Christmas Eve with Em

After leaving the office, I still had to go grocery shopping. Thank god for the convenience of modern life. Or goddess... Whatever, I don't care too much about what Ngrimah's existence implies. With one beep of the scanner, the cashier registered the emptied goose I bought. Honestly, as messy as preparing this dinner was going to be, I was looking forward to it. It's the first time I celebrated Christmas by myself and had to put in the effort myself. The past few years, I always visited my parents or my brother and his wife. It might suck, but being responsible for my own Christmas for the first time made me happy.

I wrote Em to come and pick me up at my parents' former home. I needed to check the mail anyway, so I figured it would be a good pickup spot. I arrived there before her, so I checked the mail. Many generic Christmas wishes from all sorts of companies that had our address somehow, alongside some advertisements for their special Christmas sale. Considering that no mail specifically for my father reached this address the whole month thus far, I have to assume he already re-routed them. At least he's making it easy for us and him to go our separate ways.

One letter was different. It was a summoning to the Trinton City Council, for questioning regarding the leaked tape. Ugh, fine. 6PM on Monday, in the New Summer Palace. Thinking about it, it's crazy how many city institutions are located in the imposing and beautiful palaces. Maybe all that glamor and luxury gets to the mayors' heads? Well whatever, there's not a whole lot else to do with palaces. Tearing them down seems bad and so would selling them to private investors be. We're not the capital, so it's up to the municipal bodies to make use of these palaces instead of national parliaments. Em finally arrived.

"Hope I didn't make you wait for too long, James."

"No it's okay. Bought a goose and checked some mail. The city council wants to interview me."

"Did you do anything?"

"I guess kind of... I asked you about the new mayor, right? I was involved in getting the old one to resign."

"Oh damn, how so?"

"Well, I know the person who wanted to leak the recording and I had a good contact with an investigative journalist..."

"Oh, so you were the matchmaker?"

"In essence, yes. Remember the woman I asked you to bring to the shelter? That was the officer responsible for getting the tape out."

"Ohhh, I see. Did she need to hide or why did you ask me to do this?"

"Yeah, at least while things were still uncertain. Now that the former mayor resigned, she's back at her job, I assume. Haven't met her since."

"James, it's the 21st century. Just give her a call. No need to wait until you run into people."

"You're right, Em. I'll give her a call after the holidays. Knowing her, she's probably working these days."

"You better call her before your hearing. What if you accidentally throw her under the bus?"

"I hadn't thought of that, thanks Em." We went inside her van and drove all the way to my actual home.

"James, we're here. You really don't live as far from the city as you always say."

"Well, my nearest neighbor is a five minute walk away. And the train ride takes 45 minutes, because of bad schedules."

"Hm, why don't you have a car?"

"Honestly, I could never afford it. And public transit is usually good enough. After New Years there will finally be a direct line and I'll travel a lot less."

We entered my home. It was weird coming home, and having nobody being here. But I guess this will be a quiet Christmas with Em. I started pre-heating the oven and took a look at Em's recipe again. The filling was already done, so all I really needed to still do were the side dishes and the garnish. Seems easy enough. I had bought everything I needed yesterday already, so I started cooking.

"Em, would you mind helping me? I mainly want you to tell me if I ever do anything wrong, but if you have any tips or suggestions, feel free to tell me."

For the next half an hour, while the goose was in the oven, Em watched carefully. Occasionally, she reminded me that the recipe never mentions seasoning, ever, which was certainly annoying. I'm so used to cooking by recipe that I don't really think about the steps that seem obvious to others. Once, Em told me that she liked to deviate from the recipe, and I decided to go along with her suggestion. I don't care too much what exactly we eat but for her, these are probably memories of a happier childhood. There were still about fifteen minutes left for the side dishes and the goose itself, when my phone rang.

"Pick it up James, I'll take care of the kitchen in the meanwhile."

"Thanks, Em."

I picked up my phone, Amber was calling. I could hear someone cry in the background.

"Hey James, mind if we come over?"

"Huh? What happened? Didn't you two want to celebrate together?"

"It's complicated, we'll explain it at your place, okay?"

I covered my microphone and asked Em whether she'd be fine with more company over. "Unless you want to eat the goose as leftovers for a whole week, go ahead and invite as many people as possible." That settles it.

"Sure, you two can come over. See you in a bit."

"Thanks."

I turned to Em: "Mind if you take care of the cooking for longer? I'll set the table for them and everything."

"Sure go ahead."

Shortly after I was done setting the table, Amber and Klara entered. Amber was about to take off not only her coat, but also her shirt, before I intervened. I wanted a normal Christmas dinner. Well, as normal as possible with Klara crying. The two sat down at the table with Em already having placed the first finished side dish down. "I'll be with you two in a second." Em and I now did our best impressions of waiters, bringing side dishes, drinks, and ultimately the goose itself to the table. We made sure everyone got a portion of everything, until I finally started talking. "So... what happened?"

Klara was still crying, Amber having given her a tissue box to clean her nose whenever needed. Amber explained: "Her family was meant to come over but... when they heard that I was her girlfriend, an ugly argument developed. At the end, they all left and we didn't know what to do. I suggested celebrating Christmas with you two to at least have something nice this Christmas."

Emily: "Oh no... Is her family that terrible?"

Klara: "Terrible might be a bit... sniff... harsh. But... they were really rude to me." She teared up again. "They could have been much more accepting, it hurts." Amber gave her a hug.

Amber: "I'm sorry for causing such a mess. Maybe we should have waited..."

Emily: "You mean they might have been more accepting in the future?"

Klara: "I don't think so... Plus I wanted to show them that I'm in a relationship now. I wanted to show them that I have a girlfriend. It's not your fault, Amber. I love you, whether they accept it or not."

James: "I don't understand why they couldn't just accept you two."

Klara: "I don't really know either. I mean yeah, part of it is prejudice, but I overcame that. Why can't they do that too for me? They always told me that they love me as a family member, but they can't accept me?"

Amber: "In my experience, it's easier to overcome that prejudice when you're the one **** to deal with it. If they were homosexual, they'd probably change their mind too. But as it stands, it's only you."

Emily: "I'm glad we can be here for you two. We'll always accept you the way you are."

Klara: "Thanks... You have no idea how much that means to me..."

James: "Now that I'm thinking about it, it's kind of fitting that we celebrate Christmas together. Klara's family is unaccepting, Amber's parents are wholly disinterested in their daughter, then your father is... yeah, and well, I don't think I'm going to celebrate anything with my father soon either ."

Klara: "Wait, what about your father?"

Emily: "He... thinks I should be married, for business reasons and because he thinks that's my duty as a woman."

Klara: "Blegh."

Emily: "I know, but... he threatened to disinherit me. If I want the company I worked so hard for, I have to... And well, he told me to get engaged and James seemed like the best option for me."

Klara: "How do you know James?"

Emily: "We met in high school and became friends. When he moved back here, he needed my father's company's services and when he got GRC he hired us as the people in charge of repairs."

Amber: "Did you two have anything planned for the evening?"

James: "No, not really. Not quite sure what to do with the rest of the evening."

Amber: "Alright, I just wanted to know if we were disturbing."

Emily: "Even if you were, look at Klara, she needs some emotional support right now. The other stuff would need to wait."

James: "Yeah, you're right about that. If you have any ideas to cheer up Klara, go for them."

Amber: "I think we just need to hug for a while and process everything. You two do whatever you need to do."

James: "Well Em, time to clean up, then." And so we cleaned up the table while Amber and Klara were in deep embrace, occasionally exchanging snippets of dialogue and a kiss. It wasn't even 8PM yet, but I decided I had to call someone.

"Hey James, how are you?"

"Hey Bartholomew, merry Christmas!"

"Thanks bro, merry Christmas to you too. How have things been?"

"Eh, quite alright, I guess. Very hectic, but I am getting used to it. How has life been for you?"

"Well, things are still uneasy at the moment. The trial was rescheduled to continue after the holidays, so I'll have to wait until the judge makes his decision public. Christmas here in the prison is weirdly fun. It's nice to see the guards and other inmates be so happy."

"I'm glad you're feeling alright."

"Are you with mom?"

"Oh no, she went to visit her side of the family. Maybe just write her, she might be more busy that I am today."

"Lonely?"

"I mean, kind of... I have friends over but it was more so a spontaneous thing."

"Ah well, as long as you're not alone you should be happy. I'll chat a bit with mom, see you."

"Bye."

I've got that taken care of. Anyone else I want to write? Hm, not for Christmas, but there was one thing I wanted an update on.

'Hey Gloria, how are you? Did you get more antidepressants?'

'Fuck, I forgot. I don't think any pharmacies are open over the holidays here.'

'Will you be alright?'

'I think so, yeah. I'm with my family, they can support me if that's necessary.'

'I'm glad. Take care of yourself, okay? And merry Christmas.'

'Merry Christmas.'

So I guess I would get my answer soon, as to how well the Mental Health Lock would work. I also wrote mom but didn't get a reply. Maybe she talked with her family or Bartholomew, who knows. Amber interrupted my chatting with my loved ones: "James, we're exhausted, mind if we stay here for the night?"

James: "Em, is that alright with you?"

Emily: "Sure, I guess" Emily +2SP (+81SP)

James: "Alright. Laura's room has a double bed, so you'll stay there." I led Amber and Klara to Laura's room, pulled some sheets out of her closet and put them on with Amber's help. "Good night you two. It's not even 9PM, but you must be exhausted."

Amber: "W-Well, we also wanted some privacy."

James: "It's okay, no need to justify. Have fun you two."

With that, I returned to the living room. The food had cooled enough to be put in the fridge without any issues and then I sat down on the couch next to Em. She watched some movie on the TV I didn't recognize, some weird movie with a bratty kid playing pranks on two poor souls in their forties. Whatever. I just scrolled through my phone mindlessly, I hadn't much to do. No fashion news during Christmas of course, so things continued like this for another hour.

"James, I'm getting tired. Wanna sleep?"

"Sure. I should have told you this earlier, but because Amber and Klara are here, you'll have to stay in my mom's room."

"Wait, why not... Whatever, why is there just a mattress?"

"Because we take the bed frame and everything else tomorrow."

"Oh I see..."

"It's certainly better than the couch, trust me."

"Yeah you're right, sorry, I'm being ungrateful."

"No you're not. Normally, I would've had a normal bed ready for you, but due to circumstances..."

"It's fine, I had just assumed... that we'd sleep in your bed."

"What? Em, you told me you didn't want to and so that's that."

"Yeah you're right, thanks James."

With that, the night was approaching...