Quote:
You've signed up for a Secret Santa this year, be it in a hobby group, school, work, or just in your circle of friends. You've received a name and a small index card's worth of information about their likes and dislikes, so it's time to go shopping for them! Or, maybe you're receiving your own present? Was this a good idea or just extra holiday stress?
Jada was surprised to pull up in front of the house and find a package on the doorstep. They hadn't been scheduled for any deliveries today, and normally she was formed of such minutiae. Until they had a butler, she was required to sign for packages and the like. So what was this one? It clearly wasn't an early delivery from New York. She hit the button to raise the garage, parked the car, and stepped out into the cold air with a shudder. In through the front door it was, unfortunately; she wasn't exposing her home to any more cold air than she had to. The gloves were pulled on as an afterthought, the biting cold making her hands tremble.
She pulled her bags out of the car, wrapping them over her gloved hand with a sigh, and slammed the door with one heeled boot, pressing the button on her keychain which would lock it with her teeth. Jada's tall heels clacked across the concrete, then crunched into the snow-covered gravel, and she closed the garage door much the same way as she had her car- Carefully, and with much grumbly growling as cold metal keys scraped across her cold-reddened cheek. It didn't take the young woman long to rethink her decision- how was Jada going to pick up the damned package with her arms full, and she'd have to set the packages down, and she could have just closed the garage door against the cold while she hauled stuff into the house, and--
Did one of those southern countries want a winter transplant? She could be in the Bahamas for Christmas. It really wasn't too late.
At long last, she made her way out of the snow-and-gravel pit, lugging her burden up way too many steps, pausing to take stock of the situation. The package on her doorstep said To Jada in large computer-printed letters, with a love from your Secret Santa following it behind. Ugh, she'd almost forgotten about the Secret Santa she had signed up for; the person running it must have dropped it at her door without telling her she was going to come by. Sighing, Jada set down some of her bags carefully, gloved hands fumbling about with her keys. She'd completed her shopping for the person she was Santa for almost a week ago- really, not long enough that she should be forgetting that she would be getting a present in return. Her hands trembled as she shoved the key into the lock, turning it almost violently to open it, and squeaking as a gust of cold blew into the large, echoing foyer.
No one else was home; she couldn't hear any sound apart from the emptiness of lonely halls. The chandelier swayed with a trapped breeze, and Jada looked up the marble staircases for any signs of life. The kitchen lights were off, there were no stately steps along the hall. “Hello house,” she told the grand emptiness, dropping her keys on the table next to the door and turning to get her bags. Box first, then the bags, and she shoved the door closed, locking it with a sigh. The Christmas tree in the back twinkled, scattering light over the paper-wrapped gifts beneath.
There would be time for her to open her Secret Santa if she wanted. Opening gifts had always been one of the best parts of the holidays. Szelem and Michael had loved to watch their children open theirs, and the halls had always rung with the squeals and laughter of their 4 children, the footsteps of a full staff, the sound of Christmas music playing through the home. But one rule that had always been firmly enforced was no opening them early! Patience was, after all, a virtue... Yet here, and now, there would be absolutely no one to tell her not to open the gift. Giulia and Aidan wouldn't be home for another 3 hours, so she could even dispose of the wrapping.
Leaving the box in the foyer, she moved over to the speakers, turning on a little bit of holiday cheer. There wasn't anyone home, after all... why not enjoy herself. As the music began, she pulled off her gloves, chucking them on the table and dancing over to yank out the wrapping paper for her other packages, and dancing back across the marble floors, flinging the paper on the white couch and starting to wrap the other gifts.
Her Secret Santa package sat on the table, teasing her the entire time she wrapped. Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Eartha Kitt, and others serenaded her as she buried herself in wrapping paper and tape-cuts. It would be there when the work was done... and maybe she'd be bad and open her gift after all.
