Welcome! This week the word prompt is "holiday", which is apt for this time of year. We have another episode of "The Christmas Party". Scroll down to return to Tuesday Tales and the fine stories there. Thanks for stopping by!
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“I invited Dad to the Christmas party. I hope it’s okay?”
“Of course. I love your
dad. Is he bringing a date?”
“I don’t think so. He’s
busy “playing the field” as he’d say. I think he’s become a player in his old
age.”
Aaron turned up the
sound. She sang along with the holiday songs pouring from the phone. Summoning all the
patience he had, Aaron painstakingly untangled the Christmas tree lights. He
plugged the strings together to make one enormous strand stretching three times
the length of the living room.
“You keep buying more
lights and next year we can string ‘em across the Hudson and light up New
Jersey.”
“Grinch,” she muttered.
Holding his breath, he
closed his eyes and plugged the free end into the outlet. When he heard Patrice
exclaim, he opened them. Thank God they all lit. There was nothing more
frustrating than searching for the one loose bulb keeping the rest from
lighting. Except maybe separating two hundred feet of Christmas lights.
“Why don’t you decorate your
apartment?”
“I’m not sentimental.” He
reached through a loop to grab a fistful of lights.
She grinned. “Says you.”
“What? Since when am I
sentimental?” He raised his eyebrows and faced her.
“If you don’t know, I’m
not going to tell you.” She fished out two more ornaments, dusted them off with
a tissue, and placed them on the floor.
“Don’t leave those there.
They’ll get stepped on and broken,” he said, looping a huge string of lights
over his shoulder.
“Aye, aye. You ready?”
“Yep. Here goes.”
Aaron scoped out the
tree. He made a mental plan of how many lights to put where like he did every year.
Patrice counted on him and although he groused about the responsibility,
secretly he loved doing it.
He unplugged the lights
to keep them from getting too hot to handle. As he threaded them up over, down
and around the boughs, he wondered what Patrice had in store for him for
Christmas. He ticked off all the things he wanted, like a Nikon camera. Nah, he
already had an adequate one. Maybe a trip to Fiji? Nope, too expensive. He
climbed a small step ladder to get to the top of the tree. Wham! It hit him so
hard, he almost fell over. She was going to sleep with him. Yeah, that’s it.
She was going to take their ancient friendship to the next level.
What about Damian? She’d
toss the idea of sex with Aaron when she saw Damian. He shrugged. Such is luck.
He’d probably missed his chance in the past few years anyway. Of
course, if something happened to Damian—like he got hit by a car—Aaron would gladly
take his place.
