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On Friday morning, I woke up feeling like a different person than I had felt at the start of the week. Spending time with Kam the night before had really helped me a lot and now I was just looking forward to my date with Alex on Saturday.
After a heavy gym session, a long, hot shower and a light lunch, I was tidying up the apartment when Keira decided to crawl out of bed.
'Good morning,' she grumbled. 'You look refreshed today.'
'I went to bed before you got in last night but Kam actually came around,' I told her. 'That was after Alex stopped by at lunchtime to bring me soup. So yesterday was a good day.'
'Oh, that's nice of Alex,' she replied, as she grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl. 'Even though you're not really sick.'
'Well, I'm better now,' I joked, with a giggle. 'He's picking me up at six tomorrow evening.'
'Should I be available for hair and makeup again?' Keira asked, with a grin.
'Obviously,' I laughed. 'Anyway, what are you up to today?'
'I was actually going to go shopping,' she said. 'Why don't you come with me? I need to get my dad's gifts and a few things for some friends.'
'Oh, actually that sounds good,' I replied. 'I could get all of my gifts for everyone then at least it's out of the way.'
'Plus, it's frosty outside, the Christmas music is on in all of the stores and the Christmas trees are lit up all around the city so it's a really exciting, festive little day out for us,' she giggled, shaking like a happy, little child.
'Sounds very fun,' I laughed. 'I'll go get dressed.'
'Okay, I'll take a shower and get ready,' she replied, and I nodded and walked to my room.
Once I was dressed, I threw on a thick, coat, fur coat and knee-high boots. I smiled at myself in the mirror. Not only was I feeling very Christmassy, but I was also feeling very happy. Things felt back on track and although I was nervous about going back to work on Monday, I planned to just focus on my weekend ahead before I worried about that.
I waited for Keira to finish getting dressed and we finally jumped into my car and drove to a nearby shopping centre. As soon as we entered, good, old Christmas songs from when we were kids played from every store, the smell of cinnamon filled the air from where nets of acorns bathed in the scent were hanging around the entrances, there were huge decorations of lit-up presents and reindeers and candy canes hanging from the high ceiling, everybody was strolling around with arms full of shopping bags as their children ran around excitedly and the queues were all the way down to the exit at the eggnog stall.
'I love Christmas,' Keira sighed, as we linked arms and strolled through the centre together.
I had always loved Christmas too, especially in Salisbury. The neighbourhood I had grew up in always made the most of Christmas by decorating all of our houses until every inch of every brick was covered in lights and we would all head out on Christmas Eve and have neighbourhood snowball fights if we got lucky enough to have snow that year. My mum always made a huge deal and bought ridiculous amounts of presents for me, even when I was a fully grown adult. She would still even put out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve and make my father eat them after I'd gone to bed. As soon as I'd left Salisbury and moved to London, she'd stopped most of the traditions, even though she still bought me plenty gifts for when I returned home for Christmas and still insisted on putting out food for Santa.
