Christmas Delights 3 (33 page)

“I’ll give you each a can of Coke.” He pulled two red cans
from his bag. “They have polar bears on them,” he said in bribing voice.

“Well, okay,” she finally said.

“Thanks.” Rhys grabbed his bag, put it on his shoulders and
led Liam across the parking lot by the hand.

“Where are we going?” Liam asked.

“You were tired of waiting in line so I thought we’d take a
walk to get our blood pumping.”

Green Mart was in its own building, but across the street
from it was a strip mall full of shops with their own Black Friday lines. Rhys
took Liam past all of those lines and across another, busier road to a small
park. Located in the middle of a business district and not very large, it was
mostly for the office workers to have an outside space to enjoy their lunches.
They climbed the steps to the gazebo by the parking lot and sat on the bench.

“I love snow,” said Liam. “Especially at night when the moon
light reflects off of it and illuminates everything. Freshly fallen snow makes
everything new again, doesn’t it? It covers all of the imperfections and
dirtiness of the world, and just for once, it makes it feel like life really is
a movie where no harm can come to us.” He leaned his head back against the
railing before something caught his eye. Rhys watched as Liam stood up and
walked across the gazebo, following something with his eyes as he did so.

“What are you doing?” Rhys asked.

“You’ll see,” Liam said when he got to the opposite side of
the gazebo. He bent down and messed with something against the wall.

 “Oh my goodness…” Rhys whispered. “It’s beautiful.” All of
the pine trees had been wrapped in lights like Christmas trees and were now
letting off their warm glow. He glanced towards Liam as he looked up at the
park behind them and gasped.

“It’s like a scene right out of a movie,” Rhys said in awe.
“You know what this needs?” He pulled his phone from his pocket, scrolled
through songs and settled on a Mindy Smith Christmas song. “Dance with me?” he
asked as he turned the phone up. He sat it on the bench and held his hand out
for Liam.

Liam smiled brightly and took the hand. They slowly danced
together without speaking a word until the song ended. “I love you,” Liam said
once the phone had gone quiet.

Rhys’ heart burst with happiness; the first time Liam said
he loved him and it was in the middle of a beautiful Christmas scene. Sometimes
life really can be like a movie, Rhys thought as he leaned forward and kissed
Liam. “I love you, too.”

Liam wrapped his arms tight around Rhys and inhaled deeply 
before he gave him another quick kiss. “We better get back to Green Mart,” he
said as he unplugged the lights.

The lights went out, but the park was still illuminated from
the moonlight in the snow.

“So what is it that you’re hoping to get tonight?” Liam
asked as they crossed the street from the park to the strip mall.

“The complete series set of That Girl.”

Liam stopped dead in his tracks. “That’s all?”

Rhys shrugged. “Five seasons for ten dollars. That’s a good
deal.”

“I’m sitting in a snow storm so you can buy That Girl?”

“Well, there are a few other things I’m hoping to get too. I
don’t do Black Friday for the big deals though,” he said. “If I can get a big
deal I won’t pass it by, but it’s not why I come out. I do it for the
experience. I might try to get the perfect present for a loved one if I can,
but my main goal is always to get something silly for myself just so that I can
experience the night.”

“Am I one of the loved ones you’re trying to get a perfect
present for?”

“Well, I only just found out you were a loved one…”

“Cheeky,” Liam laughed.

“Hey,” Rhys said when they got back to the blanket.

“Hi,” the woman said as she stood up.

“Thanks for watching this,” Rhys said.

“And thanks for the ad,” she said as she handed it back to
him.

“I see we’re still last in line though,” Rhys laughed.

“Not for long,” Liam said and pointed to a small group that
walked towards the line.

“Okay, folks,” said a Green Mart employee from the front of
the line where she was standing with a bullhorn. “We’re going to open the doors
soon and hand out tickets for certain items. There is a limit of two tickets
per item per customer.”

Several people moaned at the announcement.

“The doors will be open in ten minutes!” she said before she
went back inside.

Rhys bent down and gathered up the blanket. “I’m going to
run this to the car, I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” Liam said.

“He’s cute,” the woman in front of them said to Liam as Rhys
ran off. “And he seems really nice too.”

“Yeah,” Liam sighed dreamily. “He is.”

“Black Friday virgin?” she said as read Liam’s shirt.

“Huh?”  he glanced down. “Oh yeah,” he laughed. “This is my
first time experiencing the craziness of Black Friday.”

“It’s madness,” her husband moaned without turning around.

“But it’s fun,” she said as she poked her husband in the
side. “Mind you, I don’t know if I’d go if they didn’t have spectacular deals,
but there is something exciting about Black Friday.”

“What are you hoping to get?” Liam asked.

“They have a Blu-ray player for fifteen dollars,” she said.
“And, if we’re lucky, a 3-D TV. Unfortunately, I think we’re too far back in
line and we’ll miss that deal. That’s why he’s such a grump-a-lump,” she poked
her husband again as the line began to eagerly push forward.

“Good luck,” Liam said. “We’re apparently here just for the
complete DVD set of That Girl,” he rolled his eyes.

“I saw that!” Rhys said as he rejoined the line.

“I’m not denying it’s a good deal. But standing in this line
in the middle of the night for a DVD?”

“A DVD box-set,” Rhys corrected. “Besides, there might be a
few other things I want to try to get.”

Once the line inched forward enough for the boys to be in
the store, the employees asked what items they would like tickets for.

“The 3-D TV, Blu-ray player and the e-reader,” Rhys said.

The employee tore off tickets from his stack. “We’re out of
e-reader tickets.”

“Oh, okay.”

“What happened to just a DVD?” asked Liam.

“Well if they have tickets I’m going to get them.”

The employee handed Rhys his two tickets. “Go to hardware to
pick up the TV, and the Blu-ray will be available near the produce section.” He
reached in a box by the door and pulled out a map of the store, which he handed
to Rhys. “This will tell you were all of the Black Friday items are,” he said
dryly.

Once inside the toasty store, Liam followed Rhys as he
walked towards the toys section, reading the map as he went.

“So now we have to wait in lines again?” Liam asked, his
tone doing very little to hide his annoyance.

“Not for the TV or Blu-ray. They do have smaller things on
sale, but you don’t get a ticket for them since they usually don’t result in
fist fights.” Rhys showed Liam the map with the layout of the store and where
all of the deals were. “I’m going to try to get a GPS for Marion, she’s
hopeless at directions.”

Liam saw the huge crowd of people that grabbed for GPS’s in
the bin set up in the toys section and stopped in his tracks. “If you give me
the ticket for the Blu-ray player, I can go grab it for you and meet you…” he
trailed off and looked around. In the Men’s section he noticed a sign for
sweatshirts for three dollars. “How about there?” he asked. “Maybe I can pick
up a couple of shirts for my dad. Or did you want to grab your DVD first?”

“Nah,” Rhys said. “I can’t imagine that selling out.”

“OK, meet you at the shirts soon.”

On his way across the store Liam encountered a pyramid of
cans of the three-flavored popcorn. “Seriously?” he said to himself. “A dollar
twenty-five for a giant can of popcorn?” He grabbed two – one under each arm –
and scurried to the front of the store for a shopping cart. He dropped the
decorated cans in the basket and pushed it towards the produce section. He
handed the ticket to one of the three employees that guarded the Blu-ray
players, which he put it in his cart too. “Hey, do you know where DVD’s are?”
he asked.

“They’re all over the store,” said an older woman. “Was
there a specific one you were looking for?”

“That Girl.”

She pulled a crinkled list from the chest pocket of her
green polo shirt and ran her finger down it. “Okay, that’s going to be on the
display stand in the ice cream aisle. But you might want to hurry, it looks
like we only got ten of those in.”

“Oh, OK, I will. Thanks. Have a happy holiday,” he added as
he ran off. Not being from the area, Liam had to read the overhead signs as he
ran towards the TV-on-DVD display. He turned the corner at an unsafe shopping
cart speed and had to maneuver it quickly to avoided hitting a baby sleeping in
its stroller. “Dang,” he muttered. The aisle was filled with so many people
that the store had to be breaking its maximum occupancy rules in this aisle alone.
He slowly made his way through the crowd, using his cart to give those people
unwilling to move a little motivation. When he finally reached the cardboard
stand he went to grab for the last DVD set but it was yanked away by someone
else. “Oh,” he said, defeated.

“I have no idea if Rob will like this or not, but it’s only
ten dollars, so I might as well get it,” said a woman to her friend who was
looking at other DVD’s.

“Um, excuse me,” Liam said. “I hate to be that person, but I
couldn’t help but to overhear you say that you didn’t know if your friend would
even like that DVD, and it’s just that that’s the one thing that my boyfriend
wanted and I was wondering if maybe you would consider –”

“Nope.” She tossed it in her cart and walked away.

Liam stood gob smacked for a second and watched the woman as
she pushed people out of the way as she made her way out of the aisle. He
scanned the display again to make sure no copies of the DVD had been stuck
somewhere else, but found nothing. “Poor Rhys,” he said as he turned the cart
out of the aisle. On his way to the sweatshirts he passed a group of people at
the Playstation display.

“This is mine! I had it first!” a woman in red yelled loud
enough for the entire store to hear.

“You didn’t have a ticket!” said a woman in a puffy winter
coat. She held the Playstation tight against her chest.

“I was first in the store tonight and I just forgot to ask
for that ticket, so I’m entitled to it.”

“Ma’am, if you don’t have a ticket – ” an employee began.

“You stay out of this!” the red shirt woman screamed. She
lunged for the woman with the Playstation and knocked her backwards to the
floor. When the puffy winter coat woman fell, she let go of the box and it flew
behind her and hit Liam between the eyes.

“Ouch!” he yelled, louder than he intended.

“Give it to me!” The woman in red dashed towards Liam and
shoved him out of the way, knocking him into a display of pots and pans.

Store security came over and escorted the woman in red to
the front of the store and handed the Playstation back to the woman with the
puffy winter coat.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” Liam mumbled as he climbed out of
the pile of pots and pans. His back felt bruised from the collision and he
would probably have a black eye from where the box hit him but – “Where’s my
popcorn?” he yelled.

Several people turned to look at him.

“Where is my tri-flavored popcorn?” he pointed in his cart.
“Someone took my popcorn, but not the Blu-ray player?”

“Sorry,” a man said as he dropped the cans back in the cart.
“I didn’t know this was anybody’s.”

Liam shook his head and stomped away to the sweatshirts.

“Hey,” a woman said as she grabbed Liam’s shoulder when he
passed the book aisle.

He turned to see what was going on but his face softened
when he realized it was the woman that was in front of them in line outside.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “I saw what just happened.” She
glanced to the pile of boxes. “Derek is getting a worker to make sure you’re
okay.” She gestured to her husband walking down the aisle behind Liam.

“I’m fine,” he said with a voice that trembled. “This is
just….intense.”

She nodded in agreement. “Well anyway, I saw this and
grabbed a couple.” She handed him two sets of the complete series of That Girl
and his face immediately brightened.

“Oh my God, thank you!” he tossed a copy in his cart and
gave her a quick hug. “They were all out when I went over there and…I just
don’t know how people do this!” He shook his head in disbelief.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Here comes Derek with an
employee,” she pointed behind Liam.

“Ooh, Hi-Ho Cherry-O for three fifty!” Rhys exclaimed as he
made his way from the hardware section to the men’s clothing. His cart was full
of goodies that he didn’t need and that nobody asked for, but he was into Black
Friday way more than even his public exuberance suggested. He tossed a couple
games in the basket and made his way to the clothes. When he turned the corner
he saw Liam waving to the woman and her husband from outside. “Hey,” Rhys said.
“I see you got a few things,” he glanced in the cart at the popcorn. “My God,
what happened to your face?” he asked when Liam turned around.

“Got hit by a flying Playstation, and I fell into a mountain
of pots and pans. I’m really sore,” he added.

“I got this for you though.”  He handed the That Girl DVD
set to Rhys. “Well, Wendy did. That’s her name by the way. I tried to get one
for you, but they were all gone and people were incredibly rude and I don’t
know how you can like this so much!” Liam’s eyes began to water. “Sorry,” he laughed
as he rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes. “This is just mentally
exhausting. And I think I’m more upset than I realized about not being able to
spend Thanksgiving with my family. And it hurt really bad getting hit and being
knocked down.”