The Christmas Tree Guy (3 page)

“Hmm, sounds like he had a point.”

“What? How can you say that?”

“You didn’t say you didn’t
want
to go out with him. Even when you were telling me about it, you never said you didn’t
want
to go out with him. You said
can’t
, and it’s different.” Sydnee stared at Sara and the smirk gracing her face with disbelief.

“Sara, you’re crazy. I can’t go out with him. How would that look? I’m practically ten years older than him. I have two five-year olds, and I just don’t think that looks good.” Sydnee dismissed Sara’s crazy thought process. She could only imagine the looks they would get, and never mind the comments people would make.

“To who? Seriously Syd, more and more women are doing exactly what men have done for ages. What’s so wrong with it? Obviously he doesn’t have a problem with you being a single parent of five-year olds. And you said yourself the boys seemed to be in awe of him, and he even let them help with the tree, so he’s good with kids.”

“Sara, you’re just a silly hopeless romantic.”

“Hey, it could work.”

“There are other factors that I don’t think would work,” Sydnee confessed slowly.

“Like? C’mon, Syd, what’s the problem?” Sydnee paused before starting to list the issues she felt would present a problem.

“He’s…he’s white.”

“So?”

“So? Sara, really? That just makes it even harder.” Sydnee didn’t have a problem with race. She got along fine with people of all backgrounds and she had no problem with interracial relationships. If someone loved someone, that’s who they loved. It was just something she’d never experienced.

“Whatever, Syd. Obviously he doesn’t care about the race issue, so why should you?” Sara stopped. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, before a grin the size of the Mississippi River spread across her face. “You’ve never gone out with a white guy before, have you?”

“Well...no. I haven’t. You know that.”

“Gurrrrrrl. You better get with the program. Don’t limit yourself.” Sara laughed at Sydnee rolling her eyes. “I’m serious. You never know, he might be what-cha need.”

“I guess we’ll never know because I probably won’t ever see him again.”

“Well, maybe, but he does know where you live.” Sara laughed, looking at the face Sydnee made as the instructor started the class.

“Hey guys.” Sydnee opened the door and laughed as the twins rushed towards her at their grandmother’s house. She was barraged with tons of “Mommy guess what’s” and “we got to do this” as Leanne came to hug her.

“Hi, sweetheart, how are you?”

“I’m good. Thanks again for watching these two. I know they can be a handful at times.” She mussed both of their heads before they took off down the hall. “Hey, get your stuff and stop running.”

“Oh, they’re all right. Did you get a lot done?”

“Actually, I did. I was able to get some cleaning done, grab a quick work-out and get a few gifts, now we can bake the cookies and put the decorations on the tree.”

“Well, sounds like you’ve got everything in order. They are more than a little bit excited and couldn’t talk about anything else.”

“I know. They are all ready for the holiday, but it’s still kind of hard to get into it.” Sydnee was thankful for her in-laws. They were so helpful, and when Matt had left her for another woman instead of them turning their backs on her, they had stood beside her and helped her with the boys. It was a little awkward at first, but they let her know when Matt married her, she had become their daughter too and they would always be there for her and the twins.

“Honey, it’s okay. I’m sure the boys’ excitement will help.”

“I know, it’s just so hard to…I’m sorry. This isn’t fair to you.” Sydnee felt tears spring to her eyes. “Man, I’m so tired of crying.” She took the tissue Leanne handed her and wiped her eyes. It had almost been three years since Matt walked out on them and it was still hard for Sydnee to fathom how any man could just walk away from his family. She had shed too many tears over Matt leaving her, and it broke her heart mostly for the boys. She wanted them to have a strong family unit. To grow up with two parents who loved them and supported them. Children needed their mother and father. A stable environment was something she had growing up and she wanted the same for her children.

“Sweetie, I know. It can’t be easy, but it’s okay for you to cry.” She offered up a weak, watery smile as Leanne folded her arms around her. “You can’t be strong all of the time. Sometimes you have to let go and give yourself a break.”

“I just want the boys to have a great Christmas and not be sad, or see me sad, you know.” She quickly wiped her tears upon hearing the twins running down the hall behind her. Turning out of her mother-in-law’s arms, Sydnee knelt down and smiled at the boys. “You two ready to go?” Instinctively, she reached to tie Charlie’s shoelace.

“Mommy, I can do it.” Charlie voiced with pride and stooped to tie his laces.

“Okay, okay.” She stood, proudly watching him tie his shoes with the same precision she taught him.

“Are we still baking cookies, Mommy?” Travis looked up at her and placed his tiny hand in hers and her heart swelled with love at the small gesture. To an independent Travis, it was nothing, but Sydnee cherished the times either of the boys would hold her hand or snuggle.

“Yes, we are. And we had better get going so we can do that and get the tree decorated. Tell Grammie goodbye so we can go.”

“Bye, Grammie!” Both boys yelled in unison, running to hug Leanne before they ran out the door to head to the car.

###

It had been a few days since she and the boys decorated the tree and soon they would be out of school for Christmas. Sydnee was looking forward to her much needed two-week vacation. It was going to be wonderful to spend time with the boys without the worries of deadlines hanging overhead. Since Matt left, she had returned to work full-time, cutting into the amount of time she could spend with Charlie and Travis. Sitting at her desk, she looked over at a picture of their angelic faces from last Christmas and smiled. It was amazing how resilient and strong children were. They were a lot stronger than she was.

“They’re so cute.” Sydnee heard her co-worker passing by her desk and noticed the woman staring at the picture. “I hope you’re ready for the holiday.”

“Oh yeah, they won’t let me forget it. Every day they’re counting down the days until Santa comes.” Sydnee chuckled, thinking of the countdown calendar stuck on their refrigerator. It was barely visible amidst all of the twins’ artwork, but the red slashes on each day of the month of December, popped out against the crayon stick people and kept track of the days until Santa’s impending visit.

“That’s so much fun. I remember when mine were that little. Enjoy the time while you can, because it goes by fast.”

“I know. I can hardly believe they are five.”

“Well, look at it this way, they’re five and getting older, but you don’t look old enough to have five year olds.”

“Julie, you just got added to my shopping list.” Sydnee joked as she saved the last edit to the ad she’d been working on for a new local restaurant opening. Making sure all of her emails and voicemails had been handled and all ad specs and mock-ups were submitted, she started to shut down her computer for the day. She stopped when her cell phone rang.

“Hello.”

“Hi Sydnee, it’s Monica.”

“Monica, hi, is something wrong?” She couldn’t imagine why her next-door neighbor, Monica, was calling her this early. Her son, Sean, was best friends
with the twins and Monica kept them after school until she came to pick them up.

“Syd, everything’s fine, but Charlie had a little accident.”

“An accident? What happened?” For Monica to call her, she knew it had to be something more serious than just a ‘little accident’.

“He and the boys were playing in Sean’s room and Charlie fell and hit his head on the edge of the table beside Sean’s bed. He’s okay, but I had to bring him to the emergency room. He needed a few stitches.”

“Stitches! I’m on my way.” Sydnee hurriedly grabbed her purse and her coat and scarf. Driving to the hospital felt like an eternity to Sydnee and she tried to stay calm parking the car in the hospital parking deck. Her chest hurt just thinking of her child in pain, and the fear of what could possibly be wrong with Charlie made her grab her things and sprint into the building. All she could think about was Monica’s voice saying, ‘he needed stitches’ and ‘he hit his head’. The most serious injury either of them had ever had was the proverbial knee scrape or the imaginary boo-boo she would kiss and place a bandage on just because they wanted the attention. She moved quickly past people milling around in the lobby and made her way to the front desk.

“My little boy was brought in here by my neighbor. She said he had to have stitches.” Sydnee was nearly beside herself. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably and she could feel her heart pounding against her chest. Her little boys were everything to her and there was nothing in the world she wouldn’t do to keep them safe and happy. Monica had told her over the phone Charlie was okay, but she just needed to see him for herself. Finally getting past the reception area once she found out the information she needed, Sydnee hurried to find them.

“Sydnee.”

“Monica, where is-” Sydnee was about to ask where Charlie was before she looked over at the little table that held puzzles and games and saw Travis, Charlie and Sean coloring. “Charlie! Oh, my baby.” She hurried to his side and knelt to see the wound near his temple. “Honey, are you okay?” She kissed his forehead and hugged him to her; inspecting him from head to toe and reassuring herself he had no other injuries.

“I’m okay, Mommy.” She couldn’t believe how nonchalant he was. Here she was about to fall apart and it was almost as if he was trying to comfort her instead of the other way around.

“Mommy, Charlie fell and hit his head, but he didn’t cry.” Travis proudly let his mother know how brave his little brother was. He was only a few minutes older than Charlie, but sometimes he acted as if they were years apart when his protective nature would appear.

“He didn’t?” Sydnee felt herself finally breathe seeing Charlie was in one piece and he was no worse for wear as he continued to color his picture.

“Auntie Sydnee?”

“Yes, Sean?” She looked over to see the little boy staring at her.

“Charlie’s really brave. That’s what my Mommy said. And she said if he did cry it was okay too, because sometimes when we get hurt, we cry.”

“That’s right Sean. It is okay to cry when we get hurt.” Standing, Sydnee smiled, watching all three of the boys acting as if nothing had ever happened.

“I’m so sorry Syd. I don’t know what happened. One minute, they’re playing and the next, Sean is running up the hall telling me Charlie was hurt. I feel horrible.”

“Mon, it’s okay. Accidents happen. I’m just glad he’s alright. Is the doctor around so I can talk to him?” Sydnee could see Monica was just about as frazzled as she was, and she turned to her neighbor, placing her hand on her arm to reassure her everything was fine.

“Yeah, I told him you were on your way, so he should be out in a few.”

“Thanks. I can wait for him if you want to go ahead and take Sean home.” Sydnee convinced Monica they would be okay and she hugged and kissed both her and Sean before they said their goodbyes to the boys and headed out of the hospital. She watched them walk down the hallway and get on the elevator before turning to look at Charlie and Travis still busy coloring pictures.

Just as soon as they left, the doctor appeared. Once he had filled her in on the extent of Charlie’s injury and what she needed to do to help him heal, she thanked him and gathered up Travis and Charlie and their things and walked to the reception area. As she finished the paperwork at the reception desk, she heard Travis saying hello to someone.

“Look, Mommy, it’s the Christmas tree man.” Turning, she saw Quinn walking towards them and she smiled at Travis’s comment.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” Quinn voiced, walking up to them. She was right about him being in shape underneath his coat. At the moment, he carried his jacket in his free hand and she admired the way the black compression shirt looked painted on his muscular build. The ripples beneath the black second skin just begged for her hands to reach out and touch them and she gripped the pen in her hand harder. His black track pants covered his sinewy legs and she had to fight to curb her runaway thoughts.

Regaining her composure, she quipped as he stopped in front of her. “Hi. I can’t imagine you just hang out in hospitals for fun?”

“Well, actually, I kind of had to come or risk the threat of bleeding out.” She watched him raise his left hand, revealing a bandage.

“Oh wow, what happened? Are you okay?” Her eyes widened at seeing the first aid tape and gauze surrounding his olive skin.

“Oh, yeah, nothing a few stitches and a little Vicodin won’t cure. What are you doing here?” He flashed that thousand-watt smile and she felt her insides melt.

“My little one.” Motioning to Charlie, she admired the little boy’s resilience to the situation. “He kind of had an accident and needed a few stitches himself.”