Page 1 of A Reindeer Wish for Love
Chapter 1
Clay
This Year
It was a Christmasevening and the Cold Play party was in full swing in the offices of Mason and Halifax.Everyone had been dressed in a costumes of their favorite Christmas character.Some wore outfits as a Grinch, the women as Cindy Lou, and Santa.However, sexy Santa had been the one man who caught my eyes.
Me, I chose to dress in a brown suit and wear reindeer antlers.I liked to fit in, but I drew the line at some things since I became a mature adult.
The music had been upbeat and full with Christmas cheer and joy, however, someone smuggled in some sounds from the 80’s or was it the 90’s.It appeared to be a good year for a great deal of these overpaid lawyers.I glanced around at the employees dancing, singing and drinking.Yeah, it was a super year for the ones who were ready to retire or wanted to, but couldn’t afford it at this time, and I was way too young to even think about lying around in bed with sexy Santa as a man of leisure.
Someone dared to slip in one hip hop tune, and men and women stood and glanced at each other as if they didn’t have a clue of what was going on.Only one couple dared to attempt the moves required for hip hop.Then the older men stopped the music and went back to Donna Summers “Love to Love you baby and Hot Stuff.”and Cher’s “Believe, and “It Looks a Lot Like Christmas.”
Everyone at this party was either drunk or in a daze wondering what kind of year they had to look forward to.Did they dare go home to their spouses and tell them they had been fired or forced to retire.Or perhaps they got the biggest bonus of their lives, and they could purchase the apartment of their dreams, or that super expensive sports car that would cost an arm and a leg to pay for and to park it in the garage of a condo in Manhattan.
The bonus money was handed out in tiny envelopes by no other than the owners of this prestigious law firm, and would be given for a great job done.
All the employees in this firm had their eyes focused on what was inside those tiny envelopes that hadChristmas Bonuswritten on the outside.Those checks would change their lives for good or bad.Was this a joke?The envelopes were barely the size of my palm.It probably signaled that some were fired or let go and they were going out of business.If they sobered up the next day they’d probably drag themselves to their computers to discover that they had indeed been fired at the ripe old age of fifty, or retired.That is if they owned the computers.Or they could be without a computer.
Everyone at this party held a glass of something whether it was liquor, wine or sodas, and would turn to each other after glancing inside those envelopes, and smile in Halifax and Mason’s direction.
I had my eyes on Mason the sexy Santa,because he is all I’ve wanted since I walked through the doors of his firm a year ago,I thought.
You didn’t see me eyeing you now because you appeared to be interested in another dude,I thought.You looked into each other’s eyes and that crushed me, but I stared and you returned my gaze, because you were trying to figure out where you’d seen me before, my mind had said to me.
Maybe it was the antlers that threw him off.My friends Marty and Tyler had given me those reindeer antlers where I’d fit in when I complained that I wasn’t going to be dressed in a silly costume to see the man I loved.
“You’re too serious,” Marty had said, and placed the antlers on my head.“You don’t have to wear them until you arrive at the party.”
On his advice I waited until I strode near the large room and placed them over my head, and out of nervousness reached and pulled them off.I didn’t want that handsome man to see me look like a fool, or think I was the same impressionable young man who had been grateful he’d offered me a job when I couldn’t even get a call back from any firm in Manhattan.
The few men and women who were sober nodded at me as if they wished they’d had the nerve not to wear a costume, because they felt silly.
They weren’t silly, I was, because I no longer worked for Mason and Halifax, and I didn’t fit in the way everyone had.The only ones not wearing anything that came close to a costume was Mason my sexy Santa.Yet he’d worn one of those handsome Santa suits with a Christmas tie over his elegant white shirt and black suspenders.
I stared at Mason with my glance targeted on him.Remember me,I thought, as if I had ESP.Maybe he did because I spotted him narrowing his glance, and when his eyes blinked, I knew it was coming back to him.You were trying to rememberwho is that man staring me down?I reasoned.Mason narrowed his gorgeous eyes and I offered him a closed smirk.
Yeah, it’s me.
Perhaps he was looking because he felt I didn’t belong there.And he was unquestionably right.I had changed from that one-night stand last year.My hair had been cut by a barber and not Marty or Tyler and I had escaped from the basement to work for another law firm before Mason returned from his assignment.
Yes.I had attended one of Mason and Halifax’s notorious parties last year because I had been hired by Mason one day to this date.And last year no one came up with the bright idea to dress as a Christmas character or enforce the dress code like tonight.
One year ago it was a Christmas party on this date and this night that I wouldn’t soon forget, and I hoped Mason wouldn’t either, but it appeared he did and I couldn’t forgive him.
That night last year had been the most important day and night of my life.It was when I first met and slept with Mason.It was then I fell in love with him.
At the time he was married and in the closet.His wife had been out of town, and he felt lonely and because of me, he no longer had to hide his desires.However, I wasn’t the recipient of his coming out.Coming out of the closet, I mean.
There was no fanfare.There were no balls to announce it, only me and Mason sharing that moment that would change him and me.
Obviously, he wasn’t afraid it would hurt his reputation as a family man because he had no children I discovered, and his business would remain intact because there were no board members he and his partner had to answer to.Halifax on the other hand was straight and married, and his wife was no supporter of Mason’s wife.
As I studied the room Mason had been whispering and laughing with a young man who eerily resembled me.Well as close as he could be to my gene pool without being my brother, and without that Mrs.Claus uniform with thigh-high white boots.After careful observation, I realized he looked nothing like me, nor did he stand, nor his gestures were similar to mine.
The young man laughing and being over familiar with Mason was more feminine than I could ever be or wanted to be.
At the time I didn’t think Mason was into feminine men who occasionally wore female garments.I could be wrong because you never knew what turned men on.
