Thank you for the reviews.
Merry Christmas... I mean, did you expect anything else? With how these have gone in recent years? Even if I am trying to write the prompt without any pressure of any word count. Like even saying to myself as short as possible. If you've been here a while, you will know that I try and get as much written as I can between Christmas and the New Year. Just because it is when I am the most free. It's not really happened this year. And I'm trying not to sound like I am complaining but it is also maybe a small heads up that I might be hitting writer's block/have very little motivation to write recently. I do have stories that I still want to get out. I just don't know whether it is going to happen. I will always try to finish stories that I've started and we will have to see how things go. Maybe the new series starting on 2nd January might boost my motivation...
Anyway, you've got two of these today as I try and finish the last chapter. So enjoy this one and I will see you soon for the next.
NINE - A festive holiday parade or street market with tasty food and artisan gifts
Rachel wished that she could return to the German Christmas markets. And knowing that Eddie had never been to one and wanted to at some point made her want to go even more. But she knew Eddie had a point that their jobs didn't really allow for them to be able to appreciate it as she wanted to. A quick trip over the weekend would never fully satisfy that wish.
So while that was put as an idea to come back to once they had thought about retiring (which probably felt rather late in life to be doing it but they both knew that it would be the only time they would be able to do it), the Christmas market in Manchester would fulfil the urge enough that stopped Rachel from finding a way to make a long weekend in Cologne or Nuremberg work.
It was as cold in Manchester as she remembered it being in Germany when she had been but she knew, deep down, it wasn't the same atmosphere. Nothing would create that same atmosphere but she knew that she was having a ball with Eddie that was completely different to the time that she'd had with her friends all those years ago. It might not have helped that the trip had coincided with one of her friends breaking up with a long-term boyfriend which instantly brought down the mood.
She knew that she was making lasting memories with Eddie. There was no way that she wasn't as she wanted to commit every single second to memory. The way that he was laughing. The way that his face lit up. His curiosity of every stand that they passed. The way he suggested that they split for a moment, a non-subtle hint that he'd seen something that he thought that she would like and he was going to get it for her.
She thought that it was strange how people put all their happiness into one person. How her friends would call their partners/husbands their best friend. She had some understanding that she saw love in a pretty black or white way but she could not see how much she saw it in that way before Eddie. Because with Eddie she could see why they explained love in a way that Rachel had never found it to be. With Eddie, she understood what it was like to fall in love with someone and still regard them as a best friend. And they were worse about it, blurring the lines between personal and professional, spending a large part of their waking hours together.
It was the other thing that she never understood. The reasons behind dating a colleague. There was always so much that could go wrong. She'd seen both the best and the worst of it. And now she felt like a bloody hypocrite to all those that she had questioned about their relationship with a colleague. She was sure that she was in a worse position than many. After all, she was in a relationship with her deputy, her right hand, her second in command. If it did go to pot, then it was going to blow up in both of their faces big time.
But Rachel couldn't see that happening as Eddie walked towards her, rearranging the bags in his hands to move them into one so that he could take her hand when he reached her.
It was stupid really. How in love with him she already was. But every day, without fail, Eddie added something to the list of reasons why she loved him so much and that made her fall in love with him just a little more.
The fallout would be bad if it happened. But Rachel had found the importance of staying in the present. And at present, she was walking through the Christmas market in Manchester, hand-in-hand with the man that she loved so much. And nothing else would make her happier than she was in that moment, under those Christmas lights.