All Wrapped Up?

 Heidi and Jack had fallen into a rhythm, and it didn’t take long for it to happen. After the third time it seemed so natural.

This was their first Christmas together and they both knew it was going to be the first of many. They both knew from the start they were destined to be together. Neither one of them had ever believed in love at first sight, until they saw each other at opposite ends of the bar on a Thursday night. 

That was 31 Thursdays ago. This evening, as they sat in front of the fireplace in Jack’s house, they decided since they already had most of their Christmas shopping done they might as well start wrapping presents. They gathered all the gifts and put them on the dining room floor, then gathered all the wrapping supplies and placed them on the dining room table.

The original plan was for each of them to take a gift, wrap it, tag it and move on to the next gift. As Heidi placed a gift in what would be the “finished” pile, she glanced toward Jack and her jaw dropped. She couldn’t recall ever seeing anyone wrapping a present in quite that way. If anyone asked she wasn’t sure she could even describe what she was seeing. Why was he using so much paper? Heidi wondered. And she knew some people had a hard time cutting straight but the way Jack was doing it almost seemed as if he was deliberating cutting in a zig-zag pattern. Heidi didn’t think it was cute, however, at how hard he was concentrating. He was biting his lip and furrowing his brow as he watched the scissors move along the paper. She wasn’t sure if she should feel sorry for him or laugh.

At any rate, she knew she couldn’t watch him struggle with any more presents. That’s when she suggested they split the tasks on every gift they were about to wrap. She would handle the paper and the tags. He would handle the ribbons and bows.

The effects of the new plan were evident almost immediately. Jack’s brow unfurrowed, he loosened up and he was smiling again. That was until he got up to go to the kitchen and bring out another bottle of wine. On his way back to the dining room, he tripped and, as he was trying to catch himself and keep from falling, he knocked an empty wine glass off the table. He was upset until Heidi told him it wasn’t a big deal. It was only one glass and he had seven more just like it.

Jack smiled, kissed the top of Heidi’s head and asked if she would mind continuing the gift wrapping while he dealt with the broken wine glass. She said of course she wouldn’t mind. She didn’t tell him she would actually prefer to do it by herself. Although the team approach was working well, she realized she liked wrapping presents by herself.

As Jack knelt on the floor cleaning up the glass, he picked up one of the larger pieces and held it up to Heidi. “This would make a good weapon, don’t you think?” he asked.