His Christmas romance

by Holt, Layla

  “How did the blind date go?” Adrian continued.

  “What blind date?” Dean said.

  “Oh,” Sean said, his eyes gleaming with interest.

  “Spit it out, we all want to know. The last dinner at mother and father’s you looked pained to even make conversation. How did you manage a date?” Lance said in his blunt, a lot often, offensive tone.

  Instead of scowling as he planned to, Jaime found himself grinning and his siblings and Maisie stared at him openmouthed. No matter what he did, he couldn’t clamp down on the grin.

  “It was awesome. She’s awesome,” Jaime said.

  “Are you seeing her again?” Adrian said.

  “Yeah, she’s coming by for a tour of Candin Inc at four.” He sounded like a boy talking about his first crush.

  “The holidays just got a lot more interesting,” Dean said.

  “Not interesting,” Jaime said quickly, to dispel any hope they might have. “Ariana is going back home in a week. For good.” That thought left him feeling strangely disappointed.

  “Where does she comes from?” Adrian asked.

  Jaime filled them in on Ariana’s background. They were as fascinated as he had been. Maisie had never heard of Asencia but his brothers had.

  “Bring her to my office, I’d love to meet her,” Adrian said.

  His sentiments were echoed by Lance, Sean and Dean.

  After lunch, Jaime returned to his office and watched the rest of the afternoon drag on. Ariana hovered in his mind. He kept going back to the joke he had made about granting their mothers’ wishes and becoming engaged.

  The more Jaime thought about it, the more it dawned on him what a perfect plan it would be for both of them. He would get a chance to get away from it all and heal his spirit. And his mother would get off his back about the holidays and how everyone should have someone to love.

  Ariana would enjoy the holidays in Asencia and deal with whatever she needed to deal with, without her mother forcing dates on her. Jaime’s pulse fastened. Did Ariana have it in her to do something that wild?

  He would ask her again, this time, seriously.

  At five minutes to four, Jaime left his office and used the stairs to go to the reception area on the ground floor. Jaime went to the reception counter to chat to Emma.

  Two minutes later, at exactly four pm, Ariana walked through the glass doors of Candin Inc. Jaime’s mouth went dry. She was even more stunning than he remembered. She wore a floral dress that fitted her perfectly and showed off her hourglass figure.

  He loved that she liked to leave her hair loose, flowing to her back. She paused and looked around and when she saw him, her face lit up in a smile. They met at the center of the open space and he slipped his hands around her waist for a hug.

  She kissed his cheek.

  “Welcome to Candin Inc,” Jaime said.

  She glanced around. “I’m so excited to be here.”

  He loved her candor and zest for life. It was rubbing off on him and Jaime wanted more and more of it. He introduced her to Emma at the reception as his good friend.

  ‘We’ll leave the candy store for last. I have a feeling that if we enter, we’ll never leave,” Jaime teased.

  “You’re a wise man,” Ariana said, throwing a longing look at the candy shop as they walked past.

  “We’ll start with the production area first,” Jaime said. “That’s where the magic happens.”

  How was it that a woman as gorgeous and sexy as Ariana was unattached? How had she not been snapped up before now? As recently as months earlier, Jaime knew he would have charmed her into having a relationship with him.

  He didn’t want to fool himself that she would want to be involved with him now. Not with his head as messed up as it was. The only way he and Ariana could stay involved in each other’s lives was if she agreed to his scheme of fake dating. It would be perfect.

  In Asencia, they would each go on with their lives, seeing each other only to satisfy her family that they were engaged. Then after a couple of months, he would return home, hopefully as the Jaime that he was before his ordeal.

  “I’ve read about how your father started Candin Inc from a small outfit to what it is today,” Ariana said, her voice filled with awe. “He’s a great man.”

  “You really are interested,” Jaime said, pleased by the compliment to his father.

  Despite their ideological differences, his father was his hero. Ever since he was a small boy, his father had seemed larger than other men. And when he grew up and understood the kind of adversity he had faced to grow a company to the size of Candin Inc, his respect and admiration had multiplied.

  He added a few personal stories about his father that were not in the public domain.

  They reached the production area. He showed Ariana to the ladies’ changing room, to put a net on her head, shoes and a white overall. He slipped into the men’s room to do the same.

  Jaime emerged minutes later donned in white from head to toe. He waited another minute before Ariana emerged from the ladies’ changing room.

  “How do I look?” she asked and did a twirl.

  “You look gorgeous,” Jaime said and closed the space between them to tuck stray hairs back into the net.

  Her hair was softer than he had imagined and so silky. She stood so close that, if he leaned forward, he could brush his lips against the soft skin of her neck.

  He stepped back, smiled at her and led her to the sinks, where they washed their hands.

  “It smells delightful in here,” Ariana said. “Working here must be a treat.”

  That reminded him of Maisie’s campaign on social media where she featured Candin Inc employees and captioned their thoughts on why they loved working for the confectionary company. He told Ariana about it.

  She chuckled. “I’m one ahead, Mr. Cohan. I’m a follower of the page and I love it. It’s like getting a peak behind the curtain in a theatre.”

  “Maisie asked me to be featured in it yesterday,” Jaime said, not sure why he was telling Ariana this.

  “When will you be in it?” she asked as they stood outside the doors that led into the production room.

  “I said no,” Jaime said and Ariana’s face fell.

  “I suppose you’re tired of all the publicity after you-know-what?” she said.

  Jaime laughed, surprising himself. Who would have thought that one day, he would find it in him to laugh when his ordeal was mentioned? “You know what?”

  A serious look came over her features. “I’ve had a bit of experience with a lack of privacy and I know it’s not a pleasant experience. It feels as if people are ripping you open and exposing you for the whole world to see.”

  He nodded. “That’s exactly it!”

  They stood staring at each other without speaking. Jaime wished that they had met at the right time. When his head was not messed up and Ariana didn’t have her own issues to deal with.

  He had a feeling they would have been perfect for each other. Theirs was a case of lousy timing when neither of them could manage a relationship.

  Chapter Four

  Ariana felt as if she had stepped into space when she stepped through the door marked Chocolate Factory. People clad in white overalls and hats walked past her, and the air was filled with the whirr of machines. The sweet scent of chocolate was even stronger now and she couldn’t wait to sample some of them.

  Jaime led the way past huge conveyor belts to the end of the massive room. “In there is the recipe room,” he explained, pointing to a locked room. “The liquid chocolate emerges from here, through conveyor belts.”

  Jaime had a rich, authoritative voice that made her insides tingle. He moved to the huge bowl the liquid chocolate was draining into and took a wooden stirring spoon. He dipped into the mixture.

  “Here,” he said, inviting her to dip her finger and taste it.

  Feeling like a kid who’d just been told that Christmas had come earlier, she dipped her finger into the w
arm, smooth mixture. She brought her finger to her mouth and licked off the chocolate.

  “I’m going to die right now,” Ariana said.

  Jaime brought the whole spoon to her mouth. “Open.”

  She did and groaned when her mouth was filled with chocolate sweetness. “Heaven!”

  Jaime laughed. She loved the sound of his laughter. It filled her with syrupy warmth. They toured the various sections of the factory, divided according to the particular brand of chocolate made there.

  At the end of it, Ariana felt as though she had an understanding of how the chocolate she loved so much came to be. In the ladies’ room, she stripped off the protective wear she’d worn over her clothes and shook her hair loose. She peered at her reflection in the mirror.

  Her face was flushed. Probably the heat inside the factory. She applied lip gloss and left the washroom. Jaime was waiting for her outside in the hallway.

  “That was lovely, thank you,” she said.

  “You’re welcome, and now we’ll go upstairs and meet some of my family,” he said.

  “I’d like that,” Ariana said.

  In the short time she’d been in California, she’d heard a lot about the Cohan family and knew the siblings and their wives by name from Mrs. Cohan. It would be fun to meet them. The fact that they were Jaime’s siblings made her want to meet them all the more.

  “I enjoyed showing you around too,” Jaime said as they waited for the elevator. “It reminded me of how special Candin Inc is. You forget.”

  “It’s very special,” Ariana said.

  The elevator doors slid open and a gorgeous redhead stepped out. Jaime held Ariana’s hand to detain her from stepping into the elevator. Heat rose from the point of contact and enveloped her.

  “Ariana, I want you to meet my sister-in-law, Maisie. She’s my brother Sean’s wife and also our social media manager.”

  “Oh my God, you’re the one who does the profiles every Friday,” Ariana said, fangirling and unable to stop herself. “I love the captions!”

  Maisie laughed. “I love you already. Thank you for your kind words.”

  “I’m Ariana,” she said. “Jaime’s, uhm...friend.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Maisie said. “You should invite Ariana for lunch on Sunday at home.”

  They both turned to Jaime and to Ariana’s discomfort, he hesitated.

  “Ariana’s leaving in a few days. I’m sure she has loads to do before travelling,” Jaime said.

  “Actually, I’d love to. Sunday is pretty chill.” Why had she said that? She sounded so eager. As if she was smitten. Maybe she was but this was going nowhere, so why show it?

  Jaime grinned, easing her worries that she might have overdone it. It seemed as if he hadn’t noticed or cared. “In that case, we have a date on Sunday, I’ll pick you up.”

  Maisie made a deep bow. “My work here is done.”

  They all laughed and said goodbye.

  “She’s nice,” Ariana said when the elevator doors shut.

  “You’re going to say that a lot on Sunday. I’m lucky. All my sisters-in-law are awesome,” Jaime said. “And now for my brothers.”

  “Who do I meet first?” Ariana asked when they got off the elevator.

  “Adrian,” Jaime said and then chuckled. “He’s the firstborn and I suppose we all default to Adrian when that option comes up.”

  It was after five and Adrian’s secretary had left for the day. They went past her desk and Jaime knocked on the door to the inner office.

  “Come in,” a voice that sounded eerily like Jaime’s called out.

  Jaime held the door open for her and, as she went past, his earthy, manly scent teased her nostrils. Her attention was soon taken by the man behind the desk. Adrian Cohan stood up and walked around to them.

  “You must be Ariana,” he said, with a warm smile.

  “Hi,” she said and stuck her hand out to shake his. She could have been looking into Jaime’s grey-black eyes. “I am and you must be Adrian.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said. “Did you enjoy the tour of Candin Inc or did Jaime talk too much as he tends to?”

  She laughed.

  A knock came at the door and Adrian called for the newcomer to enter. Another Jaime lookalike walked in and then another one followed and yet another one. Giggles came over Ariana and she tried to clamp her mouth to stop them.

  She looked from one to another. Adrian’s office space suddenly shrunk.

  “I don’t know where these knuckleheads came from,” Jaime said, not sounding upset.

  “Hi, I’m Sean Cohan.”

  “And I’m Lance Cohan, the brother Jaime respects the most.”

  “Dean Cohan, the nicest of them all.”

  Ariana laughed as she looked from one to the other. They all had identical eyes. She couldn’t fathom how they had grown up in one house. “How did your mother cope?”

  They laughed. “That’s why she’s the way she is,” Jaime said, dipping his hands in his pocket.

  “What do you all do?” Ariana asked fascinated by the brothers. “I know you’re in Corporate Responsibility,” she said to Jaime.

  “I’m in IT,” Sean Cohan said.

  Dean raised his hand. “Legal affairs.”

  “Adrian and I boss over them,” Lance said.

  “Not anymore,” Jaime said.

  “They are heads without real power,” Dean said and an argument ensued.

  Ariana laughed at the digs they directed at each other.

  Later, as they were heading to the first floor for coffee, Jaime said, “The only sibling you haven’t met is my sister Megan.”

  “You said she lives in Italy, right?” Ariana said. “She’s my neighbor.”

  They got their coffee and sat down in the empty café.

  “I still can’t get over how many you are,” Ariana said.

  Jaime chuckled. “We seem many to you because we were cramped in one room.”

  “And the fact that I only have one brother,” Ariana said.

  Jaime looked thoughtful for a few seconds. “I’ve been thinking, my idea wasn’t so farfetched.” He trained his grey-black eyes on her.

  Ariana felt as if she was drowning in them. She roused herself and scrambled her thoughts back to what he had said. “What idea?”

  “Let’s get fake engaged for the holidays,” Jaime said.

  Ariana searched his face to see if he was teasing. He wasn’t. She inhaled deeply. “Fake engaged? Do people do that?”

  “Celebrities do,” Jaime said.

  “I understand why celebrities do it but for us...Why?” Ariana said.

  “To protect ourselves during the holidays. Our mothers will get off our backs and we’ll enjoy the holidays like everyone else,” Jaime said.

  “You’re serious, aren’t you?” she said.

  “There’s nothing to lose,” Jaime said and then grinned, making her heart somersault in her chest. “Besides, I’d love to visit Asencia with a fiancée.”

  Ariana’s laugh came out shaky. It was crazy and mad and she wanted to do it more than she’d wanted anything in a long time. She told herself it was for the reasons Jaime had stated. A voice inside her head pointed out that she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Jaime.

  Maybe so, but nothing long term would happen between them. Men like Jaime Cohan had women falling all over them. It was only now that he was feeling vulnerable, probably as a result of the ordeal he’d gone through.

  But the real Jaime was bound to emerge over time. And she wanted her heart to be safe when that happened.

  “You want to go home with me?” she said.

  “Yes, I do,” Jaime said, his gaze intense.

  All the air left her lungs. She forced herself to be rational. To think it through. It was so tempting. She imagined the shock on her mother’s face when she introduced Jaime as her fiancé. But what about after the holidays? She would be so disappointed to hear that they had broken up.

&
nbsp; “We’ll raise our families’ hopes and then disappoint them,” Ariana said. She thought of her father. The one person whom she could not lie to.

  “We’ll drift apart gently with no major announcements,” Jaime said.

  “You seem to have given this a lot of thought,” Ariana said, flattered by Jaime’s keenness.

  “I have. It will solve a lot of my short-term problems,” he said.

  “And long term?” Ariana said.

  The laughter fled his eyes. “Those ones will need more than a fake engagement.”

  Her heart squeezed. Her heart went out to Jaime even though she had no idea what was paining him, but clearly something was.

  “What do you say, Ariana. Do you want to be my fake fiancée?” he said and placed his open hand on the table.

  Arian looked at his palm and trembled. She’s always been a good girl and she’d grown into a woman who followed the rules. It was tempting to do something crazy just this once.

  But what would happen when Jaime knew who she really was? If something as little as being profiled on the company social media pages made him uncomfortable, how would he react to the kind of attention he would get as her fiancé?

  “You know very little about me Jaime,” Ariana said.

  “I know you’re a good person.”

  “And how do you know that?” she said with a smile.

  “You’re on several committees with my mother and that says a lot about your character. You’re polite to waiters and waitresses.”

  Ariana laughed. “Even serial killers are polite to servers. They need their dinner served well.”

  He cracked a smile. “Please say yes. I haven’t been this excited about anything since before Afghanistan.”

  Her breath caught. He’d gone through so much out there, walking for weeks in all kinds of weather, being rained on with blows when the rebels decided to take out their frustrations on him. She’s read his account in a newspaper and it had broken her heart.

  It was worse now that she knew him. He deserved all the happiness and if being his fake fiancée for a month would do it for him, then she would do it. She placed her right hand in his hand and he curled it with his.