The Birth of the Best Christmas ever

As the radio plays a string of Christmas songs and the Christmas lights are blinking in every part of town, I sit in my ride with a heavy heart. It’s already Christmas Eve and I haven’t heard from Jared. I had called him repeatedly and I didn’t get a response. Having a boyfriend in the army had its perks but I didn’t love this one. I glance again at my silver watch and count with the clock as it strikes 6:00am. I continue to gaze at the watch and count few seconds with the watch.

‘Madam, we’ve reached the Oceania Hotel.’

I look up from the watch to the car window to see the hotel all covered in Christmas lights.

‘Thank you.’ I say to the driver. I come down to the car and walk to the hotel’s entrance. Billy is on duty today and runs from his post to my side as soon as he spots me. He collects my bag which I’ve been holding and carries the luggage with me to my office.

‘Welcome madam. Merry...’ He greets.

‘Is there any parcel or message of any sort for me?’ I ask.

‘Well yes. I have kept them in your office.’ He says.

‘Thank you. Merry Christmas.’ I don’t wait for his reply and hastily run to my office. My heart pounds in anticipation as I race up the fleet of stairs and run right into my office. I hastily switch on the lights of my office and open up the curtain windows. Scanning the room, I spot a red package sitting peacefully on my desk. I run towards it with glee and begin tearing it apart. On opening the parcel, I see three gift boxes and a note.

I begin reading the note eagerly. The note reads:

‘A Merry Christmas to the most beautiful girl in the world. Please would you marry me? Call me to give your answer. (It’s on the back.)’

I nearly trip of my chair when I read the last two sentences and eventually let out an excited scream.

Oh my God! I can’t believe Jared proposed to me on Christmas Eve.

It had always been my dream for such a thing to happen and for Jared and I to get married. We had met at a bar during my final year in the university on a Christmas Eve like this in this same city. And exactly four years later, he was proposing to me. I jump up in glee and excitement and I can feel the happiness spread round me like a flood. I run to my bag and pick my phone and I’m about to dial his number when a thought crosses my mind. The digits of his number don’t match with the one at the back.

If he wanted my answer, why did he give me a different number to call him?

In the end, I wave it off. He probably changed his number or wants to just keep the suspense going.

I take my phone to the desk and I begin to dial his number at the back on the note. I am barely halfway in my dialing when I see a white envelope with a blue seal on the table. On closer look, I see the words: ‘From Jared to Xael’ written on the envelope.

I smile as I bring out the letter inside.

He’s probably scared I won’t say yes.

I sit back in my chair and get ready to be serenaded in his loving message.

The note begins with the address of his current army base and it is handwritten as it always is. Despite the advent of amazing technology like emails and text messages, he still occasionally sends me letters and I treasure all of them. I am so certain I’ll treasure this one the most but that is until I read the note. 

It says:

‘Dear Xael,

You have been the most beautiful girl in my life and the best girlfriend so far. I will always cherish our moments for good. I will hold them close forever and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of my life and for you to be a part of mine. I however want to say that I am sorry. I am sorry because I can no longer go on with this relationship. I am tired of being a boyfriend and want to move on to.....’

By now, tears have clouded my vision and I drop the note and continue to cry in silence as the lump in my throat seems to tighten.

Why would he break up with me and through a note?

As I sit in the tears, I remember the other parcel.

So I have an anonymous lover and now an ex-boyfriend. 

I should have at listened to mom. She had told me to not come to Brooklyn. As the stubborn mule I had always been, I packed my bag and headed right for this city. Though looking at this grand hotel I have founded and groomed, I don’t regret my decision. All my life, I had never dreamed of achieving such a great deal of success as I have done at the Oceania hotels. It’s my greatest achievement. Looking down at the now drenched letter covered in my tears, I can confidently say I’ve found my biggest failure.

As I sit down, I pick my phone and see my lock screen which is a picture of Jerk Jared smiling with me in his arms. I type in my pattern and I am greeted by multiple texts from my dad, mom, siblings and friends wishing me a merry Christmas. I scroll through the message box and not a single text from him. I am hurt even more and go on to send my wishes as replies to the others keeping as short and simple as ever. After replying to the messages, I delete his number and duly trash his letter in the bin.

It’s no point reading all of it.

I then go on to all pictures of him in my phone and with a heavy heart continue throwing them away. The clearing exercise in my office finishes in thirty minutes. Thirty minutes that is characterized with tears, sad music and memories resurfacing and making me sad. As my dad says, they are the silly acts of heartbreak. He will probably be laughing if he was here. He had never been a fan of Jared unlike my mother. His famous comment on the matter was ‘once a soldier, always a soldier’.

After the last song ends and I clean my tears which I promise would be the last on this matter, I retouch my makeup and then turn to face the first package or rather the proposal. While going out on a blind date will be amazing right now, marriage is extreme and so I pick the gifts and toss them in the bin.

I’m barely done throwing the gifts out when I hear a knock on the door. Settling back in my seat, I say, ‘Come in.’

My secretary enters with two other waiting maids submerged in gifts. I can already identify some of the senders by the wrapping papers.

‘A Merry Christmas in advance, madam.’ She and the two maids chorus.

‘Thanks and same to you.’ I reply with a very cheery smile. I am determined to show only my strong side to them.

‘These packages have arrived for you and so have these letters.’ She places the folder with a huge stack in front of me and I nod in appreciation. Tracy has been a dedicated secretary and I smile at her as she drops my morning coffee on my table.

‘Thank you. How are the preparations for our annual Christmas dinner?’ I sip a little of the coffee after asking the question.

‘Everything is going as planned.’ She affirms.

‘What of the gifts for the orphanage?’

‘They are ready and a driver is going to deliver it.’

‘Good.’ I gesture for her and the others to leave.

As soon as they leave, my face returns to its furlong self and I walk up to the presents and begin reading the tags on each gift. I identify the ones from my family and my best friend, Christina. I search around for any gift that even has a tag that begins with letter J and I find none except for the one from my elder brother, James. I don’t see a single gift from Jared. However, after sorting out all the gifts, I am left with three random gifts with no names on them.

I pick the three and begin unwrapping to see if there is even a single name on it but I find none. I instead see in each package, cards asking me the same question as the first anonymous parcel.

‘Will you marry me?’ They all say.

Note to the universe, this isn’t funny. I just had breakup.

As I stare on all three cards lined up on my table, I feel my temperature rise in anger. There are no numbers on the cards which makes it more irritating than the first. It is in that anger I yell out Tracy’s name and the impact of the yell is evident as Tracy runs into my office with fear and panic on her face.

‘Who sent these?’ I ask, waving the cards at her.

‘They were from anonymous messengers. No names were written.’ She says in a shaky voice.

Slinking back to the chair, I ask her to leave.

I’ve received 4 proposals from random people in one morning and not a single one from Jared. Not even a text.

More tears fall and I break my own promise to myself. The rest of the day is as mechanical as it can get and the knot in my belly stays tight. Time runs like a horse and amid the emotional aches of the day, I find myself at evening. Today replaces my record of worst Christmas ever with its predecessor occurring when I was five.

I had been playing with my brothers, James and George and then I fell from the tree I had been climbing. I had a broken leg and spent the rest of the Christmas in hospital. As I sit in the car taking me home from work, I subconsciously look at the scar on my knee which is bare in my black pencil skirt and I give a weak smile.

This year beats that record as this time, it’s my heart that is broken and I am all alone with no family or friends.

‘Madam, we have a flat Tyre.’ I look to my driver with furrowed eyebrows.

‘It may take a while.’ He adds.

With my tired eyes and face, I step out of the car and realize the car died right in front of my favorite amusement park. Leaving the car, I run inside and notice it is empty. I then sit on the bench closest to the big Christmas tree right at the middle of the park. I barely sit when I hear his voice calm and soothing as he says, ‘I was scared you wouldn’t come.’

My eyes widen. I turn and see Jared seated beside me. He is in his army uniform and has a smile of relief in his eyes.

I feel my eyes spark with anger and he understands it and his own smile wavers.

Dragging him by the collar, I vent my frustration as I shake him violently and finally connect my palm to his face in a resounding slap. The slap echoes in the silent hall and as I continue shaking him.

‘Why would you break up with me on Christmas Eve? Would it have cost you anything to have a least waited till the New Year and even in a letter? You even started by praising me with sweet words for the first paragraph.’ I say with teary eyes.

‘I...’ He begins but I immediately cut him off.

‘Don’t even try justifying yourself. You have no idea what you have done. YOU’VE RUINED MY CHRISTMAS, YOU FOOL.’ The tears are already pouring and I release my hold on his now ruffled collar and begin sobbing with my head laid on the bench. There is silence all around the park and only my sobbing can be heard.

‘So I am guessing with your tears you didn’t finish reading my note and also forgot to check your mail.’ He says after a while.

I raise my head up and glare at him with murderous eyes.

‘What nerve of you. I should have even finished the breakup note. Why? So it sits in well that we are done?’ I continue spitting fire with my tongue.

‘If you did, you wouldn’t be crying like this now.’ He says.

‘What are you talking about?’ I stare at him puzzled.

He fishes his hands into his pocket and brings out what I figure out to be his own copy of the letter. Clearing his throat and lightly soothing the side of his face where I had slapped him, he begins to read the note:

‘Dear Xael

You have been the most beautiful girl in my life and the best girlfriend so far. I will always cherish our moments for good. I will hold them close forever and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of my life and for you to be a part of mine. I however want to say that I am sorry. I am sorry because I can no longer go on with this relationship. I am tired of being a boyfriend and want to move on to something more fulfilling.’

The words pierce me again and he looks up to me and says, ‘I am guessing this is where you stopped.’

I ignore him.

He continues, ‘I want us to be married. I want to become a husband no longer just a boyfriend. I want to be your husband, Xael. I am not physically present so I can’t bend on one knee to propose and my phone and line has changed. So along with this letter is a package with the same question and a number you can call me on to answer. Finally, Xael, you can be very indecisive at times so to make you positively think, I would be sending you 3 more parcels to make you think properly. Each will have gifts containing memories of you and I. I hope you say yes. I’ll die if you say no. I’ll love you anyways.’ He looks up from the note.

Tears are falling from my face but it’s for joy. I immediately run and pull him in a close and tight hug.

‘I’m sorry if you spent today sad. It was far from the intention.’ I hear him say.

I kiss him and look at him.

‘I’m sorry. I just went crazy at the thought of us apart. To think you proposed four times.’ I say.

Going down on one knee, he asks me the same question over again, ‘Well for the fifth time, will you marry me?’ He then brings out the ring from his pocket.

‘Yes.’ As he slips it on, I am shocked when I hear claps and see all my employees come out from trees in the park which they had been hiding behind. My heavy heart immediately swells with joy. Turning back to him, I say, ‘Thank you. Sorry I slapped you.’

‘It’s okay.’ He smiles.

‘But there’s a problem.’ I say.

‘What?’ His smile wavers.

‘I threw some of the pictures away and the gifts.’ I say with a sad face.

‘I didn’t madam.’

And I turn to see Tracy holding the pictures and gifts all in a large basket. My face is filled with amazement.

‘Thanks. But wait how did all this happen?’ I ask.

‘When you didn’t call, I was worried. So as soon as I touched down, I called your office. I and Tracy were able to figure out the whole scenario so I figured you were coming here. And seeing how nice an employer you are, they decided to show up.’

I then turn back to Tracy and say, ‘Thank you and Merry Christmas.’ 

‘I wish you the same to you too.’ She replies.

And the best Christmas ever is born as the beautiful stars begin to shine up in the sky as I’m in the arms of the one who makes me smile.