My Only Christmas Wish

by J. M. Jeffries

  “You’re going to shop today?”

  “This is the best day ever,” Darcy responded, not certain why he was so surprised. “I love the crowds and the deals, and the anticipation.” She didn’t add that she also watched to see what the customers were buying. Sometimes it was too late to amend the inventory, but sometimes it wasn’t. And if Darcy knew what was hot and what wasn’t she could put in orders at the end of the day and have them on the floor by Monday morning. She never quite filled the store with merchandise, preferring to leave “room for inspiration” as her grandfather always said.

  “Then I shall leave you to it. Her budget is five hundred dollars. She has to buy for my mother and my grandmother and her other set of grandparents and, of course, me.”

  “I’ll see that she stays within her budget.” Darcy thought it was a pretty generous budget.

  Sophia and the Hansen grandchildren had gathered up their purses and the teddy bear and waited with what looked like barely repressed excitement. Sophia slid her hand into Darcy’s.

  “Roo, you listen to Ms. Darcy,” Eli said sternly.

  “I will, Daddy,” Sophia promised.

  Eli bent over and kissed her gently.

  “Roo?” one of the Hansen granddaughters said. “Why does he call you Roo?”

  “It’s short for kangaroo, because I jump up and down so much,” Sophia replied. “Like this.” And she started to hop. The Hansen granddaughters giggled, and Sophia stopped hopping and giggled, too.

  Darcy thought how sweet Eli was to his daughter. After he left, Sophia suddenly started to hop again.

  “Do you have something you particularly want for your dad?” Darcy asked.

  “Yes, I saw it this morning.”

  “What?” Darcy asked, thinking about her purchases.

  “A train set.” Sophia jumped with excitement. “My daddy told me once he had a train set when he was little, but something happened to it. I found pictures of him and his daddy playing with it. I want to get him a train set.”

  Darcy bent over to hug the little girl. “What a neat idea.”

  * * *

  Eli stood in his office mentally calculating the best way to make the room efficient. He’d already had maintenance come and move around the heavy desk and file cabinets into a layout he liked. A large whiteboard had been unearthed for him from storage and now he stared at the white expanse.

  He held a marker in one hand and thought about what his goals were for the store. He’d had a set of goals originally before he’d walked in the front door, but Darcy had put a monkey wrench into his plans.

  Changing Bennett’s was not going to be easy. Usually, he bulldozed his way through things, but Darcy was not going to let him do that. She required a whole new set of tactics. The more he thought about it, the more he relished the challenge.

  He had no intention of changing the outward appearance of Bennett’s, just trimming the fat. He was irritated that Darcy didn’t give him a chance to let her know what he wanted. Not that he’d planned on telling her since his original intention was to get her to resign her position. That hadn’t worked out too well.

  The longer he stared at the whiteboard, the more his mind kept wandering back to Darcy Bennett and the magic she’d already started to weave over his daughter. Eli had to resist her charm, but he found himself drawn to her.

  He pushed away from the desk and stepped out into the hall no longer able to concentrate. He could hear the laughter of children from the day care center and a maintenance man, wrench in hand, removed a wall panel and stood looking at some pipes.

  Eli headed to the elevator thinking about Darcy. He was totally flummoxed by this woman. She’d countered every move he made and he was starting feel as though he was losing the war even as he felt he was winning the skirmishes. He couldn’t lose.

  The elevator arrived and he took it down to the ground floor. The bustle of customers through the cosmetics department and the shoe department caught his eyes.

  Darcy stood at the end of a long counter examining a lipstick. He wondered where his daughter was. He shifted his gaze to find Roo behind the counter obviously standing on something wearing a little white coat. She spoke to a woman who leaned against the other side, looking at something in Roo’s hand.

  Eli watched his daughter. In just a couple hours something had changed in Roo. He stood next to a pillar watching her. She appeared happy and confident. She hadn’t looked happy in a long time.

  The woman in front of Roo handed over a credit card. Roo handed the card to Darcy who went to the register. Roo packed the woman’s purchase in a Christmas bag and, when the credit card slip came back, Roo solemnly handed over the purchase.

  Eli wasn’t certain whether to intervene or not. Roo was too young to be working the counter. She was a child, for heaven’s sake. What was Darcy thinking?

  He marched over to the counter determined to put a stop to this. She should be with children her age, not selling cosmetics.

  Roo had moved on to another woman. “That red is perfect for you,” Roo said in a very dignified manner. “See how the color brings out the rosy tones in your skin.” Roo gently rubbed a bit of color on the woman’s hand. The woman nodded solemnly as though she expected to be waited on by a seven-year-old child every day of her life.

  “Hello, Daddy,” Roo said when Eli approached.

  The woman turned her head to look at Eli. She was elegant and very dignified. “You must be Sophia’s father,” she said. “She’s been telling me you’re the new owner of Bennett’s. She has a very good eye for color.”

  “Roo,” Eli said.

  His daughter held up her hand. “Daddy, I’m Sophia when I’m working.”

  Eli was startled at how mature she sounded as she turned back to the woman and opened an eye shadow palette.

  “This peachy brown will go well with the lipstick,” Roo said. “You’ll be the hit of the party.”

  “I’ll take it,” the woman said, handing over a credit card.

  Eli sidled up to Darcy. “Aren’t there child labor laws?”

  Darcy laughed. “She’s not working, she’s having a learning experience.”

  “Is this what your childhood was like?”

  “Yes, but I wanted to work in the store.”

  And apparently Sophia wanted to do it, too.

  “You’re not playing fair,” Eli said. He felt like he was in grade school again. Darcy was making it even harder for him to make changes. The more she involved Sophia, the harder it would be to do something in a way that wouldn’t upset his daughter.

  “I’m not playing at all. I told her that I used to work the counters when I was little and she wanted to try it. I did try to talk her out of it, but she insisted. Your daughter is very stubborn,” Darcy said, with a pointed look at Roo.

  Eli almost laughed. Darcy was just as stubborn.

  “Daddy,” Roo said with an arch look at him, “You’re in the way.” She glanced pointedly behind him at a woman who looked a little uncertain as she stood behind him waiting.

  Eli stepped aside, and Roo smiled sweetly at the woman. The woman made some comment, and Roo pointed at several bottles of fragrance. Roo sprayed long plastic sticks with different perfumes and held them out to the woman. And for a second, Eli caught a whiff of his wife’s favorite scent and he felt a stab of grief. Even though he and Angela had not been happy for a long time, they’d resolved to stay together for Sophia’s sake. Angela had adored her as much as Eli and wanted nothing to tar the happiness of her childhood. Of course, Angela hadn’t expected to develop cancer and die within months of the diagnosis.

  Eli moved away from the cosmetics counter. Roo was busy, and Darcy was keeping an eye on her as was the counter staff. She didn’t need him right now. For a moment, Eli felt left out as though she’d already
taken a step away from him, the kind of step a daughter took when she started dating, and finally found the man of her dreams, and again on her wedding day.

  He moved away, heading for the rotunda and the huge wreath hanging from the ceiling five stories above. The wreath glittered, all the jewelry looking like snowflakes, catching the light and turning it into rainbows that seemed to hover over the store. In a circle around the rotunda were a dozen display cases filled with jewelry and women showing off sparkly diamonds to customers seated in chairs in front of the cases.

  He stopped and turned back to watch Roo. He wanted to be angry, but he couldn’t. Roo just looked so happy.

  He thought about his own childhood and the days he’d been forced to work in his dad’s store. His dad hadn’t made it fun, and Eli wondered if his dad had loved his store or simply the money the store made for him.

  It was clear that Darcy loved this store. To her, Bennett’s was a living, breathing entity. She did out of love, what Eli had been forced to do out of obligation.

  Eli skirted the escalator. A man with two toddlers in hand was coming down, followed by a woman who was obviously the mother. The two toddlers giggled when they saw him. One pointed at the wreath overhead before the dad scooped the little one up into his arms and, with the other in tow, headed toward the exit even as his wife stopped to look at the shoe department.

  Angela had loved shoes. Eli remembered cleaning out her closet and wondering when she’d had the time to shop for the hundred pairs he’d found. Most hadn’t even been worn yet.

  He was lost in his thoughts until a voice interrupted his memories.

  “Mr. Austin,” a voice said.

  Eli glanced back to find a security guard approaching. “Is there a problem?”

  “Yes, sir,” the man said. “Men’s restroom has a leak.” He pointed back behind him. “Ms. Darcy said to tell you.”

  He wondered why he needed to know. Didn’t maintenance just fix it? “And…”

  “She said she’d meet you there.”

  What did he know about plumbing except to call a plumber? He started toward the ground floor men’s restroom. A cone had been placed outside to say it was closed. He went in and found Darcy on her knees, a wrench in her hand. “Lefty Lucy, righty tighty,” she murmured to herself. Water gushed from the pipe drenching her. A puddle on the floor grew.

  “What are you doing?”

  She glanced up at him. “Fixing the problem.”

  “There’s water all over the floor.”

  “Yes, I’ll get to it in the minute. I just need to turn off the water, but the valve is stuck.”

  “Why isn’t the plumber…”

  “Ernie and his team have a bigger problem with the bathrooms next to the day care. This one is mine until he can get down here.”

  Eli remembered the man on the top floor fiddling in the wall outside his office. “I don’t know anything about plumbing.”

  “I have this,” she said.

  “Why don’t you just shut the restroom down until Ernie is available?”

  “I did, but we can’t have the water flowing out onto the floor. We’ll have customers falling and suing us. People who have to go the bathroom can’t focus on shopping. I’ll have this up and running shortly.”

  Eli jerked open the closet and found a mop. He couldn’t have her showing him up. He could mop just as a well as she could. He heard the wrench banging against the pipe and a second later the water stopped gushing. Water slopped away in ripples as he plopped the mop down and started pushing it around.

  Given his druthers he would have waited for the plumber, but Darcy was working hard to stop the problem and he couldn’t let her one-up him. He swung the mop vigorously, uncertain what to do with the water that just swirled around him.

  “For heaven’s sake,” Darcy said, her tone sharp. “Like this.” Darcy grabbed another mop and showed him how to drop the mop between the rollers mounted on the side of a large plastic pail. She cranked the rollers shut, and then pulled the mop through, water streaming into the pail.

  He followed her example and slowly the water puddle grew smaller and finally the last few drops were mopped up.

  He leaned against the mop and stared at her. Darcy looked like she’d been through a wind tunnel. Her hair had come out of its neat coif and hung in ragged locks down her shoulders. Her suit was ruined and her shoes were a soggy mess. His own shoes were starting to leak water and he could feel his socks getting damp. Being the owner of the store allowed him certain privileges like just running up to the shoe department and liberating another pair of shoes. Water splashed on his pants, and he thought, maybe a suit as well.

  “I would never have known what to do,” he said, realizing she had and he couldn’t help the grudging sense of respect growing in him. He didn’t want to respect her. Who knew she had practical experience with plumbing?

  “You do what needs to be done when it needs to be done,” she said, pushing the pail to the side and leaning the mop against the wall. “My grandfather grew up on a farm and he always felt we all needed to learn what to do. And according to him, my great-grandmother could fix the tractor, plow the field, cook dinner and do the laundry all with a baby on her hip.” She leaned against the wall and pushed her hair out of her eyes. “There isn’t always going to be someone around to fix things for you.”

  “Maybe you need more maintenance people.”

  “Why? We stopped the leak, and Ernie will get down here when he can. I have an incredible sense of accomplishment, don’t you?”

  Eli could do nothing, but stare at her. “I have an incredible sense of wet pants. Did you always want to be this incredible jill-of-all-trades?”

  She paused a moment. “I wanted to be a painter.”

  “What happened to that dream?” he asked curiously.

  “I had the passion, but I didn’t have the talent.” She glanced around her. “I loved Bennett’s more.”

  She pushed away from the wall and walked away. He’d never loved anything so much other than his daughter. Eli stared after her and realized, yeah, he was in for the fight of his life.

  Chapter 6

  Eli strolled around the store. He tried to look at it through Darcy’s eyes, but he found himself comparing it to his Dollar Bin stores and realizing that the employees here looked happier than any he’d ever had in his own employ.

  A man stood in front of a painting that hung on the side of the escalator. The painting was an unusual abstract with vibrant jewel tones overlaid by muted pastels. The painting had a pleasing look to it.

  “Interesting painting, isn’t it?” Eli asked the man as he stepped toward the painting and carefully straightened it.

  The man was a touch shorter than Eli with a face that hinted at Native-American blood. “Interesting bad, or interesting good?”

  “I don’t know. I was thinking of investing in some art.”

  The man cringed. “Art can be a good investment, but you really don’t know until the artist dies, and I don’t plan to die for a few more years.”

  Eli was startled into a laugh. “You’re the artist, then.”

  “If you don’t think it’s interesting bad or interesting good, I don’t think I should cop to it.”

  “My name is Eli Austin.”

  The man turned to shake Eli’s hand. “James Morgan, artist of interesting good, or interesting bad. I hear you’re the new owner of Bennett’s.”

  “Yeah, I like to think that, too.” He glanced around, wondering where Darcy was. “I would never have thought art would sell at a department store.” Eli realized that paintings flowed up the column to be easily seen by people going up and down the escalators.

  “Darcy Bennett could sell sand in the Middle East if she wanted to,” James said.

  “So you
know Darcy?”

  “We’ve known each other for a number of years.”

  James went to the next painting and studied it critically. He made a tiny adjustment on one corner and stepped back.

  “Darcy’s an interesting woman,” Eli said cautiously. He didn’t want to antagonize this man, but he hoped he might get some information from him in dealing with Darcy.

  “Driven,” James said, “but she has a good heart.”

  A customer laden with packages strolled past and took a moment to look at the painting. She passed on, but her head swiveled back to take a second look.

  “I’ve never known anyone like her before.”

  “Is that interesting good, or interesting bad?” James queried with a chuckle.

  “I don’t know.” Eli hated to admit that Darcy intrigued him. “She does things so differently from the way I’ve done business.”

  “She’s smart, she’s honorable, but most of all she’s really good at keeping both her customers and her employees happy.”

  “And keeping the employees happy is important? After all, they’re employed. And in today’s job market…” His voice trailed off. Employees should be grateful, he thought. In this economy just having a job was a huge advantage.

  “Everyone should love their job whether they’re a bus driver, an artist or a CEO.”

  Eli was startled. He liked the money, but he hated his job. He’d felt obligated to continue the family business. He remembered when he wanted to be a teacher. He loved history and politics. As an only child, it was his duty to carry on the family business. He suddenly realized he resented Darcy indulging Roo because he didn’t want his daughter to feel obligated. As long as Dollar Bin paid the bills, he was fine. Yeah, he wanted it to be the best, because the money gave Roo options Eli’s father had never given him. He would suck it up for her.

  He glanced back at the cosmetics counter. Roo was gone. He wondered where she had disappeared to. Hopefully Darcy had taken his daughter back to the day care. He didn’t want to hurt Roo because he needed to know how Darcy ticked in order to triumph over her. He didn’t want Roo to see this side of him. Because in the end he knew Darcy would be gone and he’d be the victor in this game of wits.