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Chapter 2
They sat in front of the hearth, with the coal effect gas fire roaring, well gently hissing, to keep them warm. Claire was opening her presents, working her way through the various bits and pieces that she had received from her work colleagues and other friends, it was the first such opening of the day as there would be another set of presents when they went over to her parents house for Christmas dinner later on, and joined up with the rest of her family. The whose family to visit? thing had ended earlier in the year with the death of his mother, the last of his living relatives that he actually knew or spoke to, he had some distant relatives but he’d never met them and he had no contact with them.
She looked up and got him to open one of his presents, but he wasn’t really that interested in them, the only important gifts would be the ones from Claire anyway, besides it wouldn’t take long to open the couple he had. His friends had a tradition of not buying each other presents, but instead using the money to go out, have a slap up meal, lots of drinks, then off clubbing, Zanzibar Blue again, and then early morning breakfast at Jim’s Steaks just a bit further down South Broad Street. This year they’d all gone on to catch a Flyers game the following afternoon, and on reflection it would have probably been cheaper to buy each other presents, but it had been a good 36 hours.
Basically he enjoyed watching Claire open her presents, and to watch the expression of joy on her face whenever she opened anything. It didn’t matter what it was, everything she opened would draw an excited gasp as if it was the most wondrous item in the world. It wasn’t fake emotion either, she genuinely loved anything she received and was always grateful. He knew that she would spend much of the followed afternoon writing out thank you notes with gushing enthusiasm.
She started to open some of the smaller items that he’d bought her, the new Patricia Cornwell novel All That Remains, the third such novel featuring Kay Scarpetta, as he knew that Claire was a fan. He read the first two himself and had enjoyed them, and he’d probably read this one once Claire had finished with it. He’d also got her recent Whitney release from The Bodyguard. Definitely not his taste, as he though her to be a bit of a screaming witch, but Claire was a big fan, and he’d found it a bit surprising she hadn’t already got it. The final item for opening was a matching scarf and gloves set that he’d seen her admiring in JC Penney’s the week before. As she was opening this he produced the final item from it’s hiding place, and passed it over to her.
He watched with baited breath, knowing that she would love it, he’d spent all his generous bonus from Trebling on it. It was a gold, diamond encrusted Cartier watch, with a personalized inscription on it. She had unwrapped the outer layer of paper, and was then faced with the plain protective layer of cardboard, then underneath to the plain black box with just the word Cartier engraved in gold leaf on it. She opened the box lid, and her face lit up. He felt himself smiling, but he also felt himself shaking. He closed his eyes, and paused for a couple of seconds, then reopened them.