The Christmas Miracle

On the bustling streets of London, Holly was overestimating herself as she carried two large boxes of Christmas decorations in front of her. She tried to peek above the boxes but given her height, she obviously couldn't. Until someone took the boxes for her did she realise she was about to crash into a lamppost. She looked up at the kind soul who'd helped her. It was a tall, dark skinned man.

"Who are you to think that you could move these two boxes on your own?" he asked, his eyes amused.

"To be honest, I truly have no idea. That's what I get for being an Asian," Holly replied honestly. "Thanks a lot from saving me from that lamppost by the way."

"It's nothing, where do you want to move these by the way?" his eyes pointed to the boxes. Holly directed the man to a car nearby. The man nodded and then started to head to the car with Holly's boxes. He then helped Holly to load them into the car boot.

"Thank you so much! Here, let me treat you to some coffee. I know a great place nearby." Holly offered, more than grateful to him.

They settled down at the coffee shop soon after. Holly grabbed their coffees by the counter and headed back to the man who was waiting at their seats. Holly started to introduce herself.

"Thanks so much again, the name's Holly by the way. Holly Wang." Holly spoke as she looked the man's yet amused eyes. She stretched out her hand.

"Thanks for the coffee too, my name's Elyas, my full name's really long. So just call my Elyas." He shook her hand back.

"You know, it would've been really bad if you hadn't stepped in. The boxes were full of ball ornaments. So that would've been really bad." Holly shuddered at the thought of it. Elyas opened his mouth to question why one would need two whole boxes of ball ornaments when Holly started talking all over again.

"One box's for the orphanage I volunteer in, the other's for the apartment I share with my friend. Oh I can't wait to hang them up on my tree!" Holly's eyes started sparkling in excitement while Elyas's only darkened.

"I'm sorry can we just skip this whole topic altogether?" Elyas asked.

"But why? Christmas's the best thing that could happen on Earth!" Holly was slightly taken aback.

"Christmas is shit." Elyas blurted out. "It's stupid how people like to decorate homes, waste money and make children believe in Santa." Holly had never been so hurt before.

"Well, I beg to differ actually. Christmas is nothing but wonderful. I don't really get why you don't love it." Holly said truthfully. Elyas slammed down his coffee and stare angrily at Holly.

"Christmas destroyed my family, tell me how am I supposed to love it?" Elyas spat at her. And with that, he left the coffee shop. Leaving Holly completely shocked.

* * *

It was two days after the encounter, Holly visited her friend's college to hand her some documents she forgot to bring to her group-mate's dorm. She was getting ready to leave after handing the documents but then sees someone familiar. Holly then realised it was Elyas, she ran to approach him.

"No Thea, I'm not going." Elyas's voice was getting louder and louder by the minute.

"Hey, Elyas-" Holly greeted before realising he was having an argument with someone else. She looked up to see a woman in about her late forties looking at her.