Chapter 22

With the seminar pushed back a day because South Boston NY, like many other “Snow Belt” towns and villages were still digging out from the storm, Andi and Paul made plans to take Andi’s car back to the airport and she would use Paul’s car. It was still in the garage and she hadn’t seen it yet, and all she knew was that it was a Ford product because of the keys she saw hanging on the key rack.

They started the day with a bicycle race on stationary bikes. They programed the same course on both bikes and raced, but it was soon apparent that Paul was more used to the bikes and he outpaced Andi immensely, so they stopped after a couple of minutes and picked another program. This one ran at the same time for both bikes but allowed each rider to pick their own pace, so in the end, the winner was the rider with the most mileage. The twins were in the media room watching children’s programming on the CBC, a French/English version of Sesame Street. Full of breakfast cereal and farm fresh milk, they would be locked on to a strange new version of an old favorite for at least an hour. If they found it strange that the second language being taught was French rather than Spanish, neither girl mentioned it.

“Oh, I am so going to beat you some day,” Andi declared on wobbly legs at the end of the race. Paul had outpaced her by miles. They headed to the treadmills to cool down.

“Believe it or not, I want to see that happen,” said Paul as he showed Andi how to program a cool down into the treadmill and they both began their 3-minute cool downs.

The TV in the gym was tuned to a music only channel on the cable system, it was playing Christmas music and Andy Williams was belting out “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” but Paul didn’t notice because Andi had taken off her t-shirt and sports bra and was holding her breasts up so the fan would dry her sweat under her beautiful breasts. “That’s the song I want for our first dance,” she said.

“What song?” Paul was not paying attention to anything but Andi.

Andi looked over and saw that his eyes were glued to her delightfully wobbling boobs. “Oh my God! You’re a doctor. You’ve probably seen a million tits.” She used her t-shirt to wipe the sweat from under her breasts.

“I’m a cardiologist, I’m interested in what is going on behind those breasts. They’re not mine to admire or even notice so I don’t notice them. Having said that, I’ve never seen a pair of breasts of such beauty attached to a woman so ultimately loveable.”

“That’s sweet,” said Andi with a mock exasperated sigh. “For that I’m going to give you free access to these girls for the rest of your life, starting Christmas day. Now try to keep up with me – this song, I love it. I want this to be our first dance as man and wife.”

“But it’s a Christmas song...”

“I know! It expresses my feeling about Christmas for the first time in forever. When my dad died, so did Christmas. For a couple of years, we had no money and there was no Christmas, then mom married Harold, a lapsed Jew, and Christmas was just ... stupid. Even our tree, all the decorations were blue or white, Harold called it a Hanukkah bush. Christmas just became a day off with presents.”

Still watching his Christmas presents bobbling on the treadmill next to him, Paul said, “Christmas isn’t about money or Christmas decorations,” Paul couldn’t really understand what she was getting at.

She looked at Paul with a quizzical frown. “Paul Jarecki, of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest. When you showed up with the tractor to rescue the girls and me, you were God’s gift to me, the greatest Christmas gift I had ever received but I didn’t know it at the time. But every day since then it’s been Christmas, Christmas, Christmas over and over – the decorations, the pine boughs, the candles, the ribbons, the tree, the movies, the music, they’re just decorations, it is about the love ... Oh My God, the love! And now I understand completely what Christmas means and what the song means thanks to you.”

“It’s a waltz, can you waltz?”

“I think so,” and with that, the cool down ended. He scooped her up in his arms and they were off to the steam room to get all steamed up again, but the score remained tied 7 to 7 when they got back out.