I laid my dry clothes down on Robyn’s bed and looked around. Her room was decorated in soft earth tones and everything looked so sweet and feminine. It had been a long time since I’d been in a woman’s bedroom. All of the women I’d been with over the years had either been at my apartment or a hotel. I liked being in her room. It even smelled like her, fresh and sweet, almost edible.
I stepped into the little bathroom to take off my wet clothes. I didn’t want to drip all over her bedroom. The bathroom was as neat as the rest of the place with her lotions and body sprays and female things arranged neatly on a shelf above the counter. I stripped down, taking the little box that I’d gotten at the jewelry store the day before out of my pocket and set it on the counter. Then, I laid my wet clothes in a pile. Then I dried off and put on my dry ones. I used the blow dryer she’d left out on my hair. I hadn’t realized until I turned on that warm air just how cold I’d been.
When I finished, I slipped the box into my dry pocket and went back out into the living room. Robyn was waiting with a plastic bag for my clothes and two steaming cups of hot chocolate. I put my wet clothes in the bag and set it by the door. Then I went back and sat down next to her. I took a sip of the chocolate she handed me. It tasted like she’d put cinnamon and nutmeg in it. It was honestly the best cup of hot cocoa I’d ever had.
“I have a present for you,” I told her at last.
“Really? I have one for you too,” she said.
I laughed, “You already bought me one, remember?”
“That was a silly joke,” she said. “This one is the real thing.” She went over to her tree and took out a square box and handed it to me. I handed her the one from my pocket. “You go first,” she said.
I started un-wrapping it. I was going slowly, distracted by her watching me. Now that I’d gotten a real taste of her lips, all I wanted to do was kiss her again.
“Do you need some help?” she asked.
I laughed, “No, Miss Impatient, I’ve got it.” I finished taking the paper off and found a white box. I lifted the lid off of it and inside I found a beautifully framed photograph. I lifted out the silver frame and looked at it, in shock. “How… Where…?” She laughed.
“They take them all along your ride. When you’re finished you can pick out the best one and buy it. I went back that day after you left and bought this one.”
“You are… incredible,” I told her, honestly as I looked at it. It was a photograph of her and me, cuddled underneath a blanket in the snow riding in the carriage in the park. “This is the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever gotten,” he said. “I love it.”
She looked so happy that I was pleased. I really was. I’d never gotten a gift that I would cherish so much.
“I was planning on leaving it for you on your desk when you were gone,” she told me.
“You didn’t think I would show up today, did you?” I asked her. I felt bad about that.
“I was hoping you would,” she said.
I leaned in and kissed her again. I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “Okay, your turn,” I told her.
She looked like a child as she began taking off the wrapping. She had her tongue hanging out to one side in concentration. She was so damned beautiful that sometimes I could hardly contain myself around her. She finally got it opened and pulled the little lid off the box. She pulled out the bracelet and tears instantly sprang into her eyes.
“Santa Claus!” she said. “Oh my God, I can’t believe you did this.”
The bracelet was made of delicate silver and held four antique silver Santa Claus charms. One of them had a diamond sack across his back. When I saw the bracelet, I knew she had to have it.
“It reminded me of you,” I told her.
She had tears running down her cheeks now and she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. “I love it, Aaron! I love it so much! Thank you!”
I laughed, “You’re welcome.”
She held out her arm and said, “Will you do the honors?” I took the bracelet and slipped it around her delicate wrist. Fastening it was a little tricky with my big fingers, but I got it.
“There,” I told her. “It looks beautiful on you.”
She threw her arms around me again. I couldn’t help myself, this time I had to hold her there and kiss her. I felt like my life was starting over and everything else in between had been only to lead me to this moment.
After we kissed for a really long time, she said, “Okay, it’s about time.”
“Time for?”
“Caroling, remember? For a big wig CEO, you don’t have a very good memory,” she said with a grin.
“It’s selective,” I told her. “I really am an awful singer.”
“It’s not about the singing, it’s about the song,” she said. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but I didn’t argue. I was finding that with Robyn, it was pointless most times anyways.
We bundled back up and she handed me a little book as we started out the door. It had the lyrics to all of the most famous Christmas songs inside. I followed her along the sidewalk and down the street. We came to a large, beautiful church and she stopped and said, “This is where we start.”
We stood in the archway where it was warm and within fifteen minutes, people began arriving. They were a wide array of characters, from a woman who would later tell me that she was ninety years old, to a man in a wheelchair and a little boy of about eight. Everyone seemed to be excited. The pastor of the church invited us all in before we left and offered us hot drinks and cookies. Robyn introduced me to everyone as her “friend” and for the first time in a long time, I was in a crowd of people who had no idea who I was. I got the feeling after I’d spent some time with them that even if they had, they wouldn’t have cared. They were all like Robyn, genuinely nice and genuinely enthusiastic about Christmas. I was beginning to feel it myself.
We climbed into the back of a flatbed truck with wooden railings built on. I couldn’t help but think if my business associates could see me now, as we were hauled down the streets of New York like happy, chatty cattle. The truck took us to a residential area that didn’t look very festive. It was one of those areas that looked like it had been hit hard by the recession, track houses that were sorely in need of repairs.
“Why do you carol here?” I asked Robyn as we stepped off the truck.
“The pastor does a survey of the city every year. He finds a neighborhood that seems to be in need of some cheer and that’s where we go.”
I nodded, it was the same premise as Robyn’s Santa Claus efforts and I liked it. We started walking, stopping at the first house at the end of the cul de sac. The pastor began singing “Silent Night” and we all joined in. I realized that with all the beautiful voices around me, I didn’t sound as bad as I thought I did. At that house and the second one, no one came out to see us. I think I did see the curtain move in the second one, but only briefly.
At the third house we sang, “Deck the Halls” and a little family came out to see us. It was a mom and three kids. The pastor slipped an envelope in her hands when we were finished and said, “Merry Christmas and God Bless.” After we left to go to the next house, I asked Robyn what it was.
“They’re gift cards for the grocery store. This neighborhood was hit hard by the closing of the furniture plant last year. A lot of these people have been out of work and on unemployment since then. This is how his church gives back to the community.”
Once again, I was touched and warmed to the bone by the generosity of the human spirit. I had no idea that people who seemed to have so little were so willing to donate to those who seemed to have left. I knew the furniture plant that she was talking about. I’d read about it in the financial pages when it closed down. They had employed over five hundred people, but had been unable to compete with large conglomerates like the one I owned myself. I made a mental note to look into it. Maybe it wasn’t too late to breathe some new life into an old business.
We stayed out caroling until well after nine o’clock. Each time I saw the light in a family’s eyes as we sang, or as the pastor slipped them an envelope the magic of the season rooted inside of me a little deeper. I promised myself that now that I had it back, I’d never lose it again. I was also going to do my best to keep it in my heart all year long, the way that Robyn did.
When we got back to her apartment and stripped out of our coats and hats, I took her hands in mine and said, “This Christmas will go down in my mind and my heart as the best ever. Thank you for showing me what it is really all about.”
She smiled and said, “I knew that you still had it inside of you. You just needed to be reminded.” We kissed and I held her in my arms for a long time. After a while, Mr. Pibbs joined us on the couch and the three of us sat there and reflected on the day.
When it was time that I felt like I really needed to go so she could get to bed I said, “Robyn, could we start over? Can I ask you out on a date and we can start from scratch getting to know each other?”
She smiled and said, “I’d love nothing more than to date you, but you can’t ever start over. You have to take what you have and start from where you come from and move forward. The key is to never stop moving and when you look back, to remember what every moment of your life taught you… even if that moment wasn’t pleasant.”
“How did you get so smart?” I asked her.
“I’m a descendent of Mr. and Mrs. Claus she said with a grin…