After losing her job and her girlfriend, it's time for Annie Abraham to admit defeat and move back in with her parents. She has hardly been back to her tiny Montana hometown since the unforgettable summer before her senior year of college, when she...
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Mom doesn't work on Thursdays so today we're turning the house into a Christmas wonderland, the perfect distraction from why Laurel canceled our date last night. She's busy, I know, there's an endless list of things that could have come up, but my traitorous brain is trying to convince me that she's having second thoughts and rescheduling to Friday is just a way to buy herself more time.
Maybe her ex couldn't take the kids. Maybe she wasn't feeling well. But if that was the case, wouldn't she just say that?
I could go round and round in circles all day with hypotheticals so I shut off my thoughts and throw myself into the paradise Mom is creating. We haven't bought our tree yet – we're going to the farm outside of town at the weekend before Dad gets back on Sunday – but everything else is all systems go.
Christmas music is blasting out of the TV speaker, connected to my Spotify account – there are some things I will always pay for, no matter how skint I get, and unfettered access to my music library is one of those things – and the whole house smells incredible from the Christmas Cookie candle burning on the mantelpiece. Cooper's sprawled across the sofa, his big brown eyes tracking our every move.
"I can't tell you how much I've missed this," Mom says as she untangles a box of string lights with the patience of a saint, methodically working through each tangle. "You were always the only one who was more interested in the set up than the actual day itself."
"I love the set up," I say, standing on a step ladder to hang ornaments from the wrought iron light fixture that hangs from the living room ceiling, with little stained glass panes around the bulb to soften the light. There's no such thing as minimalism in this house. Mom's obsessed with Tiffany lamps, trawling online auctions to find them; there's at least one in each room, two in here.
"It's the best part of the season. Don't get me wrong, I love the day itself, when I get to see at least some of my family, but I love the spirit the most. Christmas songs playing everywhere I go, everywhere all dolled up in red and green." She sounds so happy, I can hear the smile in her voice before I look up and see it for myself.
"It's pretty special," I agree. Last year, Holly and I went to the Garden d'Lights at the botanical gardens out in Bellevue; the year before we dressed up as sexy Santas and joined SantaCon, more than two thousand Santas filling the city's streets and bars. Every year, I love seeing Pike Place Market in all its festive finery.
Once the ornaments are strung up, I get down from the step ladder to admire my work, standing back with my hands on my hips. I wonder what Laurel does for Christmas. I never knew her outside of summer. When I was there the other day, I didn't spot anything particularly festive but when I bumped into her in TJ Maxx, Hannah was picking out ornaments. I wonder when they get their tree. If Laurel decorates it alone or if her kids help, if she dons an apron and bakes up Christmas cookies for her kids to take to school or if she's not that big on the season.
