Operation: Santa's Elf: 3 Sweet & Spicy Christmas Novellas (Operation: Holiday Cheer Book 1)

by Allyson Lindt

  Amanda responded seconds later. Your name is flying like a curse word in the office next to mine.

  What was he supposed to say? Saying he was going to push their rules aside was easy enough, but actually making decisions after that was still complicated. There were so many variables.

  Another message came in from Amanda, before he could figure out his next step. You slept with her?!?

  For the second time that morning, Josh’s surroundings faded, and were replaced with something else. He was in his boss’s office. Skinny, a few inches shorter than Josh’s six foot two, and with a tendency to turn bright red, if he was experiencing any emotion, Bill was one of the nicest guys Josh had ever met.

  Just now, he was almost fuchsia. “What the hell were you thinking?” Bill’s voice echoed off the walls. “Telling her who you were? Not just telling her, but having her look it up online, as proof?”

  Because when you were a cupid, Big Brother was always watching. Josh never had a problem with it in the past, but now it gnawed at his sleep-deprived senses. “I was thinking, ‘Wow, let’s find a way to get yelled at?’”

  A bitter laugh accompanied Bill’s sneer. “Seriously. Twenty freaking years, and now this? What happens if she tells people?”

  Josh should feel remorse, or guilt, or something. He did feel bad for making Bill turn fluorescent pink, but that was the extend of it. Questions he’d asked twenty years ago, the ones shoved aside and eventually forgotten as he grew content, flooded his head. “So what if she does?”

  “Excuse me?” Had Bill actually just sputtered?

  “There are rumors all over the internet already. People who leave here undoubtedly tell their loved ones—it’s not like you wipe their memories. So what if she knows?”

  “The rules exist for a reason.” A growl lined Bill’s voice.

  “I know.” Moments ago, Josh hadn’t known what his next steps were. Now there was no doubt. “The rules exist to keep people from rushing back out into a life they’re not ready for. To stop those of us lucky to have a second chance from blowing it frivolously. To force us to consider the consequences of our actions, when most people never do.”

  Some of the violent red faded from Bill’s face, and his brows rose.

  Josh took the silence as a sign he could continue. He never put so much thought into this before, but now that the words were spilling out, it made sense. “I appreciate that. Everything this place has done for me. But I don’t need that kind of security anymore.” If he said this, there was no turning back. The thought made him pause, as the words caught in his throat.

  There was no turning back anyway, even if he didn’t say it now. He’d know. “I quit.”

  “I—but…” Bill shook his head and blinked, as if trying to make sense of the situation. “You can’t just quit.”

  “I can.” Josh loved knowing this was an option, regardless of what anyone said. “This is all about teaching us to be responsible with our choices, without taking them from us. I’m making this choice. Take my cupid status away. Pull me out of this holding pattern that’s a sorry excuse for immortality. Give me my real second chance at life.”

  Bill frowned. “I see. I don’t approve of this.”

  “You don’t have to.” Josh took a step back toward the door. “Are we done here?”

  “Once you step out the front doors, you won’t be able to find the building again,” Bill said. “Your stuff will be in that condo you haven’t told anyone you bought a few years back, and we’ll be gone to you.”

  “I know.” Melancholy and nostalgia tinged Josh’s smile. “Tell Amanda goodbye for me.”

  Seconds later, he stepped through the front doors of the high-rise housing cupid headquarters and their local apartments. He spun back around, ambivalence filling him when a concrete-faced insurance company building stared back.

  He shook the sadness away, and pulled his phone from his slacks. His fingers brushed something cold, metal, and familiar. His car keys. A glance up and down the street confirmed that yes, his Impala was parked just a few meters away. At least he still had that. He typed out a quick message. He had a life to start living.

  *

  Ella stared at her phone, wristlet style purse, and car keys laid out on her kitchen table. She knew—knew, not just believed—she’d fallen asleep in the server room at work, head on Josh’s shoulder.

  So why the hell had she woken up in her own bed, in one very wrinkled little black dress, with all of her stuff waiting for her where she normally left it?

  She’d been asking herself that question over and over for the last hour or two—pretty much since she woke up to the sunlight streaming through her window. It was easier than dealing with the bigger, more painful question of what happened to Josh.

  Her phone rang, as if her staring at it for so long had made it nervous. She shook the ridiculous thought aside. With any luck, something else had broken at work. It would be a pleasant distraction.

  “This is Ella.”

  “God, even your voice is gorgeous.” Josh’s familiar tone, combined with the blatant compliment, heated her skin and pushed her confusion to the back of her mind.

  Most of it anyway. “And if we’re going to keep running into each other, you’re going to have to come up with a better lead-in than ‘I can explain.’” She should be furious at him for vanishing—or whatever had happened, but she was just glad to hear his voice.

  “I promise, this is the last time.” His sincerity carried over the line. “Meet me for lunch?”

  Reason tried to tell her she shouldn’t— She pushed it aside. She was sick of being reasonable. This was what she wanted to be doing. “No.”

  “I—what?”

  Giddiness flooded her. “I won’t meet you somewhere. You owe me a real date. You can pick me up. At my apartment, not in an office-building parking lot.”

  “I’d like nothing better.”

  She gave him her address, told him to give her an hour to get ready, and disconnected. Flutters filled her heart and chest. This entire situation was absolutely ridiculous, but nothing had ever felt more right in her life. It was true she didn’t know Josh well enough to start planning for a future, but for the first time in ages, she was interested in giving things a shot.

  It didn’t hurt that the entire thing came with just a hint of magic attached to it. She was going to enjoy the hell out of falling for this guy.

  Epilogue

  Ella blew at the loose strand of hair on her forehead, and then again when it refused to budge. Just inside the apartment door, she dropped the box she was carrying. Frustrated, she reached up, and rebound her ponytail. The June sun was making her T-shirt stick to her skin, but the final result would be worth it.

  A pair of arms wrapped around her waist, and Josh kissed along the back of her neck. “You’re sexy with your hair up.”

  She smiled at the now-familiar contact, and leaned back into him. “I’m hot, sweaty, and need a shower.”

  His fingertips traced over her stomach, the light contact both tickling and comforting her. “The last of the boxes can wait until the sun goes down, right? There are only a few left in your car.”

  For the first few weeks after he’d quit his job as a cupid, he’d grumbled about having to take a normal job, but she knew he loved his call center work and talking to people on the phone all day.

  And they’d seen more and more of each other over the past six months, until they finally relented and realized neither one of them liked it when she had to go home at night. They were just finishing up moving her stuff into his apartment.

  She intertwined her fingers with his. “I suppose it can wait. Why?”

  The sound of the door latching shut echoed through the room, and he tugged her shirt over her head. “Let’s solve the shower problem.”

  She laughed, as he tugged her toward the bathroom. He pressed her against the door frame, and kissed her hard before breaking away again.

  He pressed his forehead to
hers. “I love you so very much, Ella.”

  She sighed, and leaned her weight against him. “I love you too.” She still wasn’t sure if she believed in things like fate, but she knew without a doubt that she’d always be grateful for second chances at love and life.

  The End

  ~*~