Another Short Christmas Story

Part 1

Her eyes scanned the tree in front of her, looking for any place that may not be full enough.  As far as she could tell, everything was perfect.  The top of it was only about a foot from the ceiling in her shop, giving her just the right amount of room to put the angel on.  By her feet were piles of decorations, each in their perspective piles.  There was one pile for her Christmas tree, one for inside her shop, and the other for outside.  There was only one thing that she was missing, a ladder.  She let out a groan of frustration.  How was she going to decorate anything before her customers came in if she couldn’t even reach half of her tree?

This is what she got for waiting until the last minute to decorate.  Every other year, the decorations would have been put up the day after Thanksgiving, but this year, things hadn’t gone to plan from the very beginning.  The first tree she got wasn’t right.  It’s overly large branches made her little book shop look even smaller.  The second one she bought was so small that she tripped over it when she walked through the door, and now, her house had two Christmas trees.  Only yesterday did she find the perfect tree, but this time, she had measured it to make sure everything would look perfect.

Sure, that meant a couple of odd looks thrown her way, but her father used to always say measure twice, cut once.   Too bad she hadn’t listened to him from the beginning.  If she had, she wouldn’t have been standing here, four days before Christmas, without a single decoration in her store.  She rubbed the heels of her hands against her eyes and yawned.  To make it worse, her usual employee had gone on vacation to visit family out of state.  So, it was all up to her, without a ladder, to make her shop look like Christmas before the doors opened.

A loud ringing made her hands drop from her eyes.  Staring at the phone near the register, she frowned.  Who in the world would be calling at four o’clock in the morning?  The answer hit her quickly, making a large smile form on her face.  There was only one other person she knew that would be up this early so close to Christmas.

“You forgot a ladder.”

“Hello to you to, Faith,” she said with a laugh.  “How are things at the mall?”

A groan met her ears.  “Busy, Natalia.  I wish that you’d give in and put your shop in here.  You could help me run things, give me a break during the holidays.”

Natalia shook her head even though her friend could not see the action.  “This shop has been in my family for years.  Moving would feel wrong.”  She paused for a minute before letting out a groan of her own.  “How did you know I forgot a ladder?”

“Shh,” Faith mumbled with a laugh, and Natalia rolled her eyes, knowing that Faith was no longer talking to her.  “Of course I am, Nick.”

“Faith.”

“Sorry,” Faith replied.  “I’ll send that ladder right over.”

There was something in her friend’s voice, something that Faith was holding back, and Natalia knew that she wasn’t going to like what that something was.  “Wait, who’s bringing it over?”

“You don’t know him,” Faith said.  Natalia groaned, making Faith laugh.  “Come on, Nat, you need to take Christmas less serious.  When was the last time you had fun?  I bet that you have your decorations color coded and in different piles for which goes where.”  Natalia’s cheeks flushed red at how accurately Faith had described her.  “I’ve only known you for a year,” Faith said, her voice turning serious, "but when have I ever pushed you to do something that you didn’t like?”

“Never,” she replied reluctantly, because it was the truth.  Despite how cold Faith could be to some people, when it came to those she was close to, she was the most caring person Natalia had ever met.