[Note: This is my first work reposted with better editing and a few other tweaks.]
'Twas the night before Christmas...
Carol was determined not to let the bombshell that had been dropped on her ruin her Christmas. She and Derek had been looking forwards to their first festive season in the City, they had moved there together at the beginning of the year. New year, new life, they'd told each other. But it would be their first Christmas away from their families.
Carol and Derek had been high school sweet hearts and were engaged to be married. At least they had been until earlier that day when Derek had told her he'd met someone else and would be spending the holidays with her instead. Completely out of the blue, Carol was stunned. She felt as if her heart had been torn out and all of her insides had been taken with it. The phone had hung in her hand long after Derek had hung up and she slumped at her desk in a daze for the rest of the hour.
The office was almost empty that day, being Christmas Eve after all. No one had noticed that her usually cheerful demeanor had fled her. So caught up were they in their own last minute plans to meet family.
As the last few hours of her work day wore away, she began to regain her strength of mind and resolved to enjoy her Christmas, despite the shocking news. When she left for home she was almost happy again and nearly skipped her feet as she pretended that the evening would still be fun. That the presents she had bought for Derek were really bought by some mysterious admirer for her. Nobody wished her "Merry Christmas" as she walked to her car.
The house is chilly when she enters and when she looks she sees that the thermostat has been turned off.
Must have been Derek before he left,
she thought,
does the bastard want me to freeze to death too? Dumping me on Christmas wasn't enough for him.
Reaching out she turns the dial up to the usual mark, Derek had always liked the place cool and had told her to wear more if she was cold.
Fuck him, he's gone, I can make the place an oven!
She continues to twist the dial until it hits the top of its range and deep in the basement the furnace glows and roars into blazing life. She smiles as the noise of the coming warmth rumbles up from below.
As the furnace settles down into a steady hum Carol realises the house is earily quiet and, despite knowing that it's foolish, she feels a tingle of fear as she walks along the hall to the bedroom they used to share. Looking quickly around she sees that most of his things have been taken, all that remains are a few old t-shirts and some junk he was too lazy to throw away.
She can feel the warmth coming through the floor vents now and moves to stand above one. With a foot either side of the vent the gentle breeze swirls up her long skirt and carresses her long legs. As the warmth reachs her body she looks in the mirror on the wardrobe door and begins to change out of her work clothes.
She slides the jacket off her shoulders and down her arms before folding it and throwing it on the bed. Catching sight of herself in the mirror she pauses and looks deeply into her own eyes.
How could he have done this, after so long together?
She sighs.
What is this girl like that he's left me for?
She wonders and is quickly caught up in imagining the woman who has torn her life apart.
Running a hand under her hair across the back of her neck, she lifts the silky copper tresses away to the side, the bedroom light shines through giving her hair an almost golden glow.
Maybe she's blonde?
She lets the hair fall away from her fingers in a rouge waterfall until it again hangs long and straight down to her shoulder blades.
Maybe she's brunette? Or an asian, hair like this but black?
She steps towards the mirror and peers closely at her face, examining herself. She wonders if there is something she has never seen in her own reflection before, which would cause Derek to leave her. Putting her fingers to the outer corners of her eyes she pulls gently outwards and up until her bright blue irises are peeping from an immitation of an asian face.
No.
She takes her fingers away and presses her palms against her cheeks, squishing her face forwards into a wrinkly mass then stretching it back.
Maybe it's the freckles,
she thinks, examining her pale creamy skin, a smattering of freckles spreads from one check to the other, across her small straight nose.
Stepping back a little Carol cocks her head and purses her lips,
what are her lips like, bigger? Smaller? Darker?
She runs a finger along the line between the soft pink of her pout and the pale skin of her face,
what would it feel like to kiss these lips?
She makes a toothy grin and looks at her small, straight and white teeth, a slight gap between the top front two.
There's nothing wrong with these,
she thinks, running her tongue across them.
She takes another step back until she can see her whole length in the mirror and admires her figure. The tailored blouse and long split pencil skirt hug and accentuate her curves. Her limbs are long and lean and the line of her waist to her hips make a graceful hourglass shape.
