Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2017 07:30:10 +0000
From: Secret Writer <Secret_writer@outlook.com>
Subject: Cal  - 15 (The End)

*----- Cal - 15

Hi

This is, a you probably know, a story. Fiction, not reality, and so no,
it's not about you, whatever you might believe. As usual, if you shouldn't
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-----*


I swear I have never worked so fucking hard in my entire life.  The hotel
was fully booked for the whole Christmas and New Year period, and the bar
was rammed every single night.  Not only the regulars and the guests, but
also all those fucking people that just go out at Christmas, you know, work
parties and stuff, friends catching up.  I had managed to negotiate heavily
with Becky about my rota.  I was still going to be working nearly every
day, but manageable hours, and volunteering to cover Christmas Day morning
and early lunch has earned me mega bonus points with both her and Frank.
Davey's work seemed to be taking the polar opposite course to mine, things
were getting quiet, lots of people had time off booked, and even Davey was
cutting his time in the office down significantly.


Last weekend we put up the tree.  Now, I know, it doesn't sound like the
most exciting thing ever, and a year ago I'd have told you it was fucking
lame.  But I had the best time.  I'd known it was Christmas Tree Day,
because Davey has mentioned it almost every day for at least a month.  I
didn't see what was going to be so exciting.  I was woken up, early, by
Davey.  He was holding himself above me on the bed and bouncing up and down
like a fucking idiot.


"Come on!  Get up baby!"


"Fuck off."


"No!"


The bouncing got more intense, only stopping when I opened my eyes and
kissed him.  He can't concentrate on that many things at once.


"OK, OK.  Can we at least have breakfast first though?"


We got dressed and ate in the kitchen as usual.


"So where's the tree?  And where do we have to put it?"


"Huh?"


"The tree Davey, I assume we need a tree for you're totally made up
Christmas Tree Day thing."


"Of course.  But we have to go and choose it."


"What?"


"We have to go and choose the tree."


"OK... how come you don't just have one in a box from last year?"


"Ohhh, my poor sweet baby."


"What?"


"We're not having a plastic tree!  We have to have a real one."


"Seriously?  Of course.  What else would happen?"


I tried to sound incredulous, but I guess I wasn't really surprised, I just
hadn't thought about it.


"So where do we have to go?"


"Down to the corner shop, they sell trees every year."


I looked out of the window.  The shop is about a ten minute walk, and it
looked fucking cold outside.


Since meeting Davey I've had some pretty surreal experiences.  But this
might beat them all, standing on the street as some guy basically parades
trees in front of us.  We must have looked at six or seven before we were
allowed to buy one.  Not the right shape, too thin, too bushy, one sided,
there was always a problem, apparently.  They all looked like trees to me.
But finally one of them met Davey's criteria and the guy wrapped it in a
net.  It's a good job his enthusiasm was as infectious as it was because it
was fucking cold.


"How are we going to get this home?"


"We're going to carry it, come on."


"Hmmm, I thought as much.  But there's no way I'm carrying the heavy end,
you can get that."


To be honest, he could probably have carried the whole fucking thing on his
own, but I picked up the thin end and followed behind him.  It wasn't a bad
view either, Davey as sexy fucking lumberjack was definitely an image I'd
save for later.  After wrestling the tree into the building, and into the
flat, it became pretty obvious that we had overestimated the heigh of the
ceiling.  But a bit of trimming and it fitted in, more or less.  And looked
fucking huge.  We spent the afternoon decorating the tree, another first
for me, it was always something Mum did, not with me.  Apparently there's a
whole ritual to it, lights first, then tinsel, then decorations.  It was
awesome fun anyway, but eventually I had to go to work.


The rest of the week has been filled with me working and Davey making about
eight times as much food as we are every going to be able to eat.  Jen had
the week off and Davey was actually pretty good at cooking.  On Christmas
Eve I was working all day, up until 8pm.  Mary and Ben and his girlfriend
were all due to arrive during the afternoon, so it felt kind of weird to be
opening the door and walking in to a whole family of people.  Davey heard
the door and was stood in front of me before I'd even got it closed behind
me.


"Hey baby."


"Hey, is everyone here?"


"Of course, come on."


We shared a brief kiss before I went through to greet everyone and Davey
went back to the kitchen.  I knew Mary and Ben well enough already, but
there's no need to be rude.  I kissed Mary on both cheeks, while Ben got a
hug.  He faked being upset, so he got kisses too, which they all seemed to
find amusing.


"And this is my girlfriend, Kristina."


"Hi!  It's good to meet you, I'm Cal."


She got kisses too.  She was pretty hot looking actually, you know, if you
like that sort of thing.  She kept trying not to stare at me, so I guess
she hadn't known what to expect.  My experiment with growing slightly
longer hair had faded, and I currently have a two inch wide mohawk with the
rest very closely cropped.  I guess it can grab your attention if you
haven't seen it before.  Davey re-appeared from the kitchen and I felt his
arms encircling me as I talked with Kristina for a moment.  She was a bit
quiet, but seemed OK.  I went to get changed and found Scarlett lounging on
the bed.  We talked for a bit too, she didn't have loads to say though.


Davey had got dinner all prepared, so we were eating soon enough, and it
weirdly felt like we'd been doing this for years, rather than for the first
time ever.  After a couple of glasses of wine Kristina seemed to relax, and
she fitted right in.  Unfortunately I was holding back on the wine as I was
back in work early in the morning.


No-one else was up when I left for work, trying to be quiet as Ben and
Kristina were sleeping in the lounge.  I even left Davey in bed, which is
always a hard thing to do.  The walk was enjoyably quiet, I guess very few
people have things to be outside for so early on Christmas Day.  Of course
the quiet didn't last, and entering the hotel was reassuringly busy, and
cheerful, which is kind of how the whole day went.  Busy, but cheerful.


I got home about half past two, and things were much livelier the when I
had left.  Everyone was up, and they had all started drinking.  Davey was
cooking, with the insistent assistance of his Mum, which was quite amusing
to watch.  The plan had originally been to have lunch and then we'd open
presents, but Davey couldn't wait so as soon as I had got changed out of my
work clothes it was time for presents.  Between the five of us there was a
sizeable pile of wrapped boxes and bags under the tree.


What I wasn't fully prepared for was the mildly overwhelming emotion of it
all.  Sitting around, laughing, relaxed, giving and opening presents, I
couldn't help but feel happy.  And also, jealous, because it felt like I
was part of a proper family with people who loved each other, me included,
so the somewhat upsetting comparisons to my previous Christmas Day's were
hard to avoid.  Stupidly it was getting a gift from Davey's Mum that
threatened to bring me to tears, and I had to take a moment in the bedroom
with Scarlett.  Not that it wasn't a good day, it was properly amazing.
Which I guess is also what made me feel sad too.  There wasn't a card from
my Mum or Dad, but I hadn't made contact with them either, so I guess
that's how it's going to remain.


Lunch was awesome, in fact, the whole day was awesome.  Davey bought me
some really cool headphones, and I'd got him some new clothes.  He has a
lot of clothes, but he's sometimes dangerously close to buying a pipe and
slippers, so I thought I'd help him update his wardrobe a bit.  He put some
of them on and he looks good.  Of course I would say that.  It was a
properly amazing day.  Lots of food, lots of alcohol, lots of incredibly
nice feelings and good times.  I think maybe I really might have a new
family now.


**-***-**


One year later, and it's Christmas Day, again. Because, you know, that's
how time works.  Lots of things have changed, some big, some not so big,
and lots of things have stayed the same.  And some things have very nearly
changed but thankfully haven't.  Those things have always been my own
doing, and come solely from my own fucked up head, but they happen less and
less now.  I have more time off this year, which is pretty cool.  We're all
here, at home, again.  I guess we're starting a new tradition.  Kristina,
or Krissy as she is now called, is here with Ben, although to be honest I
wasn't sure she would be.  There was a couple of rocky months over the
summer when things weren't going so well with them.  Ben and I talked about
it a lot and he was close to giving up on her completely, but things seemed
to work out eventually.  I guess Ben and I are pretty good friends now,
which is another new experience for me.  He's a really cool guy and it's
easy spending time with him.  It's also pretty nice having someone to go
and watch horror films with because Davey is completely rubbish at that.
But he's cute as hell so I guess that's OK.  Mary is here too of course,
the ever present Mum.  Between her and Jen I sometimes feel like I'm
overwhelmed with motherly advice and opinion, but mostly that's just a
pretty great sort of problem to have.  I mean, it's better than what my
actual Mum has ever been able to manage.  I haven't heard from her all
year, and there wasn't an invite to the wedding, so either she didn't get
married to "Jonathan" or, more likely, she just didn't invite me.  I've
come to accept that that's how things are between us, for both my parents
really.  If I ever think about it too much it's still very sad, but I feel
as though I'm better off with how things are now.


I finished work after lunch on Christmas Eve, and Mary was already there
when I got home.  I think she arrived early and Davey likes to complain
about it, but they seem to get a lot out of their time together, despite
the apparent constant disagreements about cooking.  So now I'm off for
three whole day, although that does mean I'm working at New Year.  We've
agreed that everyone will just come over to the bar so at least I'll be in
the same room, if not quite part of the party.  I think Kati and Simon are
coming over too.  Apparently Kati has a boyfriend.  I've decided that he
must either be deaf, or a total fucking saint, because I don't see how
anyone could endure her for any prolonged period of time.  We get on well
enough now, but she can still be a bit annoying.  She still keeps in
contact with Mark, but there's an agreement that no-one talks about him, at
least not when I'm there.  Ben and Krissy arrived just in time for dinner
last night, and between us we sunk way too many bottles of champagne.  I
still can't really drink the stuff, so there was some whiskey too.


This year, because I'm not at work, we're doing presents straight after
breakfast, and lunch is going to be at the now usual Christmas Day lunch
time of about three in the afternoon.  Krissy and I made breakfast for
everyone, which was mostly eggs, bacon, and pancakes.  Everyone except
Scarlett of course, because despite her whining, she still isn't allowed to
eat our food.  I have to give her points for being persistent though.  I
think I've decided I quite like Krissy.  She has a slightly wicked sense of
humour, which is probably necessary to survive the Carters.  There was more
champagne after breakfast, before we even started on presents.  I seriously
think we drink way too much over Christmas.  And now Davey was taking the
opportunity to embarrass me.


"We should make a toast, to Cal!"


"For what?  Are you drunk already?"


"For your new job."


"Davey, stop it!  I don't have a new job.  You need to stop telling people
that."


We toasted anyway, because we had champagne.  In fairness, I might have a
new job soon, but nothing is confirmed.  I've been doing a lot more stuff
around the bar and hotel, and I've even had a couple of occasions where
I've been asked to help deal with stuff, usually guests who can't get their
own way or some other sort of minor fiasco.  It turns out I'm actually
pretty good at problem solving at work, and getting people to calm down.  I
know, right, the fucking irony.  Anyway, all I know for certain is that
Frank has a meeting planned in for me and him in January.  And Becky is
reducing her hours because she's going to go to university.  Oh, and Becky
told me she's certain that Frank is going to make me the Duty Manager.  I
guess we'll see.


We moved on to presents, and this year Davey has bought me a wallet,
jewellery for my piercings, t-shirts which I think are just for his fantasy
of me because they are tight and kind of low cut, more like vests, but I
put one on anyway, and some new running gear.  He claims that he `must have
lost track' of our agreed budget.  Yeah right.  Of course we were back in
Paris last month to do the Christmas shopping.  We never actually made it
back before then, but we stayed for a few days this time, and Davey was
right.  The food in the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower really
wasn't very amazing, but the view was.  I've bought Davey a few bottles of
what I'm assured by the wine merchant at work is some really good wine, and
a weekend at a spa because he really needs to remember how to relax
sometimes.  And yeah, I guess I `lost track' of the budget too.  We're both
as bad as each other it seems.


Lunch was predictably tasty.  Despite Davey and his Mum's constant arguing
about cooking it, they seemed to be able to produce spot on food between
them.  This year it was beef wellington, and about a hundred other sides.
Davey doesn't believe in cooking turkey for Christmas because `it's too
boring'.  We'd finished eating, you know that point where you know you've
had just the right amount too much food, and I was about to make some
cocktails when Davey interrupted me.


"Actually, there's one last present for you."


"Oh?  Just so that I know for next year, we're giving up on the whole
budget thing totally, yeah?"


He returned my smile and gave me a kiss.


"So where is it?"


I was intrigued because there wasn't anything left under the tree.


"It's hanging on the tree."


I looked towards the corner of the room that was being dominated by the
ridiculously massive tree.  Again, it was actually too big for the flat.  I
looked back to Davey.


"Really?"


"Really, go on, you have to look for it."


I walked over and spent a few seconds scanning the tree, nothing seemed
obvious.


"This better be worth it Davey."


I was joking of course, I'm not actually going to be annoyed about him
buying me another present am I.


"Yeah, well, I hope it is else this is going to be very embarrassing."


My questioning look to Davey didn't elicit any further clues, so I went
back to my search.  It took me another twenty or thirty seconds before I
saw it.  I carefully unhooked the long chain and realised what I was
actually holding.  Dog tags.  But this is Davey, they're were nice, and
almost certainly not just stainless steel, they're probably silver or
fucking platinum or something knowing him.  I put them on as I turn back
towards him.  They actually sort of went with my new t-shirt, and I caught
that look on Davey's face that told me I should definitely keep them on at
bedtime.


"They're cool Davey, thank you."


I gave him another kiss.


"Erm, actually, babe, there's... something engraved on them."


The chain was long enough for me to be able to pick them up and read them
without taking them off.  There were two messages, one on each tag.  I read
them both.  And then I read them both again.


"Fuck... Davey... Are you serious?  Like, this is not a joke, right?"


Why would it be a joke?  It would be a very shitty joke.


"Of course baby.  Totally serious."


I read the messages again, very aware of the four people watching me now.


`Cal, I love you in every way, you make my world complete. Davey.'


`Will you marry me?'


I looked up to Davey again.  He was actually looking nervous, which made me
smile even more.


"Yes... of course.  Fucking yes!"


I ran the few steps towards a him, aiming for a very big hug and serious
kissing, and was outdone by him as he picked me up.  But that did mean I
was able to wrap myself aground him, my legs around his chest and my arms
around his neck as we kissed.  I was definitely crying, but in a
ridiculously, uncontrollable, unmanageably happy way.  There was a lot of
celebratory noises from the other three, and it wasn't until Davey finally
put me down that I realised something wasn't quite right.


"You fuckers, why is no-one surprised, you all knew about this didn't you?"


It was Ben who cracked first.


"Well... maybe."


Not that it mattered one tiny bit.  There were more drinks, of course, and
lots of hugs from everyone.  Later in the day I found myself in our
bedroom, sat on the bed alone, when Davey came in to see where I was.


"Everything OK babe?"


"Yeah, of course, I was just texting a few people."


I waved my phone at him as if it was evidence, even though it was
technically a lie, because I'd messaged the few people I wanted to earlier.
When Davey left again I retrieved the letter from my Dad from under the
pillow where I'd thrust it just moments earlier.  It was looking just as
battered as something that has been screwed up several times would do.  But
this time, I folded it up neatly, and slid it back into the envelope,
before dropping it in the bin as I walked back out to what is now, my
actual, proper, forever, fucking awesome life.


*-----

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the ride (even with the colossal pause in posting).


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-----*