A Hallmark Christmas

Last week i was sent from the city to do an assignment on the local bakery in the small town where i grew up as it was celebrating it's 50th, and last, year as the owner, Mr Lassiter, was selling up.
My boss told me that if i put in a good report, i was almost certain to get that promotion to Chief Editor but my report had to be handed in by December 24th so off i drove and i was glad to get away, following my divorce this year i didn't want to be home alone and single at this time of the year.
I arrived in the town and stopped at the small coffee shop to grab a latte and ask directions but i have taken two steps when i was nearly knocked over by a runaway Golden Retriever and then actually sent tumbling by the owner who was chasing it.
It wasn't until he was apologising and helping me up that i realised that it Jed, my old college boyfriend i hadnt seen since i left the town 15 years ago.
He insisted on buying me a coffee as way of apology and we sat inside the cafe and talked about old times and i told him about how i was a big success in the city and almost certain to get that promotion and he told me how he had stayed in the town to run the family book-store after his parents had passed away.
He asked me if i would be around for the tree lighting ceremony on Christmas Eve but I told him about my assignment deadline and i needed to be back in the city by Christmas Eve to hand over my copy but i did say we should meet up again sometime but now i had to go see Mr Lassiter.
The kindly old man at the Bakery told me that after his wife had died, he couldn't face making the Christmas Cookies on his own anymore and she hadn't left him the special recipe for the cookies everyone loved so had decided to sell up to a large corporation who planned to pull down the bakery and build an office block on the site.      
I was sitting in the cafe typing out my report on my laptop when Jed came in and over a Gingerbread Latte, i told him about the bakery closing and he said that he thinks Mrs Lassiter had given his mum her secret recipe for the cookies one year for safe-keeping and it was in an old tin under the stairs.
So off we went and found the tin and spent all evening in the kitchen making the cookies following Mrs Lassiter's secret recipe.
It was during this time that i realised that the Jed i knew at college had actually grown into a great, and beautiful soul and while we were waiting for the last batch cookies to cook, he confessed that he had never really gotten over me and still loved me but he understood that while he had stayed in the town, i had gone on to bigger and better things and had outgrown the town and it's people.
I broke the awkward silence by throwing flour at him, he threw it back and with us both laughing, he chased me around the kitchen and caught me right under the doorway, where the miseltoe was hanging. I admit i did think about kissing him as we looked into each others eyes but the timer on the oven pinged and ruined the moment.
The cookies were a brilliant success, Jed decorated them with handfuls of tiny, silver and gold stars and we both helped out in the bakery shop selling them but my deadline was looming and my boss had already phoned me to ask how it was coming along and to remind me it had to be submitted by Christmas Eve if i had any chance of getting that promotion.
Jed asked me to go to the outdoor skating rink but i told him i really had to get the assignment finished so typed away but all the time i was distracted by the thought of Jed and how much fun we had making the cookies so i shut down the laptop, grabbed my coat and went to the rink to surprise him.
When i got there i saw him laughing and joking with a group of the local people and i knew right there that it would never work, i was a big shot city girl now and he was still the small town boy so to save us both from heartache, i went back to my room and packed my bags and wrote him a note to say that it was the fairest thing for both of us if i left before our feelings grew any stronger.
I pushed through the letterbox of the book-shop as i left and with tears in my eyes, i began the long drive back to the city and pulled in to a service station for some coffee to keep me awake for the rest of the drive home.
I sat in a booth in the corner and thought of Jed as i watched the snow tumble down outside when an old lady asked me if she could sit with me.
She had a dog-earred copy of 'A Christmas Carol' and when i said it was an amazing book, she sighed that she always carried it as it reminded her of how, one Christmas many years ago, she had made the biggest mistake of her life.
She spoke of how her biggest regret was that she had put her career before her own happiness and that had cost her the one true love she ever known and she realised too late that love is based on being yourself not anyone else and the true meaning of Christmas is being with someone you want to be with and how she wished she could go back and do it again, so she could change everything.  
Outside the snow was really coming down hard and i thought about her words while watching a young couple walk past with their arms entwined around each other and when i turned back she was gone, and when i asked the waiter where she had gone, he just shrugged and said he hadn't noticed anyone there anyway.
My mobile phone rang and as i fumbled the phone from my coat pocket, i saw it my boss asking and she would be asking for my story but as i got the phone out, i also dragged out some tiny silver and gold stars which we had used to decorate the cookies with and i stared at them and thought of Jed, him with the flour on his shirt as he chased me laughing around the kitchen, as my boss reminded me that my promotion depended on this assignment.
'I know' i said before adding 'but it's the last one you will ever get from me because i quit' and i hung up before she had chance to talk me out of it.
I drove back to the town and had to fight my way through the crowd who were gathering in the town square for the tree lighting ceremony but i couldn't see Jed and the countdown had begun. 10...9...8...7...through the falling snow i glimpsed Jed standing at the side of the stage and made my way through the crowd.
...6...5...4...
'Jed' i shouted, running over to him.
'I read your letter and thought you had gone home' he said with surprise
....3...2...
'I am home' i replied and as the crowd got to 1 we kissed and the lights came on, illuminating our embrace to cheers from the crowd.
Mr Lassiter asked to go on the stage as he had an important announcement to make and said that he had decided to not sell the bakery but to give it to Jed and I to run if we were willing, as we made such a success of it and he knew it would be in safe hands,
'Of course we will' i smiled and turned to Jed and said 'what a great Christmas present!!'
'You're my Christmas present this year' Jed smiled pulling me tightly to him.
As the snow gently fell, and we held each other, i saw the old lady from the service station stood in the distance, she smiled, nodded and seemed to fade into the lights.       
The crowd began singing 'Silent Night' and it was only then that i noticed the angel on the top of the tree was holding a wand in one hand a book in the other, the book was 'A Christmas Carol'.   
I am sure, as the saying goes, we will live happily ever after.