Can't Love Christmas

Twenty Eight

With plans set for Christmas Eve, Ash headed back to Bardsville to visit their mall and get a last minute gift for Rowan and some supplies for dinner. Her mom was on speaker phone the entire drive discussing what gifts to buy her family for Christmas. It was only her second time going to this mall, and she was excited to do some big time shopping again.

Her first stop, to get her in the mood, was the novelty store. After intensive searching, she finally found the perfect Ugly Christmas Sweater for Rowan. He was going to hate it and she couldn't wait to give it to him.

She started with the twins. Ryan had been complaining about their old converse shoes recently, and Ash was determined to find new ones. As badly as she wanted to get Ryan a funky pair, she knew that Ryan was going to graffiti them anyways, and might as well give them a blank canvas. Reese just needed a new hoodie, and found him a nice maroon one.

Ash loaded up on candy and snacks for the twins when she found the old fashioned candy store, with a separate bag just for herself. She got a curated collection of loose leaf teas and tea flowers for her grandparents. She found a plain sweater for her dad that would go with the hot sauce collection she bought him at the Christmas market. When Ash finally found the local handmade shop, she got a bracelet and some bath bombs for her mom, to complement the bathtub tray she had bought at the Christmas market. She was about to check out when she spotted the perfect gift for Rowan from the corner of her eye. She added it to her pile as well, and fully loaded with bags and boxes, made her way back to her car. In one afternoon, her Christmas shopping was done. All that was left was to wrap them up and ship them home. She'd have to express ship them at this point, and knew it would cost her a pretty penny.

She was almost exactly between Bardsville and Miska when the smoke started pouring out from under the hood of her car.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" She eased the car to the side of the road and hopped out. It smelled like it was on fire, and the smoke was terrifying. Finally, after years of paying for it and never needing it, she was going to use roadside assistance.

She dug through her purse until she found her membership card, and called the number on the back. They promised someone would be on their way as soon as possible, so she climbed back into her car to wait.

The first two hours were mostly spent on her phone, but when the battery dipped below twenty percent with no indication of when the tow truck might arrive, she switched tactics and tried to find anything else in her car to keep her occupied.

She started with the glove box. Years worth of fast food napkins — clean of course — wedged in between various maps, receipts, and the holy grail of wasting time, her old sudoku book. Continuing her search, she finally found a pencil and settled in with the puzzles. When she finished the beginner level puzzle in less than five minutes, she figured she should jump ahead and decided to take on an advanced puzzle. Half an hour later, she still wasn't very far through it, but she was fairly confident she hadn't made a mistake yet. When the tow truck finally pulled up and parked in front of her, she tossed the whole book aside and bounded out of the car.

"Hello Miss. Are you Ashley?"

"No, it's just Ash."

"I was told it's Ashley."

"I'm pretty sure I know my name. It is not Ashley."

"I'm going to have to see your membership card then."

Instead of arguing that there were clearly no other Ashley's currently stuck on the side of this road, she reached back into the car and dug out her card again, handing it over silently. He held it out as far as he could and squinted at it, finally deemed it acceptable and handed it back to her with a nod.