I avoided Nellie as much as I possibly could for the next two days, seeing her only when I stopped back in to scarf down some food at lunch and fuel up on coffee.
I kept my distance, letting Charlotte take over on training while I busied myself with the mountain of maintenance tasks outside, or the pile of paperwork in my office downstairs.
To appease Damien I called her references, and I wasn’t surprised at all to hear her former boss Sal thought she’d been an asset to the team and was missing her something fierce. However, I was surprised when Sal asked after Nellie’s “family emergency” that drove her to up and leave Guelph on such short notice.
I couldn’t avoid her anymore though; we needed to discuss her hours going forward. It was the holidays, and I’d needed the office help to get through our peak season, but we typically didn’t work New Year’s Day. Unless a guest had an issue that needed to be dealt with immediately, the office was closed.
When I walked into the office around lunch on Sunday, Nellie was there checking out one of our weekend guests. Charlotte was sitting in the far computer chair, letting Nellie handle the guests by herself, but there if she needed to help.
I debated on leaving, but something kept me rooted in place. Maybe it was seeing Nellie fitting into the fold like she belonged there, like she’d always been there.
Jacob and Marcia Wallace were gushing about how wonderful their stay had been. Marcia was looking at Jacob with stars in her eyes, and Jacob looked at her as if she hung the moon. The Wallace’s had gotten married at our resort twenty-five years ago, and they came back every year to celebrate their anniversary.
They always got our couples package, which included a weekend rate at one of our one-bedroom cottages with a Jacuzzi tub and a romantic gift basket with specialty cheese and crackers, meats, a couple bottles of a chocolate stout from the local brewery, and a bottle of wine from the local winery.
“We’ll have to hope the brewery has more of that stout in stock before we head back to the city,” Jacob said, putting his arm around Marcia and tugging her closer.
“And the Amour Au Chocolat was delicious. Is that new?” Marcia added.
Nellie looked a little confused, so Charlotte stepped in. “Yes, the Amour Au Chocolat is newer, made by a local winery on the outskirts of town.”
“I love how you support local businesses,” Marcia gushed.
“We love spreading the love.” Charlotte winked.
We had arrangements with the owners of Elderberry Amour Winery and Klaus Bauer, the owner of the brewery to include their product in our couples package. Klaus had been supplying The Choco Temptation stout for a few years now, but the Amour Au Chocolat from Elderberry Amour Winery was a recent addition.
Both the stout and the wine included Hazel Hartley’s Spanish chocolate, one of the rumoured ingredients in the infamous Tout de Sweets love latte. The Love Latte was infamous in town for getting couples to “fall in love” with each other. It was a latte variation of the original Hartley love elixir spell that had been handed down from generation to generation.
My ancestor’s older brother, Alexander Wood, consumed it when Morgana Hartley slipped him a pastry with the elixir baked into it.
The Wood’s were related to the Hartley’s through Alexander and Morgana’s marriage, which meant my family was related to the mischievous Hartley triplets. Alice, Dorothy, and Betty were technically distant cousins through marriage. My brothers and I had grown up hearing all sorts of lore about that side of the family, so we knew to stay away from any whispers of the love elixir and made sure we were aware of anything sold in town that contained it.
I’d always veered far from anything containing the love elixir, so I’d never tasted Amour Au Chocolat or the Choco Temptation myself, although I’ve been known to trick the occasional friend into drinking it.
Like Nix, when he was trying to set up the perfect first date with Sage. I’d recommended Choco Temptation with a straight face. Nix had been all but in love with Sage since we were all gangly teens, and I’d wanted to help him out a little, and see how well the Choco Temptation worked on couples who hadn’t yet proclaimed their love for one another.
I had no doubt the Choco Temptation helped push things along for Nix and Sage, solidifying their inevitable fall. I had zero regrets playing matchmaker there, but I’d let the Hartley triplets take the credit for that one.
“We’re happy to hear you enjoyed yourselves,” Nellie said, printing out copies of their receipt. “Would you like to book next year’s trip now?”
“Why not! We know we’ll be coming back,” Marcia giggled.
Nellie smiled and set to booking their next reservation for the same cottage a year from now. Jacob and Marcia paid the deposit, took their receipt, and all but skipped off together.
Happy guests were what I loved to see, but more than that: I loved to see Nellie in action. She was a natural and looking at her, I couldn’t help but feel she fit in perfectly here. That should scare me, but it didn’t, it balanced me.
“Mind if we have a chat before lunch, Nellie? I want to go over your hours for next week.”
“Yeah, sure,” Nellie looked a little nervous, but she smiled at me and made tentative eye contact, something we’d both been avoiding the last few days. I felt a jolt, like there was a live wire connecting us and surging with energy every time her gaze connected with mine.
“Normally, we wouldn’t have asked you to work weekends, but I wanted you to get a few consecutive days in a row for training, and your work week is interrupted next week due to New Year’s Day. So, you’ll be off Tuesday and Wednesday, and back at work Thursday and Friday. After that, your typical work week will be Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. with a half hour for lunch. Sound good?”
“Yes, that sounds great,” she nodded.
“Speaking of lunchtime! I’m starving,” Charlotte said, standing up and stretching. “Watching other people work makes me hungry, and Nellie’s been doing everything!”
“I haven’t been doing everything,” Nellie said as she stood, smoothing away imaginary wrinkles on her black dress pants. The action caused my gaze to follow the path of her hands along her upper thighs, and I had to force myself to look away. Charlotte caught me and smirked. I narrowed my eyes at her.
