Page 464 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
I did.
He turned to the young woman with an arm draped over the top of the door. “Yes?”
Out of breath, she swept her mousy hair out of her eyes and nodded over her shoulder back at the studio. “Please come back inside. Wanda is sorry for whatever it is she might have said that rubbed you the wrong way. It wasn’t her intention.”
“What a well-rehearsed apology. I’m sorry that you’re the one who has to go back in there and give her the bad news, but I won’t ever appear on her show, nor will any Bamford’s representative. I’m not interested in a partnership with a bully.”
The young assistant blinked. “I… erm… right.”
Chadwick put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. “If ever you want out from under her thumb, call my office. Nobody at Bamford’s will yell at you about salad dressing, I promise.”
Her bottom lip trembled. “I, um, thank you, Mr. Bamford. But the film industry is where I want to be. I just have to do a few more years with Wanda and then she’ll write me a glowing recommendation.”
Chadwick arched an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, I wish you all the best. But if things don’t pan out, my offer has no time restriction. Reach out whenever. Good luck.” With that he swept into the car and closed the door behind him.
He handed me one of the sandwiches.
I looked at it—a cucumber, turkey, cream cheese, and mustard combo on fresh baked multigrain bread—and back up at him.
Chadwick took a massive bite of his sandwich and caught me staring at him. With a full mouth, he mumbled, “What?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so attracted to you.”
He looked surprised before a sly smile stretched his lips. He looked ridiculous with his cheeks full of food. “Ishtat tho?”
I laughed. “Did you ask ‘is that so’?”
He nodded.
Still laughing, I said, “Yes, it is so. That was so bad ass. And so hot. She’s so not what I expected. She’s so mean! And her face when we started walking away. Oh my gosh. I looked back at her and it looked like her whole head was going to shoot right off her shoulders!”
He chuckled and managed to swallow. “I don’t stand for bullies. She treated her staff poorly and then turned her bad attitude on you. Unacceptable. We can do better.”
While Chadwick and I enjoyed our stolen studio sandwiches, our driver brought us to the location of our next event. We rendezvoused at Bamford Office Towers, where Aleena and other members of my team stood at the ready with bags upon bags of pre-wrapped Christmas gifts for children. Once we had them all loaded into the back of the limo with us and there was barely room left for our feet on the floor, we took off and made our way all over New York City, dashing madly from one address to the next to drop off toys to families who couldn’t afford to put presents under the tree from Santa.
A single mother and her four boys met us on their front lawn, where Chadwick lugged a large red bag with a gold ribbon out of the car. He threw it over his shoulder, bellowed a convincing “Ho, Ho, Ho,” and followed the youngest of the boys into the house, where he opened the bag and placed their presents beside an apartment-sized Christmas tree in their living-room window. They lived in a co-op, and other neighborhood kids pressed their faces to their windows and peered out onto the drive, their breath fogging the glass.
While Chadwick chased the four boys around in the snowy front yard, I called in a favor to Aleena.
“We need more toys,” I told her.
On the other end of the line, she heaved a dramatic sigh. “Seriously? You’ve made it through all the ones in the car already?”
“Well no,” I admitted, “but the ones in the car are all addressed to specific families in need. There are so many kids in this co-op who probably will also have very sparse Christmases. If we can help more people, shouldn’t we?”
“Text me the address. I’ll send Hugh. Elicia’s old office is full of presents for the charity drive. We’ll use those today, and I’ll replace them tomorrow. Does that work?”
“You’re a lifesaver, Aleena. Chadwick and I will keep them distracted until Hugh gets here.”
Aleena shouted orders at Hugh before speaking into the phone once more. “Are we still on for wrapping presents tonight?”
Oh right.
I’d completely forgotten that I had presents to wrap and that I’d invited Aleena over to wrap with me. I had a pretty wicked gift-wrapping station set up to get me through the holidays, and I had a big pile of gifts to wrap that Chadwick’s secret shopper had picked up for me.
“Yes,” I said. “Come over at eight?”
“See you then. Have fun with the kids!”
