One Day in December

Sarah and Laurie are remodeling their flat and discussing their love lives. Sarah is actively pursuing a man at work and has an upcoming date with him. Laurie is still pining over the man she saw at the bust stop. Laurie realizes how odd it is to wait around for another chance meeting with a stranger, telling herself, “I need to find someone else before I turn into a nun […] but my heart isn’t ready to let him go yet. That feeling when we locked eyes—I’ve never had that before, ever” (19).

There are many differences between Laurie and Sarah, and one of them is Sarah’s gregarious personality—the way she goes after what she wants in life and the way people are drawn to her. While things are moving along well for Sarah in the career and dating spheres, Laurie is still working at her hotel job and “hoping that among all these frogs will one day come a prince” (23). By December, Sarah and Laurie are planning their annual Christmas party, and Laurie considers how special Sarah is to her. Not only is Sarah a bright and beautiful young woman, but she also sees Laurie in the same way. Laurie is happy to hear that Sarah’s date from October has developed into a full-on relationship, but she is also sad at the prospect of losing Sarah in a way.

The night of the Christmas party is here. Sarah has set up Laurie on a blind date and is excited to introduce Laurie to her new boyfriend. Sarah’s boyfriend, Jack, is none other than the man from the bus. Laurie recognizes him instantly and suspects that he recognizes her, too. Laurie is floored, noticing that “it’s gone in a heartbeat, leaving me unsure if the sheer force of my own longing made me imagine it had been there at all” (29). She puts on a smile for Sarah’s sake and realizes that she cannot take Sarah’s happiness away from her by telling her the truth.

In Jack’s version of the moment, he, too, recognizes Laurie, but Jack remembers her more as “random, disturbing early-morning lucid dreams where I jolt awake, hard and frustrated” (34). Jack and Laurie exchange an awkward moment in the kitchen, hungover and looking for medication for their raging headaches. Jack decides not to read too much into the meeting with Laurie, though he can’t help but feel perturbed. Later, Sarah asks for Laurie’s opinion about Jack, and Laurie can’t muster an air of genuine happiness for Sarah. Laurie recommits to keeping this a secret and feigning her emotions.

The holidays are back around, and Laurie remains committed to hiding the truth about Jack from Sarah. Laurie revisits her New Year’s resolutions from 2009, realizing that her year has not gone as she had hoped: She hasn’t found a job in magazines, and while she has found the boy from the bus stop, he is unavailable. Laurie decides to persevere beyond these disappointments. She “can see how easy it is for people to get stuck in a rut and let go of their dreams. But I’m not giving up, not yet” (43). She decides to make only one New Year’s resolution for 2010: to fall out of love with Jack.

Now that Jack and Sarah are in a serious relationship, Laurie and Jack are forced to spend more time together during the holiday season. Laurie feels tremendous guilt over her feelings for her best friend’s boyfriend but finds them difficult to repress without seeming rude and distant. In an effort to bring her two loved ones closer together, Sarah invites Jack for a movie night with her and Laurie at their apartment. Laurie is simultaneously excited and terrified at the prospect of spending time with Jack, realizing, “What bothers me most of all […] is that while ninety-five percent of me is dreading tonight, the other five is sparking with anticipation at the idea of being close to him” (45).

Laurie tries to make small talk with Jack and learns more about his radio journalism work. Laurie begins to compare herself with Sarah, noting the similarities in work and personality between Jack and Sarah. Laurie reveals that while she and Sarah studied the same courses in university, Sarah is quite successful in her early career whereas Laurie is still trying to get into an entry magazine job. While Laurie pretends to be a happy host, her emotions are boosted from getting to know Jack. When pouring him a beer, she reflects to herself, “I’m warmed by the fact that I know what he’d prefer without needing to ask, as if this one tiny snippet is a new stitch in the quilt of our intimacy” (48). To battle these feelings of joy for a man whom she cannot pursue, Laurie tries to picture the perfect, future life of a married Jack and Sarah. Meanwhile, Jack, Sarah and Laurie debate pizza and film choices, putting Laurie in even greater discomfort because she feels she is choosing between two teams, even though Sarah thinks everything is normal.

They choose Twilight, and Jack is horrified to be sitting through a romance in such an intimate setting with Laurie. He, too, has been feeling awkward with Laurie, certain that he has said or done something to offend her. He has also been trying to avoid spending time with her but cannot admit to Sarah the absurdity of remembering Laurie from the day at the bus stop. Jack takes “solace from the fact that it’s just the way my guyish brain stores away a pretty face, and from the fact that she doesn’t have a guyish brain and so hopefully has no awkward memory of me gawking at her from a bus stop” (52). Both Jack and Laurie are nervous about their chemistry in front of Sarah, yet both of them believe that the other is not under the same spell.

Valentine’s Day arrives, putting Laurie deeper into her sadness. She continues to plug ahead with her job applications while Sarah has her help choose an outfit to wear out with Jack. Laurie comforts herself with a romance film and ice cream but is interrupted in her solitary night when Sarah returns home drunk. Jack puts her to bed then joins Laurie on the sofa in an effort to be social. They chat about Sarah, and Laurie is “actually thinking […] that I like them both a lot and it’s giving me the mother of all problems” (59). Though her loyalty remains with her friend, Laurie is struck by how close she feels to Jack. Meanwhile, Jack feels like he is consistently saying silly things to Laurie, even though he is so confident with words in his work and his other relationships. Jack also feels that Laurie is somehow closer to him than he knows, and “for a second I experience a jolt of homesickness out of the blue. As if she is familiar, even though she isn’t” (63).

They swap stories from their childhood, but then Laurie starts to sob, and Jack is horrified that he has somehow made her cry. In fact, Laurie has accidentally started to tell Jack the story of her dead little sister, and she breaks down in Jack’s arms. Laurie awakens the next morning with horror, believing that she has now officially crossed a line.