Brassington is a large sprawling village nestled in the wooded hills on the southern edge of the Dancingdean Forest in the south east corner of Downshire and in one a row of terraced Victorian Cottages lived Craig Hooper, a Detective Sgt in the Downshire Constabulary, and he lived next door to divorcee sisters Chrissy Holdack and Carol Hutchins.
They were all in their
mid to late thirties and with no romantic attachments, so they got on very
well.
It was mid-December
and Craig had just come off a week of late nights as part of a major crime task
force and was exhausted when he got back to the cottage at 6am.
His first step was a
hot shower, followed by breakfast and bed, however when he finished, he was
annoyingly wide awake.
So he pottered around
for a couple of hours tidying up then he sat down in front of the TV with a
coffee mid-morning and started watching Alistair Sim in “Scrooge”, one of his
favourite Christmas movies, but he lasted no more than 10 minutes before the
long blinks set in and he spent the rest of the day sleeping on the couch in a sound
sleep until he was woken from that long afternoons snoozing when he heard the
sound of the doorbell.
The bell continued to
ring as he made his way up the hall and when he opened the front door, he found
a slightly inebriated Chrissy Holdack leaning against the doorframe.
“Craig, thank God” she
slurred, “I’m locked out, and in distress”
“Come in and tell me how
I can help” he said
“Well, the trouble is I’m
locked out” she said “and Carol won’t be back for at least two hours”
“Could I be a nuisance
and stay here until she gets home?” she pleaded “I’ll be no trouble, I promise”
“Yes of course, what
are neighbours for”
“You are my saviour”
she declared
“Come on then party
girl, let’s get your coat off” he suggested but this proved to be more of an
effort than he imagined, but they managed it in the end and when they had she
adjusted her skirt and straightened her brightly coloured Christmas Jumper.
And Craig took a
moment to admire the way she filled a sweater, and she had a very curvaceous
figure, and the undulations were very pleasing on the eye, and it was not the
first time he had pleased his eye on her curves.
“Thank you, kind sir,”
she said as she almost fell onto the hall table.
Craig caught her just
in time and sat her on a chair in the hall while he pulled her boots off
revealing her festive tights with Christmas parcel motifs.
“Come in the kitchen
and I’ll put the kettle on” he said
“Wine will do” she suggested
and fell against the wall giggling.
“Coffee would be safer
I think” he replied
After a couple of cups
of coffee Chrissy had sobered considerably as she told him all about her office
Christmas lunch and how much she had enjoyed it.
“Well, I could tell
how much you enjoyed it by the way you fell through the front door” he said
“Cheeky” she said and
giggled
“Do you want another
cup?” he asked, and Chrissy checked her watch before replying
“Yes please, but I need
a pee first”
“Ok, I’ll take it
through to the lounge” Craig said, and he was sitting on the sofa when she
tottered into the lounge, make up repaired, outfit perfect, and holding a sprig
of mistletoe in one hand
“Look what I have
found,” she said, and he hadn’t a clue where she found it because he didn’t
have any in the house, so she must have had in her bag or coat pocket.
But it was immaterial
because while he was musing, she had reached him, and she raised it above her
head.
So, he puckered up and
gave her a Christmas kiss but as his lips touched hers it was clear that she
had an entirely different type of kiss in mind, which took him completely by
surprise, so in the spirit of the season and just to be neighbourly he
responded in kind and the upshot of her mistletoe ambush was that her festive
sweater spent the night of Christmas Jumper Day on his bedroom floor.
