Hmm, and here I was thinking that Christmas was going to be one lousy day. It was in fact the most interesting day I have had in a long time, considering that nothing looked like it was going to be ok. But I should have guessed it would be ok, my mother always has this calming effect on me.

See, for Christmas, I was at my mother’s house and if you remember well, I had to leave her house because of my neighbour. Yeah, there is that unbelievably hot woman, and her unbelievably jealous husband. I wonder what attracts women to such crazy guys. Anyway, that wasn’t what took me home, I went to have a normal Christmas, and that was it. But on Boxing Day, when people were busy opening their gifts, I was outside in the compound, dozing in a recliner. Then I heard someone say my name, "Shem”, in a kind of questioning way.

That didn’t sound like my mum, but it was definitely a woman’s voice. I opened my eyes, but I still couldn’t see who was calling out to me. I sat up and looked round. And then I saw her. She was standing right behind me, and she had something in her hands. She smiled (hmmm, I hadn’t expected that, considering how we parted), and said, "Merry Xmas, Shem”. Then she handed me the gift. All this time, I hadn’t said anything because I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know why she was giving me anything at all since I had nearly gotten her into trouble with her husband.

When I still stayed with my mom, I hadn’t bothered to make it a secret that I was attracted to her. And her husband had also become aware of this fact, and had made it clear that he was displeased. My argument was simple; they weren’t legally married, she was still available, otherwise I wouldn’t have made a move on a married woman. She had also told me to leave her alone, and after several attempts, which included her husband almost cutting me with a panga, I had given up and moved away from home. That was about seven months ago. And now, here she was, looking even prettier than ever, and unbelievably, smiling at me! Well, talk about Christmas joyfulness making people warm to even enemies!

Finally, I managed to say, "thank you”, merry Christmas to you too”. Then, she smiled and asked me if she could sit down. Sure, I had no problem with that. If the girl wanted to sit down, there was no reason I would stop her. She sat down and we talked. Somehow, the conversation flowed so well, that I found myself getting to like her for the person she was, not because she was a female. Even my mom came to see what was happening, and realizing that I wasn’t giving her neighbour any trouble, she left us alone. At some point, I asked her about her man, and she said she didn’t know where he was. That could be explained in a lot of ways, but I didn’t pursue it.

See, I was getting to learn that it is possible to be just friends with a girl, without a romantic attraction or anything! And it was very exciting. I had heard people talking about being "just friends” with girls, and I had thought them to be lying to themselves. For that entire evening, we sat and talked, and Jojo didn’t even cross my mind at all.

In fact, I found myself telling her about my confusion with Jojo and Samantha. She listened, and told me that the best way to deal with something like that is to follow your heart. I certainly didn’t understand that, but it felt good to tell someone about it. Towards sunset, she said she had to leave, but promised to come back tomorrow if I wanted her to. Of course I wanted her to come! That Christmas was the best I had had in a long time. I got out my phone, and called Jojo and I was able to tell her things that I could not have told her the previous day.

Ends