Someone's Someone

Someone's Someone - Chapter Forty Four

Henna....

I'm wondering how many more Christmas songs and prosecco's it is going to take for me to start feeling the festive spirit that everyone else seems to be enjoying. No matter how many times I smile, no matter how many times I sing along to Now That's What I Call Christmas, I just can't summon the desire to feel all festive and Christmassy. Everywhere I look, it's couples—Dad and Rita, Fi and Jimmy, my colleague Jane and her fiancé Chris, Rita's friend Edith and her husband David, Dad's two close friends, Rich and Roy, and their glammed up wives, even the widowed Mrs Hicks who lives next door, has brought along a companion called George—then there's me; miserably single.

With my flute of chilled prosecco held tightly in my hand, I decide to slip out for some fresh air in the back garden. It's a cold and crisp Christmas Eve, but it's not the cold I feel; it's only the sadness.

Taking the smallest sips of my drink, I stare up at the kingdom of the stars in the sky above me. It's like I can see every single one. Every single magnificent one. Some twinkle back at me, others beautifully glow. But my eyes roam the sky, appreciating the wonderfulness of all the stars that are now looking down on me. I often stargaze, but tonight, I seem to appreciate their beauty that little bit more. For beauty had come into my life, then left it.

In Danny, I found a beautiful man.

In Danny, I found a beautiful star.

"Henna?" Popping her head out of the patio doors, is Rita.

With one arm wrapped around myself and the other keeping my prosecco close to my chest, I answer her with a little shiver. "Yes?"

"Oh my word, it's so cold out here." She shudders, carefully stepping outside to be with me. "Those sequins on your gorgeous dress are going to freeze upon the fabric." She jokes, now standing familiarly close. "The stars are really something else tonight, aren't they?" She is stargazing, just like I am.

"They are." Is my ever so quiet reply to her.

It is then that Rita wraps both her arms around me, trying to rub away the bitterness of the cold evening from my body. "You know, just because someone disappears from our lives, it doesn't mean how we feel about them does." She rubs me harder, shivering herself. "Feelings are very much like stars, even when they are hidden from view...they are still there."

I know what Rita means, I know exactly what she means. "Thank you, Rita." My one hand gently pats hers, as I try to gratefully smile her way.

"You're missing Danny, I know...but freezing yourself half to death won't stop that missing of him, my love." She starts guiding me back inside. Back to all that I'm just finding so hard to be around at the moment.

"I'm sorry for being a party pooper, Rita."

Linking her arm through mine with a knowing smile all over her scarlet red lips, Rita sweetly replies with. "You're not a party pooper, love, you're an angel without the love of her wings."

Emotion rises from my throat, tears begin blurring my vision. But I don't want to cry at the sweetness of Rita's wise words, I don't want to make my mascara run. So, I breathe my emotions back in. For now, they can stay exactly where they are. "More prosecco and terrifically bad singing?" I ask, determined to save this night from the grip of my festive misery.

Rita laughs. "That's my girl! More prosecco and terrifically bad singing it is then!"

**

Since my little chat with Rita, the prosecco definitely seems to be helping. I do believe, the festive spirit has indeed wormed itself inside of me. The Christmas tree looks so much more lovely. The fairy lights and the red and green garlands all look so much more pretty. The music sounds greater, and the company seems so much more fun to be around. Yep, I think this miserable and single girly might just make it through the night after all.