A Winter’s Night, from Once a Summertime
(A Christmas contest entry for the This Bed We Made community. Merry Christmas~! ✨🎄😁)
[From Sophie’s POV:]
“Dance with me, Bean..?”
”Sure, I’d love to.”
I giggle at how gentile Beth’s invitation is, even if it’s just us two celebrating Christmas at her own, little apartment this evening.
Speaking of which, it’s rather nice to enjoy the holidays in serenity, especially in good company. In fact, now that I think about it, this is the first time she and I celebrate Christmas together.
Sure, we had our fair share of celebrating the holidays in separate circles—me with my mother, and Beth with her customers at her well-established bar. Oh! There’s that one time where Andrew invited both of us to his humble abode: a simple housewarming party just in time for the joys of holiday cheer and his self-proclaimed delicious eggnog; and truth be told, it was indeed refreshing, considering he added some touches of cinnamon and sugar on it, which I found… well, sweet (pun intended). Afterwards, once most of the guests had had left for that evening, Beth and I urged to stay a bit longer, to which he didn’t mind. After all, we’re all officially lenient on our time and that we were no longer working under Bernard’s regime at The Clarington Hotel. Of course, in his true fashion of being the bookworm out of the three of us, he gifted me an intriguing gift…
A personal signed copy of his bestselling book: A Summertime, Once a Winter’s Dream.
When I asked him what the premise was, he simply chuckled and patted my shoulder that night, just before he gave his gift to Beth… and his words rang to my head to this day.
“Let’s just say… a moment of peace before the horizon gave me inspiration.”
Just thinking about it made me giggle. How foolish I was to not fully understand what he meant by that the first time, only to find out about it when I finally read his book.
“You seem to be lost in space, Sophie.”
Beth’s teasing voice grounded me back to reality.
I snickered a bit, “Sorry. It’s just the joy of the holidays, is all.”
“Are you sure that’s all there is?” she gives me a knowing grin. Of course, she would read me like a book: Beth knows how my thoughts linger deeper, beyond surface level.
”Alright~, there’s more… but,” I look away from her, blushing, “Gosh, I don’t know how to say it.”
”Well, say it as is.” Beth tucks a strand of hair behind my ear before wrapping her arm back around my waist, “Take your time, then tell me what’s on your mind.”
I relish myself first on this moment: Beth and I, both engaged in a slow dance to Elvis Presley’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” The pleasant scent of cranberries and pine filling up her living room. The warmth of the fireplace complementing the snowflakes cascading down by the windows. Boy, it couldn’t get any more perfect than this. It even gave me the courage to admit about Andrew’s cleverness with his words.
“Well…” I clear my throat before shrugging, “I read Andrew’s book a few days ago.”
”Really? Well, spill the beans~! What was it about?” Beth giddily asks, eager to find out more about the book.
”It was an interesting story, actually..!” I say. “The story was about a love blossoming between a model and a barkeep. They’re both women trying to make a buck, too, whilst they are constantly challenged by the prejudices of society in terms of… well, special relationships like theirs. Of course, at the end of it all, they realized that their love was too powerful that they decided to defy all odds and celebrate that in broad, summer daylight. Pretty interesting, huh?”
”I’ll bet,” she nods in agreement.
”And that’s not even the best part yet.”
”Oh, there’s more?”
”Mhm,” I hum in response. “You know, when I asked Andrew about it, he told me something interesting.”
”What did he tell you..?”
“He told me, in verbatim, ‘Let’s just say… a moment of peace before the horizon gave me inspiration.’” I grin widely at that. “He took me back to the summer we three had a few months ago.”
Beth’s face grew from one of confusion, to one of realization.
“Holy shit..! You mean that one time I carried you across the shoreline?”
”Yeah! Apparently, that moment sparked him to become an author—and he used his own name!”
She chuckles, “Damn, I never knew Tintin would be a well-renowned author the minute he got out of Bernard’s ass!”
I laughed too hard at her bold choice of words, albeit true.
“Well… I’ll tell you one thing, Sophie,” she then tightens her hold around my waist, pulling me closer, “I find that actually touching of him. I know that times will change for the better through his book, I can just feel it. Sooner or later, the world would actually be accepting of a love like this… A love like ours.”
I put my head on her chest, sighing deeply, ”I love the sound of that, Beth.”
“Me too, Bean… Remind me to send him my best vintage before New Year’s Eve.”
I giggled, “Sure.”
”Speaking of love… look up.”
”Up..?”
I look around some parts of the ceiling, and that’s when my eyes land on something special.
”Oh! A mistletoe~! I didn’t see you put that up earlier!”
”I’m still as mysterious as I can be~! Well, only a certain sleuth would find out later on, hmm?”
“Challenge accepted, then.”
We both laugh before looking at each other. Tonight, Beth’s eyes shine brighter than the moon. I see that certain sparkle around her eyes that mean something more, and that’s one of the things that make me fall in love with her evermore—especially during this white Christmas night just as our foreheads made contact.
”Merry Christmas, Beth.”
”Merry Christmas, Sophie.”
And as midnight struck, we share a sweet and tender kiss—a special one for the books.
