Christmas Eve Love Story

Five

Annie pushed through Lawson’s employee entrance, unwinding her snow-covered scarf and clocking in on her department store app. The bottom dropped out of her stomach. Dec 24 9:08 a.m. This day was not happening again—her pulse pounded—was it? If it was, it seemed to be happening sort of differently. This morning she’d met Jane. Still. Spilling Leo’s food and missing her train had gone pretty much the same.

She rounded the diamond jewelry counter, hunting for Santa. Various sales associates strolled toward their stations and arranged merchandise, but Santa was nowhere in sight. Neither was Braden. Maybe this day would cut to the chase with the bad stuff, and she’d head straight into her upsetting meeting with Patrice before having the kids wreck her display?

That was not the do-over day she wanted. Why not get all the good parts, instead of the bad? Annie skulked out of the elevator on the third floor, scanning the area for Patrice and hurrying down the corridor to her locker. Maybe their uncomfortable chat wouldn’t happen again, and she’d get promoted instead? A girl could dream. No, wait.

“Good morning, Annie.”

Annie slammed shut her locker. It was him again. Old Saint Nick. Who seemed to turn up everywhere when you weren’t looking. This was for sure the same guy as yesterday with his very real-looking beard. He waved cheerily as he left. “Hope you have a great day!”

She locked her locker, hyperventilating. Had Santa cast some sort of spell over her? No. He was just an old man in a red suit. He didn’t have those kinds of powers. She thought of her snow globe and how Santa had seemed to teleport her back to her ninth year. And then, he was gone. Just like that!

“You okay there?” Braden. Looking as devastatingly handsome as yesterday. Her heart thumped happily. So he is real.

“Oh yeah, ha-ha. Just having kind of a weird morning, that’s all.” Super, super weird.

“Sorry about that.” He put his jacket his locker and closed it. “Here’s hoping for a better day.” Wait. He doesn’t recall asking me out for coffee yesterday? No. Today. Ahhh. My head. Head. Head. Her temples pounded. Maybe that was a good thing , as far as Braden went. Because—that way—he didn’t remember the lip gloss episode. Or her awkward attempt at flirting. Saved by the do-over! Yes! He stared at her curiously. Maybe he was remembering too. That would be a breakthrough. And extremely embarrassing. “You’re the lady who does the windows, right?”

Okay. Starting fresh. She could do this. “Ah, yep! That’s me.” The person you spent two hours helping yesterday, remember? No. He clearly didn’t.

Braden cocked his head. “Nice job with those. Love your theme, ‘The Night Before Christmas.’”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She grinned, feeling all fluttery inside. That part was no different. Her intense attraction to Braden. In some ways, it seemed worse. Better. Whatever.

“The Nutcracker one was great too. But honestly?” He rubbed the side of his neck. “‘Winter Wonderland’ was one of my favorites. Those ice-skating polar bears were really something.”

Warmth pooled in her belly at his admiring tone. “Oh. Well. Thanks!” she said, trying not to sound as giddy as she felt. He was super swoony with that dimpled chin and those always-sparkling eyes. He was also going to be her knight in shining armor by racing to the rescue later and helping her clean up that mega mess. Unless she could find a way to keep that from happening to begin with, and she was going to try.

Okay. If he asked her to have coffee again, she was one hundred percent going. Assuming he was single. She’d have to devise some nonobvious way to find out. Then, if he didn’t ask her, because the day changed up some more or something, she’d ask him! Yeah! Her heart beat double-time. She heard Tina’s voice egging her on.

You can do it, Annie. Be brave.

He grinned. “I’m Braden, by the way. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Annie.” That felt so surreal saying it again.

“Annie.” He nodded. “Nice meeting you.”

“Yeah, uh-huh. You too!”

“So”—he shifted on his feet—“I guess I’ll see you around?”

“Hope so!” Ugh. Again?

His eyes danced. “Yeah, Annie. Hope so too,” he said, walking away.

As much as she believed yesterday had happened, maybe it hadn’t? She didn’t have one shred of evidence to prove it. Nothing in her apartment had changed, and her morning had gone pretty much the same, with a few minor modifications. Maybe she should check her window display to see if those Christmas tree lights were still on, because she and Braden had most definitely replaced them. Or, um. Hopefully.

She made her way down to the first floor and approached her Christmassy living room scene at a fast clip. She could see the Christmas tree’s lights aglow all the way back from accessories. Whew! So, either she and Braden had fixed those burnt-out lights, or they’d not yet gone out. Maybe they’d never go out, and her display would never be trashed!

That’s thinking positive. Yes! I’m in a brand-new day, and yesterday was not a day at all, just some wickedly twisted fantasy-like dream that had somewhat foretold the future! That had to mean she could still get promoted. She’d met Braden now, too, in a somewhat less humiliating fashion. So that boded well. Her whole day was looking up!

She quickened her steps, needing to verify things up close and personal. But, when Annie reached the window, she covered her mouth and gasped. The Christmas tree’s colorful lights shone brightly, and silvery strands of tinsel dripped from the tree’s many branches. How was that possible? She hadn’t added any tinsel on the twenty-third. She was sure of it. She’d only done that last night.

All signs kept pointing in the same direction. She peeked at Santa’s workshop. Today is some kind of freaky repeat of yesterday. Santa saw her goggling at the tree and winked, laying a finger beside his nose like he was about to work some magic.

Or maybe, he already had.

***

Patrice stopped Annie by the employee lockers. “Do you have a minute?”

Annie’s jaw clenched. “For an uh—little chat?” She’d been hoping to avoid this part.

Patrice adjusted her glasses, appearing astonished. “Why, yes.” The uncomfortable conversation was no more pleasant the second time around. The fact that Annie knew what was coming only made things harder. She tried to speed things up a bit. Maybe if she ended their talk sooner, she’d be able to prevent those kids from wreaking havoc with her window.

“I understand foot traffic’s been down,” Annie said, sitting at the table.

Patrice’s ankle boot bobbed up and down. “That’s right.” She peered quizzically at Annie. “It has. Which is why—”

“Don’t worry, Patrice,” Annie said. “None of this is your fault.”

Patrice frowned. “None of what—exactly?”

Annie exhaled sharply. “Lawson’s is in financial trouble, right? Aiming to cut back.”

“I’d hoped to break it to you gently.” Patrice removed her glasses, folding them in her hands. “Annie,” she said kindly, “about your window—”

“Old school. Yeah, I know.” Annie shook her head. “I’m afraid I disagree.” Very strongly, but she didn’t need to belabor the point. Patrice was on her side, after all. It was Ms. Lawson who was the problem. “Still!” Annie said brightly, “I intend to work on it.” She swung her fist through the air. “Make it—groundbreaking! Fresh!” She was still figuring out how, but Patrice didn’t need to know that.

Patrice pursed her lips. “Okay, well. Good. That’s great!” She stood, seeming strangely disconnected, like she was trying to make sense of their abbreviated conversation, but Annie didn’t have time to explain. She had to get downstairs. Patrice stopped her when she reached the door. “Um, Annie! I meant to tell you—”

“Christmas tree lights, right!”

Patrice’s mouth hung open. “But, how did you—?”

“See you later, Patrice! Thanks for the chat!”

Annie hurried to the second-floor stockroom to grab more lights. Though she kept most of her display supplies downstairs, all electronics were up here. She scrambled down the escalator to the ground floor, turning sideways and deftly scooting past customers. “Coming through. I’m sorry!”

She nabbed two king-size bed pillows from the Linen Department next, intending to hold the pillows out as buffers when the boys barreled toward her window. She wasn’t very muscley, but she was strong due to all the lifting and physical work she did at Lawson’s. She’d catch those rascally boys like two flyballs in gigantic baseball mitts!

“Excuse me.” She wound past a couple of women holding large shopping bags, stepping sideways through the crowd.

“Eeep!” She jumped back when a man nearly flattened her leaving the jewelry counter.

“Oh! I—” His face was all flushed. “Sorry about that.” She should have seen that coming. Seriously. The snow dump this morning too. She was questioning everything. Including how odd she must look shimmying through the store holding an armful of pillows and a jumbo package of replacement—

“No, Dylan! Let me!” A young boy raced past her, darting through Homewares.

What? Already?

She peered down at her watch—which had stopped. Arghh.

Dylan yanked at the other kid’s elbow. “No, Marcus! Me first!”

Please, no. Please. Please, please. No.

“Dylan! Marcus!” their mom called, chasing after them.

But, yeah. There they go!

“I want my Robo-bot!” Marcus hollered.

“Santa! Santa!” Dylan cried. “Wait for me!”

Her temples throbbed. No way.

Their mom wailed in desperation. “You won’t get anything , if you don’t”—her eyes got huge—“ stop !” The kids evaded their mom’s reach, stumbling toward Annie’s display, and the entire sequence unfolded in unbearably slow motion.

Oh nooooo!

Annie and Braden raced toward the tree, but it smacked against the front window, upending its skirt and knocking the train off its track before clobbering the wooden angels on the mantel, and— ahhh! —demolishing Santa’s cookies and milk. At least Annie had replaced the Spode china plate with a plastic one. Still.

Annie dropped her pillows, and the package of lights collapsed on top of them.

Braden’s jaw unhinged. “Oh, wow.” He had an astonished look on his face.

Yeah. Annie couldn’t believe it either. Lightning didn’t strike twice. Not unless you were doubly cursed. This was not her lucky day. So, naturally, she had to repeat this one. Why couldn’t she have had that brilliant day at Coney Island with Tina? Or one of her early dates with Roy, when he’d been attentive and kind? Or even her ninth-year Christmas? There are so many other choices, and all of them better than this.

The kids’ mom tugged them to their feet, and Santa came and went. Braden offered to help her pick up, and she embarrassingly answered, “Don’t you have patrolling or something to do?” Annie gritted her teeth. What am I? On auto-repeat? She should have improved on that line, but she seemed to have trouble improving her lines around Braden. It was like she knew what she was going to say before she said it, but still said it anyway, like rehearsing for a play.

Maybe this was all a dream, or maybe she’d dreamt up yesterday? All she knew was she regretted saying no to coffee when Braden asked her, and she wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. Not if she learned he was single. Hey, if I’m dreaming, this is my dream. I’m owning it. She did need to find out about the girlfriend though. Because. History.

“What are the pillows for?” Braden asked, eying them curiously.

Nothing she could say would sound right. Would he even believe her about her repeat day? She half didn’t believe it herself. “I—was just on my way to return them.” He nodded, seeming to buy that. Customers changed their minds on purchases all the time, sometimes setting items down in completely different areas from where they’d found them.

They righted the Christmas tree, and she plugged in the extension cord for the lights. Even though they’d worked just fine this morning, not a one of them was glowing now. Braden held up the replacement package of Christmas tree lights. “Looks like we’ll have to start over.”

He grinned, and Annie’s pulse fluttered. While she normally wasn’t comfortable around strangers, it wasn’t like they were total strangers anymore. Not in her mind anyway.

Annie glanced at the littered floor. “We should probably sweep up first.”

***

Braden held down the dustpan, and Annie swept the glass shards from the broken Christmas tree balls into it. “You’re really good to help me do this,” she said. There was a calm steadiness about him, something so solid and good. Not that he’d be interested in her romantically, and she wasn’t exactly angling for a romance either. Fine. All right. Maybe a romance with Braden had entered her mind once or twice last night when she’d been watching her movie. Okay, possibly three times. No, four. It was a rom-com! Who was counting? Oh yeah, she was. And dreaming about his swoony dimpled chin and bright-blue eyes. She quickly switched her attention to her broom, gripping its handle.

He stood and dumped the refuse into a waste can. “Glad to.”

“Are you new here?” she asked as she began sweeping up again.

He walked back over to her, crouching down and holding the dustpan. “New? No. Why?”

She shrugged and kept sweeping, pushing the debris toward the dustpan. “I don’t remember seeing you around before today.”

“That’s because I generally work nights,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ve spotted you a time or two.”

“Oh?”

He grinned up at her. “Working on your windows with a shorter woman and older guy.”

She nodded. “They would be Kira and Julio.”

“Haven’t seen Julio in a while.”

“No, he took a job in Chicago.”

“The windy city!” he said.

Annie laughed. “Bet they’re getting snow there too.”

“Snow’s not such a bad thing”—his eyes sparkled—“when you’re inside and warm.”

“Or, outside playing in the snow,” she countered.

He dumped some more of his trash as she kept sweeping. “You like playing in the snow?”

“I’ve been known to hold my own in a snowball fight,” she said, enjoying their banter. How long had it been since she’d felt carefree, like a kid again? Too long. Forever.

“Good to know,” he said, crouching again with the dustpan. His muscles tensed beneath his work slacks and shirt, outlining his well-built frame. She could see him in the snow all right. Only, in her fantasy world, they weren’t snowball-fighting. He took her in his arms and held her close, snowflakes swirling around them.

Her broom bristles caught in some of the fake snow lining the side of the window. “Oh!”

Braden squatted lower to untangle them, and she simultaneously bent down, jamming her hand into the blob of fake snow. Their fingers brushed and, suddenly, they were almost nose to nose, his flickering blue eyes peering into hers. His neck turned red. But his mouth looked the hottest of all. He could probably work some real holiday magic with those lips. Annie fell forward, clutching the broom handle, as his mouth drew nearer. Lemon and spice and everything nice—and ooh, she wanted to taste him to tell for sure.