A Christmas Duet / Gomes, Shobana

Written in the first narrative, this is a story told by Robert Chandon Smith who falls headlong in love with a woman by the name of Catherine Mason.

A high ranking Corporate Executive working with an Oil & Gas company based in Asia and whose term of office was coming to an end with retirement, Robert Chandon Smith had always put his job as a priority above all else and had his marriage fail due to that. He has two children from that first marriage and they live with his ex-wife in New York.

In this story, Robert has a difficult time expressing his desires and love for a woman he has been attracted to from the first time he laid eyes on her. Her youthful looks and age as compared to his advanced one were one of the reasons for his hesitation to expose his true feelings to her. From the day he met her, he kept a journal detailing everything that took place and tirelessly related his feelings for her in it. His unspoken thoughts were written with much yearning and his laments through poetic verses and expressions divulged his most intimate feelings for a woman he painstakingly stalked and in his own way looked after without exposing his turbulent feelings for her.

He is a loner and someone who prioritized his commitments to his job thus isolating himself from the realities of a personal relationship. Catherine Mason’s entry into his life is like a breath of fresh air as Robert views the world in a different light after meeting her. Though his feelings remain unspoken till the end, Robert Chandon Smith’s vulnerability and the magnitude of love he feels for the target of his desire effectively invokes in the readers a chance to see love written with much longing and honest clarity.