Together by This Christmas Tree

john o'callaghan

Gemma smiled at Cally, coming back into the kitchen with a phone in her hand and her eyes sparkling. “Guess who just RSVP-ed to the wedding, Cally,” Gemma said, practically yelling as Cally hardly looked up from her tea, where her ankle was wound idly around mine, comfortable for both of us. I think I’m falling in love with the way she sips her tea as she reads National Geographic, with how she twirls her hair, and that damn British accent she hates so much.

“Max?” My insides turned to ice, and I instinctively unwound my ankle around Cally’s, but she hardly looked up. Henry had told me about Max, whom he was close to. He sounded fucking perfect for Cally, something I definitely was not. Gemma’s face fell, and Cally smirked triumphantly. “Good. I’ve missed that stupid British boy and his stupid girlfriends.”

That, most wrongly, boosted my spirits. I had Googled him, and no doubt was he attractive enough for Cally. Gemma smiled, and began rearranging the flowers in front of her spot on the table, looking critically at it. “Move the roses to the middle and surround them with the yellow flowers,” Cally said, looking at it from her spot beside her, her toast untouched.

And the perfect girl knows about flowers. Gemma looked skeptical, then was amazed as she did it. She smiled. “How did you..?”

“I’m helping Damien and Isabelle plan their wedding, and God, Isabelle is totally oblivious.” Cally smiled at me, but it was a sad smile, like she was saying goodbye somehow. “What can I do to help, Gemma?” She asked, standing slowly, not even looking at me as she walked into the kitchen to continue making flower arrangements, soft British music coming from the stereo.

I had to work things out.

Gemma looked across the room at Cally from her spot beside me, where she and Henry were putting together the marquee for the wedding in the massive backyard, struggling considerably but refusing help. Gemma, her hair redder than ever under the bright sunlight, looked at me. “You really like her, don’t you?” She murmured, and my first instinct was to deny.

“We’re just fri-” But I got halfway through my sentence when her brows raised. I smiled. “Yeah, I think I do. But I also really like my girlfriend. How am-” This time, Gemma interrupted me completely.

“No, you don’t really like your girlfriend.” Gemma shook her head. “Cally is unfamiliar, new, unique, unlike anything you’ve ever met before. And that’s fucking great of her. But this girl, what did you say her name was, Summer? She’s familiar, she’s something else you have had for a long time. And she hurt you before, and that makes her mysterious and unfinished business.” Gemma didn’t sound angry. I was speechless.

“How did you know..?” I murmured as cries of despair came from under the cloth, where Cally’s hair was sticking out like she was laying down, stabbing a stake into the wet ground like nobody’s business. She smiled.

“I’m a psychologist, John. I know more about relationships than you do, and all of that is true, even if you don’t know it.” She shook her head. “Besides, that was Howie’s problem with Cally.” She sighed. And suddenly I was fed up.

“How is this Howie? I’ve heard so much about him but haven’t heard the full story yet.” Gemma nodded slowly.

“Best you know,” She said. “Howie was Cally’s fiance, and one of the few reasons she came out here to visit me for a year anyway. They had been dating for a year before he asked her to marry him when I was out there to visit her. Howie was my friend from work, and we both ended up working together. Well, six months into Cally being here, she found him at work with his ex-girlfriend Alexia. They had been having something for almost a year. Cally was so hurt, and stayed holed up in her room for the next six months she was here. Honestly, that’s when it started to get hard to have a friendship with her. She was so scared to get close to people.” Gemma looked at me. “And now you’re here. Odd, really.” Gemma shook her head.

I was in shock, staring at the spot in the cloth where Cally was setting up stakes. I had no idea. And here she was, almost three months later, involved in a thousand and one weddings. Gemma continued as Henry emerged from the side of the tent that was already assembled.

“Howie had the nerve to invite her to his wedding, on Christmas Day. But she told him she had someone more important back home. Could that be you, John?” Gemma looked at me with hard eyes, suddenly stiffening. “Stop fucking with her feelings, or I will fuck with your gorgeous and famous face, O’Callaghan, do you hear me?” With those final words, Gemma walked off to help with the marquee, leaving me standing there like an idiot.

Cally was engaged to be married? She had a diamond ring on her finger and someone to hold her for the rest of her life? That must have been those unholy choices that got her disowned and estranged from her family. She stopped fighting for Howie and gave up on life. And looking at her now, with that smile on her face bigger than I had ever seen as she tried so hard to make it work, everything fell into place.

I loved Cally.

I was in love with Cally.

I had been since that night that changed everything, that scared me with the unfamiliar and secured my position next to Sumner. And more than anything else in the world, that scared me.