Page 2 of Single Dad's Christmas Cookie

Down the line to the table, I heard a couple of gasps and some twittering under the breath conversations. People sounded very pleased with what they received in their envelopes.

Holding my breath, I opened my envelope and looked in. I closed the envelope before I could properly react. This was goingto need time, and I think privacy. And maybe a really good, stiff drink.

Fortunately, as soon as the envelopes were dispersed, our headmaster sent us all out back into the world.

“Drive safe as you return home. Remember, we have students on Monday. Tuesday is a half day to clean up and get grades turned in.”

By Tuesday at lunch, we were free for the holidays. That basically gave me two days to find a job that would carry me through until the first of the year, when classes started again.

I wasn’t the first to get up and say good night. I timed my leaving carefully. I didn’t want other teachers talking behind my back any more than I already expected they would be. So I made sure that I left right after the first group said their goodbyes.

Instead of walking out and making arrangements for a car to pick me up, I decided to hit the hotel bar. I needed a stiff drink, and I didn’t have any booze at home. Fortunately, I seemed to be the only one from the academy who decided to stop off for a nightcap. I didn’t want to have to explain my actions to anyone.

I slid onto a tall barstool and waited for the bartender to notice I had arrived. I cast a quick glance around the place, noticing the various patrons of the bar. My eyes locked with a man sitting on the far side of the bar eating his dinner with another man.

I shouldn’t have stared, but there was something about him that was very magnetic.

“What can I get you?” the bartender interrupted me, giving me a good excuse to avert my eyes. Hopefully, I wasn’t blushing too hard in the dim light.

I imagined that man to be perfectly handsome and perfectly charming. I didn’t need reality to change that misperception I had at the moment, because right now, my reality sucked.

2

BRYAN

Ned was talking, but I had to admit, I stopped listening to him long before that woman walked in. When she stepped into the bar, I couldn’t have heard a thing Ned said if I had wanted to. My brain went stupid at the sway of her hips. She moved like a woman who knew how to please a man. She had just enoughboom, boom, boomin the sway of her hips that made me think if I were fifteen years younger, maybe I would have had a chance with her.

“Christmas is a couple of days away, and you’re acting as if you aren’t aware of that.”

Ned’s words came back to me as if my ears turned back on the second that woman was out of my line of sight.

“What were you saying?” I asked.

“Christmas is coming up and you’re acting as if we’re going to get quality work out of people.”

“What is that supposed to even mean? Yes, I expect people to work, even though it’s the holidays.”

“But you and I both know that even if somebody is in the office, they barely get anything done.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what he was trying to say. I quickly tried to remember anything he had said moments earlier. But all that was stuck in my head was the side to side sway of that woman’s walk and the way her golden hair reflected light.

“Look,” I started.

I needed to do two things in quick succession. One, wrap up this meeting that was going nowhere. And two, get rid of Ned, because that stunning creature had eased herself onto a seat at the bar. She moved like a slow, sticky liquid, and I wanted to get her all over my fingers.

“Complaining about work ethics during the holidays seems a little counterproductive,” I finally said. “What we need to do, instead of bitching about the way we want it to be, is we should modify our deadlines and our expectations to how we know it will be. Imagine how much happier everyone involved would be if we didn’t dump massive deadlines for the day before Christmas or the day before New Year’s Eve? The financial group has already been working their asses off trying to get year-end figures wrapped up. Come December thirty-first, all they have to do is drop a few figures into a couple of places in a spreadsheet, and everything just goesbing, bing, bing, and all the numbers populate the way they’re supposed to.”

Ned nodded as I spoke, which led me to believe that I was being coherent. While I was talking about spreadsheets, I wasn’t thinking about rows and columns of numbers and figures. Well, I was thinking about figures. One figure, hourglass, breasts, waist, curves, hips, legs, spread out on display across a crisp white sheet.

It had been entirely too long since I’d had a proper date. That woman on the other side of the room was sending out signals to me that I was probably making up in my head, but damn if she didn’t look good, and damn if I didn’t want Ned to leave already so I could go shoot my shot with this woman.

“Yeah, I see what you’re saying. If we can take the time off to enjoy the holidays, we should make it so that our teams and employees can do the same. Why should we expect more from them when we aren’t willing to lead by example?”

I held my hands out to him, as if giving him the moment. “Exactly,” I said.

“This has been a good conversation,” Ned said as he slapped the table.

“Agreed, agreed,” I said. I didn’t agree. I couldn’t even remember half of anything we said.

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