AROUND THE HEART IN 80 DAYS

Thirty-Seven

Jacqueline did not know how long it had been since she had collapsed onto the bed. For a Christmas holiday, she was super exhausted. Kareem was the only one who'd volunteered to stay back and help with all the deliveries on the eve and morning of Christmas but she single-handedly handled the Saint Vincent DePaul's chicken pot pie deliveries then gathered a few leftovers for the neighbours in the estate she'd just noticed she hardly ever spoke to. She had flattened out so much puff pastry that she felt the need to take a break from it the remaining days of the year.
To worsen matters, she was well aware of all the power consumed in the overtime baking and she was already scared of the electricity bill that would come knocking at her door. A bank loan division was paid only once and reality shone fiercely in front of her.
But her dreams were too wide for her financial crisis. She thought of expanding the yoga house, an open kind of hall, thought of expanding her bakery, to grow into some sort of grand cafè, get more workers, make Imogen an official partner. Money was overly essential and manual labour was stretching too thin.
Not that she had a choice, was the initial stage not always one of the worst?

Bottom line, she'd burned out.

When had she returned from the gathering meeting? Something past six in the evening of Christmas day and by the time she awoke, it was nine fifty-something in the morning, on Boxing Day. And she still felt groggy. It would take the mantle of absolutely one of the worst Christmas of her life. She didn't even experience the joys of Christmas. Maybe there was something in the feeding of poor folks that made it all worthwhile anyway.

With a pain in her back, she managed to sit up and mutter a quick prayer of gratitude before properly checking her phone. Missed calls from Oaxaca, Michael and Zara. Tons of WhatsApp messages from the Saint Vincent DePaul group chat, the Nirvana group chat, Lord, Martha, clients that got their deliveries and some strange number that had been sending courteous messages for a while--must have gotten it from her Instagram bio. She blocked that one. Then SMS messages from her bank, other clients, network service provider and Edrei.

Edrei's was the only one she opened.

Sorry I can't make it home for Christmas today. I slept over at Victor's then had to go to my family home for tradition. I'll be sleeping over there then I'd move to a hotel near the office for the rest of the year. It's my own form of a holiday getaway, even if there might be brief work. If you want to have dinner or anything, you can let me know.

Well, well.

She fell once more unto the bed and slept off. Next time she awoke, it was 10:16 p.m, still boxing day. Feeling rather lazy than groggy, she decided to watch random telenovelas on YouTube, something she hardly ever did but felt an immediate force to do so. Besides, with Edrei gone, she had the whole house to herself for what, four days or less?! What could she do by herself for four days?

The next day, she ran through returning felicitations from some who had wished her a festive period and apologising for the late reply. She couldn't get back to the guys at Nirvana for she guessed the conversation will be a whole lot lengthy. An hour went to her paternal relatives and how she thanked God they were still in touch after so many years and so many life changes, then she chatted on her Donations' group chat till she got bored then she finally resorted to watching more YouTube telenovelas series. The dramatic love was intense and wasn't at all bad.
Lucero and Fernando Colunga, her winning power couple that deserved to be together in real life, in her honest opinion.
She wished she had such passion in her life that appeared so romantic and fake but was all sincere.

Suddenly thoughts of the next Christmas came to her mind and she wondered where she would be the next year. If she would still stay with her good pal Edrei or, if not, whether she would remember to call him once in a while and vice versa.