Page 90 of Five Gold Rings
‘You calling my dad big?’
‘No, I meant Santa,’ I say, confused.
‘Oh, I believe Christmas is a materialistic exercise in consumerism, excess and greed. Hate it.’
‘I’ll assume that’s why you’re working a shift on Christmas Day then.’
He shrugs. ‘Triple pay, you know?’
I nod and see my burger sliding down the rack and point towards it, alongside paper bags of onion rings, waiting to be claimed.
Kevin assembles my tray and slides it over. ‘Well, Merry Christmas, mate.’
‘You, too.’
The services are deathly quiet bar the sound of a man cleaning the floors and some Christmas music echoing in the background. It’s Nat King Cole who I never really had any strong feelings about before but now will always mean Eve singing along in my car and getting the lyrics wrong. Whilst I normally enjoy a pit stop, this space has never felt as empty as it does now. Even with the big tree by the entrance and their efforts to put up twinkling lights and garlands across the condiments station, it feels soulless, a place for people to pass through with nowhere else to go. I take a window seat and watch as two men in head-to-toe hi vis down the last of their coffees and nod to me. I really hope you two have somewhere to be this Christmas. I then make myself a crown, pulling the tabs of cardboard through the slits and place it on my head. Kevin looks over, confused, and I think he furtively takes a picture of me on his phone. I look forward to going viral, like the sad case I am, in my dinner jacket, about to enjoy my burger, alone.
I don’t notice her at first. In some part of my mind, I wonder if I’m hallucinating her. Eve. She comes and sits beside me at my window seat in this very quiet cavernous room where the music has switched to Elton John. She sits there and smiles, reaching over to take a paper crown and carefully build it, placing it on her head. She then steals one of my chips. I sigh deeply, frozen. You’re here. That’s actually you.
‘Can I just check… is your name Eve by any chance?’ I say, pointing to the space just below her neck.
‘It is,’ she says, putting her hand to the necklace.
‘That’s some bling.’
‘Right? Goes with my new ring,’ she tells me, showing off a giant plastic engagement ring on her hand.
‘That is classy. You’re engaged now?’
‘His name is Clarence. We’re planning a wedding in a big London hotel. With birds, lots of birds.’
I can’t help but laugh. She slides something across the table, wrapped in a white paper bag. I won’t talk about the wrapping, but I open up the bag and chuckle softly. It’s a name plate with Joe in the middle, surrounded by stars and a rocket ship.
‘For your room. In case people don’t know you sleep there. That was the deal, wasn’t it?’
I take a deep breath, trying to act cool about all this despite everything inside me somersaulting. ‘It was. I love it, thank you.’
‘I’m glad.’
Why are you here, Eve? To hand over a missed Christmas gift? I can hardly breathe as she looks me directly in the eye. Please don’t be here just for that.
‘You left me at the restaurant,’ she mumbles, looking slightly hurt.
‘You were having fun. It was the right time. You didn’t need me.’
‘I do need you.’
I glance at her, trying to work out if she’s telling me the truth, trying to work out why she might not. How did she know I was here?
‘I went back to my flat earlier and I found that note that Chris wrote to me,’ she tells me.
‘It was a shit note. I didn’t want to see you any more hurt than you already were.’
‘Because you care about me…’
I swallow hard. I may as well tell her. Here. In this empty motorway services. No more waiting. ‘More than you know.’
It’s the first time I’ve said that out loud to her and I see her eyes glass over as she starts biting at her thumbnail, in that way she does.