The Fight for Dolores by Catherine E. Chapman

Author:Catherine E. Chapman [Chapman, Catherine E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-04-17T18:30:00+00:00

* * *

Imperceptibly, the season turned from autumn to winter and Christmas came around. When Maggie dropped in at her parents’ house on Christmas Eve, she discovered that Paula had received bad news.

“Be kind to your sister tomorrow,” Maggie’s mother told her, “the envelope that she thought contained a Christmas bonus turned out to be a redundancy notice.”

“No!” Maggie responded. “Where is she now?”

“The gym, of course. She insisted she didn’t want to talk about it.”

The news preyed on Maggie’s mind throughout her drive back to Dolores. She’d resisted her mother’s pleas for her to stay with them over Christmas, assuring her that she’d be back tomorrow in good time for lunch.

When Maggie pulled into the parking bay in front of the chalet, and looked involuntarily at the house, she was shocked to see a man sitting close to the doorway, wearing what looked like a skiing jacket, hunched over, absorbed in his phone. He looked up.

As Maggie, still perplexed, stepped out of her car, Callum began “Happy Christmas, Magdalena!”

“Strictly speaking, it isn’t yet,” she replied.

“We’d had a bit of a party at the Lodge and I wondered if you’d like to share some leftovers with me,” he continued, sounding as if his patter was rehearsed.

Maggie was offended by the idea that he was actually expecting her to let him into her home. “You after sizing the place up?” she said involuntarily.

“It’s Christmas,” he maintained, “the season of goodwill. I just thought it would be nice to catch up with my nearest neighbour–”

It was too cold to stand outside debating the issue and, judging from his pale cheeks, Callum had already been waiting for some time.

Begrudgingly, Maggie opened the front door and ushered her uninvited guest inside. She discovered that the basket he’d been sitting on was a picnic hamper.

“I’ve got some cold cuts and a bottle of chilled Champagne–” Callum explained as he opened its lid, once inside.

‘And you think that makes it alright to intrude upon my privacy, do you?’ Maggie thought but, remarkably, had the self-restraint to avoid actually saying.

“It’s really nice to see you, by the way,” Callum said, unperturbed.

“You’re irrepressible, Mr McCoy,” Maggie replied.

But Maggie’s annoyance soon gave way to her realisation that she was tired, a little hungry and, moreover, hadn’t yet properly celebrated Christmas with a decent drink. Her visit home had been overshadowed by Paula’s bad news. Maggie decided to overlook Callum’s impertinence and be gracious in the face of his offer of Champagne.

Within ten minutes, Maggie was sitting on the rug in front of the wood-burner that Callum had insisted upon lighting for her, with her neighbour now preparing a picnic of leftovers in her small kitchenette. Maggie smiled wryly to herself as she gazed into the kindling flames, considering how ironic it was that, in admitting defeat to Callum, she’d ended up being served upon by him, hand and foot.

“Your Champagne,” he said, when he came back into the small lounge. After handing a glass to Maggie, he set down his own before returning to the kitchen to fetch the food.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.