trouble. To be precise, the fact that she was unreliable at work bothered her a lot more than how unreliable she was at home today. "But the fact remains that we leave at 6 o'clock. No matter how deeply you all look into the glass of mulled wine!", she admonished her three colleagues again when they had already reached their rooms.

"Roger that, Penny!", all four shouted, grinning and saluting, to which she simply rolled her eyes with a smile and preferred to compare the room numbers on the door and on her key.

"Then we'll see you downstairs in an hour for dinner. I'll cover your bill today. No objections! See you soon!" Sam said from the opposite door with a wink to her as she looked up at him while Ben unlocked the door. Penny nodded with a smile and replied with a short 'See you soon' before disappearing into the room.

She took a deep breath as she placed her suitcase on one bed and sat herself at the end of the other. She couldn't resist and let herself fall back, enjoying for a moment the pleasant feeling of being able to stretch out and just lie there. She would do anything if she could crawl under the covers and not have to get up for the next two days.

And yet she definitely didn't want to miss tonight. Of all her colleagues, she least expected that Sam, of all people, would be the one who advocated attending the Christmas party and unwinding for a while. Did he invite her for a reason or was it just a Christmas gesture as a friend? She couldn't help but look forward to the evening.

Her phone immediately starts to ring and she startled and searched the pockets of Sam's sweat jacket, which she had carelessly thrown onto the suitcase, until she found it. Matty. She had completely forgotten to tell him about their change of plans. He definitely wouldn't be happy at all.

"Matty. Hey," she greeted with a forced smile.

"When are you here, sweetheart. My parents want to know if they should wait for you with dinner," he babbled without greeting and full of enthusiasm, only making the lump in her throat grow even bigger.

"No, you don't have to wait for me," she replied sheepishly, searching for the right words so as not to hurt him. "Uhm, Matty, to be honest, I won't be coming at all today," she then said straight out.

"What?" he shouted, stunned and so loudly that she flinched. "Penny!" he groaned in annoyance and she could hear the anger in his voice.

"Don't you want to know why?"

"Unless you're not frozen somewhere or you're all tied to the bed in the hospital because of an accident, there's no good reason for it, is it?" he replied grumpily.

"Thanks, Matty. How lovely of you!" she murmured sarcastically, her mood plummeting to a new low.

"What? You stand me up on the most important evening in our relationship and I'm supposed to shout hurrah?" he complained to her in return and that was really enough for Penny.

"I didn't make this appointment with your parents this evening, nor did you even ask me if I wanted to or if I could manage to be there. You knew that I was on this course and I actually had a little bit looked forward for tonight to relax from work and take care of wrapping the rest of the presents. You didn't care when you agreed to this dinner, just like you don't care how I've been feeling beause of this the whole time on this trip, that is more than demanding and exhausting. I haven't slept for 36 hours, I'm sitting in a very small space with 4 colleagues, we've only stopped once in the last 24 hours to eat something real and today we made our way through 2 some pretty big snowdrifts. So stop making me feel bad about not doing enough to be with you, because God knows I've done more than enough! It's you who threw all my plans overboard and put me under so much pressure! But there's a full-blown snowstorm raging up here and I'm really happy to have gotten a room in a hotel where I'm safe and you should be happy about that too, right?!" she grumbled at him angrily, but still didn't pay attention to not raise her voice too much. The last thing she wanted was for her colleagues to notice anything.

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden? Don't you want to get to know my parents? Are they too fancy for you?" he replied and she heard how surprised he was to see her so angry, but at the same time offended by her accusations.

"Matty, I told you that I wanted to get to know them and I stand by that. But did you have to blow it off like that and just blame me for it not working out the way you and your parents would like? I can say it's not my fault of the weather's going crazy! You have a TV. Watch the news if you don't believe me!"

"I've seen the news. I know what's going on out there. But I thought a trained avalanche and ice rescuer would be able to handle a little snow, considering with what stupid things you have to deal with in your hometown." He was definitely offended and countered with sarcasm. But her breath caught in her throat when he showed her how little he really took her work seriously. Sure, strange things happened in Pontypandy, but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.

"Don't you dare talk derogatory things about my city or my work. I'm the one who helps people in need and doesn't expel them or cut their money because they were 5 minutes late to an appointment because their child has vomited or fell and get hurt on the way to your office."

"There has to be order, Penny. But it's nice to see how derogatory you really are about my job," he growled at her and she didn't know whether to be surprised or offended by that. They had long reached a point where, in their anger, they would probably only hurt each other because they said things they didn't mean. So she decided to row back.

"I don't think in a derogatory way about your job, but rather about some of your attitudes towards disadvantaged people and I always told you that when you got upset about someone who wanted your so-called pity bonus from you, which you never have. Obviously but unfortunately not even with me. You probably don't know humanity if people were born into a better family," she then grumbled and bit her teeth because she couldn't resist the last sentence. Matty had never made it a secret that he have had a carefree upbringing and that he believed that if people just worked hard, everyone else would too. In his eyes, all of his clients who needed help because of illness or other circumstances were just lazy.

"I don't think the company of your colleagues is doing you very well, Penny. Or is it your best friend who is trying to turn you against me?!" he then mumbled angrily, still confused by her anger, and that was her final enough.

"Leave my colleagues out of this! I'm just tired. Tired of the journey, of the exertions during it and tired of the pressure and the guilty conscience that you constantly give me. Why can't you understand that and are just a little bit of understanding or maybe even worry like everyone else's families do, like my parents do?" She was now the one questioning his behavior and trying to beat him at his own game.

"I worry about you! Why do you think I would rather have you with me yesterday than today?" he growled at her, offended by her accusation. "This is our first real row. Funny that we have it when you're alone with this guy after you couldn't keep your hand off of him," he then said offendedly, trying to remind her that they had never argued before and that he wasn't the one who caused any trouble in undressing someone else.

"It's going to be a real breakup if you keep that up!" He hadn't expected that and he immediately drove down. Penny, on the other hand, had more than enough. She wouldn't start the subject again just because he hadn't listened to her earlier and couldn't get his unfounded jealousy under control.

"It's okay, it's okay!" he gave in, apparently deciding it was time to give in and be honest. "Penny, I love you. More than you can imagine. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. Yes, the evening is important to me because I was so proud to finally be able to introduce the woman of my dreams to my parents. But above all because I had something else planned... Look at your cell phone!" He demanded after a short pause, just as her cell phone vibrated briefly in her ear. She opened the chat with Matty and held her breath in shock when she saw a photo of a beautiful engagement ring. "I wanted to propose to you today, Penny. That's why the evening was so important to me. I want to get old with you. I can no longer imagine life without you. Only when I have you with me do I feel like the sun is rising. Especially now that you're not here and I don't know when you'll be back, I miss you so much. It's driving me crazy. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone. You make me a better person and I want nothing more than to marry you." Even though her mother had already told her, she hadn't expected him to do it on the phone, and was a little hoping that because she was late he might put it off for now. She was completely overwhelmed - by the anger that their argument had caused in her, but also by the fluttering of her heart that his confession of love had awakened in her and reminded her of all the many moments in which she had been happy with Matty, felt at ease when they were together. Was all the stress he had caused her just a result of him not being able to cope with the fact that she was so far away, that he really just missed her too much? "Are you still there?" he then snapped her out of her thoughts skeptically and she gasped silently.

"I...yes, I am," she stammered embarrassedly. "Are you actually proposing to me over the phone or did you just want to let me know that you're planning to do so?" she tried to buy some time again and fervently hoped that he would choose the latter option.

"I know it's unromantic and I wanted to make it to you tonight personaly after we've had dinner and are alone. But I can't wait any longer. I want you to know why I might be a little nervous and that I'm really serious about you," he then confessed to her and as much as it overwhelmed Penny, his words and his impatience also touched her heart. "What do you say? Do you want to be my wife?" he asked her then gently again.

What should she say? What could be better for her than to find a man who loved her as much as Matty did? How could she want to break his heart by saying no or even asking for a little more time? Just because of her feelings for Sam, who hadn't shown once in years that he was actually more interested in her than wanting to be her friend and colleague? Her mother was right. She had to look forward. Sam would never be anything else to her. There was no point in waiting any longer for something that hadn't happened in years. Now she had the chance to be happy, to start a family with a man who loved her more than anything. What more could she ask for?!

"Yes, Matty. I would love to!"

To be continued...