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Christmas American Friendship

I stared blankly at the woman standing on my doorstep. She was dressed in a Christmas sweater, with a picture of sunglasses on Santa’s face, white cargo pants, and black sneakers.

"Can I help you?"

“IT’S TIME FOR THE CHRISTMAS PROGRAM! YEAH, BABY!!!” was the answer hollered enthusiastically in my face. Her ginger hair flapped all over the place.

The lady grinned at me but then looked confused when she saw my expression of boredom.

"You know? I’m your co-worker at Empire Furnishing. Cassidy Abrams?" 

I blinked for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to get this overly energetic woman off my property.

"Uhhhh…."

"Hey, do you mind if I get a glass of water?" she huffed, placing a hand on her dangerously large stomach.  "Ever since I got pregnant, the littlest things make me thirsty! Phew!"

Oh.

She’s pregnant.

Then I suddenly realized what she was talking about and sighed. 

"Come in."

"Yeah! Thanks, Blaine!" She skipped inside.

"Yep."

She found a glass, filled it at the sink, and sat at the dining table, drumming the table excitedly—or, in my words, annoyingly.

“So! Where should we start?” 

I sat with my arms folded over my lap and shrugged.

"Okay, well I thought we should go to the Christmas market! There will be LOADS of people there! It's a perfect opportunity! Eh? Eh?" she nudged my shoulder.

I shrugged again.

"You’re not much fun..." she grumbled, pouting.

I ignored her. The sooner we made a plan and completed this ridiculous team-building exercise, the sooner I could leave this overly cheerful woman—Cassidy, or whatever her name was.

I rubbed my eyes and asked, “So, should we go?” pouring as much reluctance into my voice as possible. 

But then, once I finally got the dust out of my eyes and opened them, I realized Cassidy wasn’t there.

I spun around in mild panic, but then calmed down and smiled. She probably went home, tired of me! Although I didn’t hear the door shut… 

Oh well!

I sighed in relief and moved to the fridge to get a glass of OJ when something caught my eye: a figure at the door. It was…

Cassidy.

“Come on, slowpoke! The market waits for no one!”

I stopped in my tracks and frowned. I knew it was too good to be true.

“Coming.”

---

“This is amazing!” Cassidy exclaimed, slowly spinning around as we walked through the Christmas market, taking in everything around us. I glanced around too; I practically had no choice. The lights hurt my eyes just from looking at them out of the corner of my eye!

“Yeah, I guess.”

Cassidy suddenly stopped and glared at me.

“Okay. I’ve had enough of this.”

I smiled internally. This was the moment she would leave! Nobody has made it this far with me as a partner.

“You are acting like a stuck-up jerk, and I hate jerks. We are partners. And partners work together. So you better get your act together so we can complete the task we were given. Got it?” 

She looked terrifying.

I gulped and nodded.

I’d play along for a while, then do something to annoy her, and she’d leave.

Cassidy nodded too. “Good.” 

Her face cleared up. “OOH! Churros! I want one!” 

She ran toward the stand, leaving me in her dust.

Great.

Well, I should start handing out flyers.

I approached a young woman holding hands with two young boys.

“Hello, ma’am. Would you like a flyer for Empire Furnishing? It will be the perfect holiday treat for your home.” I weakly flapped the flyer in front of the woman.

The woman looked at me and frowned.

“I’m not gonna take a flyer from a guy who talks like that. If you want to sell something, actually put your heart into it. Come on, boys, let’s go. We can get churros!”

Cassidy suddenly popped up next to me. 

“Churros? I just got some!” She handed three cups to the woman, who gave two to her boys.

“Aww, thank you so much!” the woman said, beaming at Cassidy.

“Another present from me would be this flyer! At Empire Furnishing, we have a Christmas sale with the Ho Ho Ho Happy Discount of 95% off! Here you go!” Cassidy handed the flyer to the woman, who smiled back at her.

The woman then turned to me. 

“And that’s how you sell something. Merry Christmas, Scrooge.”

She smiled again at Cassidy and walked off.

Cassidy looked at me. 

“Scrooge, huh?” she narrowed her eyes.

“Uhh… well…”

She continued walking, and I had to follow.

“I’ll give you one more chance. After that, well… I’ll have to report to Georg.” She crossed her arms and looked dead in my eyes.

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would. “

Uh oh.

“I’m sure our boss would just LOVE to hear that we failed our task.”

I gulp.

“That’s what I thought. Now come on. We have a lot more people to go through!” she smiled pointedly at me.

I smiled wanly back and moved to start handing out flyers to different people.

Was I really that bad?

Did I actually resemble Scrooge?

Sure, I wore black- I was wearing a black coat, trousers, and sweater- but I definitely did not wear a top hat.

Maybe it was my…personality.

I get that a lot.

“Hey there sir, take this flyer for our great sale at Empire Furnishing!”

I twisted my mouth into a sort-of-smile.

“Have a great day!”

The man shrugged at took the flyer from me.

I’m not that bad! That man just took a flyer from me! That’s good….

Right?

One man. Took a flyer. From. Me.

Cassidy suddenly appeared next to me.

“Gah!” I exclaimed.

“We can talk while we work.”

“Talk about what?”

“Oh, you know what.”

I looked down.

“Listen, I know how you feel.”

I hand a flyer to a woman and smile for the second time today.

“No, you don’t, you’re like an even happier Mariah Carey.”

“Trust me, I do. In high school, I was a gossip girl, and I heavily relied on my dad’s money, which made me bratty and not nice to be around. I still didn’t learn my lesson in 13th grade, and so I failed all my tests, my important tests, and got into a community college. And in that college, I partied my life away. Here Ma’am, a flyer, to treat yourself to great furniture from Empire Furnishing!”

I glance at Cassidy. 

Did that really happen to her?

Wow.

She’s definitely changed for the better.

“And how did you become,” I gesture to her.

“This?”

She smiles.

“I got lucky.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“A man took pity on me. Saw that I messed up in life. And here I am. I have a Master’s in Business and Carpentry, I’m married to a great guy and pregnant with healthy twin girls.”

I can’t help but be impressed.

“And who was this man?”

“Our boss. Here sir: a flyer for Empire Furnishing. Have a Merry Christmas!”

Of course, she would drop a bomb like that, and then nonchalantly hand a flyer out.

“Wow.”

“Yep.”

I looked around us; I hadn't realized how much time we’d spent handing out flyers; there were hardly any people here.

Cassidy nudged me and placed a churro in my hand.

She smiled.

“This was fun. Scrooge.” 

My face doesn’t comply with my brain, and smile back at Cassidy.

“Yeah. It was.” I find myself saying.

I take a bite of churro to stop myself from talking.

“Guess we’ve finished.” Cassidy looks at me.

“Who knew Scrooge and Mariah Carey could spend Christmas Eve together?”

“Who knew?” I agree.

Just then, a black BMW pulls up a few meters away from us, and a blonde guy dressed in jeans and an orange turtleneck sweater steps out of it, and waves frantically to Cassidy, a wide grin spread across his face.

“That’s Rayne. I gotta go. See you at work?”

“See you at work.” I nod and stuff my hands into my pockets as she walks away.

Huh.

This was a weird Christmas Eve.

Eggnog will help.

I smile as I walk home.

January 02, 2025 17:44

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2 comments

Maisie Sutton
01:30 Jan 15, 2025

Kitan--nice job with the dialogue interspersed with strong descriptions of your characters' expressions and actions. I enjoyed the playful banter between them, and esp the twist of her husband being the boss. I enjoyed this--keep up the good work!

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Kitan Peters
20:36 Jan 16, 2025

Thank you so much! :) I love your stories too.

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