The Best Christmas Ever

This was my entry for the recent CAW, so since its nearly over, I decided to post this on the story site. Hope you all enjoy.~ Comments and feedback are appreciated.



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Molly hated the holidays. To her, it always seemed the same. All the shops alike would divest themselves from the spooky to the lively overnight. Shelves, once decorated with grotesque faces, pumpkins, and a myriad of costumes would suddenly be sparkling with wreaths, plastic evergreen trees and that unmistakable jolly old geezer that young and old identified with alike, even though they all knew he wasn’t even real. As it started getting closer to the holidays, people would immediately rid themselves of their former gloomy selves and become more energetic, more cheerful, wishing someone a “Merry Christmas”, or sending out corny greeting cards they found in the local Hallmark store. Sighing for the hundredth time, she absentmindedly clicked away at vacation spots in the Caribbean, Aruba and the Dominican, wondering where she was going to vacation this time to get away from all this crap. She jumped slightly as a voice broke into her thoughts.


“You know, I hear that Aruba is beautiful during the Christmas season.”


“You scared the living daylights out of me Christopher!” She swatted at her co-worker next to her in his cubicle, his hazel eyes crinkling in humor and his smile easily charming her.


She had always liked Christopher ever since he had moved into the department a year and a half ago. He was average on Molly’s scale of men, but his dry sense of humor and wit and earned him her friendship and they had meshed together well during that period of time. She knew that he had charmed many of the other ladies, and interestingly enough, he hadn’t really gone out with any of them. He had told her that office romances never particularly did well when they ended. She had remembered nodding, understanding what he had meant.


“So, are you going to go away again for two weeks this year?” said Christopher, regarding her solemnly, folding his arms and leaning back in the office chair.


“I may. I’m not sure yet. My parents want me to come visit them in the country, and I’m not entirely sure I want to yet. I don’t particularly want to head to another place that has more snow…”


“How long has it been since you’ve seen your parents, Molly?”


Molly shrugged sheepishly. “5—6 years now?”


Christopher raised an eyebrow at her, “You mean to tell me, ever since you moved into this department, you haven’t seen your parents? You’ve been going away on vacation all this time?”


“Or made excuses not to come.” Molly shook her head, “You don’t particularly understand, Christopher. Ever since I’ve been out here on my own, my parents have expected me to bring back a man.”


Christopher chuckled at her. “And that’s a bad thing?”


Molly snorted. “Yes, especially since he supposed to be the—“ She changed her tone, “—the only who you can see living with you for the rest of your life! Or I hear: ‘Why haven’t you found a man yet Molly? You’re not getting any younger!’ So, in order to avoid all of that, I vacation on some island where I know no one.”


Christopher chuckled again. “And you think you are the only one who hears this spiel?”


Molly nodded, smirking, “In my own version yes, and besides, I doubt a man such as yourself has any issues in procuring that ‘perfect woman’.”


Christopher’s smile disappeared at that. And suddenly, he became serious. “It is not as easy as you think Molly.” With that, he lifted himself up and disappeared behind his cubicle. Molly sat there for a moment, ashamed and stunned she had made her inner feelings known.


‘Idiot.’ She thought to herself. As she scooted over in the chair and leaned over to apologize, their manager hollered at both of them.


“Molly! Christopher! Get in here for a moment will you? I need to discuss something with the both of you.”


Christopher looked over at Molly, raising an eyebrow and getting up. Molly pushed her reading glasses onto her forehead.
Molly fell into step with him and while she straightened her rumpled skirt, she spoke.


“I’m sorry.”


“It’s―okay. I get that a lot.”


“You get what a lot?”


“Women assuming that I’m taken.”


“Oh.” Molly wrinkled her nose, “So this means you’re not?”


“Not for many years now.”


“Oh, but you have a plethora―” she was cut off since she had walked into the office of their manager, Mr. Smthye. He looked at both of them for a moment and spared an extra glance at Molly, his dark blue eyes appreciating her slim form before him. She would have asked what he was staring at, if she didn’t know his temper so well.


“There’s a new project in the department and I would like you two to work on it and present it to the executives. This project consists of creating a new marketing scheme to target a larger audience. The executives wanted my best two people on this project, so I’m picking you two to do head up this deal. We only have four weeks to get this done, which leaves you two plenty of time to think about what you’re going to plan to do. Do you hear me?! Four weeks and that’s it! So whatever magical ideas you got in those heads of yours, pull them out. The files are here.” He shoved two manila envelopes at them, glowering at them as they took them and turned to depart.


“By the way you two,” Molly and Christopher turned to face him and nearly knocked heads in the process, “your salaries also depend on how well you do.”

Nodding, Molly and Christopher turned to leave, Christopher letting Molly out first and shutting the door behind him. Molly breathed a sigh, silently thanking Christopher for his foresight. She wouldn’t have to feel that man’s stare as she walked away. Opening the folder, pulling her reading glasses down again and flipping through the files, she saw that they had a lot of work to accomplish in four weeks. The executives wanted four ads in total directed at pre-teens, teens, young adults and adults encouraging them to purchase their products. However, they wanted something completely original to astound them with, get them talking about the product first and then when they revealed the merchandise, have a large amount of people buy it. On top of that, they wanted something subtle which would grab their attention but yet not overdo it and turn them off from purchasing the product. Molly’s mind began turning over the possibilities as she maneuvered to her desk and plopped herself down into the chair.


“How do you do that?”


“Do what Christopher?” Molly replied absent-mindedly, focusing on the task at hand.


“Dodge and read through a quarter of a manila folder from Mr.