It was a lonely Thanksgiving for Amber since she would spend the dinner alone with her little chihuahua inside her small room at five-floors small apartment. Lot of Thanksgiving dinner invitations she received from her friends but she turned down all of them and now she regretted it. She let out a sigh while looked blankly at her smartphone screen. There was not any notice from the one she loved the most. Her fiance was completely out of her reach.

It had been two weeks from the last time they met before he left her for his business. Since that day she couldn't contact him. She tried to call him but he didn't answer it. She sent tons of messages but he replied nothing. She wondered whether they could celebrate the Thanksgiving together this year.

Now Amber knew the answer. She took a glance at the clock which hanging on the wall. It was almost midnight. Amber tried to call him for the last time and he didn't pick it up, like usual. She put down her phone on the dining table and started to wrap all the delicious foods on there. All hard work she did for a whole day to cook and prepare a complete set of Thanksgiving dinner was useless. The foods were getting cold and she already lost her appetite again. She put all of those food inside the fridge. 

"Maybe I will give them to some unfortunate people tomorrow." She mumbled while walked to her room.

She got inside her room and climbed to her bed. The bed felt so large for her. The room was getting wider and colder since the last day she saw him. She curled on the bed and grabbed his jacket. She hug it and inhaled its scent, his sweet and calming scent. Oh, she really missed him so much. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep but she couldn't.

Her finger ran to her engagement ring that he gave her as her birthday gift September last year. She played that ring for a moment before she let out a soft sob. Tears rolled down on her cheeks. Her petite body was trembling as she hug his jacket tightly. She was crying and crying till she was fallen asleep.

It was the first day of December. The weather was getting cold outside but the spirit of Christmas was getting bigger. All stores on the town already decorated their selves with Christmas stuffs, all dominated with red, green, gold and silver. Amber went to groceries store for her weekly shopping.

When Amber walked down to the street, she accidentally overheard people chatted about Christmas gifts. It made her frozen on her spot for few seconds. Her eyes widened in horror like she just remembered something important that she accidentally forgot. A Christmas gift for her beloved fiance. How could she forget that? She even didn't have any plan to prepare one.

"What should I give for him this Christmas?" Amber mumbled to herself while kept walking.

She looked around, scanned every store's displayed stuffs to find the eye-catching one. Then her eyes stopped at a bunch of yarns which arranged into Christmas tree. Knitting? She never tried it before. She remembered how her mother wanted to teach her knitting but she just skipped it. The young her thought knitting was for middle-aged women. She'd rather doing exercises than sat down for hours and learned to turn yarn into scraft with two thin sticks. Now she kinda regretted it. 

She stared at the red round yarn for a moment. The yarn looked like hypnotised her, suggested her to buy it and took it home. Without thinking twice, Amber took a step inside the store. She decided to buy two red yarns and the knitting needles, along with the how-to-knit book for beginner. She was getting so excited. She couldn't wait to come home and started to make a long and warm scraft for her beloved one. But before that, she should buy the groceries. It was so depressed looking empty fridge every time you open it, right? 

After leaving her apartment for around two hours, she was finally back with two big bags of groceries on her hand. Jackjack, her little prince, welcomed her with its cheerful bark once she got inside.

"Hello, Jackjack", said Amber while closed her door with a kick. "Have you been a good boy?" Jackjack barked once and Amber counted it as a yes. "Good. Mommy has something for you."

Amber walked to the  kitchen and put all the stuffs on the table. Jackjack followed her from behind. Amber digged her groceries bags and took out a big pack of dried food for dog. She smiled widely as she showed it to Jackjack. 

"Ta~da~!" She yelled and Jackjack let out a high pitched bark. "Are you hungry, little boy?" She took its bowl and filled it with dried food before putting it in front of Jackjack. "Here you go." Amber chuckled when she was Jackjack smashed its head on its food and started eating happily. "Eat well, xiao baobei." Amber ruffled its head softly before standing up and arranged her groceries into her fridge. 

Minutes later, she sat on her comfortable couch. She started learning how to knit while reading each step written on the book. It seemed easy but it was pretty hard for the beginner. Ten minutes had passed and she still couldn't knit the red string. Amber scratched her head many times in frustration. Sometime she shouted whenever she did a mistake. She finally gave up when her stomach growled. 

"I can't do this with empty stomach." She muttered as put down everything on the table. 

After finishing her lunch, Amber sat back on her couch and continued what she had started. She twisted the string with knitting needles while looked at it closely. Sometime she took a glance to the book, checking whether she did a right step. She was so serious till she ignored Jackjack that played with its toys in the corner of the room. 

Two hours of continuous mistakes and Amber almost gave up. Her eyes and fingers already tired. When she decided to stop, the knitting needles showed their magic with the tangled red string around her finger. She finally could make the good edge for the scraft. She smiled widely. She did it. Then she decided to knit the whole night. 

In the next morning, she woke up with unfinished knitted scarf on her hands. She beamed and admired her first knitted stuff. Her mother would laughed at Amber if she knew her sporty daughter was locked herself a whole day on her small apartment and knitting. But it didn't matter for her. At least she needed a distraction and knitting made her more relax and stopped thinking about him for a moment. 

She only had twenty three days to make her first long scarf. She prayed the scarf would finished before the Christmas Eve. So she knitted diligently from morning to midnight. She only stopped when she needed to feed Jackjack and herself, to clean Jackjack's little camp and brought it to shower, and to take a shower for herself. She barely slept on her bed. She often fallen asleep on her couch while holding the knitting needles. Jackjack seemed knew Mommy had a serious business to do so it didn't bark too much to get her attention. It played alone on the corner of the room with its toys. Sometime Jackjack sat in front of her and watched her knitting till it fallen asleep. 

Knitting made Amber happier and felt better. She didn't cry alone anymore. She didn't stare at her phone and waited his call or message. Her swollen eyes were getting better but she got another problem. The faint dark circle around her eyes were getting clear. As a begginer, she couldn't knit so fast. She needed hours to get few inches of knitted scarf. No wonder she had been lack of sleep. She only slept three-four hours per day for the sake of finished this knitted scarf.

When knitting, she almost forgot with everything. She forgot to eat. She often skipped her meal. If Jackjack wasn't barking to her, she would forget to feed her little prince and herself. No wonder she was getting skinny. She forgot to do laundry so she always washed them once per three days. She forgot to buy groceries. She wouldn't know she didn't have anything to eat inside her fridge if she didn't open it. It seemed anything wasn't important to her but the red knitted scarf.

Three weeks passed. The long red knitted scarf was almost done. Amber smiled happily whenever she raised the scarf to see how long and good it was. She hugged it and inhaled the scent of a brand new scarf. She felt so proud with herself. Then for the first time of the last advent week, she thought of him. 

"I hope you like it, Baobei." Amber whispered to none. "Christmas is in the corner and I can't wait to see you again."

Hours later the scarf was done, complete with their initials, A&H stitched with white string on the edge of the scarf. She sprayed his favorite scent on the scarf. His favorite scent was her scent, the strawberry perfume she always used everyday. She fold the scarf and put it inside a box with a Christmas card she had written in the last minute. She closed the box and sealed with golden ribbon. She put it under her small Christmas tree. 

His present was done. Now she needed to make a present for her cute son. With the leftover yarn, she made Jackjack a scarf. Since she already practiced everyday for three weeks, knitting scarf for Jackjack felt easier. She could finished it quickly in one night. Her mother would be so proud with her.

Twenty second of December. Amber woke up with a fresh feeling after sleeping for ten hours. It had been a while she slept so tightly like last night. Three days more before Christmas. She was so excited. She quickly got up and prepared herself for Christmas shopping. She looked at her reflection. She was shocked when looking at her horrible face, especially those dark circle around her eyes. She grabbed her make-up bag. She found a small amount of BB cream and her concealer was completely empty. She needed to buy them to fix her face. He couldn't see her horrible face like this. He shouldn't. 

Amber went to a shop and bought her favorite brand make-up. The shopkeeper was so nice to Amber. She recommended few numbers of concealer and powder to fix Amber's problem. Without thinking twice, Amber bought them. Amber was a sporty girl. She disliked those girly stuffs. She barely wore dress and never applied thick make-up on her face. She even barely put powder on her face whenever she went out. She wanted to look beautiful as natural as possible without any make-up. But for this day, she couldn't help herself. She begged a help from make-up.

Twenty fourth of December. It was the Christmas Eve. Amber woke up early morning. She took a shower and dressed herself with long white t-shirt and long pale blue jeans. She combed her short hair with her fingers and hidden those dark circles around her eyes with make-up. She took a glance on the mirror. She smiled, satisfied with her appearance. She grabbed her phone and the smile faded away. Still there was no news from her fiance. She looked at their photograph on her table. That photo was taken on their first engagement anniversary, last September, right on her birthday. They looked so happy with smile plastered on both faces. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pushed her closer to him. His arm was holding out the camera. She hugged his torso tightly and leaned her head on his chest while looked at the camera. It was one of their perfect moments. She took that frame and rubbed his face with her thumb. 

"I missed you. Will you comeback home this Christmas, Baobei?" She whispered as she closed her eyes and hugged the frame tightly.