Christmas in July: The Aisles on Christmas Eve
She’d been left with no choice. She’d have to go to the store on Christmas eve.
Amanda opened the refrigerator. Nothing. Just as the night before, but this time, her favorite plate to get takeout wasn’t open. She’d been left with no choice.
She’d have to go to the store on Christmas eve.
Amanda had been living on her own since graduating from college. She opted to remain in the same city she’d spent the last four years in. Her favorite professor even helped her get a job at the local marketing firm, a profession he’d held before turning to teaching. Her parents would spend Christmas morning with her two sisters and their children, with Amanda making the trip down to spend New Year’s Eve, a holiday her family took very seriously. As she drove, she imagined the spread her father would put together to watch the ball drop.
She pulled into the empty parking lot of the grocery store. The storefront twinkled with white lights. An animatronic Santa waved hello, and goodbye, to customers.
She entered the store and grabbed a cart.
From the moment she entered, she could hear the model train running along the tracks above her. Children walked hand in hand with their parents, tempted by the bags of candy dressed in red and green, which capped each aisle.
What did Amanda want to eat? Certainly, Christmas Eve deserved a meal unlike any other. She turned into the frozen section and scanned the selections. Chicken pot pie? Pizza? The wheels turned in her head. Chicken pot pie Pizza? She shook her head. Too messy.
“Anything I can assist you with?”
Amanda looked up and noticed a man wearing a red shirt and a pair of khakis, the uniform of the grocery store.
“I could use some ideas,” she replied. She spotted his name-tag. “Anything come to mind, Matt?”
He tapped his chin.
“Is this for tonight?” he asked.
She nodded.
“You’re going to need something special. How about pizza? Wait no…”
“I already thought about adding chicken pot pie to a pepperoni pie.”
Matt laughed.
“I wasn’t going to go quite that far,” he said. “If you’re up for it, the staff is enjoying a turkey dinner tonight in the breakroom. We’re allowed to bring a guest.” He shrugged. “No pressure.”
A turkey dinner did sound nice. The more she thought about it, the more it sounded like the perfect meal for the evening.
“That sounds lovely,” she said. She stood for a moment with her arms over the handle of her cart. “Although, we don’t exactly know each other. When is this dinner?”
He checked his watch.
“In an hour,” he replied. “I have my break in ten minutes. We could sit by the Christmas village and talk.”
Amanda laughed.
“You never know what you’ll find in the aisles on Christmas Eve,” she said. “Let’s visit the village.”
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