She took the key, noticing that a plastic Santa was hanging next to the red tassel. She laughed and straightened out her skirt that had become twisted during the ride.
“A Santa? Feels a bit odd in the middle of summer. Maybe Astrid was a rather ironic lady,” she said.
He looked at her in surprise.
“Did you not know Astrid at all?”
“No, not one bit. I think we might have met once, but I don’t remember her. Why?”
He smiled and his blue eyes were sparkling.
“It’s just that you’d be surprised, because she wasn’t really that ironic”, he said.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Let’s go inside and then you can see for yourself” he said, and smiled mischievously.
Emelie was sweating, she had ripped her tights and she was rather thirsty. She only felt more and more annoyed with this self-righteous young man. She followed him up the pebbled path to the front door that was adorned with a small decorative sleigh. She gave him puzzled look but Andreas seemed to have found something very interesting on one of his index fingers, which he was now studying thoroughly, and she didn’t get any answers. She put the key in the lock and opened the door. The first thing she saw was a Christmas tapestry with the text: “We wish you a Merry Christmas” with children in red clothes and Santa-hats dancing around the letters. Around the tapestry were little wreaths, that seemed to be made out of spruces and that were adorned with dried rowan berries. She took one step into the hallway and peeked into the living room which was large and stretched along one whole side of the house. The kitchen was on the left and the sun shone brightly on the shiny red kitchen cupboards.
“What the…”
She didn’t get any further than that.
“So, this is Astrid’s house”, Andreas repeated, taking off his shoes and walking inside. Emelie was standing in the doorway leading into the living room, just trying to process everything she saw. From floor to ceiling, the room was overflowing with Santas, pine wreaths, sleighs, elves, angels and bells. The walls were covered in tapestries, there were Christmas tablecloths on the big coffee table, and on the smaller tables that were spread across the room. Each one of the tables had a display of at least three porcelain figurines, and they were all Christmas themed. Tiny dogs with red bow ties around their necks that were cheerfully playing with a little girl with Christmas gifts in her bag. A sleigh pulled by Santa Claus with plenty of toys in the back. On the ceiling was a green, glittery garland with red bows and there were carpets in red and gold on the floor.
“Bloody hell, did Santa’s workshop explode, and then everything somehow ended up here?”
She could here Andreas laugh from the kitchen where he was going through the cabinets like he owned the place.
“Would you like some coffee?”
“Yes please” she said and followed him out to the kitchen
The red kitchen cupboards were accompanied by green kitchen chairs and the table had a tablecloth with embroidered Santas, reindeer and Christmas trees. She dropped down onto one of the chairs.
“But why…? Why is the house so…Christmassy?”
Andreas shrugged his shoulders.
“She liked Christmas”, he replied shortly.
He put water in the coffee machine. It was red. Naturally.
“But there’s ‘liked’ and then there’s this. This seems more like a hoarder but with Christmas things,” Emelie said, looking around the kitchen.
There were Christmas-themed stickers on the window, but between them she could make out the garden in the back. It was large and had lush flowerbeds with flowers harmonising in beautiful colours. The lawn was well-kept, and the hedge looked neat.
“She seems to have been interested in gardening as well”, Emelie said hesitantly.
“Hmm…That’s probably mostly me. I’m a gardener,” Andreas explained.
He found two cups in the cupboard above the coffee machine. One with a Christmas tree and one with a pig. He pointed through the window.
“I live over there, in the guest house”, he said. She leaned to the right and could see a small cottage. It was red with white corners.
“Okay, so do you plan on living there?”
He froze. Then he found the milk in the fridge.
