(Interrupting.) So I understand you’re something of an all-around performer, Brad. Had you ever done anything like this before?
Brad: (Rubbing his injured ribs and wisely removing his arm from Sophie’s shoulders.) Well, I’ve been in a few flash mobs before, but this was my first time organizing one. I enjoy performing, though. I’m currently playing the staring roll in Beau Jest, which will be showing at the Jackson Community Theater all next week.
Harold: I’m sure it will be a sold out show. Especially after all the great publicity you’re getting from your video engagement. Tell me, Sophie, was the proposal a spur-of-the-moment thing or had you planned it in advance?
Sophie: Definitely spur-of-the-moment. In fact, Brad and I had never—
Brad: (Interrupting.) Talked about marriage before. Although, (turning to give Sophie a tender smile) I know that I for one had certainly thought about it many times.
And on and on it had gone, Sophie trying to explain what had really happened, but never allowed to get a complete sentence out. By the end of the interview, Brad had not only convinced Harold that he and Sophie were madly in love, he had even given a fairly detailed sketch of their future plans (including a formal church wedding, a thirty year mortgage, and five children.)
“That was great!” Harold said once the cameras had stopped recording. “You two are so perfect for each other, finishing each other’s sentences and all that. People are going to fall in love with you.”
We didn’t finish each other’s sentences, Sophie screamed inside her own head. He just kept interrupting me!
Harold shook Brad’s hand and walked off.
Brad leaned back on the couch and grinned at her. “That was fun,” he said.
“What?” she said, losing the fake smile she had kept plastered on her face during the interview. “What is wrong with you? Why did you say all that stuff?”
“All what stuff?” Brad asked, looking honestly taken aback by her vehemence.
“All that bunk about us being in love and going to be married? Why didn’t you just tell him the truth? That we’d never even seen each other before Saturday night?”
His expression clouded over in confusion. “But I thought you wanted to pretend like it was real? I mean, why else did you tell everyone at your work that we’re actually engaged?”
“I didn’t!” she screeched. “They just saw the video and assumed it was real! I tried to find Harold before the interview to explain, but I couldn’t.”
Brad looked stunned for a moment and then he began to laugh. Throwing his head back, he roared with laughter.
“It isn’t funny!” Sophie said, clenching her hands into fists. She had to force herself not to start pounding on his chest. “Do you realize that you just went on television and told the entire world that you’re going to marry a girl you don’t even know?”
Still laughing, Brad shrugged. “I doubt the entire world gets their news from KJAX, but even if they did, so what? It’s all a good joke.”
Sophie stared at him in disbelief. A good joke? Her mother watched the local news every night.
After Brad left to get back to his next class, Sophie went looking for Harold, to tell him they needed to redo the interview, but he seemed to have vanished again. Eventually, she found Amber who said that Harold was doing another interview on location and probably wouldn’t be back until the end of the day.
Sophie tried calling him, but only got his voice mail.
“Hi, Harold. It’s Sophie. We need to…to redo the interview. Brad was…confused. It’s, well, it’s kind of embarrassing but we really, really need to do it again.” She hung up, feeling desperate. What if he didn’t get back in time to tape a new interview?
She decided it was time to confess to Bob. She marched to his office and stood staring at his name plate while she tried a little deep breathing to calm her nerves. It didn’t help. She knocked.
No answer.
She opened the door and peered inside. Not only was Bob not there, the light and his computer had been turned off. That was unusual. She tracked Amber down once again and demanded, “Where’s Bob? I thought you said he’d be back after that meeting.”
Amber blinked at her. “Well, he did come back after the meeting, but he left again about fifteen minutes ago. His son had some award thing at school. Bob won’t be back today.”
“But I need to talk to him!” Sophie wailed.
“Sorry?” said the intern, slowly backing away from her. “He’ll be in all day tomorrow.”
Sophie spent the rest of the day trying to find someone who could help her. It seemed that anyone who might have the power to prevent that interview from airing that night was either home sick or out of the building on station business. Neither Bob nor Harold would answer their phones or respond to texts.
The interview was scheduled to air along with the six o’clock news. At five-thirty, she gave up and went home.
Her phone rang as she walked through the door into her apartment. She didn’t recognize the number, but she answered it just in case it was Bob or Harold calling from someone else’s phone.
“Hello?” she said hopefully.
“Sophie?” It wasn’t Bob or Harold. It was Brad.
“How did you get my number?” she asked.
“That intern girl at your station gave it to me,” he said and she could actually hear the grin. “She couldn’t understand why I didn’t have it since we’re engaged and all.”
“Brad,” Sophie said, too exhausted and depressed to find any humor in their situation, “what do you want?”
There was a brief pause and when he spoke again, the grin was absent from his voice. “I was just wondering if you were able to convince them not to air the interview.”
“No, I wasn’t,” she said shortly.
“Oh, okay. Guess I better set my TiVo to record it then, huh? Never been on TV before,” he joked.
She wondered if he ever took anything seriously. “Congratulations,” she said sourly. “Look, I’m gonna go now, okay? I’ve had a long day.”
“But you’re going to watch the interview, right? Come on, you can watch yourself jab me about a dozen times with that harpoon you call an elbow. I’ve got bruises, by the way,” he said.
In spite of herself, Sophie almost smiled. “You deserve them. I still can’t believe you made all that stuff up. Why in the world would I want everyone to think we were engaged?”
“Well, I figured you had your reasons,” he said. “You have to look at it from my point of view, okay? There I am in New York, singing Christmas carols in a Santa suit and this girl comes up out of nowhere and proposes to me and then disappears into the night before I can even get her name. I don’t think I’ll ever see her again. And then the next thing I know, I get a call from some other girl who keeps congratulating me on the engagement and telling me how excited everyone at KJAX is and could I come in for an interview. I hadn’t even seen the video. I had no idea what was going on, but I figured if I went along with it, at least I’d get to see you again, right? Hey, how did that intern girl get my phone number anyway?”
Sophie was completely taken aback by this flood of information. She hadn’t considered things from his point of view. It must have been pretty strange for him. Not that that excused all the lying, of course.
But he had wanted to see her again?
“Oh…I don’t know. Amber seems to be all knowing. Some kind of intern magic, I guess,” she said, feeling strangely giddy.
“Oh, well, I’ll let you go, but watch the interview, okay? It’ll be good for a laugh.”
And as Sophie kicked off her shoes and settled down on her couch to watch the news, she suddenly realized that the whole thing was the teeny-tiniest bit funny.
But then the news anchor said, “I understand Harold has something special for us tonight,” and Harold’s face filled the TV screen. Her sense of humor shriveled up into a little, nauseous ball in the pit of her stomach. She closed her eyes, unable to watch.
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“That’s right, Dan, I’ve got a real treat for you tonight,” Harold began. “If you haven’t seen the latest viral video to hit the internet, Reindeer Girl Proposes to Flash Mob Santa, it’s worth a watch. This charming little Christmas romance currently has over 7 million views and is trending on every major social media platform. And it turns out that Reindeer Girl is none other than Sophie Hayes, an assistant producer here at KJAX. Sophie couldn’t be here tonight, but I’m live with Brad Wright, the Flash Mob Santa himself.”
Sophie opened her eyes and started to breathe again
“So, Brad, is it true that you had never met Sophie before she proposed at the end of your flash mob performance?” Harold was asking.
“Nope,” said Brad, grinning into the camera. “I just turned around and there was this beautiful stranger falling into my arms.”
Did you watch?
The text appeared on Sophie’s phone only moments after the interview was over.
Yes, she texted back.
Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?
Yes.
Grinning, Sophie checked the video. 7.2 million views. 7.2 million people had seen it. 7.2 million!
###
Thank you for reading my short story! If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer or at Goodreads.com?
Thanks!
Aubrey Fredrickson
About the Author
Aubrey Fredrickson lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with a landlubbing pirate, an
Sophie and the Flash Mob Santa Page 3
