Christmas or Bust

by A. M Burke

  “It doesn’t, if anything you owe me one,” Claire answered, “but that’s neither here nor there at the moment. I need you to promise me that you’ll go easy on Elliot.”

  “Me? Easy on him?” Nora asked shocked. “If you will recall he was the one who was rude to me the last time we met.”

  “And again, I think you two mutually pissed each other off and I won’t take sides.”

  “Sides? I knew he’d try to sway you against me.”

  “Good Lord if you two were anymore alike I’d think you were separated at birth but then that would make the weird sexual tension thing you two have going on even more awkward.”

  “‘Weird sexual tension’?” Nora sputtered. “There is absolutely nothing like that going on between us. Oh God, I can’t get that phrase out of my head. Weird sexual tension. Gah.”

  “Ok, forget I said anything but I’m so happy that that is burned into your psyche now,” Claire said shooting her friend a wicked grin. “All I’m asking is that you try to be nice. Maybe forget about that first and only time you met and give him a second chance. Hell, you didn’t really give him a first chance; you two were at each other’s throats from the moment you laid eyes on each other.”

  “He was rude.”

  “Underlying sexual tension,” Claire repeated in a singsong voice and Nora wished she had something handy to throw at her. “But serious again,” Claire went on apparently unaware of Nora’s homicidal thoughts. “He’s had a rough go of it the past few years and the years before that weren’t all that stellar either. He’s been talking about this road trip for a while and it took a bit of finagling to get him to agree to taking you so if you could at least try to be nice and-

  “I’m always nice,” Nora interceded.

  “-it would mean a lot to me,” Claire finished in a softer voice and Nora noticed the concerned look in her friend’s eyes as she stared off into the distance. There was more to the story than Claire was telling but Nora wasn’t prepared to press and Elliot chose that time to roll up to their stretch of sidewalk and put a stop to any further awkwardness. The transformation on Claire’s face was a breathtaking one. Nora knew that Claire loved Elliot in her own special way and if the expression on Elliot’s face was any indication he loved her as well. He’d barely pulled himself out of the shiny black SUV he’d driven up in before Claire was launching herself at him. For a man who Claire claimed didn’t have a whole lot of emotions to spare he took Claire’s outpouring of it awfully well and Nora actually glimpsed a genuine smile cross his features before he pushed Claire back and held her at arm’s length to study her.

  “You’re too damn skinny,” he playfully growled in a low baritone that would normally turn Nora to mush but it belonged to a jerk so she was able to steel her spine. Just as she remembered him Elliot was tall and well-built, his legs slightly bowed but he still carried himself better than most men Nora knew. The last time Nora had seen Elliot he’d still be sporting the quintessential Marine jarhead haircut and she could now see his hair was quite thick, blonde and wavy. She wouldn’t have guessed that. By his dark eyes she would have put money on him having equally dark hair but he was still handsome man even if he was a jerk.

  “I’m wearing about six layers of clothes, there is absolutely no way that you could tell that,” Claire laughed and then pushed his arms off her shoulders and gave him another hug. “It’s good to see you,” she said with sincerity. “Stop disappearing on me.”

  “I didn’t disappear,” Elliot countered. “I just-“

  “-couldn’t tell you where I was,” Claire finished with him and earned a reproachful look from Elliot but again Nora could see the affection behind it. Finally he lifted his eyes from Claire to find Nora waiting behind their reunion. Any warmth there immediately left and Nora again had to steel herself, but for a different reason. It wasn’t hostility but damn near close and Nora got the message loud and clear; he wasn’t any more thrilled about their arrangement than she was.

  “Nora, good to see you,” Elliot said formally.

  “Elliot, nice to see you again,” Nora said with just as much formality and as much as it killed her to do so she added, “thank you for inviting me along.”

  Elliot didn’t give a verbal acknowledgement to her thanks, more of a jerk of the head that could have just been a side effect of turning his attention back to Claire. Claire, sensing the discomfort already tried to diffuse it.

  “Do you want to come in Elliot? Have a cup of coffee? Or maybe a snack before you go?”

  Elliot shook his head at her. “I’d like to get an early start.” He gave Nora a look that dared her to challenge his refusal. Just to be contrite she thought about insisting on another cup of coffee but she only gave him a tight smile and mumbled an agreement. Elliot returned the tight smile for a second before turning his attention back to Claire, his expression back to affectionate. “I can’t convince you to come along?” he asked sounding painfully hopeful.

  “Sorry,” Claire said sounding truly disappointed, “but I did promise to make an appearance in Miami and you know my Gran would have my hide if I backed out.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Elliot grinned, “I know you all fear the McGuffin matriarch. And to be honest I do too.” He added the last bit with a wink at Claire and Nora found it so endearing she had to chime in.

  “I thought Marines weren’t afraid of anything?” she asked.

  He looked at her for a beat then cracked a small smile, the first genuine one Nora thought he’d ever sent he way. “Don’t tell or my honorable discharge will be rewritten.” Nora barely took in the joke. That smile, just the hint of it, was enough to make her feel like she’d been suckered punched. Not that she’d ever been sucker punched but she imagined this is what it felt like and she wasn’t thrilled. If she didn’t know any better she’d say it was the first stirrings of attraction but that was just impossible. She’d have to send Claire a scathing text message later about putting subliminal messages in her head about underlying sexual tensions that certainly didn’t exist.

  “Shall we?” he asked her shaking her from her troublesome thoughts and Nora gave a short nod. They loaded Nora’s bags, Elliot not voicing his opinion on the high number but the shake of his head gave him away. Nora bit her lip to keep her comments to herself and instead busied herself on the other side of the car, digging aimlessly through her purse to afford Claire and Elliot a moment of privacy. Apparently a moment was all they needed because Nora had only been digging through the first pocket of her purse before she heard Elliot clear his throat suggestively. Nora looked over the top of the car at him. Their eyes locked and Nora chanced a smile at him, offering him a truce for what would be a very long couple of days.

  She should have guessed that Marines didn’t believe in truces.

  “You going to stand there all day or are we going to get a move on?” he asked gruffly. Claire was looking around Elliot’s shoulder and gave Nora an encouraging smile.

  Nora bit back her retort and smiled instead. “Let’s go.”

  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  “’On the Road Again’?” Nora asked a few hours later. After crawling out of New York they’d finally started eating up road at a more rapid pace, Elliot cruising expertly through traffic, barely uttering a word since they got in the car.

  “Eh,” Elliot muttered back, shifting lanes and speeding past a tractor trailer. Nora did her best not to flinch. She didn’t like trucks.

  “’Country Road’?” Nora asked once they were safely past the truck.

  “Good song, but still no,” Elliot replied and Nora let out and exasperated sigh. Though it was probably the longest sentence Elliot had mustered since they left Manhattan Nora was still feeling frustrated and fidgety. They had at least five days planned in the car together, Elliot had mentioned to her he was hopefully they could do it in less but Nora was pretty pessimistic. Traffic, construction, bad weather, and whatever plagues might be thrown in their way were all loomi
ng on the horizon, Nora was sure of it.

  “American Pie’?”

  “Which version?”

  “The original,” Nora said instantly and gave an exaggerated shudder. “Only the original.”

  “Good answer,” Elliot told her, “you just saved yourself from getting chucked out of the car.” Another tractor trailer rolled by, chains rattling as they went by at high speed and Nora fought down the urge to flinch. Apparently she didn’t hide it very well. “What is going on with you? Every time a truck goes by you flinch like I’m about to hit you, it’s distracting.”

  “I’m not flinching,” Nora insisted.

  “You are,” Elliot said switching lanes and picking up speed. “Don’t like trucks?”

  “Know anyone who actually does? How about ‘Piano Man’?”

  “What’s wrong with trucks?” Elliot asked, “And good song but again no.” Elliot settled into a blind spot behind the truck with the rattling chains. Nora did her best not to fidget as she waited for Elliot to speed up and get past the monstrosity on wheels.

  “’Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’?” Nora asked nearly sitting on her hands to keep them from gripping the dashboard. Worried she might actually reach for the dashboard Nora concentrated on keeping her hands folded in her lap, biting her lip to keep from asking Elliot to speed up.

  “Impressive that you even know that one,” Elliot said still sitting to the left of the truck. “But no and I’m getting tired of this game.”

  “It’s not a game. Are you going to pass?”

  “No side seat driving,” Elliot told her and they lapsed into silence. Nora did her best not fidget; counting down backwards from a hundred before letting out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

  “It’s not side seat driving if I say ‘please’ right?” Nora asked and took the slight inclination of his head to mean he agreed. “Ok then will you please pass the truck?”

  Elliot sped up and finally passed the truck and Nora began to breathe easier. “See I can be reasonable. Now will you just admit that you don’t like trucks?”

  “Again, who actually likes trucks?”

  “Truck drivers?” Elliot guessed.

  “Speculation,” Nora argued back “You assume that truckers like trucks because they are driving them. But it’s a job, and no one likes their job.”

  “You’re a doctor,” Elliot stated.

  “Yes,” Nora answered not sure where he was going.

  “How can you be a doctor and not like what you do? That seems a bit dangerous,” Elliot commented gruffly and Nora suddenly wished that he would go back to his one word answers. Superficial conversations were all well and good but this one was starting to get depth. If she was going to survive this trip it was all about silence and shallow conversation.

  “There are many doctors who are doctors for the wrong reasons,” Nora admitted with a shrug.

  “Are you one of them?” Elliot asked.

  “I haven’t decided yet,” Nora replied softly looking at the grey landscape. The majority of leaves had fallen from the trees and an early winter snow had melted away leaving grey and muck. All and all not the greatest of sceneries to watch but it was better than admitting to a near stranger that she was worried she’d chosen the wrong career. She’d reached a point though that it would be ridiculous to turn back now.

  Mercifully Elliot didn’t press and they rolled along in silence.

  Elliot was enjoying the silence, but she had him thinking and Elliot didn’t like thinking about Nora Ellis. He’d only met her once before during a disastrous weekend when they’d nearly been at each other’s throats. When he’d first met her his first reaction was cute, a bit harried looking but cute. Too bad the personality hadn’t matched her appearance. Nora had been walking out the door as he walked in with Claire, greeting him with a quick ‘hello-goodbye, nice to meet you’ before running down the stairs without looking back. He’d liked her smiled and the fresh smell of Jergens lotion, looking neat and tidy in green scrubs and soft burnet hair falling around her shoulders.

  The woman who crawled back into the apartment later that night was rumpled, disgruntled, and smelled strongly of hospitals which Elliot had a hard time stomaching. She’d barely spared him a glance as she brushed past him into her room and he’d heard her mumbling under her breath. Definitely a woman on the edge. Claire had tried to convince her to stay in, saying she’d obviously had a bad day and Elliot had encouraged her. Not only wasn’t he in the mood for bad company but he’d wanted to have some time alone with Claire. But Nora had insisted, her bad mood clearly growing with each moment, the muttering under her breath continuing until she got her first beer in her. He normally would have been impressed with her ability to down the dark beer so quickly, he’d also normally be impressed her with choice of drink, but it had hit her badly and the muttering that had previously been under her breath was now coming out in frustrated waves.

  She’d started naming off people in the hospital she didn’t like, giving no reason other than they were heartless bastards and Elliot concluded she wasn’t used to a little hard work. He was careless enough to mention it and she’d turned her wrath on him. Needless to say the rest of the night hadn’t gone smoothly and at one point Nora even tried to cross the street in an effort to get away from him. Unfortunately she also walked into traffic and even though he wasn’t very fond of her Elliot hadn’t wanted to see her flattened by a taxi either. He’d grabbed her back out of the road and she’d clocked him upside the head and kicked him in the knee for his troubles, telling him not to manhandle her again. She’d given an apology the next morning but it had been grudgingly given and he’d accepted it just as grudgingly.

  Luckily, for the majority of the remainder of his visit Elliot had barely seen Nora, the hospital kept her busy and away from the apartment or otherwise occupied when he and Claire went out. They were civil to one another when they did meet, but just barely. He’d put her out of his mind as soon as he was out of the city, only thinking of her when Claire mentioned her in conversation but his thoughts never lingered, until Claire had called and asked him for the biggest favor she could ask. He’d initially refused. This trip was for him, one he’d been thinking on for ages and now that he was finally acting on it Claire wanted to go and throw the biggest monkey wrench she could find into the cogs.

  But he couldn’t say no to Claire, especially when she said ‘please’ and used her slightly whiny voice to get under his skin and poke at the bit of his heart that was reserved for her. And so what was supposed to be his leisurely private drive across the country had turned into a delivery trip with human cargo. Claire had thanked him profusely and then begged him to be nice; trying to convince him that the two would really get along if they both could get past their mutual stubbornness. Elliot had promised, if only to placate Claire, but he already felt him growing short on patience. Nora was, for the most part, being quiet and keeping to herself as she watched the landscape fly past the window. As they sped across Pennsylvania she’d started inquiring to the type of music he liked to listen to. He’d given a vague answer, and Nora had launched into an explanation on her own eclectic taste in music, as if trying to validate it.

  That had eaten up nearly a half an hour and Elliot had let her talk, hoping she’d get the nervous babble out of her system. After that she’d declared that they needed a road trip theme song and started rattling off random titles from the pop charts to start. She started shifting gears after their first pit stop and started naming older classics, the type that clogged up adult contemporary stations. Not bad songs by any stretch of the imagination but Elliot had no desire to name a theme song. It seemed too familiar and they were anything but familiar. They were barely civil let alone friends.

  “’99 Red Balloons’,” Nora said out of the blue.

  “Pardon?”

  “The song? ’99 Red Balloons’ by the Bangles,” Nora explained.

  “Nothing by a girl band from the 80’s,” Elli
ot laid down the ground rule.

  “I’m guessing that also rules out ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’?” Nora guessed with a sly grin.

  “You guessed correctly.”

  Nora was silent, pondering. “What about Christmas songs?”

  “What about them?” Elliot asked warily.

  “It’s Christmas and we’re on a Christmas road trip, perhaps our theme song should be Holiday themed,” Nora explained.

  “First off this is not a Christmas road trip,” Elliot answered. “Secondly we don’t need a theme song.”

  “Of course we do,” Nora argued back.

  “No we don’t.”

  “Yes we do, all good road trips have theme songs.”

  “You’ve seen too many movies,” Elliot told her.

  “I haven’t had a social life in about a decade,” Nora told him, “I can’t have seen too many movies because I’ve been reading too many medical text books, studies, journals, and transcripts of lectures. Trust me on this; I haven’t seen too many movies.”

  “Don’t sound disgruntled or anything. I mean I know it’s a tough lot in life when you are forced to be a doctor,” Elliot observed sarcastically.

  “I wasn’t forced to be a doctor,” Nora interrupted. “What gave you that idea?”

  “The way you were complaining I was certain you’d been forced at gun point into your years of study and practice,” Elliot replied and Nora stayed silent, brooding, refusing to give him the satisfaction of an answer but couldn’t contain herself for too long.

  “You know, even though I chose it, it doesn’t mean that I was entirely happy about it,” Nora snapped.

  “Then why the hell would you put yourself through it?” Elliot snapped back. “You don’t get to play the victim when you got yourself into the situation.”

  “That’s skewed logic,” Nora growled angrily.

  “How so?”

  “Do you blame a victim of violence just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?” Nora asked.