Hormones and Holidays Don't Mix

Please refer to rule #8 of "My 12 Rules of Christmas" post.   Yesterday was fruitcake-baking day. So I was already a bit of an emotional mess.  Thank goodness for waterproof mascara.  And then this happened: 

I went to Bealls to get cologne for Trainwreck. While standing in line, a guy comes through with a sales girl and he's dragging a suitcase and carrying a bouquet of flowers. He had a buzz haircut, and even though he was in civvies, I figured he was military. He and the sales girl were looking through the sale jewelry and she was scratching off some savings coupons trying to find one that was more than 20% off that he had. She got one and handed it to him and they go back to searching with another sales girl. They looked at necklaces and rings and finally I caught on that they were looking to find something that could be combined with the discount (that he was not supposed to use for sale items, but they didn't care) to meet his budget.

He told them he had spent everything on a plane ticket from South Carolina to surprise his  girlfriend, and he just wanted a little something for under the tree. I couldn't stand it any longer. I got out of line and went over and tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he was military.

He said, "Yes, ma'am."  I told him I was sorry for eavesdropping, but my son was in the Air Force and I was actually  buying his present right now - and I asked if he minded if I helped him out.

"Oh, no ma'am it's ok," he said... I interrupted him and told him that he wasn't going to be home for Christmas this year, and I would just like to think that someone would help out my son while he was away. So, he went and picked what he wanted, and we got in line together and talked a bit.

Then we got to the cashier, who had heard the whole thing, and it was a lady I knew.  So she asked about the boys. I told her we had the other 3 home for Christmas but we just couldn't get Trainwreck home this year. Then she said, "Kind of a bittersweet holiday, I guess."

When she rang up our stuff, I handed her his coupon. She looked at it, then looked at me and winked - and even though she wasn't supposed to take the discount off of fragrances or sale items, she discounted it anyway. So that was kind of cool.

Then she handed us our sacks and I turned to tell the young man Merry Christmas and he hugged me and said that he hoped a hug from him would take the place of being able to hug my own son at Christmas.

I had a hard time letting go of him.

Someone commented that I gave him and his girlfriend a Christmas present that they will never forget.

Actually, it was the other way around. 

See there, Baloney? I'm not COMPLETELY heartless.  You can resume listening to your "Christmas Shoes" song again.