Genre:
Romantic Comedy
Themes:
Age Gap
Family Relationships
Forced Proximity / Stranded Together
Grumpy / Sunshine
Holiday
Humor / Comedy
Low Angst
Magic
Pet / Wild Animal
Quirky Characters
Return to Hometown
Supernatural Elements
Heat Level:
Sweet (kissing, holding hands, etc., but no other on-the-page physical intimacy)
Archetypes:
Farmer
Homemaker
Geographic Location:
United Kingdom: Wales
Setting:
Farm / Ranch
Sexual / Gender Identity:
Lesbian
Femme
Questioning
Special Delivery
A Festive Sapphic Short Story
By Sue Still
A fluffy Christmas romance with a grumpy MC and a cute animal.
Christmas Eve Night. A cottage in Wales. A strange woman in a Santa outfit.
‘Something was inside the fireplace. Too big to be a bird or animal. Uh oh. Sam squinted into the darkness, trying to work out what she could see. At the base was a block of red. A little higher up, a dark area. And finally, at the top, two pale… legs. Legs? No way! Yikes. Yes. She could see them now. Someone was in the fireplace. In-her-fireplace.’
Samantha Cole wakes in the middle of the night on Christmas eve to the sound of thumps, bumps, and bangs.
To her horror, she finds a strange woman in her house, dressed in a saucy Santa costume. The woman insists she is not a robber. That she is Santa’s granddaughter, Holly, and is there for a special delivery to a child at that address.
Sam has several issues with this.
First, how did the woman get in, and why would she even want to? Second, there are no children. Sam lives alone in her little Welsh cottage and the nearest police station is over an hour away.
Is Holly trying to trick her or is she delusional? Finally, there is the fact that Holly is tall, Amazonian looking, and sexy as hell. Sam’s instantly attracted to her, but she doesn’t trust her. Or anyone.
Everything Holly represents rubs Sam up the wrong way. Brings out her defences and shrouds her in disbelief. Especially Holly’s flirty nature and the insistence that she’s there to leave the present. It is all too much. Besides, Sam doesn’t do Christmas.
Sam lost her beloved mother on Christmas day when she was little. Since then, she has closed herself off, shut the door, and cancelled Christmas for good.
Is Holly who she says she is? Can she learn to trust, or will she face a life of isolation and loneliness?
“I just finished reading your short story, special delivery. I really loved it! It was a wonderful way to start a Christmas morning.” – Andie Trinder–Whittle.
