chapter 2

It was getting close to Christmas. Catherine was busy planning what to buy one day, when she noticed the calendar was filling up fast!
They were going to spend Christmas Day at home together all day. Boxing Day was deliberately kept free to relax after such a lead up to the big day.
On Christmas Eve, Ian had a lunchtime meeting before the break up for the holidays. Indeed, it was unlikely there would be many minutes taken as alcohol and a buffet were involved. In the evening, they were going around to her sister's house for an early Christmas dinner as she was working on Christmas Day.
The day before Christmas Eve, Ian had a Christmas party planned with his mates, the day before that Catherine had her works Christmas party at a hotel. Ian was her plus one. The day before that...
Ian was not going to spend one evening in for the entire week before Christmas! The week before that was busy too with three Christmas parties booked!
Catherine thought he was going to be a nightmare. All those hangovers! By the time Christmas Day arrived, he was going to be sick of turkey and Brussels sprouts!
She counted them all up. Eleven parties in fourteen days! He could not possibly go to every single one! She would have to tell him, he was going to have to be ruthless and turn some of them down, or he would have to pace himself. Maybe he should go alcohol free every other day to give his liver a chance to recover. If he didn't and he drank as he usually did.when he was out, by the time it got to Christmas Day, he would be a raging alcoholic!
Ian had no intention of cancelling anything. The golf club were giving out prizes as well. He knew he would not win anything. His golf was not good enough for that. Indeed, he often took severe penalties on his shots rather than actually play them because he wanted to get back to the clubhouse as soon as possible!
He couldn't cancel the rotary dinner. That was a fundraising event for charity. He couldn't cancel a night out with his mates and let them down. He wouldn't cancel Catherine's plus one night and let her down.
No every night was important in it's own way. He was just going to have to knuckle down and manage as best he could!
It was up to Catherine to worry about what he was going to wear on each occasion. Ian expected to simply open up his wardrobe and for there to be something suitable for him to wear that was clean and neatly ironed.
Catherine worried about him wearing the correct clothing for the occasion. The rotary was a definite black tie do. So was the executive lunch with selected good customers. She hoped he did not spill any champagne on his dinner suit, because he was going to have to wear it twice. They could afford to do it, but eleven different suits for eleven parties was excessive. He would have to make do with what he had. They did not have time for dry cleaning! He would have to behave and stay sober to keep his suits clean!