Billionaire Under the Mistletoe

by Hannah Jo Abbott

  “Abi?” Stewart turned to her and waited for her instruction.

  “What’s open?” she asked. “Target?”

  “Patrick, is there a Target nearby?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Alright, then take us there.”

  “Yes, please,” Abi said in a terrible, fake British accent, “Take us to Target, Patrick.” She laughed quietly.

  “What?” Steward said.

  “Nothing,” Abi said, stifling a laugh. “It’s just so unbelievable. Like, this is really your life.”

  “Yeah, it is. I guess you just get used to it.”

  “Well yeah, I guess I could get used to this pretty quickly.”

  ***

  Stewart had never seen someone have this much fun in a store. He hadn’t done much but push the shopping cart and watch Abi as she flitted from aisle to aisle, tossing things in. They had picked out an artificial tree, he had finally agreed to the decoration, but vetoed a real tree. He had also wanted something small, but she had talked him into the nine-foot tree. Truly he thought she could talk him into just about anything if she had enough time. The tree was pre-lit, but she said they needed ornaments, and a star for the top and then other ornaments. So here they were, walking the aisles of Target - which he couldn’t remember stepping foot into before now - and she was carefully selecting every item.

  “What colors do you think for ornaments? Red and silver? Blue? Green?”

  Stewart didn’t care much what color they used, and he almost said so. But when he looked at her, with her head tilted to the side, eager to hear his opinion, he made a decision on the spot. “I think red and silver look the most traditional.”

  Abi smiled. “Yes, I think so too.” She picked up a few boxes of each and added them to the cart. She held on to the edge of the cart as they rounded the next aisle where she picked up a red tree skirt. It was velvety looking and trimmed with satin ribbon. “Now here’s what we really need,” she said with a smirk. She picked up a red and white Santa hat and quickly walked towards Stewart.

  “No, no.” He held his hand up and tried to duck away, but that didn’t stop her. She planted the hat on his head as she giggled. Stewart reached to stop her, but instead caught both of her hands in his.

  “It’s perfect on you,” Abi said. Their eyes met as he lowered both of their hands down in between them.

  “Well I think it would look great…on you.” Stewart quickly reached up and grabbed the hat and placed in on her head instead.

  Abi squealed and pulled it off before he could get a chance to see her in it. “Come on now, don’t mess up my hair,” she said jokingly.

  “I don’t think that’s possible,” Stewart said without thinking. “Umm, I mean, it didn’t mess anything up. It’s fine.” Of course, he did think her hair always looked great. In the few days he had known her he had seen it straight, curly, and pulled back from her face. Never once did he think it could possibly look bad. But he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

  Abi looked at him for a moment. “I guess maybe that’s a compliment. If so, I’ll take it.” She raised her eyebrows as if it was a question.

  Stewart took a breath and then looked her straight in the eyes, and said, “Yes, definitely a compliment.”

  He hadn’t known it was possible, but she blushed. Full on pink washed over her entire face and for the first time she seemed unsure of what to say. Stewart reached out to her and took the hat from her hands. He placed it on his head and grinned at her. “Come on,” he said, “Let’s pick out a star for the top. Then maybe we can stop for hot cocoa on the way back to the office.”

  “I can’t say no to that,” Abi said, smiling. She led him down two more aisles, and they did manage to find the perfect star for the tree.

  They arrived back at the office carrying the bags of decorations along with the promised hot cocoa. Stewart hadn’t realized how much stuff they had bought until it took two trips from the car to carry it all. “You know, we really should get back to the proposals.”

  “Should we?” Abi asked, already opening the box with the tree.

  Stewart couldn’t hide his smile. “Yes, I do actually need to get them done.”

  “But like you said, we can’t finish them all tonight. So we’ll do the tree and start on them when we’re all fresh tomorrow.”

  Stewart cocked his head and held his hand to his chest, “Did I say that?” he asked.

  Abi shrugged, “Maybe. I mean somebody said it, so might as well have been you.” Now she was struggling to pull the tree out of the box. She had the box standing upright and every time she lifted it out a little, the weight of it pulled her back down.

  “Here, let me,” Stewart went to her and with both hands he lifted the heavy tree out of the box and set it on the floor.

  Abi looked up and fluttered her eyelashes at him. “My hero.”

  “I do what I can,” Stewart said with a shrug. He bent down and started fluffing the branches of the bottom section of the tree. They both went to work assembling the three pieces of the tree and the room fell silent as they each worked on different sections of the branches.

  “You know what we need?”

  “Every time you say that it makes me nervous,” Stewart said.

  Abi’s laugh filled the room and made his heart skip a beat.

  She patted his arm as she said, “Don’t worry, this one doesn’t require driving anywhere or buying anything. We just need Christmas music.”

  “Ahhh, of course. Allow me.” He whipped out his phone and in seconds the wireless speakers starting playing “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.”

  Abi stared at him wide-eyed. “You saved Christmas music on your phone?”

  “Yes, I hate to admit it. But I did. You’re a bad influence on me.”

  “Ha! I think I’m a great influence. What made you pick this one.”

  “It’s my favorite Christmas song,” he said.

  “Really? I didn’t even know you had a favorite Christmas song.”

  “Sure, I do. I may not seem like it, but Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I just think it’s mostly for kids. I loved Christmas day growing up.”

  “Tell me what that was like,” Abi said. She was bent over picking up the boxes of decorative balls and came over to hand him one.

  He took it and looked at her considering how much to say. It surprised him that he could talk to her so easily. And it made him want to tell her everything. “Christmas day was always a big deal. My dad would stay home from work all day, pretty much the only time he did that. And my brother and sister and I would get up early and creep to the top of the stairs and just stare at all the gifts under the tree. We weren’t allowed to come down until my parents were up. I guess they wanted to see our faces when we opened everything. So we would sit there for a few minutes waiting, and then we would go and beg them to get up so we could go downstairs.” He stopped hanging the ornaments and rubbed the stubble on his chin. “It was fun. Then once they got up, we would just go all day. Presents, food, playing with what we got, eating too much candy. I remember a few special gifts, like when we got a game system, and the year I got a remote control airplane. But mostly I don’t remember the things we got. I just remember the feeling of that day. Some years things might have been stressful or my dad was gone a lot, but on Christmas it was just Christmas and it was happy and fun.”

  He glanced over to see that Abi had stopped decorating and stood watching him and listening intently. “What is it?” he asked.

  “That’s so nice,” Abi said. “I’m not really sure what I expected you to say, but it wasn’t that.”

  Stewart chuckled. “Did you think I was going to talk about how I got a new car every year? Or that we went on a European Christmas vacation.”

  Abi shrugged and dropped her head, “I don’t know.” Then she looked up and bit her lip, “I mean, maybe, sort of.”

  He gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s alright. I know it’s different. My dad
worked hard and we had a lot growing up. But it wasn’t always about the stuff.”

  Abi smiled and went back to the tree.

  “What about you?” Stewart asked. “Tell me about your Christmas growing up.”

  “Now that you say it that way, it doesn’t sound too different from yours. We would be home all day, open presents, eat too much candy. But I remember always being so excited to see what I would get. We would ask for things for Christmas, but we never really knew what would show up under the tree.”

  “So what was your most memorable gift?” Stewart asked.

  Abi laughed. “It will probably sound silly.”

  “Come on, tell me.”

  “So, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I spent all this time writing stories and scratching out notes on pieces of paper, and my dresser in my room and my floor was always covered with paper. My favorite thing was a new notebook full of empty pages, just brimming with the possibilities of new ideas and new stories. So this one year, my mom decided I needed a place to keep them. On Christmas day there was this giant thing in the middle of the living room floor, completely wrapped in wrapping paper with a big bow on it. My brother really hoped it was a dirt bike, even though that was crazy. My mom finally said it was for me, so I ran over and started ripping all the paper off. And it was this little desk. It had plenty of space on top, and she had gotten me a desk organizer and new pens and paper. And on the bottom it had this little file cabinet drawer and it was full of file folders for me to keep my stories.” She sighed a happy sigh.

  “That sounds like your mom really put a lot of thought into that.”

  “Yes, she did.”

  “So she supported your dream then?”

  Abi rolled her eyes. “I guess she did then. But now my parents both think it’s ridiculous that I want to have a career as a writer.” She covered her mouth with her hand, “Oops, I guess I shouldn’t say that to my boss.”

  “What?” Stewart feigned shock. “You mean you don’t want to be my assistant and bring coffee and sit in meetings you don’t care about for the rest of your life?”

  Abi laughed. “Well maybe not. But I really am very happy to be working here now. I just also would like to write my stories one day and be able to share them with the world.”

  “Then I think you should.”

  Abi sighed. “If only it were that easy.”

  “And why isn’t it?”

  “The writing part is easy. The making a living part of it, not so much.”

  “Any career worth having takes work.”

  “I agree,” Abi said. “But it’s hard when everyone around you is saying it will never happen.”

  “Your parents?”

  “Yeah. Mostly.” Abi paused and seemed to focus her attention on the ornaments.

  “And someone else?” Stewart pushed the boundaries of his questions.

  Abi glanced at him, but then kept her eyes on the tree as she spoke. “A guy that I dated. Pretty seriously actually. He told me flat out that my writing was a joke and it would never make money. That’s when I realized that money was what mattered to him.”

  “I’m sorry, Abi,” Stewart said. “I know it hurts when those around you don’t think you can do something.”

  “Yes, it stings.”

  Stewart nodded slowly. “You know, when I wanted to start this company my dad thought I was crazy. He had worked his way up in the business world by proving himself to his bosses and climbing the corporate ladder. He was forty before he became the president of the company he was working for then, and he just couldn’t imagine a twenty-two-year-old doing anything but going to work for a successful company.”

  “I guess you proved him wrong.”

  Stewart laughed, which lightened the mood. “Considering he works for my company now, I guess so.”

  “So how did you get started? I mean, I’ve read the ‘tech wonder boy’ stories, but I’d like to hear it from you.”

  “It started with one idea. One product that I envisioned that no one else was making. And to me it seemed so simple, but no one was doing it, so everyone thought it was a bad idea. But I wasn’t going to give up. I built my own machine with parts I bought or built by hand and it just grew from there. I did have my dad’s connections to bring it to market, so obviously that gave me a leg up. But the ideas were all mine. Then that one product was a huge success, so it led to new ideas and more products. It seems like it grew really quickly because it did. But it was all little ideas and littles steps by a lot of people. I decided early on to hire the best people in the business, and to encourage everyone to do their best work. I do work a lot, but that’s because I love this. I love the products we build, I love the company, and I love doing the work. I want other people who feel the same way, but I also want them to be able to do what they love. I’m sorry Abi, because being my assistant means keeping up with my work level. But I encourage a work life balance for our other departments and employees, and I think that helps people be happy to work here. It brings out the best in people when they’re happy.”

  “Wow,” Abi said. “That’s really incredible, Stewart.”

  His heart thudded at the sound of her voice saying his name. It was the first time she had used his first name. He looked at her now, her hair sticking out from the santa hat that she had taken from him in the car. She had plugged in the lights and the room seemed to glow, he couldn’t decide if it was the tree or the way she gazed at him in awe. He had been called a lot of things because of his success, but in that moment he hoped she would always look at him that way. And that was better than any accolade he had ever received. He reached up to her hand on the tree and took it in his. “Thank you, Abi.”

  “For what?” she practically whispered. Stewart had stepped towards her now and they were only inches apart.

  “For bringing Christmas back to me and reminding me what it’s like to just talk to someone.”

  “Don’t you talk to people?”

  “Sometimes, but not often when it’s not about work or business. And definitely not about my goals and dreams.”

  “But you haven’t told me about your goals and dreams.”

  “Most people would say I’ve reached all my goals. Having success in business, money, fame.” His voice dropped low. “But I’m starting to think I might have a new dream, one I didn’t even know I wanted.”

  ***

  Abi’s mouth went dry. Her heart was pounding so loud, she was sure Stewart could hear it over the sound of the Christmas music. She didn’t know what to say. Is he really talking about me? She wondered. No, he can’t be. Can he? She locked eyes with him and told herself to breathe. It was several seconds before she listened to herself. She took a deep breath and then cleared her throat and looked away from him. She pulled her hand away and brushed it over the tree. “I think this looks pretty good, don’t you?”

  She could still feel his eyes on her when he said, “Beautiful.”

  Abi stepped back to take in the full view of the tree. It was simple, but elegant enough for the office. And the glow of the lights was everything she had hoped for. “Now it just needs the star.” She turned to pick it up from the box. “Do you want to do the honors?” she asked, holding it out to Stewart.

  He held up his hands. “No, no, this is your project. You need to see it through to completion.”

  Abi grinned. “Alright, is there a step stool or something around here?”

  “Hmm, I don’t think so.” He glanced around looking for something to stand on. “Here, let me grab the desk chair.”

  Abi’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. It has wheels.”

  “Oh it will be fine. I’ll hold the chair. I won’t let you fall.” Stewart said.

  Abi rolled her eyes. “Alright.” She held the star while Stewart pushed the chair over. He put it just beneath the tree and dutifully placed both hands on the sides of the chair. Abi carefully climbed up, feeling very aware of how close Stewart was. Slowly she
reached up as far as she could to place the star atop the tree and plug it in. “Quick,” she said, “Go turn out the lights so we can see it.” Forgetting her fear of falling, she tapped Stewart’s arm to push him towards the switch. A flash of uncertainty came over Stewart’s face. But he slowly took his hands from the chair and made sure it was balanced before running to the wall and switching the lights off.

  Abi sucked in her breath at the site of the lights filling the dark room. It was everything she had hoped for. “Yay!” she cheered as she raised her hands above her head in victory. When she did, the chair swiveled around and at the same time it started to roll backwards. The jerk of motion threw Abi off balance. She cried out as she leaned forward and tried to right herself, but instead fell backwards. She wildly tried to grab anything she could, but there was nothing and she fell backwards out of the chair. Clenching her teeth, she prepared to crash onto the floor. Instead she felt a pair of strong arms appear from no where to catch her. “Ooof,” she said as she landed in Stewart’s arms. Her eyes were wide and her mouth fell open. She turned to see his face and Stewart’s expression was full of fear.

  “Are you alright?” He asked.

  “Um, yeah, I think so. Goodness you’re quick. I didn’t know you could cover ground that fast.”

  “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

  Abi giggled. “I don’t think I would have died from falling out of a chair.”

  Stewart smiled. “I didn’t want to take the risk. You know a good assistant is hard to find. And I’ve already lost one this month.”

  “Oh, so you think I’m a good assistant?”

  “I think you’re the perfect assistant for me,” he said.

  Abi suddenly became very aware that he was cradling her in his arms, and that her face was inches away from his. Not to mention their lips. His eyes met hers, and she saw him glance down at her lips. Excitement washed over her, as well as nervousness, and finally panic. “I…uh…” she spoke up quickly, “I think it’s safe to put me down now.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry about that.”