Christmas Eve

Leonora was looking forward to a peaceful Christmas.


Somehow the decorations and trees and cards had got consigned to the past.


Ping! went her email and there was a photo from Horrid Leonard. Of all his god-damned presents under the tree.


Piss off Leonard, she said to herself.  Great that you have a shit load of presents. And I have none. And no family. Just rub it in my face.


She sighed. Perhaps it wasn't going to be a good Christmas after all.  Whatever one of those was.

Distance

Leonora was puzzled. After months without hearing from Leonard he had contacted her again. She was miffed he had ignored her for so long, but secretly pleased to be in touch with him.

It wasn't the same of course. 'Things never are, are they?' she mused to herself thinking about it all. Sometimes it was almost the same, as they chattered and laughed and joked. But still, there was some strange distance that had crept between them.

Now, it was even more strange. He no longer contacted her regularly during the day when he was bored at the office, some days he didn't contact her at all. She couldn't put her finger on it but something wasn't right.

It wasn't as though she had said anything nasty either. Not that Leonora thought she was ever nasty, although oddly Leonard seemed to think she was. On rare occasions she told herself quickly. And only under extreme provocation.

Leonard, on the other hand, she thought viciously, could be extremely nasty. Frequently. Without any provocation from the saintly Leonora. She sighed. She displayed such forbearance, restraint and patience in the face of his cruel and unkind insults.

A list. That was what was needed. A List of Leonard's .. Leonard's what? She needed something alliterative, luxurious, libidinous, lewd. No those words would not do at all. She had no idea why they came to mind. Loathsome, now there was a better word. But loathsome what? Nope, she needed to think about her lists and organise her categories. One heading for horrible. One for tolerable. And one for very nice.

But should she give more weight to the very nice comments because they were so sweet, if somewhat rare? No, she decided firmly, she should not. There was no reason for rewarding someone for being nice, nasty Leonard should be nice all the time, just as she, Leonora, was always nice.

And with all that sorted in her head, she decided to go out for a walk. After all, having worked through the theory, she didn't actually need to put any of it into practice. It was obvious the list of horrid comments would be the longest one.

She pulled on her long fake leather boots and admired her even longer legs. Not that Leonora was vain. Much. Her legs were really nice and long though. Her calf muscles were taut, and her quads were rubbish. Deciding against a jacket, she rushed out of the door without even a backward glance at the sad dusty little crutches.

As she walked briskly down the street, an email winged its way to her and dropped in her in-box.