On the eighth day...

On the eighth day of Christmas Abby woke up to find her face pressed against the open pages of a manuscript and a now-cold cup of coffee just out of reach. Apparently that late night editing session she’d pulled to get her work done hadn’t actually ended in getting the work done.

          For whatever reason, after getting home from their sojourn to Oxford Street the previous night, Abby had figured that buckling down with some work would do well to take her mind off of things. Instead, she’d procrastinated for hours watching the Grinch and the nightly news with Jess before spreading some manuscripts out on the kitchen table and popping the lid off a fresh red pen.

          It was only basic editing, she’d have to go over them digitally later, but she liked to comb author’s works this way first. It was how she got a little perspective – kind of the way a teacher would when grading papers. You miss things on the computer you don’t when things are printed.

          Her scripts were usually covered with smiley faces though so she didn’t give anyone the wrong impression. It was something that her bosses both loved and loathed about her methods.

          Standing by the bathroom sink, Abby gave herself the squint eye and groaned at the flicks of red pen streaked across her cheeks. Fortunately it was actually pretty early and she didn’t have to worry to hard about Jess seeing her state of dishabille.

          Abby took a wash cloth to the face and started to scrub, applying enough soapy water to drown a pigeon. It didn’t actually take all that long before the red melted from her face to the sink and she was satisfied, feeling suddenly refreshed.

          She cast a smile at her reflection and drained the bowl before making to head back out to the kitchen when she a very soft knock at the door.

          Assuming that it was coming from the front door, Abby left the bathroom and went to peer through the peephole. There was no none there.

          Puzzled, she fitted the chain and opened the door a fraction. Still no one there.

          More perplexed than before, Abby made a face at the fridge, shrugged and headed back to her bedroom. But as she passed Jess’ room she overheard soft voices coming from behind the door.

Her first assumption was that Jess had fallen asleep with the telly or her radio on and was fine but then she heard a familiar voice. And it didn’t belong to Jess.

It was Damien.

Abby immediately backed away from the bedroom door and slapped a hand over her mouth, suddenly feeling utterly sick to her stomach.

What the hell was Damien doing at their flat at 4.30 in the morning, and what the ever loving hell was he doing in Jess’ room?

Abby would have stormed in there and confronted him, but she had to remind herself that he wasn’t actually hers and she had no say in what woman’s bedroom he woke up in. Her heart feel like it wanted to explode out of her chest and it was all she could do then to throw on her clothes, grab her coat and slam out of the flat before she had a meltdown.

She went straight to Starbuck’s across, thankful that they were even open at this time of night even though it was approaching five by the time she even go there.

It didn’t make sense to her, Damien and Jess. Both were as equally attractive as the other and smart, but there had never been a time before now that Abby had worried there was more than friendship between the two of them. Even wasted there had never been much more than camaraderie between the two of them, and Abby had capitalised on that more than she’d even realised over the past years. It was a small measure of comfort to her that despite Jess’ beauty and Damien’s penchant for hot blonde model types, Abby hadn’t had to have watched them canoodle in front of her.

So, what the hell changed? Or was there more to the situation than meets the eye?

And once again, Abby reminded herself, she couldn’t continue to hold on to Damien forever when there was a man out there somewhere who’d done nothing but worship her for over a week now.

She took a deep breath, a sip of gingerbread latte and sighed. The sun started to rise and soon darkness gave way to crisp December morning and things started to feel a little better.

Abby was sure there was some sort of explanation and she would just have to face up to it whatever it was. Jess and Damien weren’t bad people, they wouldn’t just screw her over without taking her feelings into account and she was confident in that. She knew her friends, she’d just have to be optimistic.

The bell on the door jingled to admit someone new into the store and Abby looked up just in time to see Raj entering the store with a surprised smile.

“Abby – you’re here!”

She blinked in confusion.

“Yes – shouldn’t I be?”

Raj shook his head and put in an order for a black coffee. “No,” he said whilst the barista started pouring shots. “I was just a little shocked to see you here so early.”

It was actually the Starbuck’s on Fleet Street just around the corner from the office. Abby hadn’t actually thought to bring the manuscripts along with her that she’d been working on the previous night, but she had subconsciously headed in the direction of work despite the turmoil she had been facing a few hours ago.

“Oh, yes, I suppose it is pretty early. I didn’t sleep so well last night so I didn’t really think too much about the time and just headed on in. I should do it more often, traffic was much better than usual on the Tube.”

Raj laughed again, accepted his coffee and came over to her small table by the window. “Do you mind If I sit?”

Abby shrugged. “Not at all, I could use the company, I guess.”

And it was true – she was feeling progressively better since the sun had risen and Raj’s presence was doing wonders for her mood. Problems seemed a little less worse with perspective and in the light of day.

“So, the Christmas party is tomorrow night,” Raj began, looking a little more nervous than she had ever seen him. He played with the plastic lid on top of his coffee like a girl would twirl her hands in her hair. “I was meaning to ask you if you’d maybe like to be my date for the night.”

Abby, who’d been looking at Raj’s hands on the coffee cup and mimicking his movements on her own, went shock still and looked at him in surprise. It really was turning into that kind of a morning.

“Like a date?”

Raj nodded emphatically. “Yeah, like a date – you and me.”

Once again the question of Raj being the secret admirer was on the table, although Abby couldn’t remember if it was common practice to actually ask the person on a date face to face. Who was she to tell though; she’d never been a secret admirer so maybe it was a thing. Either way she couldn’t fault the man for doing it his own way.

And if Raj really did turn out to be her admirer in the end, Abby could genuinely say without a doubt that she was very flattered. And so there was only one answer that she really wanted to give.

“Yes. Yes I’ll go with you.”

She and Raj spent the rest of the hour chatting over morning coffee, having a jolly time and then accompanying each other to the office.

They had a lot in common, but she already knew that, and before long the question about Damien’s presence in Jess’ room that morning was practically out of her mind.

She almost hoped that Raj was her admirer, he was so damn lovely.

They parted ways at reception, Abby receiving the thumbs up of approval from the reception Ladies, Joanne and Kensia, before Abby took up the reigns of her day’s work.

After lunch when she came back into the office there was a card on her desk. It was a little crumpled and worse for wear, but still comforting as all hell.

The inscription inside was written in the same flowery lettering, but a post script had been added at the bottom in choppy, messing handwriting.

On the eighth day of Christmas, your true love gives to thee: eight maidens in your favourite movies, seven swans for your favourite ballet, six aspirin and a decent lay-in, five golden trinkets, GTA on PS4, three French pens, two turtle gloves and a partridge named Frosty. I know how you love your historical romances, so I picked out a couple of the ones I know you like but didn’t already have. I’ll deck the halls with the things you love – X.

Then, at the bottom: I had left the films on the kitchen counter for you along with some breakfast, but you weren’t there. I’ll keep the idea by to give you another time when you least expect it.

Abby spent the rest of the afternoon trying to make a list of what the eight films could have possibly been.

That night as Abby was putting the finishing touches on her the Christmas tree they’d erected in the living room, Jess came in with a couple of shopping bags full of groceries. The Muppets Christmas Carol was playing on the telly in the background and a half-full bottle of egg nog that Abby had made was chilling in an ice bucket. She was feeling even better since the morning and was feeling particularly Christmassy.

“Hey – I brought some dinner. Feeling like some roast beef and vegetables? I got the quick-roast kind.”

Abby looked over and noticed the sheepish smile Jess gave her. She couldn’t help but smile back. “Yeah, I’m keen. Nog?”

But Jess was already helping herself to the bottle and whilst Abby raised an eyebrow at her, she only shrugged her shoulders in response.

Abby sucked in a breath and blurted out the question she needed to ask:

“Was Damien here really early this morning?”

Jess froze with the glass of egg nog half way to her mouth. “What? No.”

“Really? Because I was up at about 4.30 and I swear I heard his voice coming from your room.”

Jess suddenly burst out laughing and splashed some of her drink to the floor. “I had him on the phone – the point was to talk so you couldn’t overhear.” Abby’s face must have shown her emotions too well, because Jess waved a hand in the air. “No, no – nothing like that! Gosh, no, he’s like a brother and believe me when I say I would never try to poach someone so obviously...someone you were so obviously over the moon for. No, I called him because he was fishing for a present for you for Christmas, he was on his way to the gym and I was up for some morning yoga.”

Jeez, health freaks and their painfully early morning exercise rituals.

But Abby was relieved that that was all it had been, and Jess was a terrible liar, she trusted her smiling face.

“Oh, ok. Sorry, Jess – I just heard him and freaked out a little.”

The roast went on, the egg nog was drunk and the two of them restarted the Muppet Christmas Carol to watch it from the start.

It had been an oddly crazy day and after a fuzzy evening of hot dinner, Christmas films and cozying up by the fire with her best friend, Abby went off to bed relatively early.

She brushed her teeth, pulled on her fluffy Rudolph pyjamas and went in to retire and paused.

On her bed was an external hard drive with a bright red bow on the top, and, she was sure, a variety of feel-good films within.

Beneath the bow, the picture of a carton of milk was superimposed onto the drive. 

Merry Christmas

Sam xox