The Holiday Trade

01. a blue mug

"It was only a diary - and it was common knowledge diaries were just full of crap."

"I knew that. I was just buying you a new one. Time to start again, perhaps."

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I wiped them away with my already damp tissue, a swish flick and the crunched-up paper landed right into the bin next to our coffee table.

The fairy lights behind the TV had been turned off so the light wouldn't disturb the movie, but from the corner of my eyes, I could see the reflection of our Christmas tree bouncing off the window, entangled with colourful Christmas lights I had gotten from Target a week ago. Christmas paired with Bridget Jones's Diary was such a quiet beauty.

"Why did they ever stop making movies like this?" I said, watching Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy embrace each other in the cold England snow, sniffing my watery nose.

"I know, right, young Colin Firth was hot!" Lilly said while I nodded in agreement as we both chuckled at Bridget becoming flustered at onlookers for judging her wardrobe choice in one of the last scenes from Bridget Jones's Diary, tonight's choice of a holiday movie marathon.

We both sighed in satisfaction when the screen faded away and the credits started to roll. I slowly rose, locking my knees in place while bending over to collect the scattered mugs. Lilly and I made hot chocolate to match the icy mood of the film with our shorts and tank tops for the hot Australian summer.

"What movie should we watch tomorrow?" Lilly asked as she walked towards me, bringing away the rest of the doughnut plates with her to the kitchen sink.

"We could watch The Holiday or Elf? But Holiday has Jude Law," I gently placed the chocolate-stained cups in the sink.

"True! Okay, let's do The Holiday. Jude Law is so hot," Lilly exclaimed as she brought her light brown up into a ponytail, ready to take on the dishes.

"You find everyone hot, Lil," laughing at her comment.

"Okay, but it's not my fault that I was attracted to hot men."

"That sounds... fair." I stepped back towards the couch and clicked the On/Off button on the remote control. On command, the screen turned black and the music stopped, leaving the running water as the only sound in the apartment. Reaching behind the machine, my fingers searched for the power source that connected electricity to the fairy lights and flicked it on. Small, bright circles lit up, immediately lifting the sides of my lips.

I loved the Christmas season. Picking up my phone, the bright light reflected off of my eyes. '11:10 PM' the phone displayed, quite late considering I still had my last day of work tomorrow before Christmas break.

"It's also not my fault that you keep finding all these movies with them. I used to be content with Draco Malfoy-"

"You mean Tom Felton?"

"No, I meant Draco Malfoy, that fine Slytherin specimen," Lilly stated as she finished washing the last mug, putting them on the counter beside the sink to dry.

She dried her hand on the towels below the sink and walked over to me, planted on the couch scrolling away on my phone, and plopped down to join me.

"He was hot, but I was more of a Harry Potter gal," I added, handing over Lilly's phone, decorated with ribbons and cat stickers. She murmured words of thanks and before reaching to take her phone, turned it on to show '11:15 PM'.

"It's getting late, don't you still have work tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but I was weirdly not sleepy, huh." I turned off my phone and shrugged my shoulders at her question. I knew I should be sleeping but I wasn't tired at all, my bones were alive from all the chocolate we had.

Bridget Jones's Diary was one of my favourite movies ever, the way Mark found his way back to Bridget even though they had been apart for so long just hit in the right places.

'A childhood love story,' I thought, 'such a romantic trope. I so wished that was my reality.'Lilly was back on her phone, clicking away on Spotify to find our playlist. Quiet music flowed out from her phone's speaker, filling the space of the apartment with the soft melody of 'Let It Snow'. Snow, however, must have been filling up every street corner where Noah was at. I wondered what he was doing now. Packing for Harmony's wedding, I suppose.

"Oh, by the way, did you end up finding what dress you were going to wear for your friend's wedding?" Lilly looked at me from the right side of our couch, somehow snuggled into her beige blanket.

"Not sure yet, I was deciding between the green one and the blue one."

"You should consider the blue one, you looked so good in that photo. Plus, doesn't Noah really like blue?"

My eyes wandered away from Lilly's brown eyes and her cute button nose, seemingly uninterested, but the warmth on my cheeks was betraying me, damn you, blood vessels.

"No, he doesn't." Liar.

"Yes, he did! I distinctly remember you telling me that when you bought that matching mug set. You kept the green and gave him the blue!"

"Okay, so what? It's not like he found me attractive or anything."

"Don't you want to show yourself off at least? Show him what he's missing out on. Cus, girl, I knew like five guys that would love to date you, you little hottie." My eyes involuntarily swirled to the back of my head, but a smirk crept onto my face.

Lilly was the kind of person you could always count on for fashion opinions. The dress didn't match your eyes? Nup. That new jacket you got? Hideous. Harsh? She called it the truth, and in hindsight, she was always correct, even when it was about your life.

That's why she was my best friend slash roommate. People might have found her comments harsh, and honestly, I did sometimes, but she remained candid in all, and that was hard to come by in life. Plus, living in Sydney, you have to be able to count on people and friends, with the living expenses and the social outings, friends were an essential part of one's livelihood.

"No, you didn't," the eye-roll was strong in this. Cracks broke from my knees as I stood up, making my way to the island counter and filling up my green mug.

Noah did like blue.

As if on cue, the screen of my phone lit up, showing a picture of Noah and me hugging surrounded by trees.

"Losing him was blue, like I'd never known, missing him was dark grey, all alone-" Taylor Swift's Red blasted through the air, I placed my mug to the side and skipped to fetch my phone, why was Noah calling me now?

"Ooo, speak of the devil," raising her eyebrows, Lilly flashed me a smirk, showing her perfect white teeth. Here comes the eye roll.

I swatted her teasing stare away and picked up the call.

"Hey, Noah!"