One Winter's Night

by Lori Borrill

  Instead, she simply sighed and agreed. “Not really, no.”

  He shook his head sympathetically. “It’s not right to feel low over the holidays. Christmas is a time for cheer.” He handed her a candy cane. “Tell me what would take your dim spirit and make it bright.”

  “Some appreciation would be nice,” she grumbled. “But I doubt that’s in your bag.”

  He made a tsk-tsk sound that strangely made her feel slightly better, if not at least understood.

  “The gift of human behavior,” he mused. “It’s the most difficult gift of all. Not as easy as making a toy train or sewing a football. Yet as we age, it’s what we learn to cherish most. World peace, the kindness of strangers, charity, true love—they’re things that come from the heart, not the hand.”

  Oookay. “So you’re telling me I’m out of luck.”

  He rolled with jolly laughter and patted her on the shoulder. “You can’t change everyone around you, but if you keep your heart open, you might find that special someone who will stick by you and make the rest of the world bearable.”

  With a wink, the man turned and walked out the door, leaving Jeannie still sitting there grumpy and down, but now in the added state of total confusion.

  What was that all about? Keep her heart open? Her heart was already open. And she had plenty of people in her life who stuck by her. It was just that none of them were here right now, that was all.

  Shaking her head, she got up and started clearing the tables. Maybe that was what he was trying to tell her, that she should focus on the people who truly mattered and let the rest of them go. For sure, her manager, Sabrina, appreciated her. And here at work, that was what really should count, right? And maybe that was why Jeannie was so down tonight. Her boss had been on leave for weeks, not here to give her the morale boosts she’d grown accustomed to. Add to that her parents’ announcement that they were canceling their traditional Christmas Eve dinner—thereby leaving Jeannie with nowhere to go—and it was no wonder she felt neglected and undervalued this holiday season. Who wouldn’t feel a little abandoned if put in her shoes?

  Her mood validated—if not improved—she spent the next hour straightening up before heading out for the weekend. It had been a long, hectic week getting ready for this celebration and she figured what she really needed was two days away from it all doing something besides thinking about work. Surely, with this project behind her a couple days of rest and relaxation would put her in a better frame of mind.

  UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN MONDAY morning rolled around, Jeannie wasn’t any less upset. In fact, instead of simply being angry about the party, she’d spent two days brooding about all the other ways the employees at Stryker took advantage of her. She’d racked up such a list of grievances, that by the time she walked into the office, her shoulders were sagged and she felt tired and beaten. Thus, she’d barely noticed the excited grin on Kristin’s face as she walked past the woman’s cubicle.

  “What took you so long to get here?” Kristin asked as she rushed into the aisle as Jeannie passed. “I’ve been waiting for an hour to find out where these came from!”

  Jeannie checked her watch. “Where what came from? I’m always here at eight, and—” She glanced down to see that Kristin was wearing a new pair of pretty plum-colored heels. Kristin had a thing for shoes, which made Jeannie wonder if she’d really been sick Friday or if there’d simply been a sale uptown she couldn’t miss.

  “Are those new?” she asked.

  Kristin’s blue eyes glimmered. “They’re Louis Vuitton.”

  “Louis who?” To Jeannie, if they weren’t sold at the Shoe Mart, they didn’t exist.

  Kristin waved her off. “Forget the shoes. Come read the card. I’m dying to know who brought you the flowers!”

  It was only when they rounded the corner that Jeannie spotted the large bouquet.

  She gasped.

  Sitting on her desk was a beautiful crystal vase filled with long-stem white carnations and a single plump red rose in the center. The arrangement was huge, consuming half her desk, and tucked underneath it was a small red envelope with her name on it.

  “Where did this come from?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. They were here when I got in.” Kristin was nearly bouncing with excitement in her new purple shoes. “Read the card! I’ve been waiting forever.”

  A smile formed on Jeannie’s lips as she pulled out the card and opened the envelope. Only once in her life had she gotten flowers and those were from her aunt and uncle when she graduated college. They’d been sunflowers—bright, cheery and congratulatory.

  These had a different connotation—one entirely romantic—and as she tugged the small card from the envelope, she wondered who in the world could have sent them.

  In every crowd there’s one who stands out, the card read. You’re the rose in my garden.

  That was it. There was no signature or other identifier that would let her know who had bought them.

  She handed the card to Kristin.

  “You have a new man in your life?” Kristin gushed. “Why didn’t you tell me? This is huge.”

  Jeannie admitted it would have been huge if it were true. She hadn’t gone on a date since her boyfriend, Bryce, dumped her for one of his coworkers at the magazine where he worked. That had been months ago.

  “The only man in my life is Arnie,” Jeannie said, referring to her beagle.

  Kristin’s excitement bubbled over. “You have a secret admirer. Oh, this is so romantic.”

  Jeannie eyed the flowers and grinned. “It is, isn’t it?”

  “And whoever it is, he really wants you. Chad used to do things like this before we were married. It’s how I knew he was serious.”

  Jeannie stuck her nose in the big bouquet and drank in the fragrant scent of carnations. This had to be the sweetest thing that ever happened to her. For sure, it extinguished her simmering grudge over the Christmas party and the upcoming holiday. If her mystery man had hoped to brighten her mood, he couldn’t have picked a better time.

  “Who do you think it is?” she wondered aloud.

  “It has to be someone who works here. I came in at seven and these were already on your desk. That’s way too early for a florist delivery.”

  Immediately, Jeannie pulled up a mental list of all the single men in the company, but on first thought, no one person popped to the top.

  “What about Jerry in Tax?” Kristin asked.

  Jeannie crinkled her nose. Jerry was nice, but definitely not her type. She dearly hoped it wasn’t him.

  “Ooh, what if it’s Dirk Holley?” Kristin continued in a low teasing voice.

  “Yeah, right.” Jeannie rolled her eyes. “I’m hardly his type.”

  Kristin laughed. “You could be. You just have to trade in your cardigan sweaters for red leather pants and tube tops.”

  “And a boob job,” Jeannie whispered. Giggling, she glanced around in fear that someone might have heard, but it was still early and the floor was mostly empty. Not many employees came in before eight-thirty or nine, which Jeannie realized could work in her favor. Whoever left her the beautiful flowers would have to be in the group of people already here. That would narrow down the list of possibilities for sure.

  She looked left then right, surveying as much of the office as she could from her desk, but it was hard. The area was a maze of cubicles, enclosed offices and partitions, and she couldn’t take in much of the floor without physically wandering the aisles.

  “We need to know who this is,” Kristin said, still studying the card in her hand. Like Jeannie, she began looking around as if hoping to find their mystery man peeking over a cubicle wall.

  “I know, but how?”

  TROY HUTCHINS STOOD AROUND the corner and listened as Jeannie and Kristin contemplated who had brought the flowers. His heart was beating fast. His palms were damp and clammy. When he’d read the funny little pamphlet that Santa Claus had given him at the party Friday night, the steps titled �
��How To Get The Girl” seemed fun and easy. And when the man had guaranteed that by following them Troy would win over Jeannie’s affections, he figured what did he have to lose? For sure, his own efforts to get her attention had failed. So when the odd man offered advice, Troy decided to take it.

  Only now, with the first move made, he was having his doubts. The two women were tossing out names, Jeannie shooting several of them down, and not once had either of them mentioned him. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. What he did know was that this had to work, because for the entire year that he’d worked for Stryker & Associates he’d wanted Jeannie so badly it hurt.

  He remembered the day he first saw her sitting at her desk sorting papers, so pretty with her friendly blue eyes and long blond hair. She’d been humming, her voice sweet as a songbird, and when she’d caught his eye and smiled, her sunny expression shot an arrow through his heart that was still stuck there today.

  He’d spent the next twelve months learning as much as he could about her. He’d wallowed in grief when he found out she had a boyfriend then hollered with joy when the fool broke up with her. And since that time, he’d been trying to determine the best way to ask her out. He’d almost come straight out and asked her the very day he’d found out she was single, but she’d fended him off before he’d gotten the chance. She was still crushed from the breakup, in denial that maybe the loser that left her would change his mind and come back. And though Troy knew the guy didn’t deserve her grief or her heart, he was forced to back off until she got over him.

  Instead, he bided his time as her platonic friend in IT, storing up a mental list of her likes and dislikes and falling further and further in love as he did. He learned what made her laugh and what made her mad, how she liked to spend her spare time and what she hoped for her future. He knew she preferred dogs over cats, sherbet over ice cream and burgers over steak. She liked country-western music and movies with happy endings. He knew about the scar on her knee from when she slipped on gravel as a kid, that she was the baby in a family of five, and that one day she wanted to travel to Scotland to track down her family’s ancestry. He knew everything about her, including the fact that she was officially over the ex-boyfriend who’d broken her heart and that she was ready for romance again.

  And Troy wasn’t going to miss his opportunity a second time.

  He’d tried to ask her on a date at the party Friday night, thinking the mood would be ripe. Only Jeannie was so distracted with all the arrangements, he’d quickly recognized that it wasn’t the place. That was when that quirky Santa Claus had approached him and asked him what he most wanted for Christmas. And when Troy pointed to Jeannie and confessed his aching heart, the man had handed him the glossy pamphlet.

  Troy had to admit, it was a strange encounter, one he would have dismissed if it weren’t for the interesting suggestions on the page. It was almost as if it had been written just for him, and since he hadn’t considered the idea of a slow seduction before, he decided to give it a try.

  “What about Troy Hutchins?” he heard Kristin ask.

  He froze as he awaited the answer, hoping for the best and fearing the worst. What if she laughed? What if she brushed him off as not her type like she’d done with Jerry in Tax? It would ruin him, and the thought of it almost had him turning down the hall before she answered, not wanting to hear the bad news if that was what it would be.

  Then he heard her reply, “Troy?” and his feet rooted into place.

  She paused as if she were considering, and the infinitesimal seconds seemed to roll on like hours until he finally heard her say, “This seems awfully romantic for Troy. I have a hard time picturing him as a flowers kind of guy.”

  And that was it. They moved onto other names, leaving Troy to ponder how he felt about that remark. Okay, so it wasn’t bad. She hadn’t shot him down or crushed his hopes by scoffing off the idea of him being her mystery man, which meant the door was still wide open for step two on the list.

  And as for her assumption that he wasn’t romantic, well, apparently in all Troy’s efforts to get to know Jeannie, she hadn’t gotten to know him as well in return. But if things went his way that would all change—very soon—and Jeannie Carmichael would find out exactly how romantic he could be.

  2

  JEANNIE SPENT THE entire morning trying to work but instead spent it staring at the beautiful bouquet on her desk and wondering who was responsible. She’d hoped by now someone would have claimed it, and every time a male coworker passed her desk, she froze, wondering if it was him and how she would feel if it was.

  Though she wasn’t getting much work done, she had to admit the experience was exciting. Somewhere on the floor was a man who wanted her affections, a very kind and creative man who was putting a lot of effort into getting them. And speculating who it might be was both fun and unnerving.

  Throughout the day, all of Operations had gotten in on it, trying to guess who they thought it might be. Jeannie had a fairly significant list of candidates and a number of people felt certain they knew who it was, but each of them named someone different. It had become the buzz of the floor, but by quitting time, no one had come forward and she was forced to go home and spend the night in wonder.

  The next morning, she came in to find her desk exactly as she’d left it the night before. Nothing new had arrived, and for the bulk of the morning, she began to fear that maybe her secret admirer had gotten cold feet. Maybe the flowers had been it and there would be nothing more, or worse, maybe it had been someone’s cruel joke to tease her. She had a hard time believing that was true, but with the hours ticking by and nothing surfacing, she couldn’t help the worried thoughts.

  Until she returned from lunch to find a frosty bottle of her favorite orange soda sitting on her desk next to a bag of peanut M&M’s. The accompanying note read, If you’ll let me, I’ll make sure your days are filled with sweetness.

  A tiny thrill sped up Jeannie’s spine. So it hadn’t been a joke, and her mystery man was still quite alive and well. But now the question of who he was began to truly burn.

  “He doesn’t just work here, he really knows you,” Kristin observed, hovering over and reading the card just like she’d done the day before.

  Kristin was right. Whoever left this for her knew that orange soda and peanut M&Ms were her standard midafternoon treats, the quick sugar fix that picked her up and kept her going until quitting time. He’d even gotten the brand of soda right, which wasn’t easy since there was only one shop down in the lobby that sold it.

  “‘If you’ll let me,’” she repeated, studying the words he’d written. “How can I let him if I don’t know who he is?”

  “He’s torturing you. He’s torturing us both,” Kristin said.

  And she was right. By the end of the day Tuesday, there’d been nothing more and Jeannie was forced to go home once again no closer to knowing who her admirer was. Yet the next morning, another new surprise waited for her. She’d come in to find all her filing had been done and a large copy job she’d had on her desk was completed. The card read, I’m willing to help so you can spend your nights with me.

  And with each gesture, her list of candidates changed. She and Kristin and several other coworkers kept adding and dropping men from the list based on each new surprise. A number of them had gone out and cornered a few suspects, asking point-blank if they were Jeannie’s secret admirer. Though no one could conclusively figure out who it could be. And by Wednesday night, Jeannie was getting worried again. Thursday was the last day at the office before the Christmas weekend, and the thought of having to spend the holiday still in the dark over the identity of her mystery man was too much to bear. This waiting was killing her, the constant speculation snatching the sleep from her nights. If she had to continue through the holiday, she’d be ruined.

  Fortunately, she didn’t have to. When she came in Thursday morning, she found a single red rose on her desk with the note, You’ve heard my offers, now meet the man. I’ll
be downstairs at the coffee shop holding a rose like this one. I’ll see you at noon.

  Immediately, she trembled with both excitement and nerves. She’d finally get to meet her mystery man, but would that be good or bad? What if it was someone she truly had no interest in? It was a question she’d asked herself dozens of times since Monday morning, but now the reality of it was close enough to touch. How would she handle it? What would she say?

  On the flipside, there were a few men she was privately rooting for. Brad Buckingham in Product Management had topped her list, though admittedly, she barely knew him. But he was the type—tall and dreamy—that could pique her interest easily. She’d watched him give a presentation at a quarterly meeting earlier in the year and had loved his casual confidence. He’d been funny and bold, the knight-in-shining-armor type that Jeannie had always thought would complement her quiet nature.

  Then there was Carlos in Maintenance, not an employee of Stryker but a contractor for the building who spent plenty of time in their offices. Carlos was born in Honduras and Jeannie had always loved his Latin accent and dark fiery eyes. Over the past few days, she’d all but mentally turned him into Zorro, her masked fantasy lover who could sweep her off her feet and fight off evil for her love.

  They were silly fantasies that had made her giggle, but now that she held an invitation in her hand the whole thing became a serious matter. If the man was someone she genuinely liked, this could be the wonderful start of something new. But if it was someone she really wasn’t interested in…

  She didn’t want to think about that. Instead, she tucked the card in her purse and checked the clock. She had four hours to agonize over it. And she didn’t doubt they would be the longest four hours of her life.

  “I DON’T WANT TO GO,” Jeannie confessed. Clutching her purse to her chest, she eyed the clock as the second hand ticked and ticked. It was three minutes to noon. Her pulse raced and her throat was tight with angst.