Friday, December 24th, 1954
3:45 p.m.
Abby rounded the corner onto Madison Avenue once she got her car parked around the block from Carol and Therese's apartment. Her arms were full of presents, all wrapped in brightly colored paper, tied up with satin wire-edged ribbons. The wrapping style was definitely not Abby's, clearly something done at a nearby department store's impromptu gift wrap department that popped up every November. Clearly Abby had had everything possible wrapped in the identical paper and ribbons from the lovely curly-haired girl behind the counter. Every package had uniformly been prepared with care and placed just so into bags or neatly stacked in Abby's arms. Besides, it had worked for Carol, right?
As she stood at the front door to the apartment building, the doorman immediately recognized Abby. He vaguely knew her as the eccentric woman in plaid who always stopped by whenever Carol and Therese were away to either water the plants, collect the mail, or make sure everything was in order at the apartment. Sometimes, when she found herself in the city too late or too inebriated, Abby would stay over in the guest room. She even had a drawer in the massive dresser by the window, filled with anything she might need should she spend the night. In the mornings, Carol and Therese would wake to find Abby busy in the kitchen, making breakfast for the three of them. Abby loved those mornings, waking up in their apartment for coffee with Therese, cigarettes with Carol, and jovial banter between the three of them. It reminded her of when she had a sweetheart and that giddy feeling she got in the mornings composed of domestic bliss.
The doorman called the elevator for her, helping her get in with the bags of presents as Abby was fairly certain she would trip over her own two feet with her arms filled like that, unable to see the ground.
"Ninth floor?" he asked.
"You know it. Thanks." Abby replied.
By the time Abby reached the front door of the apartment, her arms were exhausted from the weight of the packages. She didn't have Carol to play tennis with anymore, so her forearms strained against the weight of the bags and the packages resting on top of her arms. She had a key in her pocket, but there was no chance she was going to put down all of the items only to retrieve the key or ring the doorbell. Abby stood directly in front of the apartment and leaned her head against the door.
"Carol?" She didn't want to shout too loudly. It was Christmas Eve after all. "Carol?" This time Abby drew out saying the r as long as she could hold it in the hopes that someone in the apartment would actually hear her.
"Anyone? Therese?" Abby had finally resorted to banging her head directly against the door since she could reach the doorbell. After about five attempts of knocking her head against the door, Abby stopped once she heard the sound of heels on the hardwood floor.
When the door opened, Carol could only stand there with arms crossed, bewildered as to Abby with her arms to pull of presents and an increasingly red patch appearing in the middle of her forehead. "What the - "
"Answer your damn door."
"I do. That is, when someone rings the doorbell."
"Does it look like I could ring, you nitwit?" Abby exasperatingly asked as she walked into the apartment, at which point the pile of presents in her arms and the bags tumbled to the floor. She gently swatted the presents to one side or another to create a path to walk down the hallway, making no attempt to place anything on the amply sized table in the foyer. Carol quickly glanced to the floor with a smirk. "Just leave them," Abby instructed.
Carol took her coat, tossing it onto the pile of presents on the floor. "You can pick it up later."
Abby walked down the hallway toward the living room where she spotted Rindy at an informal table by the window and accompanied by her mohair teddy bear who sat atop a pile of sofa pillows.
"Aunt Abby!" Rindy managed to get down the chair and wander over to greet her. Abby crouched down and hugged the little girl who ran toward her. "Merry Christmas Eve!"
"Merry Christmas Eve to you too, Rindy." Abby let go of her and helped Rindy back up to her seat. "So what's cookin' today?"
"Mommy, me, and Bear are having tea. Would you like to join us?"
Carol walked over and stood beside Abby who didn't know exactly where to sit at the table for four. "Is Therese joining us?"
"She's in the darkroom working on some last-minute project or some such." Carol replied. "Come, take the last seat."
Abby sat next to Carol's left, with her back to the balcony as Carol poured her a cup of tea. "One sugar or two sugars or no sugars?" giggled Rindy.
"Two please."
Rindy placed two lumps of sugar into Abby's tea.
"Cream? Lemon?" Rindy then inquired, holding up a small saucer of cream.
Abby turned to Carol and shook her head with an approving smile. "She's too cute, Carol." All Carol could do was beam in reply as she raised the teacup to her lips.
"Rindy, I'd like just a little bit of cream."
Rindy carefully poured the milk into her tea, maybe a little too much, but Abby liked her tea sweet and creamy anyhow. Carol continued to sit and watch her daughter and Abby prepare their tea, Abby stirring hers and Rindy now helping herself to the tea she had poured earlier for her teddy bear. Carol slowly took another sip of her drink, looking out the window and hoping for just the hint of snow again for Christmas.
"Hold up." Abby cried, reaching for Carol's hand. "Hold the fu - "
"Not in front of… " Carol uttered in a low voice. She looked at Abby and then to her daughter, now happily drinking from her bear's teacup. "Rindy, sweetheart, why don't you go wash up so we can start getting dinner together?"
"Okay." Rindy stepped down from the chair and immediately wrapped her arms around her mother. Carol embraced her with a quick hug and kiss to the forehead.
Abby practically pulled Carol's hand, sliding it as close as possible to her on the tabletop and looked at the ring. "Did she?"
"She did. Well, it wasn't a down-on-one-knee thing, or anything like that."
"Oh?"
Carol paused before continuing, stopping to glance at the ring on her finger. Abby watched the expression on her face brighten again as she recalled what happened. "On our first night in Stowe, we had just undressed and gotten into bed. The light was on, I was reading and thought Therese was dozing or reading over my shoulder like she sometimes does. A couple minutes later, she took away my book, reached for my left hand, and she - she placed the ring on my finger without saying a single word. She kissed me, turned over, then went to sleep."
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" Abby whispered in case Rindy was still lingering around the corner.
"It was just the other day, plus I'd thought you appreciate me telling you in person."
Abby couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy, and a hint of sadness that she didn't tell her right away. Carol used to call Abby all the time, every night, without fail, to go over the day's events, or years before, complain about everything Harge. Carol didn't need to call Abby as often, didn't always come rushing to her first thing when there was a problem. They were still close, but there was now a delay in the relay of communication between the two.
She then remembered the times she and Carol were together, how it was always in the darkness so Abby could never fully see her. Therese though, Therese had the ability to strip all that away.
Then, Abby remembered something she had learned when she and Carol had finished about ten years earlier.
It changes.
Sometimes, Abby needed to remind herself of that fact. It didn't mean she wasn't an important fixture in Carol's life, in a lot of ways, they had become closer since Therese had come into the picture. Nonetheless, it had changed.
"She loves you." Abby said. She reached for her purse to find her cigarettes and lighter.
"May I have one too?"
Abby nodded and pulled out two cigarettes, lighting both and passing one to Carol. "So, what did you get Therese?"
A sly smile escaped Carol's lips as she stood to walk to the credenza in the dining room, cigarette hanging from her lips. She opened the top drawer and pulled out a flat, wide black velvet box, then returned to the seat next to Abby. Once she placed the box on the tabletop, she slid the item toward Abby.
Abby opened the box, smiling at the necklace inside. "She's young, it's perfect." Abby pushed it back, still opened, to Carol who took the box in her hands. She paused, looking at the circle of rubies hanging from a silver chain.
"You think she'll like it?"
"She'll love it, Carol."
8:15 p.m.
As Abby poured herself a third cup of eggnog, Carol took Rindy into her room to help her get ready for bed. Therese meandered over to the record player to put on some Christmas music. The record cabinet in the apartment was smaller than the one that was in the house in Ridgewood, but it certainly stocked a much better collection of tunes than Carol used to have. Once Therese found something to listen to, she stood up and walked back over to Abby who was now on the couch and putting the finishing touches on her eggnog.
"So," Abby began, "you got some good taste, kid."
It took Therese a good moment to realize Abby was talking about Carol's ring and not the choice of music. "Thanks." Therese pulled one of the sofa pillows out and clutched it in her arms, then tucked her feet underneath her. "I'm glad you're here for Christmas, Abby."
Raising her glass to take the last swig, Abby finished off her eggnog and stood to make her way to getting herself a fourth cup. "I haven't seen Rindy in a while."
"Pour me one?" asked Therese. Abby gave a brief nod of her head and found a clean glass for Therese's drink. "And add some more bourbon to mine."
"More?"
"If you're on your fourth, clearly there's not enough liquor in there."
Laughing, Abby reached for the bottle of bourbon and added a couple fingers to each their glasses. She brought the drinks back to the sofa and touched glasses with Therese. When they took their first sips, Therese's eyes scrunched up, Abby just smiled and hummed. "Ah, that's better."
Little footsteps came from down the hallway into the living room with the appearance of Rindy in her pajamas and robe. The excitement radiated from her face that that was the night Santa would come and leave presents. Rindy ran up to Therese and jumped on the couch between her and Abby. Therese placed her drink on the coffee table so she could put her arms around Rindy's shoulders.
"You ready for bed?"
"Yes!" Rindy answered with a big smile. She joyously swayed back and forth in Therese's arms, hopefully not getting herself too excited to sleep. "Can we put out milk and cookies for Santa?"
Therese nodded, "We certainly can." Abby reached to tickle the bottom of Rindy's feet in her footie pajamas, making the little girl laugh and squirm as Therese held on to her. "Stop, Aunt Abby! That tickles!" Abby let up and went into the kitchen for a plate for the cookies and a glass for the milk.
"We're out of milk until the morning!" Therese shouted from the living room.
Abby opened the fridge to see what else there was that they could leave for Santa to drink. There was nothing but beer, white wine, a chilled carafe of water, and orange juice. "We can always leave Santa some eggnog."
"Yeah, I don't think Santa will mind." Therese winked.
Rindy got up to help Abby, taking the plate of cookies and setting it next to the fireplace by the stockings. Glancing up at the empty red, white, and green stocking hanging from the mantle, Rindy reached an arm out to poke it, to see if anyone had put anything in the stocking ahead of time. Disappointed by the lack of goodies inside, Rindy walked over to Abby who had just poured the glass of eggnog to leave for Santa so she could put it next to the cookies.
As Rindy placed the glass of eggnog by the kindling, Carol sauntered into the living room also dressed in her pajamas and robe. "What are you doing, sweet pea?"
"Leaving cookies and eggnog for Santa!"
"Eggnog?"
"We're out of milk." Therese interjected.
"Well, eggnog will do then. We can make Santa a little extra jolly this Christmas Eve then." Carol quipped, and looked over to Abby. She knew how much she missed spending time with Rindy, especially since the divorce drove an even bigger separation between the two of them who had usually been so close. "Why don't you get Rindy to bed?"
"Can I have a story?"
"Yes!" Abby replied.
"Can it be about Santa and the reindeer?"
"Absolutely." Therese let go of the pillow she had been clinging to so she could give Rindy a hug and kiss goodnight. Carol embraced Rindy, giving her a tight squeeze and kiss to the forehead before Rindy followed Abby to her room.
When they were finally alone, Carol went over to Therese on the couch, propping one leg under herself, similar to how Therese sat. Therese gestured toward the cookies and eggnog by the fireplace that Rindy had set out for Santa. "That eggnog's yours, Carol."
"Mine? No, you have it, sweetness."
"Oh, I've had enough eggnog." Therese couldn't help but giggle and tug on the lapels of Carol's robe to pull her on top of her. Therese's lips immediately fell to the v of Carol's pajamas and robe, the exposed skin just above her breasts that was soft and smelled like that perfume Therese enjoyed so much. "You know how I get when I drink that stuff - " Therese said as she dotted all of the exposed skin with kisses.
"Jesus Christ, your bedroom is about twenty fucking feet away." Abby exclaimed. Two heads popped up from the sofa. "Just go," Abby pointed back down the hallway toward the bedroom door, "I'll put out the presents and clean up." Therese took Carol's hand, both of them laughing as quietly as possible as they walked down the hallway to their room and shut the door.
Abby sighed, looking around the living room at the mess of dirty glasses, askew pillows, and the treats left for Santa. Abby first tackled the dishes and tidying up the living room so that everything was ready for Christmas morning. She then walked back to the hallway, filled with the spilled over packages and presents from when she had arrived earlier in the afternoon. Piece by piece, Abby carried the presents to the tree, placing everything neatly beneath it and adjusting the ribbons when needed. Right before she finished with her own gifts, Abby realized she didn't have Carol and Therese's presents for Rindy. There was no chance that she was going to knock on their door for at least another hour or so. Abby looked to the fireplace with the snacks and pulled everything into her arms to bring over to the TV. She turned it on to find something to kill time before going to retrieve Rindy's presents.
"Could you at least put on a robe or something and bring out the damn presents so I can get to bed too?" Abby whispered as loudly as possible through the door. She had already stayed up plenty and had had enough waiting when the Midnight Mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral finally came on air.
After some commotion, the door opened to an exasperated Therese holding out two bags full of presents. In addition to the mussed hair and the bathrobe, Abby instantly noticed the round ruby necklace around Therese's neck as the one Carol showed her earlier. The sour expression on Abby's face quickly softened as she looked at Therese's necklace.
It changes, she reminded herself one more time, heading to the living room to place the gifts under the tree.