On the third day...
The
third day of Christmas saw that Abby woke up quite literally face to face with
her next present; three pens stood upright on her bedside table on top of a
crease-free French flag handkerchief.
Obviously, some British designer had
thought it was really funny to turn the Marseillaise into a tissue.
But it did tell her two things that
her secret admirer had bothered to learn about her: that Abby had a thing for
office supplies, specifically pens, and that he knew how badly she wanted to go
to Paris for New Years Eve.
The card that came with it was a
little watercolour number that had a Jolly Santa trying to squeeze his big red
self down a chimney half his size. It was super kitsch little card, but Abby
decided it was her most favourite so far.
On
the third day of Christmas, your true love gives to thee: three French pens,
two turtle gloves and a partridge named Frosty – the way you burn through
stationary, especially those red pens, you’re going to need these. And don’t
lose hope on Paris – the day will come probably much sooner than you think - X
The pens did come in handy. Since they
were one blue, one white (liquid paper), and one red they effectively filled
the majority of her editor utensil needs and from the minute she rolled into
the office that morning took pride of place on her desk.
Christmas was coming up fast and it
was a short week before the office Christmas party was due to go down on the 21st.
Abby had never been massively pumped for it before since Damien usually brought
a date and she’d never had one, but as far as she’d heard he wouldn’t this
year. Not that she really should have cared when she had a romantic contender
for the first time in her secret admirer, but it was going to be nice and
likely far less disappointing than past years. Particularly if she didn’t end
up drunk again with the intention to pretend she didn’t care that Damien’s
girlfriend was hotter than her.
But Christmas was coming up and all
the magic and miracles with it; she’d finished her shopping already – far more
organised of her than she usually was. And she’d actually been trusted by her
mother to make some of the food for their family Christmas dinner on the 25th.
After the great Turkey fiasco of 2008 Abby considered herself lucky she even
got fed on Christmas day anymore let alone be allowed to help make it.
Things were looking up.
It was an uneventful day in the office
again and, without the added entertainment of Damien’s hammer dance outside her
window, the day progressed pretty slowly. By the time four o’clock came around
and started the last hour countdown, Abby was face down on her desk with red
pen markings on her forehead.
“Miss Leightley?”
A knock on the door jolted her up and
she swivelled to face the intruder.
“Yes?”
It was Raj from Crime fiction that
poked his mocha face through the doorway and dazzled her with his Indian
beauty. Jess liked to maintain that if she hadn’t seen Damien first, Abby would be
just as head over heels for Raj because he looked like he was a Moghul prince
in another life. Abby definitely didn’t think she was that shallow no matter
how much of a beautiful sweetheart he was.
“Hey Abby,” Raj said stepping into her
office with a wide smile. “I just wanted to step in a get your opinion on
something.” He took the chair opposite her desk, crossed his legs and leant
back with ease. “I’ve got Jess for my secret Santa present and was wondering if
you had any ideas on what I could get her that she might actually like.”
Abby whistled in sympathy. It was a
sort of ongoing office gag that Jess was supremely difficult to buy for and
every year since she had lived with the golden goddess, some poor sod had come
in search of her to seek her guidance. Unfortunately Abby was pretty much as
equally bad at it as they were.
She told Raj so and he laughed before
suggesting the two of them brainstorm a little until they could come up with a
viable suggestion.
When they’d just about pinned down
something that held promise, Jess herself popped her head in.
“Hey guys – working hard or hardly
working?”
Abby groped for her red pen and gave
it a wave. “Just doing some friendly brainstorming over a little editorial
issue. No biggie.”
Jess nodded then turned her golden
beam on Raj. “Hey Raj, I think Geraldine is looking for you to give her a hand
with something Crime related – she’s in meeting room six now.”
The Indian nodded, rose gracefully and
blew Abby a kiss. “Thanks for the help, Abigail, I’ll keep our suggestions in
mind fixing that problem.” He tipped an imaginary hat to Jess on his way out.
Jess slouched into the chair he’d vacated
and blinked big eyes at Abby. “So – what was that really about?”
Abby refused to meet her eyes,
notoriously bad at trying to lie to her roommate. “Editorial issue.”
“He told you he’s my secret Santa,
didn’t he?”
Abby’s head snapped back to see that Jess
was smiling at her like a cat with cream. “How the hell did you know that?”
“I’m magic, I know everything.”
“Right. Well, can you not say
anything? You’ll ruin the surprise...sort of.”
“You know, Abby, he’s not really my
secret Santa – Damien is. He already told me. I’ve got Raj to buy for.”
Confusion dawned on Abby's face. “Then why would he say he was?”
“I don’t know, maybe he was just using
it as an excuse to talk to you.” Jess stood up and smiled. “Jeez, Ab, you sure
are turning into one hell of a hot commodity this month. Secret admirer sending
you Christmas love and now the sexy maharajah is making excuses to chat you up,
you’ll be beating them off with a stick pretty soon. I just came in to
procrastinate, but you’ve inspired me now – see you at five!”
Well, that certainly added a big fat
question mark against Raj’s name on her list. Abby wasn’t that popular, somehow
the idea that she had more than one suitor vying for her attention seemed a little far-fetched. Maybe the Indian was her secret admirer?
At any rate this was sure turning into
a bit of fun. Or an investigation, depending on how you looked at it.
Merry Christmas
Sam xox
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