Memoir | The Mailroom Christmas Party | Part VI of VI

The holidays were upon us in the U.S. Department of Prominence; therefore, all the offices were gearing up for their Christmas Office Party, and unbeknownst to Marcello and me, we discovered that the mailroom Christmas party was the very best!

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Marcello and I had just started working in the Department in July. We became instant friends. He nicknamed me “Betty Bop.” And Marcello, alias Marco.

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It was the week before Christmas, so the building's Christmas office parties were in full bloom. All the parties commenced at noon. We made plans to attend as many parties as possible within our lunch hour.

I met Marco at his small office that was made into a mailroom on the same floor where I worked. He was a mail clerk. I worked in the communications center as a telecommunications specialist at that time.

We were both dressed in the traditional Christmas colors of red and green. Marco wore a red shirt, black slacks, a pair of high-heeled ankle boots, and red Press-On Nails. He was gay and was proud of being gay. I wore a red Calvin Klein dress and a pair of red, pointed-toe faux crocodile flat shoes.

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The first Christmas party we attended was on the 5th floor. It was inside a conference room. People were standing around talking. There was a small amount of wine, cheese, and libations on the long conference table. We sipped on some wine, made small talk, and then departed. We both concurred that the office party was unexciting.

The second Christmas party was on the 4th floor. It was inside an office. The food was spread out on one long fold-up table. They had deli platters with deli meats, hummus, cheese spreads, and slices of bread. There were shrimp and vegetable platters, also. We made sandwiches and sipped on Heineken beer. Again, we both agreed that this party was boring.

After we ate our sandwiches, Marco said,

“Betty Bop, let’s go to the large mailroom Christmas party.”

I agreed.

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We departed that party and took the stairwell down to the basement, where the building’s large mailroom was located. As we got to the 1st floor of the stairwell, we could hear the soulful sounds of the Godfather of Go-Go, Charles “Chuck” Brown's song “We Need Some Money.”

“Got to get, got to get, got to get money.”

“I’m gonna lay it right on the line.”

“A dollar bill is a friend of mine.”

“We need money! We need money, y’all!”

“Talkin’ about money, money, money!”

I and Marco looked at one another and smiled.

We rushed down the steps to the mailroom with impish glee!

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When we entered the mailroom’s Christmas party, we saw that they had four long tables filled with good, greasy, cholesterol, fat, and vein-busting Soul Foods! The soul foods were fried chicken, spareribs, fried pork chops, collard greens, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, yams, string beans, large steak potato fries, and dessert galore!

Marco and I quickly decided to make food plates to take home for dinner. We packed our plates with various soul foods, wrapped them in aluminum foil, and stashed the plates inside a refrigerator within the mailroom.

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We promptly joined in on the Christmas festivities!

The mailroom was overflowing with people!!

All our Department colleagues were at the mailroom’s Christmas party. Blacks, Asians, Caucasians, Latinos, LGBTQs, janitors, and cafeteria staff.

It was a beautiful sight to see people being happy together!

The room was buzzing with loud laughter, dancing, and joyous singing!

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Marco and I were dancing wildly.

Chuck Brown's long remix of "We Need Some Money" was still playing.

Marco was shouting,

“We need money, money, money...got to get, got to get, got to get money!”

He was bending over, rubbing his buttocks onto my buttocks, and his arms were flying in the air outrageously as he screamed out loud more lyrics from Chuck Brown’s song “We Need Some Money!”

We had fun!!

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The disc jockey was alternating between playing soulful Christmas songs by Nat King Cole, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, George Michael (Wham), Donny Hathaway, and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by Vince Guaraldi. And then he would flip back to playing go-go music. Later, he changed to playing romantic songs by other great singers like Michel’le "Something in My Heart”, and Foreigner "I Want to Know What Love Is". The disc jockey had an eclectic mix of music for everyone!

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After the Chuck Brown music stopped playing, the sentimental ballad “Something in My Heart” echoed throughout the mailroom. Marco halted dancing and pulled me up close to him so that we could slow dance erotically! If you ask me, we were dry humping each other! While we were slow dancing, my head lay on his shoulder, and I thought, “Marco is still a man trapped inside his gay body.”

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Our lunch time was over!

We grabbed our plates of food and departed the Christmas party quickly.

While swiftly walking back to our offices, Marco complained that his feet were aching from wearing high-heeled boots. His voice was hoarse from screaming so much. Sweat was dripping off his face, and he was missing four of his red Press-On fingernails.

I was sweaty, so my Calvin Klein red dress was clinging to my body.

Marco said, “I love you, Betty Bop, and Merry Christmas!” I told Marco that I loved him, too, and wished him a Merry Christmas, also.

We each made our way to our own offices, still feeling the effects of the alcohol, we drank!

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(Copyright © 2025 by Mia Z. Edwards. All rights reserved.)