Cupid's Christmas (Serendipity #3)(51)
Matthew shook his head.
Eleanor and John were squeezed together in the oversized chair and Traci made no move to finish unwrapping the present she’d been holding. Even Ray’s eyes were fixed on whatever Lindsay might pull from the tree. “This one?” Lindsay dangled a tiny silver oval with the picture of a baby inside.
“No,” Eleanor laughed. “That’s Ray when he was just a month old.”
“Me?” Ray walked over to check out the picture.
Lindsay fingered a porcelain dollhouse that looked suspicious, but then she remembered her mother giving it to her when she was five years old. She stepped closer to the tree and circled around one side and then the other. She nosed her way into a clump of pine branches then backed out and scanned the tree. “I can’t really see anything—” That’s when she spotted it hanging on a branch a third of the way down from the top—a ball different from the others, smaller and not glass. She reached up and plucked it from the branch. “This?”
Matthew smiled and nodded.
A lacquered wooden ball? What was special about… Lindsay noticed the seam where two halves joined together. Handling it gingerly, she twisted the top half in one direction and the lower half in the other. The pieces moved. She did it again and they moved a bit more. When Lindsay twisted the ball open a diamond engagement ring dropped into her hand.
Cupid…And now, the End of this Story
Now that I’ve done what I came to do, it’s time to be moving on. Harriet Hornsby has been waiting for over three months, but this very afternoon she’ll meet the plumber who lives two doors down and they’ll fall madly in love. And there’s Willie Jenkins, since his wife passed on some five years ago he’s been raising three girls all by himself—but today he’ll meet Mariah, a lovely woman with a daughter of her own. Before summer they’ll be a blended family living in a restored house over on Chestnut Street. Yeah, I know I said I was going to take today off, but I figured why waste a love-filled day like Christmas.
Since you’ve been with me throughout this whole affair, I’m going to give you a peek into the future so you’ll know how things turn out—which, believe me, is something I rarely do. In March, Eleanor and John get married. It’s a relatively small affair, with Lindsay serving as the Maid of Honor and Ray as the Best Man. The week before their marriage, Eleanor will speak directly to The Boss several times a day and ask if he can arrange it so that no one is in an argumentative mood on that day. I guess the lady’s got pull because from what I see, he came through for her. Before Eleanor and John celebrate their first anniversary, Traci and Ray will present them with their first grandchild—a girl named Ellie, because according to Ray Eleanor was too long a name for a baby. Ray, although he will never be Mister Sunshine, is a far better man than he once was which, needless to say, makes everyone happy.
Lindsay and Matthew are married in the first week of September and yes, they’ll honeymoon in Paris. In fact, they’ll rent a tiny studio apartment two blocks from the Sorbonne and spend an entire month there. Although they won’t realize it until six weeks later that’s where they’ll start their family. As for Lindsay’s job at Genius Advertising, it never materializes. At the last moment the dog food client backs out and when Morrissey calls to say she’ll be working on a building supply account instead, Lindsay decides against taking the job. By then she was certain she had a calling for veterinary work. Not long after their honeymoon, she’ll enroll at the Manor College to study veterinary medicine.
The dog…well they named her Holly, in honor of Christmas—what else! I was hoping for something like Valentine, but it never happened. From what I can see, that pup has already had two litters of puppies and is still going strong.
Now for the most interesting news…remember the 684 unhappy couples? Well, in every single case their love has been re-ignited and passion abounds. I’m not one to go around tooting my own horn, but in this case it’s warranted. I know I told you working with Lindsay was a true test of my patience, but I also learned something. For nearly a decade I’d been complaining to The Boss about people using a computer to find love, but He refused to listen. “Get used to it,” he said, “it’s the future.” When I pursued the argument, He said not to expect any sympathy from Him because the humans have even converted His biography into an e-book.
That’s when I got smart. Instead of fighting technology, I started using it. Lindsay’s dog was the first instance, but it worked so well I tried it again. Although no one could account for exactly how it happened, every major cruise line sent out a flood of e-mails offering a seven-day getaway to the Caribbean for $100. Those e-mails went to exactly 684 households, and every one of the recipients took advantage of the offer.
Maggie Grossman was the first to click on the notice and after she’d read it through five times, she banged on the bathroom door and told Sidney to hurry up so he could start packing.
“Packing?”
“Yeah, we’re going on a cruise.” Maggie yelled.
“We can’t afford—”
“This one’s a hundred dollars,” Maggie said. “We can’t afford NOT to go!”
It took Sidney less than three minutes to fold up the newspaper he’d been reading, flush the toilet and pull two suitcases from the top shelf of the bedroom closet. The next day they were on a cruise ship headed for Nassau. And when they arrived home a week later, they were as starry-eyed as newlyweds. Although Sidney had been calling his wife Mag for well over ten years, he came home addressing her as Sweetie-Pie.