by Cassie Rocca
Liberty looked at her, with an ironic smile, then handed her some papers.
“Here’s your agenda for today. The first client will wait for you in front of Saks. He needs to find something original, as a gift for a couple that will marry on Christmas Day.”
“Why do people decide to marry on Christmas Day? It doesn’t make sense to me to combine two celebrations – one day less to celebrate!” Clover was protesting.
“I regret that I wasn’t born on any kind of holiday. I would happily miss some of these damn celebrations!” Zoe didn’t agree.
Clover grimaced at her. “Zoe, you’re the usual Grinch! But I want to remind you that even he eventually recovered the Christmas spirit…”
“Well, no girl with funny hair has come to save me yet… and this year I will spend Christmas by myself again, since I don’t have a boyfriend.” Zoe came over to them, perfectly balanced on five-inch heels that made her sculpted legs look even more slender. “Christmas is a family and religious holiday. I don’t observe traditions. I’m not the family type and I don’t even go to church! Also, I’m too busy with work to enjoy the holiday spirit.”
“Tell me about it! I not only have to look for gifts for relatives and friends, I must do it also for half of New York! You can add to this the terrible relationship I have with my family and my fluctuating faith, and you get the whole picture.”
“Exactly! You too shouldn’t go into such a frenzy during the holidays.”
“But I adore Christmas! It’s not only a holiday…”
When Eric turned on the colorful lights in the window, Clover brightened up. “See, Christmas is magical! Everything becomes glittering, vibrant, enchanting…”
“Jesus, Clover! It’s also the busiest and most chaotic period of the year…” Zoe exploded. “You can see it yourself! Everyone is running around for weeks, searching for gifts that will be unwrapped and forgotten after ten minutes. Not to mention the hours spent cooking lunches and dinners that will make everyone fat for months.”
“Yes, that is something I would happily avoid.” Liberty mumbled. “The post holiday sense of guilt always makes me go jogging in Central Park – torture!”
“You can’t convince me: I love Christmas!” Clover twirled under a branch of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling.
“Hmm, maybe we should take that down,” Eric was pointing at the mistletoe branch. “I wouldn’t want fanatic traditionalists forcing us to kiss them under the mistletoe.”
“Clover, why don’t you bring Cade Harrison to visit the store? I will wait for him right under the branch!” Zoe was giggling.
“I thought you just said you don’t observe traditions…” Eric raised his eyebrows.
“Well, sometimes it’s worth making an exception…”
“And sculpted biceps are worth it, right?”
“Yes!” Zoe laughed, giving him a pat on the ass. “Boy! It’s very firm… congratulations!”
“He’s blushing… poor Eric!” Clover came over to her friend.
“No, Eric! Look how your glasses get fogged…” Liberty joined the teasing.
Eric huffed, “I ask myself, more and more, why am I working with three unbearable women like you.”
“Because your scientific stuff doesn’t pay enough.” Zoe smiled.
“And because, in spite of us three, your videos are selling well!” said Clover.
“You’re more useful here than at NASA.” Liberty handed a list to him. “Today you have two clients. First, a little family that will inundate you with pictures of children. They want a video that will be a gift for the grandparents. Then a young woman who wants a romantic video for her boyfriend. I suspect she will have a lot of material too.”
Zoe nudged Eric. “You know how it works, right? When you get photos or videos from couples, you must show me everything…”
“Do you know the word privacy?”
“If you look at the material, I can do it too! We work together. I’m a business associate here, therefore I can decide to check on what the clients bring us – just to be sure everything is ok.” Zoe laughed.
“You’re a damn busy body, Zoe!” Liberty shook her head.
“Are you really thinking that clients bring us porno or sexy material to be put together for a Christmas video?” Eric sighed.
Zoe shook her dark bob. “What you may consider too much, can be absolutely normal for others. And anyway, sex is part of a couple’s life. So why not? If I had to make a video about my best moments with a boyfriend, I would include…”
“Ok – I get it! If I get porno material, I will call you.”
Zoe followed Eric with her eyes, “I adore this guy.”
“We adore him too. So, please Zoe, leave him alone, otherwise one day he may end up resigning. Today you have to deal with two children, and then with the bridal couple, the friends of Clover’s client. So, if you hear anything that could help her find the right gift, call her. Have a good work day, girls!”
As soon as Liberty left, Zoe stared at her list with all the appointments of the day, “I hate working with children. They can’t sit still, not even for a moment!”
“Well, you can always cheer yourself up by inventing some hard sexy pose for the couple…” Clover replied.
Eric shouted from the other room. “Don’t give her any ideas!”
Clover left the store giggling and began to walk briskly along Madison Avenue. She loved working there. It put her in a good mood.
Giftland was a two story shop that Liberty inherited and had managed for the last three years. Originally it was an old office supplies store that her maternal grandparents owned and ran for many years. Liberty had spent lots of summers there, helping them during school vacations. She still remembered with a certain nostalgia the smell of paper and old wooden floors. After graduation, she started to work there full time, bringing new ideas and helping them with improvements. The clientele began to become more eclectic, and eventually Liberty became the owner, after her grandparents retired. At that point she renovated the space and changed the sign. She worked hard to update the store’s image, to make it more unique and trendy.
Zoe Mathison was her first employee. She was a talented young photographer looking for a job. Zoe was able to transform a simple photo shoot into something special; a great personalized gift for any kind of event. Liberty had immediately sensed her potential: her talent and her good looks attracted clientele.
Eric Morgan had arrived a few months later, to give to Zoe technical support. He created short films based upon various given themes. He was Zoe’s friend from college, and – although they were incredibly different – they were very close. Zoe had strongly recommended him because of his conscientiousness, maturity and intelligence. He was discreet and shy, but he was indispensable in the store. There wasn’t a client that he couldn’t please with his work.
Liberty was not only the store manager, she also offered something unique to her clients. She wrote customized short poems, sometimes adding beautiful drawings. Clover liked to describe Liberty’s work as a way to capture those unique moments in time. It wasn’t easy to describe the intense emotions and memories of her clients on paper. Yet Lib could do it, in spite of her serious and staid attitude that made her look anything but romantic.
The typical client question, what would you recommend as a gift for… is what had brought Clover in. She was indispensable for this. She had worked for three years as a sales person at a mall in Maine, and when she had arrived in New York she was ready for a change. An unusual ad in The New York Times had led her directly to an interview with Liberty. Selecting the perfect gift was almost a vocation for Clover. She loved to see someone unwrapping a gift. She loved seeing the expression of surprise and joy when the gift was exactly right. For her it was an easy way to make people happy. She was intuitively able to understand dreams, tastes and expectations. She listened carefully to her clients and to their stories. She encouraged them to talk about the person for whom t
he gift was intended. It wasn’t always easy to find exactly the right thing, especially when the people who asked for her help didn’t have a clue… but she tried. There was always an important detail – hidden somewhere in a corner of their memory. Her task was to find it. Her ability to listen attentively was the secret.
But in her own life, even though she talked and talked a lot, no one seemed to pay much attention. They never really listened to her to know what she might like as a gift. In fact, she had started to make a wish list – a sort of letter to Santa Claus – to give to anybody who asked her, “What would you like for Christmas?”
Clover was crazy about surprises, and yet no one had figured this out. So, every year she sent an email to her mother with a couple of gift suggestions for both her and her brother. This way, she received two gifts, since her birthday also happened to be in December. Her brilliant strategy saved her from having to show fake smiles and to hide her disappointment in front of another anonymous and boring gift.
This gift problem was something that she would never let happen to her clients. She had promised this to herself ever since she started this job. That afternoon three people were waiting for her advice on how to make someone happy. One of them was a girl who hoped to impress her inattentive relatives with irresistible gifts. Clover was especially interested in this young woman, since she had found herself in a similar situation. Although, in her experience, not even the most compelling gift had conquered her mother and brother! She hoped her client might have better luck.
While waiting for the green light at a crossroad, she looked around with the same amazement she had felt the first time she had arrived in New York City. She loved its rhythm, the sounds, the variety of people and the immense skyscrapers looming over her. During the Christmas period, the level of chaos increased dramatically, yet Clover enjoyed this energy. It made her feel a part of something bigger, and she felt less lonely.
Shop windows were especially alluring: full of lights and colors, and so imaginative! She couldn’t help but stop and look at them, even though her mission was to get in and out of the best shops in the city. But suddenly something else caught her attention. On the side of a bus that had stopped at a red light, she saw a large ad. Cade Harrison was staring at her: the gaze that took your breath away, his sculpted body able to provoke hot thoughts even in a convent girl, and that charismatic smile that could knock you down… Exactly the same effect his smile had on Mrs Kendall three days ago.
She recalled the episode in detail. She understood that someone like him had to be kind and charming – sometimes she had to do the same for work. Yet Mr Harrison had an exceptional talent. He was able to go from a serious, diffident and bored expression to a warm smile full of empathy in a second. That ability had to be one of his main strengths as an actor worthy of an Oscar nomination. But Clover found this characteristic repulsive! She had noticed his initial expression of irritation when Martha Kendall recognized him. Yet a moment later, he was making her swoon with his charm and kind words. He gave the impression that being in that place with that person was the best thing that could happen to him. Shit! He had almost fooled her too… how could you trust anyone like him?
Being by the side of a handsome and successful man had to be very challenging, but to be with someone who faked for a living had to be a nightmare! It wasn’t surprising that most of the women abandoned by movie stars fell into depression.
The ex-fiancée of Harrison was a striking example of this. Beautiful, rich and famous, she was now crying bitter tears because he deluded her with love promises and then rejected her in front of millions of viewers.
After watching the talk show about the couple, she couldn’t help looking for more news about them. What had emerged – among thousands of contradictory rumors on the web – was that after six months of an apparently harmonious relationship, Alice Brown had made a challenging move. She had asked him – on live TV – to marry her. Harrison practically fell off the face of the earth – he looked totally distraught. Then he stalled and asked if they could postpone the discussion for another time, preferably in private.
Clover could imagine that woman’s humiliation at being so openly rejected… and in front of so many people!
Alice Brown had turned red with fury and began to accuse Harrison of deluding her all along. Then she stood up, slapped his face, and rushed out of the studio in tears. Cade was left shocked and embarrassed, but eventually he recovered some of his dignity. With elegance, he apologized to the delighted anchormen and the viewers, and then made his exit.
After this episode things between them went downhill. Alice Brown – because of a broken heart or because of pride and resentment – had started to give interviews in which she depicted Harrison as being the meanest of men. She described him as a cold and insensitive monster who had used her and then broken her heart, humiliating her in front of everybody, as if she counted for nothing.
Harrison had tried to answer with no comment, except for an interview that went viral: This kind of argument should definitely remain private. But perhaps because of her lack of talent, Ms Brown has to use these inelegant strategies to get ahead and to obtain publicity.
Predictably, Ms Brown didn’t take this low blow well and the war between them went on, up to the point of forcing Cade Harrison to leave LA and hide somewhere. It certainly wasn’t easy for him to defend himself from the journalists, yet to dismiss a love relationship so quickly was beneath him.
The light turned green, the bus moved ahead and Harrison’s face disappeared.
Ah! Men… they could make you walk on air, and then – without any regrets – throw you aside like an old shoe, once they lost interest. It’s better to keep away from them.
By the way, why was she wasting so much time thinking about Cade Harrison? It wasn’t her business how he dealt with his relationships. She had to focus on her work. Today she should be more efficient and faster than usual. This evening was the best moment of the year: the giant Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center would be lit! Her big priority right now was to finish everything she was committed to that day and be back home in time to get ready. She had to make it! She would never miss this event at any cost.
*
Tired of watching television as he lay on the sofa, Cade turned down the volume and picked up his cell phone. After dialling the familiar number, he waited to hear a friendly voice.
When he left LA, he had only focused on getting away from his problems and finding a way to relax. But now – after a whole week alone in this house – he began to get seriously bored. New York, of course, offered plenty of things to do, even more than Los Angeles, but the incredible cold was damping his enthusiasm. Also – even though Staten Island was a quiet neighborhood – the idea of being recognized had discouraged him from stepping out of the house. He had only to think of what had happened a few days earlier…
He had learned quickly how to enchant women. It was an easy way to secure favors – of any kind. So, on that occasion too, he had used his charm to buy the silence of that woman. He wasn’t especially proud of it and couldn’t forget the disapproving, nauseated expression of his neighbor. The thought of that little, outspoken, red-haired girl made him go over to the window, where he had a perfect view of her house on the other side of the street.
After their last turbulent encounter, he hadn’t seen her again. Once he happened to gaze at her across the street, but she never even glanced in his direction. He was puzzled: usually women seemed to crave his attention, or at least they were curious… but this woman appeared to be completely indifferent to him, even simply as a man.
However, for some bizarre reason, Cade felt attracted to her. It wasn’t something physical. She was pretty, maybe not strikingly so, and definitely not a classic beauty. The two times he had met her, she was bundled up in baggy clothes, so he couldn’t really tell much about her shape, but certainly she couldn’t be more than five-foot four and she was slender. Her face was the most
attractive part of her. Her beautiful big hazel eyes, with hints of green, could shoot daggers at anyone; but the adorable dimples that appeared when she smiled, could change her expression in an instant. Her mass of flamboyant red, softly curled hair made her look like a woods nymph or a mischievous fairy. If his agent could see her, he would surely find a part for her in one of those fantasy movies so popular these days. But what had impressed him the most was her scent, which was of cinnamon cookies… an aroma that was good, sweet and reassuring. If she weren’t so aggressively outspoken, it would have been a pleasure to be around her for that alone. Not that he was eager for female company! After the most recent events, the desire to have a woman by his side had definitely waned.
“Oh, my adored, exiled son! I’m so happy to hear from you…” His mother’s voice brought him back to the present.
“Mother! It took an eternity for you to answer! I was almost ready to give up. Have you stopped staying glued to your cell, waiting for your favorite son’s call?”
“Don’t be so sure of yourself. You’re not my favorite son any more… now Jake is the chosen son!”
“Jake! That wanker always hunching over his notebook, writing little romantic novels?” Cade joked, leaning on the window sill.
“His little romantic novels – as you call them – are bestsellers in the United States, and will be translated into four foreign languages soon! You’re not the only celebrity among the Harrisons… rest assured, Cade!” His mother scolded him with affection – perceptible even at a distance. “Actually, Jake has become my favorite son because he has a great idea to save our Christmas.”
“And what would that be?”
“His girlfriend Monique has a house in Brooklyn. Her parents are leaving for a vacation, so she invited Jake and all our family to spend Christmas there. So, since…”
“Since I’m in New York, it would be easier to join you all…”
“Exactly! It’s not in the stars for a family to be separated at Christmas!”