Mine on Christmas

by Sarah J. Brooks

  I didn’t suspect that Thomas was going to be the sentimental type so I’d already pre-filled out the paperwork as rental only. Certainly, the emotions of losing his wife gave him the right to have whatever feelings he wanted to, and I wasn’t judging him at all, but I suspected after this Christmas party was over he would want everything packed up and shipped back to the warehouse as quickly as we could make it happen.

  When Thomas arrived at the warehouse I was a little surprised by the vehicle he showed up in. He was driving a beat-up old Jeep Wrangler with a soft top. Not that it was a bad vehicle—actually I really loved Wranglers and had even fantasized about driving one off-road someday, it just didn’t strike me as the sort of vehicle a man with his kind of money would drive. I pegged him as a Range Rover or Mercedes sort of guy.

  I smiled and tried not to make eye contact with him as he parked and walked up to the door. He was so damn sexy though. His dark suit looked as if someone had made it specifically for him. He pulled the coat off just before making it to the door and I saw the outline of his biceps bulging through his dress shirt.

  Suddenly, I wished I’d touched him while he had been kissing me on his back patio. I didn’t take full advantage of that moment and had no fun memory of feeling his muscles under my fingers.

  Lost in my fantasy of touching Thomas, I barely said hello to him before turning to walk toward the back of the warehouse where we could get started on the task at hand.

  “Thank you for coming,” I said walking quickly in my heels.

  “Of course,” he replied.

  Thomas had no trouble keeping up with me. His long legs barely strolled beside me as I clicked my heels faster down the cement walkway.

  I’d worn a green fit and flare dress with my emerald green heels. It was a typical Christmas outfit that I’d wear at a party, but I’d randomly decided it was appropriate for this meeting with Thomas.

  Never had I met a client at the warehouse in anything other than jeans and a t-shirt. It was a very long walk to the back and wearing hi-heels was a terrible choice, but at least I looked fabulous in them.

  “So this is one of the main supply stores I use. They have everything you could ever imagine for your Christmas party. The way it works is I just scan the items with this and then they will put together a shipment to send to your house. I’ve set it up as a rental but if you love any of the items there is always the option to purchase them.”

  “Okay.”

  “Did you get a chance to look at the tree’s I sent you? Do you know which style you would like?”

  Because my feet were already killing me, I found us a spot to sit on one of the couches in the back room. I handed him my notebook with the design style that I thought would fit his family best.

  I could tell by the look on his face that Thomas was already not having fun with this. He probably didn’t even look at the email I’d sent him. But my job was to smile and keep moving forward. We had a lot of ground to cover and picking the trees was just the beginning.

  “I did look at the email, but I didn’t realize there were different options. I thought you just wanted me to say yes or no to the trees. Oh, and here are the lists from the kids.”

  “Okay, thank you. Why don’t you look through what I have put together and I’ll read the lists,” I smiled back at him.

  The conversation was horrendously awkward between the two of us. There was a giant kissing elephant in the room and I wasn’t exactly sure if I should bring it up or not. If he wasn’t going to acknowledge it then I certainly wasn’t going to say anything about it. I already felt foolish enough for blurting out that I thought he was handsome.

  Thomas flipped through my design book quickly, so quickly that I wasn’t sure he had looked at any of it. I read the kid’s lists, and everything seemed pretty usual for what I thought kids of their age would like.

  “I like the tree design of the present. That’s my favorite.”

  “Oh, good. I hoped you would like that. I will need you to gather some pictures from the kid's school events and pretty much any other pictures that you have from past and present. I’ll use them where I can. Don’t worry, I’ll have copies made so I’m not ruining your originals.”

  “I don’t have too many from their grade school years. It wasn’t until junior high that I started figuring out that I had to take pictures of them. Sorry.”

  “No, it’s fine. Whatever you have. I also didn’t get a chance to look at the boxes you have in storage for the past tree, I’ll need to come back out and look through those at some point.”

  “Okay.”

  “Is there anything that you didn’t like about my designs?” I asked as I flipped through my book again. “How about the silver string on the past tree? That is okay?”

  “Yes, that is fine,” he said without adding to his opinion at all.

  At this rate, we were going to be there much longer than two hours. I had to get this guy to open up to me a little. Part of my job as a party planner was getting the client to open up and be more creative with their choices. Often times they just said they were happy with my designs and in the early years, I went with it. Having them agree with me totally seemed like the easiest solution. Over the years I’d learned that getting the client more involved in the choices was much better for their overall happiness.

  Client satisfaction was important to keep people coming back for more jobs. Even when I worked with people like Thomas who seemed like they just wanted me to do everything, I knew deep down that they had to make at least a few of the decisions.

  “What about these two trees? Which one do you like better?” I asked as I pointed to a couple of trees in front of us. “Not the decorations on them, but the size and shape of them.”

  “Either one is fine.”

  “Okay, so I think the bigger tree is the right size. I did like the idea of the present tense tree being bigger and the past and future being smaller. But my drawing has all of them the same size. Which would you prefer?”

  Thomas tightened his jaw and looked at the picture from the design book and then back up at the trees in front of us.

  “I like all three the same size,” he finally said.

  “Great, we will go with them all the same size. Now let’s go make some other decisions,” I said and walked toward the warehouse that had the ornaments. “Colors, we need to look at colors.”

  “It’s Christmas. I think the traditional red and green as we discussed before. Then throw in some silver.”

  “Yes, but do you really want three trees all using the same color scheme? Do you want to use a style like this, or maybe this, on any of them? Like in my design book?”

  “I don’t have time for this. Can you just decide? I don’t care all that much,” he huffed and opened the design book again.

  Without responding to him, I gave Thomas time to look at the book and then at the various designs that were in front of him. One of the designs I’d drawn was almost identical as the tree in front of us, but there were plenty of other options as well.

  “What are your thoughts?” I asked.

  My expectation was for him to pick the tree that looked like my picture. It would have been the safest bet and required the least amount of decision making on his part. Instead, Thomas walked around analyzing the different trees and flipping through my book. He seemed pretty enthralled in the decision process and was taking mental notes of what he liked and didn’t like.

  “This one for the past, with the pictures like you talked about before. And I think it should have a red theme. Maybe some other colors in there but mostly red. Also, Jackson wants those silver tinsel things all over this one.”

  “Yes, I read that in his letter,” I laughed.

  “And for the future tree, I think we should do green with whatever decorations you think will work. The kids both really want to go to NYU, maybe we could incorporate some of that?”

  “I like that idea.”

  “Then for the present tree, w
e could do a combination of red and green. How does that sound?”

  “I think you’re getting the hang of this. I better be careful or you’re going to want to plan this party yourself,” I said and quickly wrote down what Thomas had just suggested.

  “Trust me, I would never want your job.”

  Thomas was a hard man to read. One minute he was pleasant and charismatic and the next he was flat and dry. His phone rang and he clenched his jaw as he looked at who was calling, then promptly silenced the call and put the phone back into his pocket.

  “You can take that if you need to.”

  “No, let’s finish what we are doing. I’ll call them back later. What other items will you be picking up while we are here?” he asked looking around the large back room filled with Christmas items.

  I had a very long list of things to pick up. It was surprising just how much you had to buy when you wanted to throw a perfect party. My list was pages and pages long and included items such as fabric napkins, extra chairs, and candle holders. All those little details brought a party together and gave attendees the feeling that they had just walked into an amazing room.

  The party budget was always a factor but even on a small budget, I worked to find accessories to bring the theme to life. I loved this part of my job. Each and every item I picked for Thomas’ party was going to enhance it.

  “I’ve got a long list, but only a few more things that I think you’ll need to stay for.”

  “Okay, let’s see the list.”

  “Flip to the back of the stylebook,” I couldn’t help smiling as I waited for the shock to flash across his face. “There’s a couple of pages.”

  Thomas opened the book to the back pages and flipped through my extraordinarily long list. And in all reality, I had probably forgotten to put a few things on that list.

  “We don’t need all of this,” he announced as if he was a poor struggling single father who couldn’t pay for his kid's school clothes. “This is excessive. I don’t want the party to be excessive.”

  “No, it’s not going to be. Let me show you. See this whole section of the list? Come with me.” I walked over to the linens and grabbed one of each of the napkins, napkin rings, glasses, placemats, and silverware. I scanned each item and adjusted the quantity to the numbers I needed and then put them back onto the shelf. “See, that was that whole section right there,” I said and put check marks next to at least a dozen items.

  “It’s going to take you three days to gather all this,” he laughed.

  “No, I’m a professional. It should just be a couple of hours. Usually, I get my roommate to come with me and hold items while I scan and input them. That saves some time, but I’ll manage today.”

  “Well, we better get moving then. I’ll hold and you scan.”

  Thomas grabbed the most horrifying looking centerpiece out of a pile that was sitting nearby. It was lime green with specks of orange on it. I burst out laughing as he held it proudly as if I would scan the tag and actually bring that terrible piece to his party.

  “How about you scan and I grab?” I said through my laughter.

  “Whatever you think is best,” he shrugged and smiled back at me.

  He really should smile more often. When Thomas smiled his whole face changed. He looked younger and like he was someone the world would want to know. I found myself staring at him as he put the centerpiece back and looked through the list to see what else we needed.

  “You have time to help with all of this?” I asked.

  “I’m having fun, I think I’d like to help a little. If that’s alright?”

  “Of course, I’d love the help. Let’s get to work,” I grabbed the book from Thomas and handed him the scanner.

  This was where I could shine and show him how good I was at my job. I flipped to the page I needed and quickly made a pile of items for Thomas to start scanning. I gave him the number I needed for each after showing him how to add additional items after he scanned one. He was a quick learner and before we knew it the list was halfway finished.

  We sped from one section to the next, scanning and adding the items I needed. When we reached an accessory item that I wanted Thomas to make a decision about he did it swiftly and without hesitation.

  “This one,” he’d say and quickly scan it. “How many?” he’d ask and adjust the number into the scanner.

  Thomas was an efficient beast and we plowed through my epically long list in record time. We managed to get nearly everything I had on my list. Although I still had items I’d have to find at other retailers I was feeling on top of the world as we walked back to the front to check in with Marshall.

  “I’m sorry, but I have to take these shoes off,” I groaned as after our two hours of walking around the facility. “I think my feet may actually be broken.”

  “Those aren’t the most sensible shoes for walking around a warehouse.”

  “Yes, I am in agreement,” I rolled my eyes back at him. “But they are beautiful.”

  “Undeniably,” Thomas replied as if he was talking about me and not the shoes. His gaze focused on my eyes and then went down to my lips for a brief moment.

  What was it about the way this man looked at me? I froze midway through taking my shoes off and couldn’t look away from Thomas. When he finally broke our stare-off and smiled it was as if a small barrier between the two of us had just been knocked down.

  Our two hours of working together scanning and gathering party accessories were just what we needed to soften the uncomfortable feeling in the air.

  “Marshall, we have scanned all the beautiful things in the store. Here you go,” I handed him the scanner.

  “I’ll get the invoice printed out for you, just a moment.”

  Marshall went to a small office and hooked the scanner up so he could give me the detailed report. I typically took it home with me and compared my list to it before giving him the go ahead.

  “Would you like to have dinner?” Thomas asked without even turning to look at me.

  “Sure.”

  “Or I could make you dinner,” he offered much more awkwardly than the first question. “The kids are actually at their Grandparent’s house tonight. If you’d like to come to my place we could continue working on the party. I’ll make some dinner and maybe we could even have a nice bottle of wine.”

  I tried to read his face to determine if he was asking me on a date or just trying to be nice to me and really plan the party. It was at his house, but that didn’t mean anything because the party was going to be at his house. He was offering wine, but that also didn’t mean much because I knew he had a huge cellar of wine and basically opened a bottle at every dinner. He was asking me to go all the way out to his house but it was still early in the afternoon so that wasn’t a big deal either.

  There was no way to know for sure what his intentions were. I could use more time with him in finalizing the details of the party and going over the details at his house was easier too. There could be a need to measure some of the space we were using.

  “Yeah, I can meet you at your place,” I offered.

  “Do you have a car? I don’t know many people who live in town and have a car. I could drive us out there and then bring you back in later.”

  “Actually, I have a rental car membership thing. Basically, I can use it when I want and I’ve got this app with available cars,” I whipped out my app and showed him that there were eighteen cars available at that moment.

  “Well, I learned something new today,” Thomas laughed and his hand brushed up against mine.

  The soft glide of his hand on mine was enough to make me freeze. Totally unable to think of any response; completely caught up in how his skin made my skin feel. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. Instead, I stared at him wondering why I’d just agreed to go back to his house. Something was different between the two of us; there was electricity flowing, energy building, sexual desire rising up.

  “Um… yeah,” I
finally said.

  “Okay, so here is your print out. Just email me any changes that you need and I’ll get everything finalized for you,” Marshall handed me the small stack of papers.

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  Marshall cracked a smirk of a smile as Thomas pulled his hand further away from me. I was clearly blushing by that point and couldn’t make eye contact with either one of the men.

  “Do you want me to take you to your rental car?” Thomas asked while we walked out to his Jeep.

  “No, I need to run home and change first,” I laughed as I held up my hi-heels. “You could drop me off there though. That would be a great help. I don’t think I can walk in these shoes another minute.”

  We were standing at the edge of the store just getting ready to walk out to his Jeep when out of the blue, Thomas scooped me up in his arms.

  “Oh my God, what is happening?” I laughed and yelled all at once. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m not going to let you walk on this disgusting sidewalk barefoot. You’re likely to get some strange disease.”

  “You are carrying me,” I was laughing so hard as I held onto my design notebook and my shoes. “I am a grown woman and you are carrying me through the streets of New York.”

  “Yes I am,” his husky voice said.

  I felt his breath on my neck as I leaned back and tried to find a comfortable spot for my head to rest. Being carried looks very relaxing but it isn’t. I was awkwardly coddled in his arms as he made his way to the parking lot. Then as if he had superhuman strength he reached out with one hand and opened the car door before setting me down inside.

  “You’re weird,” I said still having a bit of a laughing fit.

  “Thank you.”

  Thomas smiled nearly the whole way to my apartment building. He seemed pretty proud of himself for the little stunt he had just pulled. My heart was pounding heavily as I processed what had just happened and how being wrapped up in his arms made me feel.