On the seventh day...

Forgive me but tonight's entry is short. I wasn't feeling it much and Abby can't be crazy every day. Until tomorrow! Don't worry, many treats are still in store!

It had been a full week now since this Christmas saga had begun, and as Sunday morning dawned Abby was well ready for the next instalment.

          Unlike the day before she wasn’t sporting a wicked hangover and there was no mussed up sex god camped out on her couch. There was however a stuff animal on the kitchen counter surrounded by six ceramic swans in various poses and designs. Seven of them altogether.

          On the seventh day of Christmas, your true love gives to thee: 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 that ballet is a guilty pleasure even if you don’t broadcast it and even if you didn’t stick with it you would have made a wonderful Swan Queen. Oh what fun it is to write a Christmas card tonight – X.

          Abby had to hand it to him, X really knew his stuff.

          It was dark on Oxford street by four-thirty and even though it was cold outside it wasn’t snowing.

          Abby and Jess had ventured out for some Christmas shopping with the intention to also hunt down some Gingerbread Starbuck’s. It had sort of become an addiction last year between the two of them, and when combined with the crap load of caffeine they’d also consumed in the process it was little wonder why their previous Christmas had been so crazy.

          Because they had been crazy.

          Jess ducked into Forever 21 and Abby made a mad dash for the Disney Store. She did genuinely need to get something cute for her cousin’s new baby, but she never needed an excuse to go to the Disney Store. Sometimes she liked to fantasise about having kids specifically to take them to the store, play with them, watch movies and dress them up in cute little fairytale outfits.

          It was a vicarious pleasure her mother had neglected to feel for her.

          So, she ducked into the heated, hallowed halls of the Disney Store and took a second to appreciate the sight.

          Which was not the same calming atmosphere it usually was. Honestly, she should have been more prepared for it that close to Christmas with the whole place swarming with parents and their children each searching for the perfect gift and the quickest escape. It was a mad house.

          Zen gone, Abby went straight for the baby section. There were fluffy Mickey Mouses in pale shades of blues and reds, Minnies in pink, Goofys in orange and green. It was a cornucopia of childhood fun in one store.

          But when a toddler tossed a Donald at her head and then started screaming, Abby grabbed a handful of different soft toys and ran for the counter.

          She made it back out onto the street just in time to grind to a guilty halt in front of Jess.

          “Been in the Disney Store again?”

          Abby ducked her head and smiled. “Caught me. You know it’s my guilty pleasure.”

          “I sure do. Did you get another Cheshire Cat?”

          Abby scoffed. “No!”

          It was a lie, she’d grabbed one on the way to the counter since she’d serendipitously run right by the soft toy stand meant for older kids. She’d just hide it amongst the others when they got home and pretend like it had been there all along.

          They strolled down the street through Christmas traffic, stopping into different stores to browse and pick out presents for various family members. Abby found a really nice tie for her dad and a limited edition tea for her mother. The woman was a total nut for her tea. And just when you thought Mrs Leightley couldn’t get more British.

          They went to the sushi bar for an early dinner then started out to head home.

          Jess had seen the swans on the counter that morning and been chuffed, amused to note that X knew about Abby’s secret obsession with ballet.

          It had really begun when she was about five; her mother had taken her to Shaftsbury avenue during a family trip down to London and the two of them had score last minute tickets to see a production of Giselle. Abby didn’t remember too much of the details since it was so long ago and she’d seen so many adaptations of the ballet since then, but she would never forget the utter awe she had felt and the way it had sparked a desire in her.

          She never really got to dance – she’d been alright at it but it had gotten harder and harder for her as she gold older to maintain the figure she needed to be a ballerina and to practice. By the time she was eight, Abby made the heartbreaking decision to leave ballet but it never stopped her from watching and dreaming.

          X knew that about her which only reinforced that it was someone she knew and who truly cared. She didn’t broadcast her love of ballet because it was so old world and there were a lot of people who didn’t get it.

          As she and Jess climbed onto the Tube and headed for home, Abby couldn’t help but smile. Once again, whoever X truly was she was certainly a lucky girl. 

Merry Christmas

Sam xox