Christmas
Blues
After being sat for so long doing nothing, the intermittent
muted low beep of the smoke alarm caused her to finally make a move from the
sofa. Stretching her long legs out, she stands and stumbles over to the kitchen.
She reaches for the half coffee pot on the surface and pours it into a mug. She
drinks it, swallowing the tepid liquid in one large gulp. Closing her eyes, she
immediately remembers the night before. A work Christmas do. A bit too much
prosecco and way too many glasses of champagne. Did she share a drunken kiss
with the new guy in accounts? Did she accidently call her boss a wanker to his
face? Who knows? That was future Elise’s
problem. Right now, her main concern was curing her hangover and surviving
tonight’s Christmas get together with her family. But before all that, she was
off to her local coffee shop.
She
sits at her usual spot and orders an oat milk hot chocolate and a smoked salmon
bagel with extra cream cheese. She peers out of the window to watch the pedestrians
stride past, some at a leisurely pace, some in quick succession. She’s about to
take a bite into her bagel when she sees him. She looks closer to check her
eyes haven’t failed her, but she knows it’s him. He’s pretty hard to miss, with
his spindly body and his dark mass of curls. Adam. Her dearest Adam, who
ended things with her just days before because ‘they’d grown apart.’ He was
with someone. A petite blonde woman who had her arm linked with his, looking at
him adoringly. The way she had once looked him. Elise quickly lost her appetite
but still took a bite into her bagel. It gave her something to do.
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