Christmas Gifts E-Book

Cora Buhlert

• Herausgeber: Cora Buhlert
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Waiting until closing time on Christmas Eve to get a present for his Mom certainly wasn't one of Tim's better ideas. Especially not since the store only has a self-service wrapping station and Tim is utterly hopeless at gift-wrapping. Lucky for him, the lively and unconventional Shannon is there to lend a hand.

This is a short and sweet holiday romance of 5700 words or approximately 16 print pages.

Leseprobe

Christmas Gifts

by Cora Buhlert

Bremen, Germany

Copyright © 2013 by Cora Buhlert

All rights reserved.

Cover image © Ekaterina Kokushina, Dreamstime

Pegasus Pulp Publications

Mittelstraße 12

28816 Stuhr

Germany

www.pegasus-pulp.com

Christmas Gifts

Christmas Eve, shortly before closing time. Tim stood in line at the Fragrance Emporium at Hickory Ridge Mall, impatiently tapping his foot to the umpteenth rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” he’d heard today.

He glanced at his watch. Only ten minutes or so until the shops closed down for the holiday, the line was moving slow like molasses and Tim was not even near the check-out yet. He just hoped that the staff would continue to ring up purchases regardless. Because if he ended up without a gift for Mom just because some salesperson couldn’t be bothered to put in a bit of overtime on the busiest day of the year… well, that would truly suck. Mom would never forgive him.

In his hand he held a bottle of Chanel No. 5. Yeah, so perfume wasn’t the most original of presents, but Mom liked it. Plus, she had been using Chanel No. 5 ever since she was a young girl and bought a bottle with her very first paycheck. Not that the paycheck of a bakery counter girl would have bought Chanel No. 5 these days, cause the stuff was damned expensive for a small bottle of alcohol laced with artificial aldehydes.

Tim sneezed, his nostrils irritated by the scent of perfume, not just a single fragrance, but every perfume in the whole damned shop assaulting his nose all at once in an olfactory orgy. He needed air, fresh air, even if it was only the too warm air of a typically wet Christmas. However, the line was still moving forwards at a glacial pace, as half the city waited to pay for their last minute gifts.

Finally, he reached the head of the line. A saleswoman, who had apparently decided to slather the entire cosmetic offerings of the store into her face all at once, rang up his purchase and swiped his credit card.

“Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,” the saleswoman said, completely oblivious to the redundancy. The smile plastered onto her face threatened to cause cracks in the layers of her make-up.

“I’d liked that gift-wrapped, please,” Tim said, because the woman hadn’t asked, contrary to usual store policy.

“Of course, sir,” she said, that moronic fake smile still frozen on her face, “If you’d just proceed to our gift wrap station over there.” She pointed at someplace in the distance that might just as well have been the cell phone store across the corridor.

So Tim grabbed his perfume, credit card and receipt and proceeded to the gift-wrap station. He almost missed it among the crowds of shoppers thronging near the entrance to the store. In fact, he had to ask a security guard to point him to the station.

Dejected, Tim found himself standing in front of a table with several rolls of colourful wrapping paper, spools of ribbon, Scotch Tape and a pair of scissors, secured against theft by a long chain. Everything one could possibly need to wrap a present was there — except for a clerk to do the wrapping.

At first, Tim thought that the gift-wrap clerk had simply gone for a bathroom break. But then he noticed the sign above the table. “Self-service gift wrapping”.

An entirely unseasonal curse escaped his lips.

Given the extortionate prices they charged for perfume around here, was it too much to expect a clerk to wrap the gift for him? Apparently yes. Customer service really wasn’t what it used to be.

Next year, he vowed, he’d do his Christmas shopping at another store, one which still understood the value of customer service and didn’t force you to wrap your own gifts. Alas, that didn’t change the fact that right now he was here at the Fragrance Emporium, with an unwrapped bottle of perfume in his hand and a bewildering array of gift wrapping paraphernalia in front of him.

Paper. First he needed paper. So he scanned the collection of wrapping paper on offer. Cheery elves with red noses and a grin that looked as if they’d been hitting the eggnog a bit too eagerly? Pass. Silhouetted reindeer on a dark blue background? Pass. A riot of stars and garlands in purple and eye-searing pink? Pass. Poinsettias intermingled with gilded Christmas ornaments — now that looked promising.

Tim reached for the paper and began to pull… and pull and pull, until he had a sheet of paper approximately two feet long for a box that was maybe six inches high. And the paper still went on, spooling off the roll in a never ending stream of poinsettias and gilded ornaments. He checked the roller, peering under the mass of paper, but there was nothing in the way of a tear bar. His glance fell upon the chained up scissors. Of course.

He held on to the paper with his left hand, reached for the scissors with his right and began to cut. The process was surprisingly awkward, for there was way too much paper and way too little space. Still, in the end he had a sheet of wrapping paper with an ugly jagged edge. Not that it mattered much, for he had cut off far more paper than he needed. Tim picked up the scissors again and cut off the jagged edge, which resulted in an edge that was still uneven, but at least no longer quite so ugly.

Behind him, someone cleared their throat. Tim glanced over his shoulder and found himself face to face with a massive woman in a dark red coat. She was tapping her foot and the expression on her face was distinctly unmerry. In her hand, she held a cologne and soap and deodorizer gift set. She wasn’t the only one waiting for her turn at the gift wrapping station either. Quite the contrary, a whole line increasingly impatient shoppers clutching unwrapped gifts had formed behind her.

Screw them! After all, Tim had just waited ages in line at the cash register, so the massive lady in dark red and the rest of the bunch could well wait a few minutes for Tim to get his gift wrapped. Besides, it was their own fault anyway. Maybe they shouldn’t have waited until the last possible moment to buy their Christmas gifts.