“You’re blocked Aiden. I haven’t beenreceivingyour calls.”
A smile curled the corners of his mouth. When he spoke, his tone was less demanding than before. “The only reason I reached out was because I have two front row tickets toThe Color Purplenext month.” Aiden pulled his phone from his suit pocket and showed me the screen confirming two bona fide tickets. “I know you’ve been dying to see it, but tickets were always sold out.”
He wasn’t playing fair. I loved that musical. We broke up right before Christmas last year. I was foolishly expecting a ring, or at the very least an offer to cohabitate. Instead I ended up with an emoji filled Dear John text. It contained all the standard verbiage. “Things are moving too fast. I’m not sure we want the same things. It’s not you it’s me.”
For months after the breakup, he’d dated every eligible woman in Minneapolis, matching with them on Flirt Chat, Tinder, and Elite Singles. Aiden eventually realized he was never going to find a woman as good to him as I was. You know the saying about thinking the grass is greener on the other side of the fence only to cross the fence and realize that picture perfect grass is actually AstroTurf, that was Aiden’s current predicament.
So now he was putting on the full court press, trying to win me back. Flowers, lunch delivered from my favorite salad spot. He even hired a singing telegram. A man dressed up like cupid singing Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” It was embarrassing and completely out of character for the man who was more concerned about optics than reality. And the optics of a singing telegram read desperate.
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was enjoying the groveling phase of our relationship. Not that I had plans on taking him back. Unfortunately for Aiden, I was no longer interested. I kept a lighter handy just in case I needed to burn down a bridge. And when Aiden dumped me, I burned that bridge to ashes and returned the pricey sound system I’d purchased as his Christmas gift. A gift that required me traveling to three different stores before securing it.
“Good morning.” Kris’s baritone voice filled the breakroom. My gaze followed him to the coffeepot, where he removed the lid from his thermal mug, pouring a fresh serving of coffee. Catching a glimpse of him outside of his Santa suit was my newguilty pleasure. It allowed me to freely lust after his well-toned body, which was hard to appreciate in the red garb although not completely impossible.
“Good morning, Santa,” Chloe said.
“Aidan, have you met Kris? Kris is this year’s mall Santa,” I said, hoping to pull Aiden’s attention away from me.
“Mall Santa?” Aiden’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead.
Kris extended his hand. “Yep, pleasure to meet you.”
I wanted to warn him that it most certainly was not a pleasure to meet or have met Aiden. As the two men exchanged pleasantries, I used that opportunity to move across the room and place my bagel in the toaster.
“See, this is why Mall of America is crushing us. Because we hire Santa’s that look like …” Aiden waved his hand in Kris’s direction. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Kris flashed a perfect row of teeth.
I chimed in, “Mall of America is pulling in more customers because they have better marketing than we do.” This was an intended dig at Aiden as the Director of Marketing. When we dated, half his ideas he stole from me during our late-night pillow talks. He claimed he valued my input, but now I understood he didn’t have a creative bone in his body. And had most likely coasted off the concepts he’d stolen from others for years. “If you and your team would try to sell Pavilion as a niche family experience maybe we’d see more traffic.”
Workplace romances were always a bad idea, but my social life consisted of work and home, with the occasional Target run. The majority of my social interactions were at the office and initially, Aiden seemed like a great choice. We’d worked together for a year and had a pleasant flirty friendship. So, when he finally asked me out, I enthusiastically said yes. But after playing with his shiny new toy for a few months he began to lose interestand his once hawk eye vision for me and only me, began to wander.
Aiden came up behind me. “Maybe we could grab a bite at lunch and talk through some of your innovative marketing strategies?” He was persistent and I was horny, but my will was strong.
“I can’t. I’m really busy.”
“How about tonight we could get drinks at the one spot you always raved about?”
“I need to head home after work.” I kept my focus on the toaster, waiting for my everything bagel to pop. Finally getting the hint, Aiden moved on, exiting the breakroom.
Chloe didn’t wait until Aiden was out of earshot before announcing, “If I were you, I’d report that creep to HR.”
“Wait, what did I miss?” Kris asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Aiden is Belen’s delusional?—”
“Nothing, it’s nothing.” Tension filled my voice as I tapped my fingers on the counter. I didn’t want to talk about my breakup in front of the new guy. The tall and handsome new guy whose purple T-shirt was clinging to his muscles. Grabbing my bagel, I headed for the door. Stopping under the archway, I turned to face Kris. “Good job yesterday. You helped to ensure a smooth start to our holiday season. Just wanted to give you a heads-up we’re going to post some of the photos that were taken to our social media pages and website.”
“Don’t worry, I signed the media release, so you’re good.”
Chloe looked up from restocking the coffee supplies with a gasp, pointing at me. “You’re under the mistletoe. Someone needs to kiss you or it’s bad luck, coal in stocking type of bad luck.”
I looked from Chloe to Kris, the only other two people in the breakroom. Heat was creeping up my neck as the underside ofmy breast became sweaty. “No, that’s just a silly superstition.” Raising my hand, I tried to reach the plant so I could rip it down. “Putting this up was a bad idea.”
Crossing the room, Kris stood in front of me and under the mistletoe. “Chloe’s right, some people think if you stand under mistletoe without receiving a kiss you risk bad fortune, but I don’t believe it. We control our destiny, not some cosmic energy or sun, moon rising.”
I knitted my brows. While I agreed with Kris’s words, it felt less like I was in control and more like I was on a runaway bus with no signs of Keanu Reeves coming to my rescue. The last thing I needed was bad love juju. I’d already been through enough with Aiden. What was one little kiss if it could avert years of misfortune?
Leaning in, I lifted to my toes, kissing Kris on the cheek. Goosebumps dotted my flesh. As I pulled away, Kris’s hooded eyes danced across my face. His gaze was speaking a language I was all too familiar with.
