Merry Christmas, Mr Boone: Raife and Dexter

By M K Lee

This is Raife and Dexter's first Christmas as husbands, and they couldn't be more excited. With friends to meet and gifts to give, they embrace the holiday season with a mince pie in one hand and a glass of something sparkly in the other. Though between parties and dinners, is Dexter ever going to get Raife's Christmas presents wrapped in time for Christmas Day? And who is the mystery gift giver leaving presents in their mailbox every night?

• Language: English
• Publisher: M K Lee
• Release date: Nov 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393641650

M K Lee

M K Lee is a freelance writer who is almost permanently attached to their laptop wherever their travels may take them, writing everything from poetry blogs to language articles and many other things in between.

Book preview

Chapter One

Raife picks up one end of the coffee table, grunting under its weight as he drags it against a living room wall. This table gets heavier every year, he is sure of it. Once he has kicked the table leg to straighten it, Raife puts back its small Christmas tree, even putting on its tiny tree lights. They will move the table back in front of the couch when finished tonight, but he might as well keep the room looking festive.

It is good to be home among the overly decorated tree, wall decorations, and other Christmas paraphernalia covering their house. Raife is officially a free man, or at least a man free from work until the New Year. When he left the staff lounge at Aldcastle University earlier, it was with a spring in his step and a festive hum on his lips. Or maybe that was the crumbs from his third mince pie of the day. His colleague Aeron outdid himself with baking this year and has no doubt contributed several inches to their collective waistlines. Either way, despite loving his job, Raife has no more work to do for two whole weeks and is giddy for it.

Tweaking back a curtain enough to see over the street outside, Raife catches a light flurry of snow in the lamppost light to the side of their house. It is enough reminder of the wintry weather out there for this evening, leaving Raife shivering and thankful that he doesn't need to go out again. Letting the curtain drop, Raife instead eyes the shelf beside it, which has a photo of him and Dexter on their wedding day in pride of place next to their wedding scrapbook. Raife pauses, picks up the heavy silver frame running his thumb over the heart embellished in the corner, as euphoric today for being married as he had been on that day about four months ago.

Dexter will be home any minute, so Raife gives his husband a quick grin in the picture, then puts the frame back. If he doesn't move now, he will pull down the scrapbook and start reminiscing like the pair of them are always doing. Anyone would think they’d been married 40 years instead of just four months, but Raife doesn't care what anyone might think.

Instead, Raife looks over the mound of gift wrap, tape, tags, and the gifts he's been piling on the couch for the past half an hour. There is still more to wrap. He retrieves the last of their gifts from their remaining hiding places in cupboards and drawers around the house. These are just the ones they have for family and friends. Raife's gifts for Dexter are already wrapped and stacked in the under-stair cupboard they keep gifts for one another in. Sometimes when he is at work, or when Dexter gets up before him in the morning, Raife pictures him looking over the contents of this cupboard trying to guess what he is getting.

Finding the perfect gifts for Dexter is something Raife both loves and worries about every year. This year, because they are talking about getting a dog, he had toyed with the idea of buying him a puppy. Imagining Dexter's face as he pulled the lid off a large box decorated with an ornate red ribbon with gold trim had made Raife smile for two days straight until he had worried about the practicality of it. Where would he hide the pup until Christmas so Dexter wouldn't find out about it? What if the pup was terrified of being kept in a pet crate for hours to keep the surprise? What if he bought a pup from a pet shop that took their pups from puppy mills? He couldn't risk it. So instead they will find a dog breeder in the New Year, something Dexter has been talking about doing for a couple of months. Not that Dexter knows a Christmas puppy was even an option for him.

Though the things Raife has bought him this year, he knows Dexter will love, puppy, or no puppy. He is as excited to see his face opening them as he had been buying each of the gifts. This is their first Christmas married, and if the two of them have bought too much, well, good. It's Christmas; who doesn't overindulge? And who doesn't deliberately buy silly gifts as well as thoughtful ones, knowing how much their husband will howl with laughter for every one?

This evening, after the chicken stew Raife put on this morning before leaving for work, they are spending a couple of hours wrapping the mountain of gifts now spilling over the sofa and armchair. Now that he can see them all together, there are far more than Raife remembered; like every year. So he starts a new pile to make room for them to have somewhere to sit. Stacking boxes, packages, and less friendly-to-wrap shapes, Raife covers most of the terracotta living room floor rug. As Raife surveys the landscape of gifts now scattered in every direction despite his efforts to be neat, his guess at a couple of hours needed for wrapping goes out the window. A more realistic all-nighter is ahead, made longer still by the several glasses of wine they will no doubt drink.

The fluffy stew dumplings are making Raife’s mouth water when he hears Dexter pulling into their drive. He taste tests the stew because it would be rude not to, then takes their bowls from a cupboard ready to set the table.

The front door opens and then closes with a thud that means Dexter kneed it shut. Drying his hands on a tea towel, Raife walks through to the living room, stopping when Dexter peeks around the corner of the small hall leading from the front door and grins at him.

Hi, love.

Laughter erupts from Raife for knowing that particular smile. Hello. How many?

How many, what?

"How many parcels arrived at Boone Autos today that are things you just couldn't resist buying or forgot you'd ordered?"

Busy as he is always working in his car maintenance and modification garage, Dexter has little free time for in-person Christmas shopping. It doesn't help that Dexter isn't the most decisive of shoppers. The first weekend in December they had driven into Cardiff, where Raife had read three chapters of his book in the cafe Dexter left him in while Dexter chose him a Christmas card. Dexter spends as long browsing on his laptop for the perfect gifts as he would do in a shop, possibly even longer. At least online shopping he can do from the comfort of the couch or his office at work, and it saves him the commute and the burden of carrying things home. Sort of.

It's a funny thing. I was sure I'd crossed off three of these things from my spreadsheet, Dexter says, pulling a face as he kicks off his shoes behind him. When he steps in properly, his arms are full of parcels. All the delivery labels are peeled off. No doubt they were shredded already, thanks to the industrial-strength shredder Dexter's assistant Shilpa talked about for weeks, then bought when Raife and Dexter were on their honeymoon. There are six separate packages Raife can make out, that Dexter deposits on the dining table right where they are about to have dinner. How could Raife be mad at him for the joyful grin on his face?

Christmas is one of the few times of the year that Dexter really lets himself relax, taking on less work than normal and indulging in things just because he wants to. Before meeting Dexter, Raife wasn't interested much in Christmas, and wasn't even all that bothered in their first few years together. Since living with Dexter, and getting to see his face light up for every Christmas tree, card, and decoration, Raife now loves Christmas as much as Dexter does.

So, maybe you have double of something? he says, watching Dexter straighten up one of the larger packages so it doesn’t fall.

I'll check later when you're not looking. Hi, Dexter says again, still in his blue peacoat as he tugs Raife in by the waist for a kiss.

Unlike Raife, Dexter hasn't wrapped a single gift for anyone yet. Raife's Christmas gifts are double-bagged in that under-stair cupboard, bags Raife knows Dexter goes through every time he gets a new parcel delivered to update his spreadsheet with. Raife is far better at not peeking than Dexter is, having more willpower to resist looking at Christmas presents than he's ever had around an open packet of biscuits. Dexter is helpless, even if he loves surprises.

Did you get your last car done? Raife asks as he unbuttons Dexter's coat for him while Dexter unwinds the thick grey scarf from around his neck. It is particularly cold out then; usually Dexter doesn't bother with all these layers on just the drive between Boone Autos and home. Raife had thought he was overreacting when he'd shivered his way up the garden path an hour ago.

Mostly. There's something wrong with the frame, a defect underneath that means we couldn't get anything to fit right. I think tomorrow, we'll take another look, see if it's not just being stubborn. If that doesn't work, I'll come up with a workaround. More importantly, though, something smells amazing.

And it's ready to eat right now. How's that for perfect timing?

Clapping his hands together with glee, Dexter rushes to shove his parcels further along the table, following Raife to the kitchen to pour them their first glasses of wine. Though then he must spot all the presents they have to wrap while taking the glasses to the table, his oh louder than any swearing he might otherwise do.

We're out tomorrow night. Busy all weekend. If it's not now, it might not happen, Raife says before Dexter can say anything.

Tomorrow night they are going to Raife's work Christmas party. While Boone Auto's party began the holiday party rush for them last weekend, Aldcastle University kept theirs for the evening after the last day of term. Over the next few days, they will have to coordinate with friends and family to exchange gifts. And while Raife is now free until January, Dexter still has Monday and Tuesday to work next week. The more organised they are now with present wrapping, the less rushing around they will need to do on Wednesday and Christmas Eve.

We'll get it done. We will, Dexter