Andrew showered and dressed leisurely. Then he picked up the other shopping bag, and went downstairs, and paid the discreet room clerk, and took the 6:38 back home. He was in the living room of his own house by ten minutes to eight. The fireplace was cheerily blazing with yule logs, the Christmas tree was aglow in the corner. His wife was waiting. She was a good-looking blond lady with splendid legs and a remarkable bosom.
“How was the Christmas party?” she asked.
“Beautiful,” he said, and kissed her on the cheek.
He had discovered over the years that office Christmas parties were not only not beautiful but were something of a bore besides, rather like a great deal of thunder and lightning promising a rainstorm that never came. Which was why each and every year he stayed at the party only for an obligatory half-hour, and then took to the streets in search of a lady with whom to share his spirit of Christmas joy. He had learned, much to his amazement and delight, that Christmas Eve was a particularly slack time for such ladies.
His wife relieved him of the shopping bag he had carried home, and then took the gifts out one by one, spreading them beneath the tree, where she had already placed the other presents she’d bought that day.
“I’m sorry about the bag,” she said, “I know you hate carrying shopping bags.”
“No problem,” he said, and went to the bar and poured himself a drink.
“But I was running late, and I still had a few more stores to hit, and I didn’t think you’d mind if I just dropped it off at the office.”
“No problem at all,” he said.
“Then you didn’t mind my coming up there?”
“Of course not,” he said.
“The party hadn’t started yet, so I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“I didn’t mind at all.”
“And you didn’t mind carrying the shopping bag on the train?”
“Not at all.”
“Well, good,” she said, and smiled.
At midnight exactly, they went through a ritual that had become custom in the eight short years of their marriage. They had bought each other many gifts, of course, and all of them were under the tree. But at midnight, each selected only one gift from all the others, and silently unwrapped it.
His gift to her was a pink wallet with twelve sections for credit cards and charge plates.
Her gift to him was a sterling silver bracelet.