Playboy On Her Christmas List

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘She was just on her way to pick up the turkey but she offered to come straight in...’

  It was then that Albert started fretting. ‘I can’t see her looking like this....’ How he looked was one of the many reasons that Albert hadn’t knocked on his niece’s door. ‘I smell...’

  ‘We can sort all that, Albert.’ Holly spoke then. ‘In fact, you get an early Christmas present!’

  There was always stash of clothes in Emergency and Kay kept them in the same cupboard that she kept Christmas gifts. The clothes came mainly in the form of donations from staff and fundraisers and they were very valued, especially in situations such as this.

  As well as clothes for Christmas, Kay ensured there were always presents, for the children, for the overnight patients, for people such as Albert, and she shopped throughout the year just for situations such as this.

  Holly went into the dark storeroom and turned on the light. First she went through the men’s clothes and found some smart navy pyjamas that looked large enough for Albert. They weren’t new, but they were very neat, and the colour wasn’t faded and all the buttons were on. Then she went through the wrapped gifts—they were separate barrels for men, women and children, and the gifts were also labelled by age.

  On the shelf was a stash of chocolate stockings, already wrapped for anyone who might have been forgotten, but there were more pressing things than that needed for Albert today.

  His early present was soap, deodorant and a comb.

  As well as a wash Holly gave him a tidy-up shave with eyebrows and ears thrown in!

  ‘Well, look at you!’ Kay said as Holly prepared to move Albert up to the ward. ‘You’re looking grand.’

  ‘I’m feeling it,’ Albert said.

  Okay, he was still rather rough around the edges and Kay looked at his feet, which were peeking out from the blanket. They would be attended to by the podiatrist at a later stage but for now he got an extra present of fluffy socks and he was certainly ready to meet his niece and great-niece again.

  Holly smiled as she walked into the acute medical unit. It was far more elaborately decorated than Emergency—in fact, they had won the competition for Best Decorations.

  Emergency hadn’t even placed.

  ‘Good morning, Albert,’ a cheerful male nurse said. ‘Actually, it’s almost afternoon. You’re just in time for lunch.’

  ‘Good,’ Albert huffed. ‘I’m starving.’

  ‘Have they been keeping you hungry down there?’ The nurse smiled at Holly, who rolled her eyes. Her whole morning had been spent trying to get Albert to eat. ‘We’ve put you in a four-bedded ward...’ He gave directions to Holly. ‘Bay Six.’

  Bay Six had three other gentleman in it. Two were asleep but one nodded and said hello to Albert, who gave a cheery wave back.

  ‘Thank you,’ Albert said, once she had him settled in bed. ‘Are you working over Christmas?’

  ‘I’m just about to finish,’ Holly said. ‘Though I’ll be back tomorrow night.’

  ‘Well, thank you again.’

  It was the nicest note to end her shift on. It was just so lovely to see Albert tucked up in bed and knowing that he’d be taken care of over Christmas. Holly made her way down to Emergency rather quickly. It was already after midday and she still had to get all her parcels out of Kay’s office.

  She would not be saying goodbye to Daniel, Holly had already decided. She had said it too many times, and on each occasion it hurt a little more. Anyway, he was busy with a patient and that suited Holly just fine. She loaded up the gifts and chatted to Kay, who was taking a quick break in her office.

  ‘Have a wonderful Christmas, Holly,’ Kay said. ‘Now, don’t go breaking your neck to get here by nine tomorrow night. I can stay back for an hour or so.’

  ‘I should be fine.’ Holly smiled. She had her presents piled up on a wheelchair and was ready to make a quick exit.

  There was just one more thing, Kay reminded her.

  ‘Did you get your present from under the tree?’

  There hadn’t been one there for her on her coffee break and Holly had tried to pretend that it didn’t matter.

  ‘Oh!’ Holly feigned surprise, as if it was the furthest thing from her mind. ‘I’ll go now.’

  She left the wheelchair with Kay and headed round to the staffroom and tried not to get excited but, unlike on her coffee break when she’d last checked, there was now a present under the tree.

  But it was in the shape of a Christmas stocking but, worse, it was the wrapped in the same paper as the ones in the storeroom.

  Holly knew with a sinking feeling that, not wanting her to receive nothing, Kay had stepped in.

  Deep down she had known full well that Daniel would forget.

  Yet she had hoped he wouldn’t.

  And even now, as she opened the little attached card, she hoped for something that might indicate she was more than an afterthought.

  That was all she was, Holly realised as she read the writing.

  Holly Jacobs

  Happy Christmas

  Daniel could not have cared less if he’d tried to.

  Don’t cry here, Holly told herself, just make it out to the car. And so she came out of the staffroom and walked around to the department wearing a big smile and added her parcel to the pile on the wheel chair.

  ‘What did you get?’ Kay asked as Holly walked past her office.

  ‘A chocolate stocking.’

  ‘That’s nice.’ Kay smiled.

  Had she not known that it was from Kay’s secret stash then it might have been a perfectly nice gift.

  But instead of nice it spoke volumes to Holly.

  Holly said her goodbyes and headed off but as she came out of Emergency and to the main hospital entrance she was just in time to see Daniel walking back from wherever he had been.

  ‘Have a great Christmas, Holly.’

  ‘And you.’

  And this was goodbye, Daniel knew.

  He was staying just long enough to see Maddie for Christmas and sort out the tenants but then he would be gone.

  And he was not coming back here again.

  This was hurting him too.

  ‘It’s been great working with you,’ Daniel said.

  Seriously? Holly thought.

  We had sex in my hall and that’s the best you can do?

  She pushed the wheelchair and kept on walking but then turned around and Daniel did too and they stared at each other. She could not believe he would just let her walk away so easily, that their final goodbye was a thank you for being a good colleague.

  And so, when she should have left it at that, Holly revealed a little of what she held inside. ‘A chocolate stocking?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘You couldn’t even be bothered to go to the gift shop. Instead, you had to get something from the store cupboard to give to me. I think I deserved a bit more than that!’

  For a moment he stood there but then, remembering the rules she had told him about Secret Santa, Daniel frowned.

  ‘How did you know it was from me?’

  ‘Because...’ Holly said, and then wished that she’d never started this.

  Oh, she wished, how she wished that she’d never swapped around their names in the first place.

  An incredulous smile spread over his face and he pointed to her as realisation dawned. ‘You rigged Secret Santa.’

  ‘I did not! I was organising it so I had to know who got—’

  ‘Liar,’ Daniel broke in. ‘You rigged it. Why would you do that?’

  ‘Because...’ Holly said for the second time, only this time she continued to speak. Actually, this time she made an already bad situation worse! ‘I was hoping to find out how you felt.’

  �
��Felt?’

  ‘About us,’ Holly said.

  ‘Us?’

  ‘Not us, in that sense,’ she hurriedly amended. ‘Just that it felt like more than a one-night stand.’

  She should be shot on the spot for admitting it, Holly knew, she should take her heart right off her sleeve and pop it back in her chest.

  Holly couldn’t roll like that with him, though. Somehow with Daniel she was her honest worst.

  ‘What do you mean by more?’ Daniel asked.

  Holly decided that silence really was her best defence now.

  More meant more!

  She had glimpsed them.

  Oh, she would work on her New Year’s resolutions and become all aloof and sophisticated next year, but there was still a few days until then.

  ‘Holly,’ he calmly stated. ‘We had a great night. Can’t you just enjoy it for what it was?’

  There was a chill coming up the corridor as the automatic doors slid open and closed. The floor was wet as people trudged in with wet shoes and dripping umbrellas and romance was, for Holly, officially dead.

  ‘Enjoy your gap year,’ Holly said.

  ‘Gap year?’

  ‘Isn’t that what it is?’ Holly jeered. Well, she attempted a jeer, but she wasn’t very good at being mean. ‘Isn’t that what teenagers do when they want to sort themselves out?’

  Daniel, on the other hand, was very good at being mean and he thought of her love of winter weddings and the dreamy look that came over her at times. He was standing looking at a woman who would rig Secret Santa to find out how he felt. And, far from telling her that he was feeling far too much of late, instead Daniel’s words tumbled out on a sneer. ‘Say hi to him for me.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Mr Holly,’ Daniel said, and basically accused her of being on husband watch. ‘Clearly that’s what you’re looking for. It was supposed to be a bit of fun.’

  Fun!

  And with that word he did Holly a huge favour, for he snapped any lingering hope that remained, like an icy twig in the park.

  ‘Well, have a fun Christmas,’ Holly said, and did her best, with a rickety wheelchair piled high with gifts, to stalk off.

  And he let her go.

  Daniel watched her walk towards the car park and told himself that he was well shot of some stalker who would rig Secret Santa and a woman who looked for deeper meaning in everything...

  Then as he walked back into the department and as the world carried on around him, he regretted how they had ended.

  Yes, there was another gift for her that she would find perhaps later tonight, but there would be no chance of them speaking by then.

  He couldn’t even drop by her flat after his shift to apologise as she was heading straight to her parents’.

  Daniel was very aware that most of his thirty-two Christmases had been ruined somehow and now he’d just gone and ruined Holly’s.

  ‘Let it go,’ he said under his breath, and picked up a patient file.

  He couldn’t let it go, though.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Kay asked as he put down the file and went to walk off.

  ‘I’ll be back in a few moments.’

  Yes, he really should have let it go, Daniel thought as he strode through the car park. It was freezing outside and pouring with rain and he was just wearing scrubs and no doubt he’d already missed her.

  But he hadn’t.

  There was Holly, sitting in the driver’s seat of her car, and she was hunched over the steering wheel and in floods of tears.

  ‘Holly...’ He knocked on the window and she looked up and in horror saw who it was, and got back to clutching the steering wheel and started crying some more.

  It felt to Holy like humiliation heaped on humiliation, especially when he chose to be nice and came around the other side and climbed into the passenger seat.

  She heard his sigh, felt his awkwardness and smelt the delicious scent of him.

  ‘I am not crying about you.’ Holly told him the truth, or part of it—for she was not solely crying about him, more the utter disaster of her Christmas Eve. ‘My car won’t start...’ She turned the key to show that this time she wasn’t lying and it emitted a terrible sound.

  ‘Don’t flood the engine...’ he warned, as it choked and gasped its last.

  ‘There’s a lot that needs fixing,’ Holly said. ‘I’ve been putting it off.’

  She knew she couldn’t complain about her car breaking down. It was terribly old and had been on its last legs for the last six months but it had always seen her safely home.

  Till now.

  ‘I have to get home, though...’ She was seriously panicking—the trains were a disaster on Christmas Eve and she had no idea how she’d manage getting all the presents home. ‘I can’t miss it. I’ll call a taxi...’

  ‘Holly...’ Daniel just didn’t get it. Yes, he was aware that he had little family to speak of but Holly was at the other extreme. If she had five kids waiting for their mother he might understand more. ‘These things happen. A taxi, if you can even get one to agree to take you, would cost a small fortune. As well as that you’d then have to get back for tomorrow night and there are no trains on Christmas Day.’

  ‘I can borrow my mum’s car to get back.’

  ‘Can’t you just miss it?’

  ‘We’re not all like you,’ Holly said. It was far easier to carry on being mean. ‘Some of us want to be with our family at Christmas.’ And then she stopped gripping the steering wheel and leant back as the need to score points faded and the truth came in. ‘My mum’s not very well...’

  She’d told him that, Daniel remembered. She just hadn’t revealed how sick her mother was.

  Now she did.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell Kay?’

  ‘She knows,’ Holly said. ‘Last year I had both Christmas and New Year off. Mum’s actually doing better lately. This was supposed to be the real happy Christmas after the fake happy Christmas last year. To tell the truth, it’s all a bit strained at home, Mum’s become rather too used to getting her own way.’ Holly took a breath. ‘She’s going to have to understand that these things happen...’

  ‘Will she, though?’

  ‘Probably not.’ Holly actually smiled and then wiped all the tears away with the sleeve of her coat and looked over to where he sat and saw that he was wearing only thin scrubs and that his hair was all wet from the rain.

  ‘Why did you come out?’ Holly asked him. ‘Did I forget to sign something?’

  ‘No. I came out because I hated that we ended things on a row.’

  ‘So do I.’

  ‘I think we can both do better than that,’ Daniel said. ‘Why don’t I drive you home? I don’t finish till four but—’

  ‘I can’t ask you to do that.’

  ‘You didn’t ask,’ he pointed out.

  ‘It’s Christmas Eve...’ Holly flailed, yet he was calm.

  ‘Hence the emergency.’

  And it was an emergency, at least it was to Holly.

  ‘How far away do you live?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘Three hours on a good day. Four if it’s...’ she looked out of the window and saw the sheets of rain and factored in the Christmas traffic. ‘It might even be five.’

  ‘That’s okay, but I won’t stay,’ he warned.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Just let’s get you home.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Do we have to carry all the presents back into the department?’ Daniel asked, and Holly laughed.

  ‘No.’

  It was decided that they would lock them up in his rather more secure car and Holly would take the underground home.

  ‘I’ll come and pick you up as soon as I finish.’
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  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Go and eat some chocolate,’ Daniel said.

  ‘Oh, I shall.’ She held up the blasted chocolate stocking and they both shared a smile. ‘I’ve got plenty after all.’

  Holly, as she headed for home, was thrilled with the thought of a few more hours with him because Daniel was right...

  They deserved better than to end it on a row.

  CHAPTER NINE

  DANIEL WORKED THROUGH the afternoon and at two he took a call from the acute medical unit.

  ‘What time did Albert Marlesford’s family say that they’d be here?’

  ‘His niece had some shopping to do,’ Daniel explained.

  ‘I told him that she must be busy and to stop fretting.’

  Daniel ended the call and told his cynical self to be quiet.

  Of course Dianne would be in, he had spoken to her himself.

  He was worried for the old boy, though.

  ‘Shouldn’t you be off?’ Kay checked a while later, and Daniel glanced at the time.

  ‘I should be and I am,’ Daniel said. ‘And this time it’s for good. It’s been an absolutely pleasure to work with you Kay.’

  It really had been.

  So much so that once he’d got his head sorted out, Daniel was wondering if, maybe a year or so from now, he’d be back—and not as a locum. But there was too much going on in his mind right now to voice very tentative thoughts.

  And neither would it be fair to Holly to say he was considering returning someday.

  ‘Don’t forget your present,’ Kay reminded him.

  He went to the tree and there was a little parcel wrapped in silver with a curly bow. If Holly had rigged the Secret Santa so that he would get her name then presumably she had chosen a present for him.

  He checked the attached card and saw her loopy handwriting.

  ‘Open it,’ Kay said.

  ‘Later.’

  He didn’t go straight to the car; instead, he took his cynical self up to the acute medical unit and found that Albert’s relatives still hadn’t arrived.

  Albert was comfortable, they said.

  Sleeping.

  And that was surely better than the streets but for a moment there Daniel had entered a world where families reunited.