Mine on Christmas

by Sarah J. Brooks

I was speechless. No one had ever offered me that sort of money for a job. Not even my big Wall Street clients were booking me for parties at this rate. One hundred thousand dollars would change everything for me. It would give me the chance to move into a real office and even hire an assistant. This amount of money changed everything.

  My hands shook at the idea of so much money. What would I even do with it all? I couldn’t even talk as the visions of money flooded my brain. How on earth was this guy’s boss okay with spending one hundred thousand dollars on a Christmas party?

  Then I started to think about the repeat work I could get with a client like this. I would really be helping him out and he was obviously rich enough that he could afford to spend such a crazy amount on a party. Not only could I get this booking but I might be able to work with him again after it was all done.

  “You’re not serious? Who is your boss?” I asked, obviously more willing to consider his offer now that a large amount of money was being thrown around.

  “His name is Thomas Hanover. He runs an airplane parts manufacturing company. He has twin sixteen-year-olds, a boy and a girl. If I don’t get him a party planner by the time he is out of this meeting, I’m probably going to be fired and I really like my job. It’s not a business party, it’s at his house for his family and it is really important to him.”

  “You like your job?” I laughed a little at the idea that this man was terrified of his boss yet also liked his job.

  “Yes, I get paid better than any job I could have gotten with my degree. I clearly couldn’t make this money anywhere else. He’s tough and really grumpy sometimes but I want to keep this job. Will you please say yes to being the party planner for this?”

  I wanted to say no. I knew that Alana and the other girls were going to be mad that I was bailing on the cruise already. But this kind of money was a life changer and with my business struggling the way it was I just couldn’t say no. Plus, working with a big client like this would give me leverage to take on other big clients in the future. I had to say yes.

  “I’ll need to have access to him fairly quickly to go over the details of what he is looking for. He can’t say he’s busy all the time, I know how those executives can me. Also, he will have to be willing to let me use him as a reference for future jobs.”

  “Yes, all of that is fine. So are you agreeing?”

  “Yes, I will do it. When is he free to sit down and go over the details of this?” I said as I pulled up my schedule for the next few days.

  “Oh, you are a lifesaver. Ok, let me look. How does tomorrow at noon work?” Matthew asked.

  “No, I’m busy,” I said. “How about Thursday at five o’clock?”

  “No, he’s in a meeting. Are you willing to do a Sunday?”

  “Fine, Sunday, but that’s already wasting all of this week that I won’t be able to make progress on the party. Can you email me over a list of guests and any other specifics that would be helpful so I can do some pre-planning before meeting with your boss?”

  “Yes, I’ll send you what I have. His house is about an hour out of the city. I’ll send you the address so you can come up on Sunday. You’ll need to buzz in the gate and he doesn’t have staff around so just be patient, sometimes it takes him a while to answer. I’ll email it all to you and some tips on working with him.”

  “I don’t need tips,” I laughed. “I know how to work with clients of all sorts.”

  “Yes you will need tips,” Matthew replied ominously.

  Chapter 3

  Thomas

  “Mr. Hanover, I am heading out for the night and want to give you a rundown of your weekend schedule.”

  “Why are you leaving so early?” I looked at my watch to see what time it was. “Oh, it’s already five o’clock. Okay, so what’s on the schedule?”

  Matthew had started doing this thing where he actually took off for the weekend and made me take care of my own affairs. It was a terrible plan and I hated it, but I also didn’t want to pay overtime so we were trying it out for now.

  “You need to meet with the party planner on Sunday. She will be coming to your house to go over the ideas. Here is a file on her with all the pertinent information. She seems very nice and you’re paying her a lot of money because no one else was willing to take this on with such short notice. She will want to have some time with you and get as much done as possible.”

  “Alright, so be nice to her, I got it.”

  “I’m not telling you what to do, sir, but I had to give fifty percent of the money up front and you’ll lose it if you cancel or go against her terms. A copy of the contract is in there. You signed it on Wednesday in case you forgot.”

  Sometimes Matthew talked to me as if he was the boss and I was his assistant. I didn’t appreciate that at all. Although, I had to admit that I didn’t remember signing this woman’s contract at all. Wednesday had been another crazy busy day with so many meetings and fires to put out that I didn’t leave the office until nearly midnight. Luckily the kids were staying in town with their grandparents that night.

  Jackson and Jenna loved their grandparents so much. Rose’s parents were by far the most involved in the kids’ lives. They lost their only daughter when Rose passed away and being there for Jackson and Jenna was a big joy to them. I was so happy that we all got along as well as we did so that the kids could continue to grow up with them in their lives.

  I kept a condo in the city and often had the kids come into town when school and work were extremely busy. Our house was about an hour out of town without traffic, but often time’s traffic made the drive up to three hours long and it just wasn’t logical to commute back and forth all the time. The kids and I were lucky to have so many people in our lives helping us over the last few years.

  “This is her?” I asked staring down at the picture of my new party planner. She was a blonde haired beauty for sure. In a different stage of my life, I would have thought of nothing more than how I could get her into bed. Now, I just saw a beautiful girl who I hoped was good at her job and maybe I had a few residual thoughts of what she might be like in the bedroom.

  “Yes, sir. I checked her out. She has great references. I also included some pictures I pulled off of Instagram of parties she’s designed. She is really good. Only runs a small business from her apartment but she’s an up and comer for sure.”

  “Great, thank you for this. When will she be over on Saturday?”

  “No, Sunday.”

  “Man, the kids and I were supposed to come into visit the Steermen’s for dinner this Sunday. Can she come on Saturday?”

  “I don’t think so. She said Sunday, but you can call her and ask. I put her cell phone number in the file. I need to get going. I’ve got a date tonight. I’m turning my phone off. I’ll see you Monday,” Matthew said as he asserted his assistant muscles.

  Honestly, I didn’t mind that he was taking the weekends for himself lately. The kids were getting busier with their lives and I was trying to fill my weekends as well. I’d even managed to go on a few dates over the last year, but nothing came of them. It was impossible to connect with women my age. I was a widower and most of the women I had been on dates with hardly knew what commitment was or they were trying desperately to get married. We were on different levels in our lives.

  I suspected I would have a hard time finding a woman to date no matter how hard I tried though; Rose was still so fresh in my mind. I saw her in everything that was around me and missed her terribly. The pain was diminishing and on most days I could remember the fun, happy times, but that didn’t make it any easier for me to connect to other women.

  Probably one of the reasons I enjoyed being around Rose’s parents so much was that they had a lighthearted way of talking about Rose and didn’t make me feel as sad as being around my own family did. Her parents joked and laughed about their memories of Rose while my family often brought up the loss. It was two totally different ways of dealing with grief.

  After Matthew lef
t, I finished the project I was working on and then gathered my things to go pick up the kids. We’d already planned to go to dinner that night and I was really looking forward to some time with them.

  During the week we were all so busy with work and school that we hardly saw each other except to say good morning and good night. Friday nights were our evenings out and I loved catching up with them. Laughing and talking about all their teenager troubles was a special part of my week and I really didn’t know what I was going to do when they both went off to college and we didn’t get this time together every week.

  Jackson and Jenna were by far my favorite people to hang out with. It was a little pitiful that I preferred the company of my own teenage children over pretty much any other adult, but I couldn’t help it. They were funny, smart, and kind kids. Everyone always praised me for raising them right, but I think they were genetically gifted with hearts like their mother’s. Both of them worked hard at school and didn’t get into trouble.

  As I arrived at their school I quickly realized that I was much later than I’d intended to be. There was no long line of parents waiting to pick up their kids, instead, it was just Jackson and Jenna playing on their phones while they sat and waited for me. But something else was bugging me and I couldn’t put my finger on it; I felt as if I’d forgotten something important.

  “I’m sorry I’m late, guys,” I said with the window down as I pulled up.

  “It’s okay Dad, we know how busy work is,” Jenna said and climbed in the front. “Missed you,” she added with a kiss to my cheek.

  “How was school today?” I asked Jackson as he climbed into the back seat.

  “Boring, as normal. I can’t wait to graduate and get to college. If I could just get my degree and be done with this I would love it.”

  “College is going to be the same,” Jenna snapped back at him. “You’re bored because you don’t do any activities.”

  “In college, I can do a lot more. I’m not interested in doing activities with these stupid kids. Everyone here is stupid. I don’t even what to be around them.”

  “Hey now, why are you calling your friends stupid?” I asked. It wasn’t normal for Jackson to have this sort of attitude at all. He was always my upbeat and fun kid. Something was off. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” he huffed and crossed his arms.

  “The girl he likes made fun of him today at lunch,” Jenna offered up as an explanation.

  It was nice that the two of them were in the same grade. I could always count on getting filled in on the details from one of them. My heart sank. I hated having to be a mature adult sometimes because the first thing I wanted to ask the kids was who was this girl? And why was she so lame? Of course, that wasn’t the fatherly thing to do so I took a minute to gather my thoughts before saying anything more.

  In moments like this, I always imagined what their mother would say to them. They were only six years old when she passed away and didn’t get nearly enough time with her. Over the years I’d tried to be more nurturing and understanding because I knew I had to fill that role they were so desperately missing.

  Nurturing wasn’t my strong suit though and I worked hard at it when I was with the kids. They were going to have enough to talk to their therapists about when they got older, I didn’t want to add any more to it.

  Luckily, the kids had some amazing female influences in their lives as well. My sister Ashley tried to be there for them as much as possible. She and Jenna were particularly close. Both sets of Grandparents were always there for the kids, but Mildred Steermen looked so much like Rose that I knew it was one of the reasons the kids liked to go over there so much. Then there was Samantha Wessex, Rose’s best friend. Samantha had gone above and beyond to be there for all of us over the last ten years. She still dropped by the house a couple of times each week, despite recently getting married and having a daughter of her own.

  I probably didn’t show my appreciation nearly enough to all the people who helped me with the kids. Sometimes it was terribly painful to watch how much the kids enjoyed having these strong and caring women in their lives. Often when Samantha comes to the house I find myself barking orders at her and treating her like an assistant instead of a friend, not on purpose, but because she draws up so many emotions in me when she’s around and I still haven’t learned to manage them.

  “So you had your heart broken today and you’re angry about it?” I asked Jackson while looking at him through the rearview mirror.

  “No, I didn’t have my heart broken. It doesn’t matter. I didn’t even like her.”

  “I know how it feels. I remember this girl from high school that I was madly in love with. Well, it probably wasn’t love since I had only talked to her two times, but back then I thought it was love. She just smiled at me and I melted.”

  “I thought you were in love with Mom in high school,” Jenna said.

  “Oh, I was, but this girl was before your mother. I finally got the nerve up to go and talk to her and tripped. I fell flat on my face and my whole food tray landed right on the girl. She got so mad at me that I took off running out of the lunchroom.”

  “Dad, that’s horrible,” Jackson laughed from the back seat.

  “Maybe, but two days later your mother smiled at me and I got up the nerve to talk to her right then and there because at least I didn’t have a food tray in my hands. And the rest is history.”

  The kids laughed as we pulled out of the school parking lot and made our way to our favorite pizza place. My heart swelled every time they laughed. It was in those moments that I truly knew I was meant to be their father.

  “Dad, did you forget that today was the school play?” Jenna asked looking down at her notebook and not at me.

  “The play was today?” I asked feeling the blood drain out of my face.

  Jenna had waited for me to start driving so she could ask me without having to look at my face or have me look at hers. I got so damn emotional around that girl. Just looking at the disappointment in her eyes would have done me in for that night.

  “Well, the extra one for parents who weren’t able to come to last weekend’s shows,” Jackson added. “It’s not that big of a deal. They are selling a DVD of the show. We will get you one.”

  I missed the previous weekend of shows because I was out of town signing a big new client. Samantha had stayed with the kids and went to both the Saturday and Sunday show. She took pictures and a video and sent them to me, but I’d planned on coming for the special extra showing. Damn Matthew for not reminding me! But then I remembered that I hadn’t told him about it and this was all on me.

  “It’s no big deal, Dad. We know you’re busy,” Jenna added. They said that a lot to me lately.

  “Yeah, you saw the pictures. Don’t worry about it,” Jackson said too.

  “Guys, I’m so sorry I missed the show. This is all my fault. Samantha told me about it and both of you told me about it and I forgot to put it on my calendar every single time. Will you please forgive me?”

  “Dad, we don’t need to make a big deal out of it. A lot of kids have parents that don’t come to these things.”

  “Name one,” I asked defiantly and joking a little bit. I was positive the kids were just trying to make me feel better for skipping out on their show and I hated that. I didn’t like being the irresponsible parent who forgot events that were important to my kids. It was a terrible feeling.

  “Um, Tracy,” Jackson said from the back seat.

  “Tracy who?” I asked.

  “You know, Tracy. Her mother is a single mom who is a waitress.”

  “Wait, her mom came,” Jackson added and we all laughed.

  One thing I’d learned in parenting teenagers was that I had to admit when I was wrong. I couldn’t expect them to admit to doing something wrong if I never it. Funny how being a single parent had changed my whole perspective on parenting over the last few years. When they were younger I always lied to them and Rose was the one
saying that we should just be honest.

  Even when Jackson asked if the tooth fairy was real, Rose wanted to tell him the truth. I was firmly against it though and eventually Rose let me tell him a bit of a lie, for the time being. I was sure that as the kids grew up Rose would have given away all those mystical fantasies and been honest with the kids about the traditions and how they came to be known. After she passed away I tried to keep up some of her truthfulness, except when it came to Santa Claus… I still hadn’t admitted that he might not be real.

  “I’m really sorry, guys. I’ll do better next time. I promise,” I drove the three of us to our favorite pizza place so we could enjoy a nice dinner together. Friday nights were always our night to eat out and catch up on the week that we had and we really needed it.

  “Dad, can I spend the night at Lizzie’s this weekend?” Jenna asked before we had even reached our table in the restaurant. She was smiling up at me looking as sweet as could be.

  “Oh, yeah, I was going to spend the night at Rob’s house too,” Jackson added.

  “I thought you two were visiting the Steermen’s,” I said, confused on my own children’s schedules. “Didn’t you say you were going there this weekend and we were having dinner there on Sunday?”

  “No, we are going there in a couple weeks for Christmas. I want to spend time with my friends,” Jenna said. “We can still have dinner there Sunday if you want, though.”

  “Oh, that reminds me. We are throwing the Christmas party this year. I’m really excited to have it at our house and I’m hiring someone to help us make it amazing,” I threw it out there just to make sure they both didn’t make plans for Christmas.

  As we all sat down at our table I noticed a clear look of disappointment on both of the kid's faces. They weren’t even slightly excited about this plan. In fact, they actually looked sad about it. Jackson furrowed his eyebrows at me while Jenna crossed her arms and curled her lip up like she was about to say something really grumpy toward me.

  “Dad, we like going to Grandma and Grandpa Steermen’s house. It’s fun there and they miss us so much. I feel like Mom is there with us too,” Jenna said with a tear filling her eye. “Can we just go there?”