The Christmas Surprise

(This is my new story; I hope it's not too Cheesy Hallmark Movie or corny movie, but have the chance to do some writing again after a busy little period with and wanted a story relating to Christmas and the holidays; Hope you enjoy it and leave some feedback as always)

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Sitting on my couch in my one-bedroom flat about as far away from home as possible, looking out at the snow falling onto the balcony and the Christmas lights shining brightly everywhere.

“Are you even listening to me, Blake?” I snap back to the video call with my best friend Sophie who just gets me perfect and it’s because of her that I took the risk to move 10,000km to a new city and country. “Yeah, I am listening to you,” I say even though I totally tuned out as she was talking about the dramas at work which I have first-hand experience with as well.

“Ok good, because Blake it’s like talking to a brick wall sometimes when I’m talking to you,” she says to me as I roll my eyes knowing that so many times I’ve been talking to her and she has been distracted by her cat Coco or girlfriend Katie.

“Really? Picking on me when so often you are talking to Coco over me?” I notice her shrugging her shoulders at me which I can understand because Coco is the cutest cat to ever exist in the world. “So what are you doing for Christmas now they’ve finally forced you to take your leave?” she asks as I shrug not sure what to do because I wanted to work over the Christmas break because there are always good opportunities and looks good on the resume going forward.

“Nothing, I just wanted to work because it gives me something to do and always looks good to work on the holidays because I can give those with families the break,” I say as Sophie is trying to convince me to head back to Australia to see my family over Christmas.

I moved over to the US in 2018 when I got the opportunity to work as an assistant at the world-famous JCN news which came through knowing Sophie and her encouraging me to apply for the job and give it a go.

Four years later, I’m now a digital marketing manager for JCN Regional which is the Regional division of the global company where I focus on regional TV networks. The role sort of fell into my lap suddenly and unexpectedly when the person I was supposed to be working underneath suddenly quit and then after a long and costly recruitment process, the replacement who was hired just never turned up for the role and instead of going through the whole process again, they offered me the role. It was a massive step up in the job for me but over 3 years later I’m still in the job so things must’ve gone well for me.

“So why don’t you actually listen to everyone and go and visit your family in Sydney?” It’d be amazing for you to see everyone because you haven’t been back since you moved over here and get away from the cold and snow”. Sophie always has a good point because it has been so long since I visited everyone even though I had planned to, COVID had gotten in the way so heading back to Sydney became absolutely impossible.

“I mean this would be the first Christmas with everybody there because Bec and Jason will have their first Christmas with the baby, plus Adam won’t be deployed anywhere and naturally Jack will be there” Sophie nods and then has an intense stare down the camera.

“Is it really everybody if you’re not there Blake?” she says which is a very valid argument but still not one that is forcing me to head back home. “Bloody hell Sophie, surely it shouldn’t mean that much to you,” I say as she just smiles at me and I roll my eyes at her.

“Think about it, would you rather be sitting here in the cold and snow in your one-bedroom apartment alone, or spend at least 3 weeks in Australia with your family and the heat and the sun?” she says as I nod thinking about it.

Getting away from the snow would be amazing and having the togetherness of my family would be amazing at Christmas having so much time apart from us all. “I’ll think about it ok?’” I say to Sophie who accepts my answer as she has to go as Katie gets home.

Logging off from my computer, I have a look at my shelf where I’ve got all the pictures of my family and just look at the last family photo of everyone together which came at my youngest brother Jack’s 14th birthday party which was back in 2016.

I stand there thinking that maybe Sophie is right and I should go because it’s been so long since we were all together and who knows how many chances we would get to be together in the next few years, especially with Adam in the army and the every appearing threat of COVID.

Looking at the time, I realise it’s close enough to 9 pm and I still haven’t had dinner yet as I hope that I can try and make Monday night’s dinner stretch out to Wednesday night but I can’t so I’ve just got to make myself an Omelette which is pretty good by my average standings.

My usual routine is to switch everything off by 10 pm and just read but tonight after the conversation with Sophie, my mind is just running in overdrive thinking about how much has changed with not just me, but the world itself in that time since I last visited.

I’ve got the new job, had relationships come and go and mostly just got a whole new confidence in myself and my looks, Scrolling through Instagram, there just seems to be a coincidentally high number of photos and posts by my family that are coming up compared to normal.

Falling asleep, I can’t stop thinking about things and the logistics of heading across to Australia, leaving work for a while even though I’ll be on leave and everything has already been fixed up to deal with what comes up while I’m on leave whether I’m here or in Sydney.

The next morning, I skip heading to the gym to get to work early just to get the outstanding work done to make sure everybody has their work done before the Christmas break and the quiet period so that there is nothing left over.

Sitting at my desk, I’m going through my emails when there is a knock at my office door which is one of our general admin staff “Sorry to disturb you Blake, but this came for you, I’m not sure what they are” James says to me as I take the box and instantly recognise the handwriting on the label.

“Bloody hell Sophie, I hope that these aren’t what I think they are” I open the box and roll my eyes as I read the note.

“I know you wouldn’t do this yourself so I’m taking control and buying you the tickets because there is more reason to be there than here over Christmas.” 

I should have known that something was going to happen like this and that I was never going to say no once she did this. I keep reading the note that Sophie wrote and left in the box for me.

“I’ve paid for these and all that needs to happen is you pick the dates and fly to Australia to see your family for a much-deserved visit” 

I smile to myself and appreciate what Sophie does for me and how important our friendship is considering that it started through a Twitter conversation about something that I can’t even remember it was that long ago.

“Did you get the box?” my phone buzzes with the text from Sophie almost having a sixth sense as if she could tell that I opened it up.

“Yes and I told you that I was going to think about things” I reply almost instantly just getting an eye-roll emoji in reply.

“Just do it, Blake, this is a chance that so many people who jump at you know” the guilt-tripping from Sophie is always a strong tool in her weaponry and I’m hardly in a position to say no because of that fact.

“Alright, I’ll do it” I reply almost realising to myself that it was always going to be inevitable that I was going to be the decision I was going to make because even though Sophie is working and in town, she’s going to be with her family, Katie is going to Hawaii with her family and my other friends here are going to be with their families.

I have a look at my calendar and try to work out the dates that I can go with my leave dates seeing as I’m being forced to have the equivalent of just over a month off because it’s JCN policy for staff to only have a maximum of Six weeks leave banked up. I’ve got 14 weeks of leave built up and I’ve managed to compromise to only take four weeks of it which was the only way they were getting me to take leave.

Looking at my calendar and diary, I decided that I might as well go for the entire time I’m on leave which will give me the opportunity to spend some quality time with friends and family back in Australia. The big problem though is going to be trying to find somewhere to stay because trying to get somewhere isn’t going to be cheap, especially over the peak of the Christmas and Summer holidays and I don’t want to stay under the same roof as my parents the whole time.

The rest of my day is trying to look at ways of trying to find somewhere to stay that doesn’t wipe out my bank account which as I google places, is looking very likely at the moment. I keep looking and feeling like I’m ramming my head against a brick wall as I eventually text Sophie”.

“This isn’t gonna work, I can’t find anywhere to stay that doesn’t blow my bank account to pieces,” I say as she just naturally replies with an emoji as she always does and then says she has a plan for me.

“You are not getting out of this Blake, you could claim it on your never used travel expenses because there would be a fortune there,” she says as I know that I could but I don’t feel comfortable doing that given that my trip isn’t for work and it’s entirely while I’m on leave which is dodgy. I eventually come up with an idea that will give me some privacy but also be able to appease my family by spending some time staying with them.

“I can see if Bec has her spare room free because she has her big house with 5 bedrooms” I text back to Sophie who just gives me the thumbs up. I start to text my sister, but I keep deleting it because I don’t know what I really want to say because whatever I’m going to do it’s going to be made a big deal before I have the guts to send it.

“Hey Bec, quick thing, can you make sure nobody sends me anything for Christmas, I’ll explain everything for me when you get a chance to ring me so that I can explain everything” I text her expecting to wait for hours for a reply once it gets to the middle of the morning or afternoon but instead get a surprise when my phone buzzes with her name.

“So you’re coming home for Christmas finally?” Bec says to me as the surprise in my voice is obvious given that it’s only about 4 am back in Sydney. “Well yeah probably for a while you know, it would probably be for like a month or 6 weeks at least,” I say as I hear her getting excited but still in a quiet tone that doesn’t wake up either my niece Ava or her husband Jason.

“I’m so excited, I know Mum would love the news that you’re coming home to visit because it means that everybody is going to be home for Christmas,” she says as I stop her from spoiling the news.

“Don’t tell her or anyone else about this ok? Because she is going to make a big deal and have this great big welcome home party with all the relatives and friends but I don’t really want that and that being 30 I’m too old for all that these days” I say as Bec agrees with me that Mum would go overboard and that Bec is going to be happy to help me keep a secret before wanting to know where I’m going to stay and what I’m planning to do.

“Well, the thing is, I was hoping you had that you still have the spare room that I could spend a few nights if it’s cool you know and not being an imposition on you,” I ask as yet again Bec is getting so excited about my idea.

“Of course, we’ve still got the spare room, so you can just stay with us for as long as you want it and I that is why I got the bigger house with the extra room because I was mostly thinking about when you came to visit because I know you’d want to spend family time without being with Mum and Dad,” she says to me as I smile and laugh.

I start to go through my idea with her, “So I’m probably going to fly out on the 9th of December and then leave sometime around the 20th or close to the end of the month” I say as my trip is suddenly becoming longer and longer than what I intended for it to be.

“Sounds good but where are you going to stay after the first few days, because you know that I would be loving to have you that whole time, but you might get over the constant crying from Ava and you’ll always want your space after about a week or so like usual,” she says as I umm and ahh down the phone trying to figure something out as she works out I haven’t planned it

“Talk to Corey, he’s always got empty apartments close to the city in his property list that he is always looking to rent out and fill short-term, maybe he could give you a good deal because he will be more than happy to let you stay in one… if you two patched your shit up”.

Corey and I were close friends that met at uni and we hit it off instantly and then our friendship quickly grew to more than just friends as we started fooling around each other especially after drinking and then eventually we had sex together. It was a regular but unserious thing that got awkward when Bec walked in on Corey balls deep inside me as we were fucking on my parents' couch thinking that nobody was ever going to be here with everyone away.

Bec luckily was cool about it and then we took our relationship further, secretly dating with covered visits and stories with Bec’s help where she would be covering for me because neither of us really knew what we wanted. Corey was still sleeping with other chicks and I didn’t know whether I wanted a proper relationship or not.

It was probably three or four years of this sort of thing as we continued to develop our feelings together and getting more serious until one night when everything came crashing down for me and Corey.

I thought things were going so well for us and things were getting more serious, but one night he came by my place to tell me that he’d met a girl that he had fallen in love with and by this time he started to realise that he was bi or pansexual more than he was gay. He admitted to me that he enjoyed the sex with me but couldn’t feel as if there was any chance of a long-term romantic relationship between us.

Deep down, I knew this was probably the way that it was the situation was going to end up, but it still hurt me so much because I thought that we had found that special something that was growing in both of us but it wasn’t too be. The aftermath of the relationship was probably handled very poorly by me as I didn’t speak to Corey for months and just ignored social events that I knew he would be at because I needed to shut him out because I felt so betrayed.

Things between Corey and I thawed eventually when I decided that it was so petty of me to just shut him out when we never ever talked about taking things seriously and it was awkward when we eventually did catch up for the first time when he came to the States but with his new fiancé the same person he left me for, it was still so awkward between us but when we got some alone together it felt just like old times.

“We had a catch-up when he came over so that we could fix things up the best that we could,” I say to Bec as she gives me an uh huh not really believing me. “I know what that means, just call him, be the person that you should have been then, anyway I’ve got to go because Ava’s crying again and she hasn’t been well the past few days,” she says as she leaves.

The phone call with Bec is more of a success than I thought it would be but then decide that I need to have the courage to call Corey and leave a voicemail.

“Hey Corey, it’s Blake can you give me a call back when you got a chance at a decent time for you, I need to talk to you about something and maybe ask for a favour?’ 

My stomach is a weird mix of excitement about visiting home but then so nervous about it seeing everyone again and then talking seriously to Corey again.