Baby It's COVID Outside

Chapter 8 - Henry

If there was one thing Susie Miller was good at, it was Christmas. If there was one thing she was not really quite so good at, it was keeping secrets.

I could hear her giggling from the other room. It was a sound that made me smile, against my will. Like babies laughing, I just couldn't help but respond in kind.

It only took me asking twice what she was looking at to make her cave, and the sparkle in her eyes told me that even without me asking, she couldn't have kept it to herself for much longer.

I mentally shook my head. This girl would never make a master spy if her 'secret' plan went covert, to team building, roughly twenty minutes after she started making it.

"I know you said you don't like Christmas-" Susie started, her big eyes looking hopefully at me across the table.

"I didn't say I don't like it, just that I don't do it." I corrected, suspicious about where this discussion might lead.

"Well, I do like Christmas, actually I love Christmas. And it's not really Christmas without tinsel, food and decorations." Susie explained.

"Right..." I didn't like where this line of conversation was taking my beautiful house and its minimal décor.

"So I may have ordered a few little bits, just to up-sparkle the place." She said, shooting me a happy smile.

"Up-sparkle?" I raised my eyebrows, so they nearly disappeared under my hair.

"Oh yeah, it's my mum's word. It's like up-cycling but getting your Christmas on!" Susie laughed.

What the hell had I let myself in for? "Getting my Christmas on?" I repeated slowly.

I wasn't sure if it was her obvious joy, or if the idea of festivities had short-circuited my brain but I didn't quite know how to respond or form a sentence anymore.

"I've only ordered a few bits. Just to cheer the place up. Oh, and I got some bits to make cookies and a gingerbread house too." Susie bounced a little in her seat, unable to contain her excitement.

I looked up at the ceiling for a moment. It was usually easier to fight the onslaught of memories of my mum decorating the house and attempting to tidy up the mess Penny and I made of putting up the tree.

Brief flashes I was usually able to push down, but these? It was as though every mention Susie made of Christmas dragged me back to the times I wanted to avoid thinking about.

How the hell was I going to survive the coming days if every one of them would test me like this?

"Did you order any normal food when you did that?" I asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

She refused to make eye contact, which gave me all the answers I needed. "Well, not quite. But I can do that in a minute?" she offered.

I shook my head, trying to hide my amusement, "I already did. I just wanted to make sure we weren't going to double up."

Her body immediately relaxed, and her smile returned in full force. Happiness that strong should surely come with a warning for those of us around her?

"Ok," she said with a relieved laugh. "I hate shopping for food online. It lacks the excitement of being in the shop surrounded by people and picking the best apple of the bunch. Even shopping for Christmas decorations online just now was frustrating."

I took a large mouthful of salad to give myself time to process the realisation of just who I had invited into my home. Susie and I couldn't have been more different from one another. She was the type who preferred actually going out and shopping. I loved that it could be done so easily from a phone or computer, with blessedly little human interaction.