Angie and Matthew were spending Christmas in Antigua where members of Matthew's family still lived. His elderly grandmother was ill in hospital and his parents and siblings were anxious to pay a visit. As Clare would be alone she'd asked Alan if he would like to spend Christmas Day with her and the family. He had readily accepted. He was excited at the prospect of a more 'family' type of Christmas this year. Spending time with Clare, Kathy, Sandra and the children (and enjoying a home cooked Christmas dinner) was his idea of bliss. Clare was a good cook by all accounts. He'd only sampled her Banoffi pie so far and he wouldn't forget that in a hurry.

Alan had offered to help Clare with her Christmas preparations and they'd arranged to go shopping on Saturday afternoon, a week before Christmas. She was going to help him choose presents for the children. He had no-one else to buy presents for, only Philip and his wife Libby and they were boring. Knowing Clare was dreading Christmas, he was determined to make it as happy for her as possible. He'd already bought a large bottle of her favourite perfume and a box of her favourite chocolates.

After parking and locking his gleaming black BMW, he walked up the path to Clare's front door. She answered the door looking as lovely as ever, but very down-in-the-mouth. His heart went out to her.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, stepping over the threshold, "but the roads are busy today."

"I'm not surprised, it is Christmas after all." said Clare closing the door after him and leading the way into the lounge. He could tell, just by looking at her, that she was in no mood for shopping.

Silver and gold bells were draped here and there and Christmas cards were hanging along two walls. Several attractive red decorations dangled down from the high ceiling. There was a large wicker basket full of gold coloured pine cones on the hearth and other decorations artistically arranged on small tables, together with two beautiful red Poinsettia plants.

"Did Angie and Matthew get off all right?" he asked.

"Yes, their flight was due to go out on time. She rang me from Heathrow last night."

"How exciting!"

"Yes." Clare replied.

"You've been busy, the house looks very festive." said Alan.

Clare sighed heavily.

"What's wrong?" asked Alan sitting down on the sofa.

"This tree...I don't want to bother with it." said Clare pointing to a large box on the floor.

"Then don't." said Alan "Where did you get it from?"

"The loft."

"Right then, back it goes."

"But I can't, the children are coming." said Clare, reluctantly.

"Think of yourself for once, forget the tree." said Alan.

Clare frowned.

"While we're out shopping, we could buy a fibre optic tree, it would only take five more minutes and this thing could go back into the loft. That way it would please everybody. I've got a fibre optic tree, it looks nice in the evening when the lights are low." said Alan. "A bit like you Clare," he added, grinning broadly. "I bet you look nice in the evening when the lights are low."

"That's a back handed compliment if ever I heard one," she replied "but that's a good idea, I think I will buy a fibre optic tree."

Alan took the artificial tree safely back to the loft and shortly afterwards they were on their way to the shops in his BMW. As he'd mentioned, the roads were busy and it was difficult to find a parking space, but a car pulled out of a large space just as they were passing and he pulled in quickly. It was a space on a parking meter, allowing them two hours.

As Alan climbed out of the car and locked the door Clare said, "Where shall we go first? Shall we try the book-shop, the children love books."

"Books aren't my cup of tea, as you know, but if they like them that's fine."

They walked along side by side, Clare occasionally stopping to look into shoe shops and clothing store windows. They arrived at the book shop and Alan, (being the gentleman that she thought he was) held the door open allowing her in first.

"There's the children's section." said Clare, pointing. "Let's go and look."

She walked over and he followed. They stood together surveying the huge range of books. It was overwhelming and Alan had no idea where to begin.

He picked out a book with animals on the cover.

"This looks good." asked Alan, flicking through the pages. It was an A to Z of animals starting with A for Armadillo and ending with Z for Zebra. The pictures were in full colour on glossy paper. It was a lovely book for a little child, like Toby, he thought.

"Imagine if there weren't any zebras, what on earth would we do? I suppose we could always have a zelephant or a zippo. Or, how about a zat or a zog?" Alan chuckled.

"What are you talking about?" asked Clare.

"I said, if there weren't any zebras we wouldn't have a full set. See what I mean? There aren't many animals beginning with Z."

"I don't think I'm in the mood for this." said Clare.

Alan pulled his usual funny face, but he couldn't raise a smile today.

"Toby would love it. How much is it?" asked Clare. Alan looked at the price.

"Just right, I would say. Good, that's the first one, now for the girls. What would they like? Do they like story books or are they more interested in 'How things work'?"

"I'm not sure, perhaps a dictionary. Something with pictures." Clare replied.

He picked up a few more books and thumbed through the pages, but wasn't impressed with anything.

"Hey, how about this?" he said at last. It was a book called 'The Sky at Night' with simple explanations and beautiful illustrations.

"Yes, Laura is almost seven she would love it. She's always talking about the stars and the planets."

"Okay, then. What about Sophie? How old is she?" asked Alan.

"Sophie will be five next summer." said Clare "She likes fairy stories. In fact she's mad about them, but she does have a lot of them already."

"Well, what about this?" asked Alan and he picked up a book about a fairy.

"But not your typical fairy story." said Alan smiling and raising his eyebrows.

"No, looks a bit weird to me. Sandra might not like it." said Clare.

"Let's see if we can find a dictionary, then."

They kept looking, but found nothing they liked so bought a Disney story-book instead, containing most of the well-known stories. It had a picture inset on a blue cover and gold edged pages. Alan was delighted.

"Thanks Clare, that's a great help. I'll enjoy wrapping these."

"You can wrap presents, then, that does surprise me." said Clare.

Alan remembered a present he had wrapped up for Angie's birthday and he winced.

"After a fashion." he said.

"Poor Angie!" said Clare.

"On second thoughts, if I leave them with you would you wrap them for me?"

"Yes, of course." said Clare.

As they paid at the counter he said, "Thanks for coming with me, it would have been impossible on my own, I wouldn't have known where to start."

"That's okay Alan, thank you for driving. It's mad today." They left the book-shop and carried on to their next stop, the Marks and Spencer's Food Hall.

Clare needed to know which foods Alan liked and which ones he didn't as everything had to be perfect for Christmas Day, she said. Fortunately, she found him easy to please. They reminisced together as they shopped, talking of picnics in the country-side and trips to the sea. Soon there were two shopping baskets full of luxury mince pies, Christmas cake, bottles of wine, nuts and lots of other goodies.

"Hey, what's the time?" shouted Alan suddenly.

"There's no need to shout," whispered Clare, "everyone's watching."

"Sorry, but we only had two hours parking," whispered Alan, "What time did we leave the car?"

"Oh no, I can't remember." said Clare.

They quickly joined the long queue, paid for their shopping and eventually hurried back to the car. Thankfully, there was no car parking ticket, although they were twenty minutes late. They sighed with relief and together they packed the shopping into the boot. Alan climbed into the driving seat.

"So far so good. Now let's go and buy that fibre optic tree."