Actually, Lexie had noticed. Or... at least she partially had. She knew that he smiled a lot and he seemed to enjoy himself when they were together, but that was typical of friends, and they had been friends for... a long time. At least since high school. Not as long as him and Rory, but long enough. It was natural that they both knew a thing or two about making the other smile.
“I don’t think my family could have a quiet Christmas if we tried,” she told him with a little giggle. “Maybe when I was little, before Alfie came along.” Alfie certainly did inject a lot of life into the Christmas proceedings, and Lexie had learned to like it that way. Now she thought that Christmas would be much less exciting without him. “It was really fun. We opened presents in the morning and then Dad made pancakes and we went sledding in the afternoon. It was a great day.” She took a few more bites of pasta and reflected. “Christmas has always been a great day.” And it really was great to spend time with her family, but lately Lexie had been wondering a little why they never really got to see her mom and dad’s relatives. She knew that most people liked to see their extended family over Christmas, but Lexie couldn’t remember when they’d ever gotten the chance. “I’m sorry things were tense for you, though,” Lexie told him seriously. “I would tell you to come over to our house next year, but I figure if you wanted to spend Christmas anywhere it’d probably be at the Spinelli’s.”
And speaking of the Spinellis... “It was good!” Lexie told him, enthused. She always got a nice, warm feeling in her stomach when she talked about her date with Ed, although the feeling did vanish pretty quickly now. The date had been fun (if a little awkward, given Mallorie’s presence) and Lexie certainly wouldn’t mind doing it again but really... the truth was that she hadn’t felt as comfortable then as she did right now. Granted, she knew Eisen a lot better than she knew Ed, but why hadn’t she had butterflies in her stomach the whole time, as she did now? “We had dinner and talked. You know, typical date stuff,” she shrugged a little and ate a few more mouthfuls. “He’s incredibly sweet.” Of course, there had been that whole problem of her getting tired, but Lexie had decided that she just hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before.