She sighed in exasperation. Half of my confusion was from the words coming out of her mouth, and the other half was from how a woman could still look so sexy in such a shapeless dress while her hair was being held up in a bun by a friggin’ pencil. I had so many questions.
“Cole. How much do you know about basketball and the Atlanta Firebirds?”
“Not much. More of a baseball guy, really.”
She grabbed her crutches and hobbled over to the table to sit by me. “Look, the 2010 Championship almost didn’t happen because Ezekiel couldn’t get along with Jonah Wheaton. Jonah accused him of being selfish with the ball. Ezekiel shot back that he had to be selfish because Jonah couldn’t make a basket in pressure situations. It was a whole thing.”
“But what does that have to do with the players being announced in alphabetical order?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I noticed that from that point on, they always announced the players alphabetically. Ezekiel would come out first and the whole team would be between him and Jonah. It’s like a literal buffer.”
It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Well, it didn’t make any less sense than the Beethoven request. I picked up my phone to call Luis who sighed with relief when I made the suggestion. Our long national nightmare was over!
I leaped across the table and kissed Aubrey full on the lips. “You are a genius!”
Somewhere beyond me a sleigh bell rang, but I didn’t think much of it. Besides, I was already stuffing papers in my satchel and shutting my laptop. “I’m going to run to the office and take care of all of this and make sure that everyone is up to speed before the break. When I get back, though? Champagne. Or chocolate. Anything you want on me!”
It was only when I was halfway to work, whistling all the way, that I realized I had kissed her again. My stomach tied and untied a hundred knots, but I couldn’t worry about what that kiss meant—if anything—right now.
I would take care of business, and then I would worry about what I would say to Aubrey when I got home.
15
Aubrey
Sometimes I thought I could still feel the tingle on my lips from the kiss Cole had given me a week ago. That night he’d brought the champagne as promised, but he’d also come back reserved. We’d been tiptoeing around each other with extraordinary politeness. This new distance was more excruciating than our previous situation. Things were so much easier when I thought he was a stick in the mud.
At least my explanation of his contract woes had made the sleigh bell ring. Two down, and one to go. I hadn’t thought of reading a contract as selfless, but who was I to argue with Santa?
Also, I could now walk without crutches, as long as I took it easy. My biggest problem was that I only had two days to make that blasted bell ring once more, and I was pretty sure that meant I needed to find the perfect Christmas gift for Cole.
It would have to be super big. It would have mean giving up something for myself.
I had no ideas.
Even worse, Isaac was particularly handsy as of late. I hadn’t seen the blonde woman he’d interviewed since the day I took the calendar to the printer, but he kept dropping even more hints that he would like for him and me to become more than friends.
Okay, so they weren’t hints. They were pretty explicit.
I grit my teeth. The promotion was supposed to come through any day now.
“Aubrey, could you come see me for a minute?” Isaac’s voice came over the loudspeaker.
Oh, please let the promotion have come through. Oh, please let the promotion have come thorough. Oh, please—
When I entered Isaac’s office, he was leaning against the corner of his desk, looking really proud of himself. Of course, he would try to take credit for everything even though I’d been the one to scour all of the intracompany listings. I’d filled out the applications and done the interviews and listed him as my supervisor, to which he’d frowned and said, “But why would you want to leave my department?”
After talking with the manager above him, he’d changed his tune, often dropping hints that he was going to do me a huge favor.
“Well, Aubrey, I need to talk to you about the coordinator position.”
My heart sped up.
“When Genevieve comes in, I need you to get her up to speed on what we do around here.”
A-ha! He had hired the blond woman to take my place. I opened my mouth to say I’d be happy to, but he kept speaking. “She’s going to need to get a lay of the land since she’s coming in from a textile manufacturer, but I think she’ll get the hang of everything soon enough—”
The hang of answering the phone, keeping up with Isaac’s calendar, and dodging his pinches? Pretty sure she didn’t need me for that.
