Last Christmas : A Love Story

They stared at each other, husband and wife of 7 years.
'Do you love me?' He asked.
She smiled. 'Of course i do, silly.'

She thought back to the first time she'd heard those words.
He had just joined in the same company as her, shortly after completing his course. Try as she could, she found herself drawn to his frequent stares, the touches during work hours and lunch breaks that lingered longer than they needed to. It didn't help that her best friend vouched for his character and sang his praises day in and out. She'd tried to avoid being alone with him, afraid to trust her heart. She thought she had succeeded. And then, he had proposed...

We were such a cute couple back then, she mused.
"We still are, my dear. "
"Hmmm.. "
"Oh come on. Don't you remember? The lioness and the lion tamer? "
She tried to stifle a smile and failed miserably, giggling as the memory washed over her.
He was the new boy in office. She was learning the ways of the office at her dad's small but promising company.He was kind and straightforward. She was demanding and haughty. It was a match of opposites, the office said. A quickfire romance.. 6 months, they gave it. He'd never be able to manage her moods, her temper. She needed someone with more fire in his belly, they said. He was a novice in love, she a heart breaker. Slowly, with time, they saw the transformation.. the change that only love can bring. The lioness mellowed down, the passion in her eyes for him slowly dousing the wild streak within her. The gentle heart proving to be the tamer of the lioness, where stronger wills and hearts had failed...

"Do you remember our wedding vows ?"
She nodded, wistfully.
Perhaps unintentionally, perhaps subconsciously, he started reciting the vows to her now.
"This gift the Lord has chosen for me in the form of you, I shall treasure forever.. "
The wedding had been beautiful, even by traditional standards. It had been her fairytale setting, with everyone she cared for, turning up to wish them. By then, she had given up her job, deciding to support him as he moved up in the world rather than hold him back by chaining him to her dad's company. The child, 6 months due that day, would have agreed, she knew.


"Your happiness is all that I will seek every morning and before I fall asleep.. never a tear to pass these cheeks.."
She couldn't remember the dress she wore the day her child died. Which was weird, she decided, because she had a knack for these silly memories. And after all, she had held the child in her lap for an hour after he fell from the tree as the ambulance arrived.. too late, as always, saying they'd only recieved the call. A life lost as they took their lunch break.

"In loving you, I will protect you. Your health, your desires, your dreams ; all are mine from this day forth."
They told her it was a hit and run. There were no leads ; promising leads aplenty. Of course, they couldn't explain what her dad, the head of this booming group of companies, was doing out on the highway at that time of the night. She knew that night that the news would hit her husband harder than even her ; he doted on her father as if he were his own blood.

"The trust we share today, we shall share forever and more, till death do us apart."
The fragrance of lilies : It was something that had always bothered her about her best friend. She reeked of that particular fragrance and during all the years she's known her had never considered changing to another brand. And that night, back from his week long business trip abroad, she had smelt it on him.

"This love, we share together today, may it be blessed forever by God.."
It's funny how when you seek out the truth, it all falls into place. The ambulance driver, of course, remembered her and stuck to his story that he had only recieved the call for help 5 minutes before he actually arrived.. from her husband, who had been playing with their child outside while she was preparing his favourite lunch to celebrate Christmas Day.


"My angel, I ask you, in the presence of God and those who have gathered here ( he paused, looking at those around him, a much smaller crowd than was present during her wedding she realised ).."
Finding the man who had been paid to run over her dad required more groundwork. Of course, money helped every step of the way.The right contacts, the right amount. He had of course, under the right amount of persuasion, identified the photo of the man who had paid him. The man who she had loved so passionately, spent so many nights lusting and loving..


"Will you share this journey of marriage with me, grace this journey of love beside me forever, from this day forth till death do us apart, dear ?"
She looked at him. "Of course, I will, dear. Always."
"Can you forgive me ? "
Her gaze never left his face. Naked, bound, on his knees, pleading, he no longer looked like the President of the one of the leading MNCs of the country, liked the man she loved. He seemed thinner, tired, a total stranger.. Which was funny, because it was only two days since he had 'gone missing'..

He had admitted to it all, of course. Dropping their child from the tree, making a sandwitch inside while she waited for the ambulance to arrive, hiring the hit on her father. The plan that preceded it. Lying in bed with her friend as she told him tales of her 'bitch friend' whose dad owned an up and coming company. The plan... Getting his hands on the money.


He had always been straightforward. That was what the papers always said. He never lied..
She giggled aloud at the irony. He looked up at that, his one good eye struggling to open against the bruises even as the other eye had long given up. It seemed to her that it lost colour as it lost hope. She was sure a thought had crossed his mind.. years of being together, after all, helps any couple finish the other's thoughts, he dad used to say.

She turned to the men beside her. "He must never be found. Is that understood ?"
"That's what we're paid for, madam. Don't worry."
She walked to the door, turned back and stopped.
"I forgive you, my dear. Can you forgive me ?"

The screams resumed once more as she left the warehouse. Of course, at this time of night, noone was around to hear him. It would be awhile before the screams subsided. It had taken awhile for her friend too, they had told her, and she had always been a weak one. The first flakes of snow had arrived late, she realised. But then again, better late than never, wasn't it ?


A small boy stood near her car, staring inside and backtracking as he saw her approach. She called him to her and affectionately patted him, paid him the loose change and a couple of random notes from her purse and sent him off with a Merry Christmas. In the days to come, the child would remember the kind hearted angel who made his Christmas special. And that was what the season was about anyway, she mused : the spirit of giving.
As she drove off, she thought back to the last time she had locked eyes with her husband ; the final thought that had passed between them as man and wife. She smiled.
The lioness was back.
It was going to be a very Merry Christmas, she decided.