Chapter 2: Holiday Shopping

With a night of vigorous sex, it was after ten o’clock before Denise and Thomas finally woke on Sunday morning. Denise rolled onto her side and put her arm across Thomas’s chest. She kissed him lightly until his eyes fluttered open.

“Good morning to my lover, to my Thomas.” Denise stressed the word “my” each time she said it.

He kissed her back. “Good morning to you, too.”

Before she could say anything else, or do anything else, he quickly rolled off the bed as he said, “Sorry, gotta go!”

He scurried to the bathroom, leaving Denise to admire his bare backside before he turned the corner. With an empty bladder, he tapped and flushed the toilet. As he turned he saw Denise standing in the doorway.

“You’re not the only one that has to go first thing in the morning!” He paused as he tried to think of a smart retort. Instead, Denise urged, “Move, it’s my turn.” She side-stepped him to reach the toilet.

He pulled his robe off a hook next to the shower and left her to pee in peace. In the kitchen he found two frozen hash browns and three eggs. He put the potatoes in a skillet then scrambled the eggs and got them started in their own pan.

“I thought I would find you in the bedroom looking for a continuation of last night,” commented Denise when she entered the kitchen. She was wearing a robe similar to Thomas.

“It crossed my mind,” Thomas said as he looked to where Denise’s robe gaped open. “But then I thought we could have a quick breakfast, stop by the hospital to see your dad, and then go Christmas shopping. The past month has been a bit of a strain and we have barely bought any gifts. Let’s go out and spend the day at the mall, crowds and all.”

Denise immediately pounced on the idea.

“I love it,” she said. “I have not bought anything for my Secret Santa, nor for the white elephant exchange, that your mom and Eddie want to do after dinner on Christmas Eve. My guess is that you have not bought anything as well?”

“Correct,” Thomas said as turned off the stove burners and plated the food.

While they ate, they reviewed the list of family and friends that needed gifts. As the list grew, Denise found a paper and pen to keep track of each individual and any ideas they came up with.

“That’s a bigger list than I anticipated,” said Thomas.

Denise observed, “It’s been a stressful month and other than doing the best we can to keep it together day-to-day we haven’t done much for Christmas. The tree is up only because we needed something to do to occupy time while waiting on the dementor.”

Thomas nodded before he stood and took the dishes to the sink. He said, “Go get dressed. I’ll do the dishes and be right behind you so we can get out of here and get some shopping done.”

At the hospital they found Bernard in a room by himself.

“Hi, dad,” said Denise. “Where’s mom?”

“She ran out to find me something to eat. What they tried to serve for breakfast barely counted as food.”

Denise paused as she considered the best way to politely tell her father he will really have to change his eating habits.

“You know, you will probably need to watch what you eat a bit more carefully.”

Before Bernard could reply, Darlene walked in carrying a bag from a local diner. She placed it on her husband’s lap. He tore into it with gusto.

“What is this?” he asked as he held up a flimsy sandwich.

“It is a ham-and-egg sandwich,” she said. “Wheat bread with egg whites and a slice of ham.”

Denise and Thomas did their best to hold in their laughter.

“I think that is our cue to head to the mall to finish our Christmas shopping,” said Thomas. “Glad to see you are feeling better,” he said to Bernard. He hugged Darlene and whispered, “Good luck.”

On the way to the mall they talked about how well Denise’s dad looked and the struggle he will likely put up with the new diet prescribed by his doctor. Denise changed the topic when she asked, “What is the story with both a Secret Santa and a white elephant exchange?”

Thomas shrugged. “I’m not sure. We never did either. I think the Secret Santa is something Eddie used to do with his family. When he suggested it to my mom she was thinking of a white elephant exchange she heard about on the radio. In the end, I guess they decided to do both.”

“Do you have your Secret Santa name?” asked Denise. “Is it me?” she giggled.

Thomas shook his head. “You should know Eddie better than that. He created slips of paper with everyone’s names. He then found two hats. He put immediate family members, or significant others, together in the same hat. The last step was to draw a name from each hat. That way, no one got an immediate family member as their Santa.”

“You’re right, I should have assumed something more complicated than simply drawing names from one hat.”

Even though Denise knew the guidelines for both games, Thomas continued, “And remember, there is a twenty-five dollar limit on both gifts. Usually a white elephant is done with prank gifts, but mom and Eddie wanted to do something different to make it more likely gifts will be stolen. They also wanted to make sure everyone got two nicer presents.”

“Are you going to tell me who you are Santa to?” asked Denise.

“I got Kimmi,” answered Thomas.

“Oh, that’s right! Matt and Kimmi are going to be at your mom’s for Christmas.”

“And you, who’d you get?”

Denise said, without enthusiasm, “I got Eddie.”

Thomas laughed at Denise’s plight.

“It’s not funny,” she said. “What do I get someone who has everything he wants, and someone I don’t know all that well?”

The only response she got was increased laughter from Thomas.

“Laugh all you want, but you better help me think of something. Just because the dementors are done with you and our sex life is back to normal, it doesn’t mean it has to continue. If you want any action between now and the end of the year, I expect an assist on this one.”

Thomas’s sudden quietness was replaced by Denise’s chuckle. She knew she got the better of him with that conclusion.

Thomas flipped on the blinker and turned at the street before the mall.

“Where are you going?” Denise asked.

“Hardware store. If we can’t find something for Eddie there then there’s no hope.”

It took almost an hour but they eventually decided on two gifts for Eddie that together came to just over twenty-five dollars. The first was a pair of nice leather gloves for doing yard work. The second was an over-sized flood light to hang over the garage door.