Boyfriend Shopping: Shopping for My Boyfriend / My Only Wish / All I Want for Christmas Is You

“No. Eating spiders is right up there with eating boogers, in my book,” he said, then flinched as another contestant ate one of the spiders.

The next challenge involved snakes. The contestants had to agree to be strapped to the inside of a coffin while two dozen snakes were poured over them. They had to sit still for three minutes. If they freaked out they would lose their chance at the prize money.

“Now, that is something that I would refuse to do. I don’t like snakes,” Maya said. One of the contestants, a guy, got inside the coffin, wearing goggles. Once he was strapped in, he told everyone he was ready. A man came out with a black bucket filled with snakes and dumped them on the face of the guy in the coffin.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Viviana squealed, who was sitting on the sofa with her legs tucked under her.

“Geez, Maya! There is a spider on your shoulder!” Paul, who sat next to Maya and liked to pull pranks, lightly touched the back of Maya’s neck with his fingertips. Maya leaped up, slapped the back of her neck and screamed. Paul began laughing hysterically.

“That’s not funny, Paul.” Maya flung one of the sofa pillows at him. Viviana and I got a good laugh out of Paul’s prank, but warned him not to pull one on us because we’d beat him down together.

The television program ended and Paul went upstairs to grab something to eat. Maya, Viviana and I continued to watch television. An automobile holiday commercial came on and reminded me that I still had shopping to do and time was running out. I knew what I was getting Maya and Viviana. Maya was into music, so I planned on getting her an iTunes gift card. Viviana was into clothes, so I had plans to get her a nice sweater. I knew that a gift card to Paul’s favorite sporting-goods store would satisfy him, and my parents’ gift would be coming from all of us. We’d decided to purchase them theater tickets to go see a play at the Goodman Theatre. I knew that Lauren wanted a pair of red, heart-shaped earrings from LuLu’s. The only person left on my list was Jeremy, and I had no idea what I was going to get for him.

“Viviana,” I said.

“Yeah,” she answered while clicking through channels with the remote.

“What are you buying Red for Christmas?”