A Christian Romance

Chapter 13 - He again

The Smiths were Messianic Jews which meant that they believed in Jesus, but still instead of celebrating Christmas, they celebrated the Hannukah. However, in respect of their non-Jewish friends, they always organized a party on the 25th of December in a Kosher restaurant in Melbourne. That was a very exclusive celebration whose attendees were formerly invited, of course, there were always exceptions, but never more than 10. That year Chloe and Debora had the honor to participate, only because Ben - son of the organizer - had invited them.

Because that wasn't an ordinary celebration, the two girls considered wiser to buy a gala dress for the occasion. But man, finding a dress to fit either of them was hard! Their shape wasn't adequate to the dresses they saw. Nevertheless, they couldn't afford to go underdressed to that event, especially Debora who liked to dress up. When they found their dresses, they soon realized that that wasn't the peak of their troubles, the hair was.

So there they were: in front of a mirror. Debora braiding Chloe's hair, and the latter grimacing in pain; she hated when people touched her hair.

"There you go!" Debora finished. "Do you like it?" She observed Chloe in the mirror.

Chloe caressed her head while eyeing herself in the mirror, and moving her head sideways, with a smile on her face. She nodded with pride.

"What are you gonna do to your hair?"

"You'll see." Debora winked. "But I have no idea!"

"An afro." She smirked.

Debora put her hands on the waist in a lecturing tone and laughed. She felt free and spirited, maybe because of the intense experiences she was having in Melbourne. In that city, she felt home.
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Ben entered the restaurant between the two beautiful women. Debora had decided on a low-profile hairstyle, something wet and elegant, and light make-up to match the petrol blue color of her gown, whereas Chloe rocked in her ocean green jumpsuit. The three caught Moses attention, at the instant he was talking to a guest. He walked to the door intending to greet them.

"Debora, what a beautiful surprise!" Moses, fully bearded, in a black tuxedo, greeted her with a smile. "I'm glad to see you here!"

"You too, Abah-leh!"

She really liked to call him that, and he enjoyed that as much, anyone could tell by the smile of satisfaction on his face.

Debora stepped forward and joined the maze of people elegantly dressed, willing to drink some water. She quickly noticed that there were no other blacks in the celebration besides her. Nervous as she was, she helped herself to a glass of water and looked around to find Mim. Among all those 50 people, finding her in that small venue was troubling, especially because the light was dim. On her search, she noticed a familiar face from across the room, and that sight made her jittery; now that was unexpected! She smiled, maybe quite flirtatious - some would say - surprised that this person was smiling back at her, and even walking toward her, carrying a flute of champagne.

"Now that's a sight I didn't expect." He said, hiding the pleasure of seeing someone he considered so beautiful.

"Joel..." She said in a complementing tone. "You look smart in that tux!" She couldn't help but smile.

"You don't look too bad yourself." He smiled. "Anyway, it's nice to see you! Ben told me you were in Melbourne..."

"Yeah! Chloe invited me to spend Christmas with her. So good to take my head off Sydney." She took a deep breath and changed the subject. "I'm happy to see you too, by the way."