A Cataclysmic Secret Santa

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This is another entry for

Winter Holidays 2024

. Unlike my other entry

Invisible

, this one is short with no real character development, but the source material grabbed my attention so I thought it was worthwhile creating a story from it. At the end, it seems an unlikely scenario, but then, fact can be stranger than fiction!

It's not edited by anyone other than me & Mr. Word, so grammatical screw ups are 100% mine. I'm a Brit so English from this side of the pond. There's no sex in this one, and all the characters are fictional, bar one. Since the other characters are fictional, their part in this story is, simply a piece of fiction.

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A Cataclysmic Secret Santa

I felt a wave of excitement course through me. I really hoped the thought and effort I'd made into selecting the book would further enhance the relationship that I'd formed with my new boss, Susan Thwaite. Well respected, she had single-handedly carved out her upscale interior design business twenty-five years ago and was talking about going into semi-retirement now she was on the cusp of her fiftieth birthday.

A few weeks back, I'd caught sight of a beautiful, expensive hotel in a foreign country on her computer screen when I handed her some papers. Engrossed in a phone call at the time, she was obviously discussing if it was a place that they wanted to visit, and what would grab at their souls to want to go there. At the time, I remembered a few weeks prior; she had travelled to Switzerland to see a prospective client, so it would make sense to maximise these trips into personal experiences as well. Whilst I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, it was obvious her husband was looking at the same website as they discussed their plans.

۞۞۞۞

I'd finished uni, and landed the job as her secretary-cum-personal assistant. In just over a week, I would finish my three-month probation, and she had made it very clear she was extremely pleased as to how I'd taken to the role like a fish to water. Today was the 23rd of December, and tonight was our office Christmas party. Tomorrow was a half day, then the offices were closed until the 2nd of January. Unless I did something so utterly stupidly wrong like fuck her husband, I was confident I was home and dry, then me and my boyfriend, Teddy, could think about getting ourselves on the property ladder with two good and solid incomes behind us.

There were forty people that worked at the firm. Susan made sure that everyone remained on first-name terms, including herself. Her aim was to make sure it felt like we were all in it together, and the Christmas party was one way to show there was no "pecking order" as such. They actually made a bit of a fuss over who would sit where each year, the newest person into the business would take a piece of paper with names on from an old-fashioned tombola a couple of weeks out to decide who sat at which table, which would include a plus one, then the people at that table would use a secret Santa app to randomly select an individual to buy a limited budget gift for. Somehow, I ended up selecting my name to be on the same table as Susan, plus I picked her in the secret Santa. To me, it was the icing on the cake to finish my probation.

۞۞۞۞

I warned Teddy to be on his best behaviour. It was a free bar, and I couldn't afford for him to overdo it and embarrass me, and duly warned him up front there would be serious consequences if he did. To help stamp my position in Susan's small empire, I created a mini-profile on all of those at our table, which included anything I could find out about the spouses, and made sure Teddy memorised them for the social interaction that was coming. I was desperate to impress my boss and peers in my first big work based social event.

The evening couldn't have gotten off to a better start. I made sure my elegant dress, which walked the fine line of acceptability and sexy, wowed everyone. The women praised the dress's style and quality, and the men adored the attractive woman wearing it, at least, that was how it felt.

Teddy's behaviour was faultless. I could sense he had impressed Susan and her husband, Ron. It helped when I found out Ron was as into Formula one racing as was Teddy and for a while they were heavily engaged in a conversation about it. Several times, Susan looked at me with a heart-warming smile. I could feel it in my bones, the evening was going to be a roaring success for me, especially once she opened my secret Santa gift. After the main course, we started to open the secret Santa gifts; mostly, they were throwaway fun gifts, but I had stepped up to the plate, and was sure that Susan would really enjoy the special gift I'd purchased for her.

She opened it, then looked somewhat bemused. I noticed Ron cocked an eye, as if someone had just pranked him. She looked around the table as she held the book up on its end, so we could all see the title; '

Fifty Secret and Romantic Destinations in Europe and Beyond

'. She spoke to us all at the table.

"

Who

gave me this gift?"

I happily responded.

"I did Susan, I thought you would appreciate it."

Other than Teddy, who sat looking confused, the festive mood started to evaporate from our table, and spread like a pressure wave from an exploding nuclear bomb to the other tables as well. Suddenly, the room was almost silent. I explained the thought behind the gift.

"I overheard you talking to Ron on the phone, you were both looking at a hotel somewhere on your computer screens deciding if you both wanted to stay there. I thought this would be a delightful gift."

Before I finished the sentence, Ron pushed his chair back abruptly, got up and headed for the door. Susan glared at me as she too, quickly got up and followed after Ron. In fact, she was so abrupt, several glasses of wine were knocked over on the table. I then noticed that most of the guest were looking at me, and some whispered conversations had started. I looked at the other couple sitting at our table and spoke as panic set in.

"What did I do? What's wrong with the book?"

Sonja, my colleague, spoke in a lowered voice.

"Ron suffers from Hodophobia."

I didn't understand what she meant. I didn't know he had an illness, and I really started to panic that, somehow, I missed something really important in Susan and Ron's life. Something I should have been aware of. I didn't need to speak, my lost and confused expression told Sonja I was utterly clueless. She looked at me; her face now showing a hint of anger.

"It means he has an extreme phobia of travelling. As far as I'm aware, he has never set foot outside of the UK."

"So why was she talking to him on the phone abo.."

It was Teddy that made me stop speaking. His eyes were wide open with an expression that was the equivalent of waving a five-foot-high banner telling me to shut the fuck up.

I sat unsure what to do as the whispers around me crept up in volume to become direct conversations.

Suddenly, the conversation stopped abruptly, as Ron stormed angrily back into the room, with Susan in hot pursuit, pulling on his arm with her voice raised as he kept shrugging her off.

"Ron, stop it, I can explain, it's not what you think, don't jump to conclusions!"

He walked over to one of the other tables as a man got up with a worried look on his face. He started to speak.

"Ron mate honestly, nothing's going on, it was jus..."

I was shocked, as I think everyone else was. He never finished his sentence as Ron's fist hit him square on the face, causing him to reel backwards over his chair and onto the floor as blood erupted from his broken nose. I then realised who he was as Anita, the company accountant, stood up and stared at Susan who had stopped a few feet back when she realised that she wasn't going to stop the locomotive that Ron had become as he'd steamed across the floor of the room.

Anita looked down at her husband laying on the floor moaning, using his hands trying to stem the blood flow from his nose. She looked at him with hate in her eyes as she uttered five words which made him cringe.

"You'll fucking pay for this!"

Anita then turned and glared at Susan. I don't think Susan was used to employees being on the offensive, she glared back, and held her ground. Anita picked up the bottle of red wine and calmly topped up three glasses on the table. She picked up the first and drained it, took a deep breath then exhaled as she slowly shook her head. Picking up the other two glasses, she walked towards Susan, holding one out as if to give it her. On auto-pilot, Susan's hand reached out to take it as Anita suddenly threw the contents over her, swiftly followed by the contents of the second glass. As she walked by her, she spoke loud enough for almost everybody to hear.

"Consider that my resignation letter....and him.....you can keep him, he's a lousy small cocked lay anyway."

Everybody sat in silence and complete shock. There were only two audible sounds. Anita's husband groaning, and me, as I sobbed my heart out, realising I had not only toasted the job, but my actions had torched two marriages as well. I jumped up, ran out of the room and into the passageway, past the cloakroom and into the street. I heard Teddy call out to me; I think he said wait.

I stood outside in the cold, and bawled my eyes out, I certainly wasn't a vindictive person, and had no clue about what appeared to be going on. A few minutes later, Teddy came out with my coat, put in over my shoulders and pulled me for a fierce hug as I let the waterworks take full control. He held me, whispering to me it wasn't my fault, it would have come out in the end, cheaters are always found out. He told me he loved me, and kept hugging me as he patted my back gently.

Regaining my composure, we needed a taxi. Teddy rang them, explaining we needed to bring the booking forward from midnight to now, but they were booked solid and we needed to try another company. Just then, Ron walked out, alone. As soon as I looked at his sad face, I burst into tears again and crushed my face into Teddy's shoulder as he hugged me.

I felt a hand touch my chin, lifting it upwards. It was Ron, now standing behind Teddy.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up, you haven't done anything wrong, the wrongdoers are upstairs. You, unfortunately are caught in the crossfire. Me? I challenged Susan five years back, about a year after Anita started. She posted a picture on Facebook of her in Paris with Tony, Anita's husband, who happened to be over there for business himself.

I was never convinced she told the truth and kept an eye on her social media and other places I had access to, so I could monitor what was going on. I even pretended to be a client of Tony's and ringing to see if I could speak to him when Susan was abroad. His secretary would tell me he was abroad, but always gave a different country to where I knew she was. If I would have found they were in the same place, I would have paid a PI to follow her, but I couldn't see the point when they were never in the same place, and I finally started to think it was my own paranoia due to them meeting on the first trip and after the obvious attraction that had been visible when they first met at our house for that first dinner. There was definitely a pattern, after any form of social interaction when they were both present, she would rock my world that night, and I was convinced it wasn't thoughts of me spinning around in her head during the performance.

So, thank you, Kelly, you've proven what I was beginning to think was something simply concocted by a jealous husband in his mind was actually the real deal affair he suspected it was."

I shifted, and pulled back from Teddy. It was cold and we needed to get back to our flat. Ron became our saviour.

"Would you like a lift somewhere? I'm going to go home and pack a few things and book into a hotel for a few days. Anita wants to meet me tomorrow to compare notes. Instead of the two plus two equalling the five that I have previously come up with, we suspect pooling information, the correct score of two plus two equals four will come out."

We walked with him to his Range Rover and were glad for the lift as we all sat in silence on the ride back, reflecting on what had happened and where we were all going after tonight. I knew where I was going, straight to the dole office to sign on tomorrow.

As we pulled up outside our flat, we said our goodbyes, got out and stood on the pavement waiting for Ron to pull away. He seemed to sit there for several seconds, then lowered the passenger window to speak to us.

"Susan said you were a lucky find, you were good at your job, and very perceptive."

He smiled and made a small snort.

"I think you were even more perceptive than she came to realise! Take my card, and call my secretary when everyone goes back in the new year. She has recently told me she is pregnant after trying for a couple of years, and suggested I look for a replacement so she can train her up. Similar gig, just advertising instead of upmarket interior design."

Just like that, my world tipped the other way again, I quickly opened his passenger door and jumped up to kneel on the seat, throwing my arms around his neck and hugging him as best as I could in the confined space as my waterworks started again.

"Oh God, thank you, thank you....I can't believe you'd do that for me".

I realised I may have overstepped the mark, and pulled back. To my surprise, he chuckled as I stepped back onto the pavement.

"I'll let you have that one, special circumstances, although technically, you aren't an employee, quite yet. Teddy, never let that woman go, she's special, OK?"

Teddy smiled, giving Ron a thumbs up. I closed the passenger door as the window started to drive up and before it fully closed, he wished us both a happy Christmas, then drove away.

ꚘꚘꚘꚘꚘꚘꚘ

Epilogue

If the big glass Christmas baubles that hung from our Christmas tree reflected the past and the future as well as the present day, there would be some interesting things to see. In the past, Susan invited the primary candidate for her accountant manager role and her husband to a private dinner at her home to be shared with her husband Ron. She wanted his input to make sure that Anita was the right person to entrust the company's finances with.

During the meal, Susan and Tony, Anita's husband, both felt an unquenchable lust to be together. It wasn't something that either had felt before, but something clicked deep down inside them.

After that fateful dinner date when they were introduced to Tony, Susan tried to fuck Ron to death in bed that night. He wasn't stupid, her actions during dinner showed there was some attraction to Tony there, but as long as it was him that reaped the benefits, fantasies you or your partner have are harmless, right?

But it would go beyond fantasies, within weeks they communicated via work email and arranged a few lunch dates. Eventually, wanting to take things further, they organised simultaneous work meetings in Paris that overlapped. It wasn't difficult, he sold specialised banking software for a large software house and she could claim to be reviewing some new products. The mistake they made was trying to pretend they had a "one-off" meal by sheer chance, and that unfortunately set the seed of doubt in Ron's mind.

In another vision from the past, posting trips on social media out of time with reality helped them cover their tracks. You'd find Tony posting pictures in July of him say, in Amsterdam, then in September, Susan posting pictures from the city too. The key difference was,

all

the pictures were taken in July.

Sometimes they would skip a city visit, and vary the gaps between posting that they'd both been in the same city, even include another city in between the postings, so nothing stood out. Because Anita worked for Susan, she knew of the times that Anita planned to go and join her husband when he was abroad to there was no risk there, and because Ron never left the UK, there was no fear of him confronting them abroad either.

The reflections in the baubles showing the possible future were quite interesting. In one, Susan claiming that it was absurd, Kelly had wrongfully misunderstood what she had seen and heard, and Susan was just giving advice to a friend who wanted to take his wife somewhere romantic. It didn't help she couldn't remember which friend it was, and took the stance that with no solid evidence, it was simply Ron's paranoia coming to a head because of a dumb-fuck ex-personal assistant.

A future vison in another bauble, it's a vengeful wife asking her brother, one of the leading software Engineers that happened to work for the same company as her husband, to work some IT magic and obtain a list of dates and places that her husband has visited abroad whilst working, ideally with hotel names. It didn't take long for him to gather the information then, when Anita cross-referenced against Susan's business trip account, many trips and hotels aligned perfectly. They were in plain sight but had never been picked up because Anita wasn't looking for them.

Even more damning, it got to a point where Tony wasn't even booking a room, meaning he was sharing one with Susan. In that possible future, getting the brother to hack the husband's cloud account, via some keylogging software, produced some interesting videos and photographs that she shared with Ron. He considered posting some of them on Pornhub, but decided that was taking it too far, despite the wish for a little payback.

In another bauble you can see two divorces on the horizon, both are very messy. Keeping their cards close to their chest, the photos and videos were pulled into the court hearings, causing a lot of embarrassment and defences to fold.

Financially, both Ron and Susan were of equal worth, Ron just wanted to make sure he won the moral high ground. What did happen was that Susan became so embroiled in both divorce hearings, she took her eye off the ball regarding her business. She still pampered to many of the rich and famous, after all, it was picking up an interior design project in the early days of Madonna living in the UK that caused her business to sky-rocket.

It was a link to another one of the rich and famous that started the descent of the business until she would be forced to shut up shop five years later. Whilst she focused on the divorce, a certain hard to please pop performer started bitching about her business and lack of respect and communication over the work they were doing in his apartment.