My name is Curtis and a few years ago I was a warehouse porter in a large department store on the high street of our local town. It was the usual sort of high street with the standard line of chain store shops interspersed with a few surviving small businesses, and one of those small businesses was a ladies clothing shop run by its owner and sole employee, a beautiful lady somewhere in (I thought) her mid forties. I found out later that she was actually fifty-three at the time of this story, and that made her exactly twenty-three years older than I was.
Her name was Patricia, although she preferred Trish, and it must be said that she was a very attractive woman, tall - in heels she matched my near six foot height - slim, and elegant, and with a figure that women half her age would have died for. Her face seemed somehow inviting, if you can understand, with friendly brown eyes, full mouth and wide chiselled nose. Her dark hair was shot through with a little grey among the black curls, but that didn't matter because it wasn't just her looks; it was more the way she carried herself, confident and graceful, that made her stand out. But for all that, she wasn't in the slightest bit aloof, in fact she was a very friendly and down to earth person with a smile and a wave for everyone she knew, and that included me.
Almost as soon as I began working nearby she would raise a hand and smile in recognition each time each time I walked past on the way to the sandwich shop, and I would smile and wave back. Then I began to put my head in the door and say hello, and this soon escalated into me calling in for a quick chat if there were no customers in the shop.
Our chat's were about everything and nothing, ranging from the state of trade, to the weather, to pretty much any subject that came up. They were always fairly innocuous, although there might be a little gentle teasing from either side or even, from my side, a little light flirting, although it was never heavy and never expected to be. Well, I mean, how could it be when I was a rather grubby porter and she was the sophisticated owner of her own business? I'd get a smile and then she'd gently put me back in my place with some appropriate, but never unkind, riposte, and we'd change the subject.
Then one day in February I called in to find her with an uncharacteristic frown on her face.
'Not a good day?' I asked.
'No, the day's fine.' She answered. 'It's my head that isn't. I'm just trying to work out an order for winter stock, and especially what I might need for Christmas itself, and I feel like I'm going around in circles. Order too much and I'm stuck with it, order too little and people moan that I haven't got what they want.'
'Christmas stock already?' I couldn't suppress my surprise. 'But it's only just gone.'
'Yes, I'm afraid we have to think way ahead in this business.'
'Right.' I grinned with impulsive bravado. 'I'll have to contact my supplier and put my Christmas order in then, won't I?'
'What have you got to order?' She asked, her face a mask of bewilderment. 'You don't order for the shop, do you?'
'No. I mean my personal order.' I was grinning more widely by now.
'Go on.' She told me, realising there was some kind of joke coming. 'I'll bite.'
'Well,' I told her, trying to look serious. 'I'm going to order some mistletoe, so that I can come in here on Christmas Eve and give you a scare.'
She stifled an embarrassed giggle.
'Be careful, how do you know it wouldn't be me giving you a scare if you did?' She asked, her head tipped coquettishly to one side.
'I don't.' I admitted, not quite sure what she meant.
The subject was smoothly changed then, and I found myself talking about how the various holidays got their names. But her remark stuck in my head and I was still thinking about it as Christmas itself came nearer again. I wondered if I dare take a sprig of mistletoe in to her, or would that be pushing my luck too far. Oh, well, nothing ventured and all that, so the day before I went out and bought some.
Christmas Eve came and the warehouse staff finished early, leaving the shop staff to deal with the last minute shoppers. A couple of beers with my workmates and I was on my way home - past the shop that Trish ran. Except, of course, that I didn't go past.
'Hello.' She smiled at me as I came through the door. 'Finished for the holiday?'
'Yes, haven't you?' She was wearing a light grey suit over a white blouse, and looking absolutely stunning.
'Another half an hour maybe, and then I'll call it a day.' She stopped and looked about her as if to see if there was a hidden customer or two, then changed the subject. 'Are you doing anything nice this Christmas?'
I'd been wondering how to get to where I wanted, and this was the ideal lead in. 'Yes, I've got something in mind. That's why I'm here.'
'Oh?' She cocked her head to one side as she so often did and looked at me curiously.
'I've come for my scare.'
'Scare?' Her brows knitted in bewilderment. She had clearly forgotten our conversation of so long ago.
I pulled the tiny sprig of mistletoe from my pocket and held it out towards her. 'Yes, don't you remember? You said that if I came in with mistletoe you'd give me a scare, unless that was another name for a kiss? So I've come for my scare, whichever it was.'
For a moment the bewilderment intensified, and then her brown eyes lit up and she burst into laughter as she remembered. 'My god, you've got a heck of a memory. That was last year, almost anyway.'
I just smiled and held the mistletoe over my head.
'I don't quite think that's exactly what I said.' She was trying to look stern and failing. 'It's a long time ago, but I think you said it would scare me, and then I think I told you to be careful it wasn't the other way around.'
'I'll take the risk.' I still had the mistletoe above my head.