Downloading Gift of the Christmas Tree Lot

For the past three years Erica Nordstrom did not have a Christmas tree. Why bother when you spend Christmas alone? But this year she decides to stop feeling sorry for herself and buy a tree. A big one. In the tree lot she meets an attractive woman, Nora Carey, an English professor newly arrived at a local university and looking for a small tabletop tree. After a drink together and attending a concert with her, Erica becomes increasingly fascinated with Nora. When she learns Nora will be alone for Christmas, she suggests they spend Christmas Eve at her place telling her with a grin, “My tree is bigger.“

When Erica’s two best friends learn about this stranger Erica has just met they are alarmed because of her previous failed relationships and fear Erica will be hurt and taken advantage again. Christmas Eve arrives and Nora does not show up. Dejected, Erica reluctantly admits her friend’s doubts about Nora may have been right and now she is facing another lonely Christmas. But then an unexpected phone call changes her Christmas and possibly her future.

(This story originally appeared in Affinity’s Charity 10th Anniversary Christmas Anthology.)