A Perfect Christmas

Chapter TWENTY-FIVE


On turning into the main street after leaving the road Glen and Jan’s flat was on, to Cait’s utter dismay she saw a bus pulling away from the stop. The bitter cold was already seeping through her thick winter coat and chilling her bones. She was also very hungry and tired, having had nothing to eat since a cheese cob in the office, and did not at all relish the thought of the wait that lay ahead of her until the next bus arrived, then another wait on top of that for the second bus that would ferry her home. Dragging her feet, she walked the rest of the way to the bus stop and leaned wearily against the post. She looked around. A shop front directly opposite caught her attention. It belonged to a taxi firm. She smiled to herself. She would get a car home, and in a very short time be sitting tucking into the dinner Agnes would have put in the low oven to keep warm for her.

She darted across the road and into the taxi office. At the counter she gave her address and was told a car would pick her up in ten minutes. Cait took a seat on a red plastic-covered bench that ran under the shopfront window and picked up a tattered magazine to look through while she waited. The wall-mounted radio was playing a selection of Christmas songs: ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ and ‘Winter Wonderland’ – in case anyone needed reminding what time of year it was.

Lost in the article she was reading, Cait wasn’t aware of another customer coming in until she felt the pressure of someone sitting down nearby her on the bench and automatically looked up to see who it was. As her eyes met the newcomer’s she froze. He looked shocked too. They both stared at each other for several long moments before Neil looked away, got up, spoke briefly to the man behind the desk then made his way outside. Cait turned her head to look through the window and saw him leaning against the window of the shop next-door. She felt a great need to apologise to him for what she now realised must have been a very difficult time. She needed him to know that the person he thought her to be no longer existed, in the hope that he might not feel so embarrassed by the situation then.

Saying she would be outside for a few moments should her taxi arrive, she went to join him.

As soon as he saw her come out of the door, Neil said to her awkwardly, ‘Look, Cait, I know you must be hurt by the way I finished our relationship—’

She cut in, ‘I was, Neil, very much so, and also very confused. I couldn’t understand what I’d done wrong, but since our breakup a lot has happened to me. I’m now in a position to see myself as others did. I loved you so very much, Neil, but I now know that the person I was then wasn’t very easy to love back or to be around either. I wanted you to know that I am very sorry for putting you through what I did.’ Just then a voice called out from the taxi office next-door that her car was arriving. Simultaneously, it drew up at the kerbside. For Cait it had arrived at just the right time. She had said all she wanted to and hopefully now Neil wouldn’t remember her quite so bitterly.

She made a dash for the taxi, yanked open the door and jumped inside, turning her head to look out of the opposite window so that Neil could not see her tears of deep regret as the car pulled away.