A Christmas Love Song

“Cheer up,” said a girls voice, “might never happen!”
“Too late,” muttered Edward, downing his drink. It was Christmas Eve but he wasn't feeling very festive. He had sat himself in the corner of the room away from all the party-goers with a bottle of wine. Whoever this girl was she was interrupting his plan of being grumpy and getting very drunk.
He glanced up at her, she was slim and attractive, her figure shown off by a tight fitting red dress. A silly paper hat perched upon her blonde hair completed the ensemble. She was far too jolly for his liking right now.
“Pardon me for breathing,” she said, sitting beside him, her voice had a bit of a Slavic accent. “What's the matter?”
“My girlfriend dumped me last week,” said Edward, not sure why he was telling her, perhaps he thought telling someone would make him even more grumpy. “So I'm giving up on love, too much hassle.”
“Pleased to meet you Mr. Scrooge,” she smiled and winked, “my name is Sandy. So you're not even going to try and chat me up?”
“Nope,” he said as he poured himself another glass, “all that will happen, assuming that you'd even want to go out with me, is you'll play with my emotions for a few weeks then you'll find someone else better.”
“Leaving you a bitter husk of a man right?” Sandy continued, pouring herself a drink from his bottle. “I know what will cheer you up.”
“Who says I want to be cheered up?” grumbled Edward, “I'm perfectly happy being drunk and grumpy in this corner thank you.”
“Shut up Ebenezer,” she grinned, “humour me. Tell me about the first time you were in love. Since you did have a girlfriend at one point I'm guessing your spirit hasn't always been so crushed.”
Edward sighed, it looked like his plan for the evening was shot to hell, he may as well play the game. This Sandy was at least pleasant to look at.
“Fine,” he said finally, “my first love was a girl at school called Reinette. I had a huge crush on her for years. She was beautiful, smart and way out of my league but that didn't stop me from pining after her day after day.”
“Sweet,” said Sandy, simply.
“I got up the courage to say something in the end,” continued Edward, “but instead of just asking her out I professed my undying love to her. Said I could stop thinking about her and so on.”
“Probably not a good move,”
“You think?” he said, glancing up irritably.
“Sorry,” she replied, “Carry on.”
“She said the usual, very flattered, not looking for a relationship right now etc.” Edward slurped his wine, “I felt much better for a time because I'd bottled those feelings up so much.”
He'd finished his glass and Sandy automatically topped him back up.
“Thanks,” he mumbled absent mindedly, “anyway, shortly after that I went to a party. Big school Christmas do, drink and dancing, and she was there with her new boyfriend. I wasn't drinking so instead I just got seriously depressed in that way only a teenager can. Just looking at them made me want to destroy the building in an alcohol-fueled inferno.”
Sandy raised an eyebrow, “Vivid.”
“My friends tried to distract me but I ended up just sitting on my own brooding.”
“Sounds familiar,” remarked Sandy.
“Anyway,” continued Edward, ignoring the interruptions, “this girl comes over, sits and offers to buy me a drink. She wasn't bad looking, probably feeling a bit lonely and looking back on it I probably could have at least had an enjoyable evening of drunken snogging. But my stupid hormones had so screwed me up about Reinette it just never occurred to me and she wondered off.”
“What a lovely Christmas story,” said Sandy, her words drowning in sarcasm. “Boy meets Girl, Boy obsesses over Girl, Girl runs away to find less scary boy. Boy sulks and misses out on snoggage.”
“Snoggage?” he asked.
“I'm an English student,” she explained, “I often get bored and make up words.”
“Are you going to leave me alone now?” asked Edward hopefully.
“No way Humbug-boy!” she laughed, “that was only the ghost of Christmas past. We've still got 2 more to go. Tell me about the girl who just dumped you, I'm sure you're upset about it enough that telling it won't make you any worse.” She smiled cheekily and that made him smile.
“I suppose that's true,“ he began, “her name was Linda, I met her on the Internet. We had similar interests. We were Sci-Fi geeks and loved stupid action movies. We chatted online for a few months and flirted a lot. Since the thing with Reinette I had only had online girlfriends and even though she already had a boyfriend I thought we clicked so well that it was worth pursuing.”
“Still optimistic about love there I see,” commented Sandy.
“I suppose you could say that,” he continued, “I think I was just pathetically naive. So anyway we fell for each other, met up a few times and I ended up losing my virginity at a science fiction convention.”
Sandy's wine came out of her nose. “Oww! That stings!” she giggled as she wiped her face with a napkin. Edward was laughing with her too, his cheeks were aching with smiling.
“Right,” said Sandy once she had her dignity back, “carry on.”
“The last time I saw her was at that convention,” said Edward, massaging his aching mouth, “a week or two later she told me she had been doing some thinking and that she needed a break from all men for a while. She was doing exams and the situation wasn't helping so we broke up.”
“That doesn't sound so bad,” said Sandy.
“Ha!” laughed Edward, “I would have been okay with it all if that was the case. But I was still so naive. Last night I found out that the time she had spent thinking about her situation she had also spent with this new guy she had met. The icing on the cake being that they are now in love and looking forward to many very happy Christmases together.”
“Nothing says Merry Christmas like 'It's not me, it's you.' does it?” said Sandy.
“I'll drink to that!” They both laughed and clinked their glasses together. “So, Christmas yet to come? How does that work?”
“This one is my turn,” she said setting her glass down, her face serious but kind, “I've had troubles in my life, things that have tested me to the limit and I've seen stuff that would make you want to gouge out your eyes.” She took his hand in hers, “I've also made mistakes in love and I tell you, there is a lot more stuff in the world worse than making a mistake in who you give your love to.”
She looked deep into his eyes and whispered, “On the other hand, there is nothing better in the world than getting it right, so keep trying and don't miss out.” With that, she leaned forward and kissed him.
Edward was a bit stunned by the kiss. It took a minute or so before he recovered the power of speech.
“So,” he said softly, “what do you see in my future?”
“Well,” she smiled, “for a start you can lead me to that dance floor Mr. Scrooge.”
“Edward,” he corrected.
“Edward,” she smiled, “and you can show me a good time, then we shall see what the future brings. At the very least you'll get an enjoyable evening of drunken snoggage.”
They stood and walked to the dance floor just as the Wham classic, “Last Christmas”, started playing and that was the start of a very merry Christmas.