Page 2 of Christmas Romance Galore!
I cast my mind back to the last time I’d had a serious girlfriend. Amy. For Christmas, she’d bought me a hot-air balloon ride one year, a ski jacket the next. I wanted that this year. I wanted to receive presents not bought by my mum or gran. I wanted to go ice-skating and kiss while we held hands. I wanted drunken Christmas sex. And I wanted it all now.
“But it’s November 25th — Christmas is only a month away,” Holly said. She was far more practical than me. Holly favoured order and spreadsheets, so I could see how this sudden plan troubled her.
I wagged a finger in her direction, twisting one way, then the other. “It involves a deadline though, and you must admit I work well to deadlines.”
Holly nodded. “You do.” Then she cocked her head, holding up a single finger. “But I have one question.”
“Shoot.”
“Is this all because of Melanie Taylor?”
I paused, then bit the inside of my right cheek. “No.” It was, but I wasn’t about to admit that right away.
“So it’s just coincidence we heard she’s getting married this morning, you think she’s an idiot, and now you want a girlfriend?”
I bristled at the suggestion, mainly because it was mostly true.
“It’s not to do with her — it’s just time. It’s been nearly a year and a half since Amy, and I’m ready for another relationship. I’m not talking about marriage, I’m talking about getting a girlfriend. There’s a big difference.” I turned my head to Holly as the wind whipped my hair in my face. I swiped it left. “It would just be nice to meet someone who gets me.”
“I get you,” Holly said, spreading her palms.
“Is that an offer?” I asked.
Holly and I had always flirted, it was part of our make-up. But we’d been friends for 16 years now, and we both knew that flirting was as far as it was ever going to go.
Holly grinned at me. “Do you want it to be?”
I rolled my eyes and resumed my pacing. “You know what I mean. Yes, you get me, but I want a romantic partner to get me. I want someone to take me to dinner, have a conversation and laugh at my jokes. I want to be wooed.”
Holly’s laughter punctured the descending gloom. “Laughing at your jokes? That’s a tall order.”
“My jokes are legendary,” I said.
“In your head,” Holly replied. “That one about the stick?”
“What’s brown and sticky? That’s a classic.”
We both laughed now.
It had been one of those crisp, sunny autumn days that I loved, the kind that made you want to snap out of your normal life, roll up the sunshine and start afresh. Sometimes in autumn, the barren trees left me feeling empty, but today, they were lining a new path, setting me off in a new direction.
Holly was silent for a moment, her nose pointing skywards, her cheeks flushed from the cold. She sat forward before speaking. “You’re a romantic, Tori. Always have been, always will be. But I’ll help if that’s what you want.” She crossed her legs in front of her. “How do you plan on scoring said perfect woman?”
I rubbed my hands together and breathed on them, even though I knew it wouldn’t do any good. We needed to get inside where it was warm. “I don’t know, I only just decided. But the internet seems a good place to start.” I started to hop from one foot to the other.
“If you like weirdos.”
“I love weirdos, you know that. I thrive on them.” Of course, I hadn’t really thought about exactly how I was going to snag my perfect mate — the idea had only come to me today after getting Melanie Taylor’s news.
We began to walk towards the park gates, Holly towering over me. Holly’s height drew stares everywhere we walked, like now. We didn’t pay them any attention — we were used to it.
“Anyway,” I continued. “Melanie met whatshername online.”
Holly punched her hands into the pockets of her thick coat, her laughter a howling gale around us both. “You’re using Melanie’s relationship as a barometer of online sanity? Can I remind you Melanie is a circus freak show all on her own?”
I nudged Holly with my elbow. “She’s not that bad — and she’s got a girlfriend.”
Holly stopped walking. “We are talking about the same Melanie, aren’t we? The one who got so off her face at Alison’s wedding, she puked on the groom’s mum? The same Melanie who drove her car into a fence when she was on an empty road? The same Melanie who married someone and divorced them within three months?”
