Rumor has it that Christmas eve is a time of miracles. People find cherished gifts under a Christmas tree, meet the most important people in their life and open their hearts for those for whom they were once closed. Tim believed in the magic of Christmas. Even though he was an adult every year he was waiting for miracles to happen, just like he used to when he was a kid.
It was Friday evening. Offices and coworkings of the city became empty, as soon as the clock showed 18:00. Crowds of the cheerful office workers, businessmen, and government employees ran out on the roads. Someone hurried home, someone planned a meeting with friends, someone ran in a shopping center to buy Christmas gifts and someone bought flowers for the upcoming date.
Tim knew that Lina is about to come. He was waiting for her in the bar No. 5, looking out in a window and synchronizing a watch with digital clock. Every Friday they met in this place at the same time - 18:15, because exactly 15 minutes walk separated Lina from work to bar. Tim`s heart was beating faster and more joyfully in those minutes of waiting. But today something went wrong and Lina didn’t come neither at 18:15, nor at 18:17 or even 18:21. Tim got worried and had already wanted to don a coat and go outside, when at 18:24 Lina appeared in the doorway.
Beautiful blond girl in a strict wine-colored coat, she ran into the bar No. 5 and waved to Tim. He realized that something was wrong by the uneasy look on her face.
- Hi, Tim! - Lina bent over a bar counter and kissed Tim in a cheek.
Lina was alone today. Tim was really happy that he will be able to chat with her alone - she used to come with her friends or boyfriends. Tim had been working in this bar for years when he first met Lina - tear-stained and upset she was drinking Martini with three olives and complaining on one of her guys. Since then every Friday Tim and Lina met at a bar counter of bar No. 5. Lina was coming to Tim like to the good friend, and Tim … Tim fell in love with her from the first sight, but he didn't dare to tell her about it.
- As usual, Martini with three olives?
Tim winked at her and Lina nodded to him with a smile.
Tim knew that he doesn’t need to ask Lina about anything - she will take one sip of her favorite drink and tell what had happened. This evening was devoted to talks about Mark who appeared to be a scoundler and had broken up with lina Lina on the Christmas eve. Moreover, he had broken up with her via the massage! While Lina sighed and drank her Martini, Tim was consoling her with cheerful jokes about Mark and promises that someday she will surely meet the right guy.
- Oh, Tim, from your mouth to God’s ears! – Lina trilled with laughter every time Tim said this phrase.
The whole next week Tim was decorating the bar for the holiday and waiting for Friday evening. But by Friday he was trapped by an unpleasant surprise. There was a major accident on a heating main of one part of the city and the heating was turned off at some buildings. Unfortunately, the bar was in that list. That meant that it will be closed up to Christmas. Having hung up the sign "Closed” on the doors, Tim put on a jacket and decided to devote this evening to the small works of the bar for which there was not enough time in usual days. He was so engaged with work that he did not even notice how the evening came. At 18:15 someone knocked at the bar door - Lina was on the threshold.
- Are you really going to break our Friday tradition? - without taking off a coat Lina neatly jumped on a bar stool and pointed at a bottle of white Vermouth.
Tim filled a glass, lowered 3 green olives in it and moved it up to Lina. She did not manage to take a sip as the chair under her began to creak and Lina tumbled down on a floor together with glass and 3 green olives. Oh no! Tim forgot that he had put this chair with the broken leg closer to an entrance in purpose - he wanted to repair it, but didn`t have enough time …
When he ran up to Lina he saw a sad picture, but for some reason, it caused an explosion of laughter in him. Lina, still very beautiful, was laying on a floor in fragments of a bar stool and empty glass with 3 olives was right on her stomach. The whole drink poured out on Lina’s sweater and she was looking on laughing Tim bewildered. But Tim did not expect the further reaction of Lina. The girl stood up with a menacing look, buttoned a coat, ran out on the street and jumped in the empty taxi.
All works in the bar were finished few days ago so there was no need for Tim to stay in a cold moist room anymore. He moved to the apartment and balanced the accounts at a kitchen table. He was very upset with the whole situation with Lina and could not forgive himself inappropriate laughter – what if Lina was really offended and will not come anymore?
Week passed really quickly, it was Friday already - the last Friday before Christmas. Tim passed by the bar every day just to check whether there is any letter or note from Lina. On Friday evening he decided to come to the bar just in case, despite a heavy snowfall – what if Lina will come. When Tim was cleaning a utility room, he heard a knock at a bar door. He looked at a wristwatch - 18:15! Lina! He rushed off to the door, but he saw the courier standing in the doorway. Mail …
The courier handed a box to Tim, asked to sign the papers and left. Tim was really upset. He put a box on a bar counter and plunged into sad thoughts – he couldn't imagine how to find Lina. Of course, Tim knew in what building she works and in what area lives, but all these years they met only in the bar and he had neither new her home address nor her phone number. What a fool! Oh, if only he could find Lina, he would tell her everything… Everything that he was so afraid to say all of these years. Why was he waiting for so long?
Thinking of what to do now, Tim opened the box. There was something, wrapped up in many layers of a bubbled cover-up. A bottle? Having unwrapped a final layer of a cover Tim saw a Martini bottle. There was a piece of paper attached to a bottle - the rest of packing? Tim took this piece of paper and found out that there was a short note inside.
Tim ran out from the bar to the snow city at 18:30. It was really cold and windy outside, but Tim didn't notice it - the spark of hope was burning with a bright flame inside of him. Lina was not offended, she apologized and wanted to tell Tim something important. Something that she didn't have a chance to say that hapless evening. Tim turned his face to the prickly wind, hurried to Lina and believed. He believed in the Magic of Christmas.