by Leah Atwood
She hustled, but the light on Fifth Avenue turned red just as she got to the crosswalk, forcing her to stop but providing her with the opportunity to assess the situation.
It was plain from this vantage point that all three drivers were men, which deflated her sense of urgency to get to them. She studied the carriages. Even though she’d seen them around town, this was the first time she’d really paid any significant attention to them. Now she saw that they were more than just a fun means of touring the city. With a colorful wreath on the back of one, and a festive garland draped across another, they were like the spirit of Christmas on four legs and four wheels.
Her heart stirred. Suddenly, riding around downtown Seattle at Christmastime in a horse-drawn carriage sounded like the most romantic thing she could imagine. She envisioned herself decked out in a burgundy velvet cape, looking like she’d just stepped out of an Emily Brontë novel. Next to her, someone special snuggled close. Someone with magnetic green eyes.
In her mind, a light snow started to fall, adding the finishing touch to the already perfect winter wonderland. They smiled at each other as they cozied closer under a blanket, sipping coffee. She smiled. Streebecks candy cane lattes, of course. Then he held out a chocolate-chocolate chip biscotti and they shared a laugh. A match made in Heaven.
A jarring upsurge of cheering and quacking startled her back to reality, as an open-air vehicle with the words Ride the Ducks painted on its side whooshed through the intersection. She sighed. At least she didn’t have to chase down the driver of one of those.
The light changed, and she moved forward with the crowd. The mist in the air turned to light drops, and she held up a hand to shield her eyes. Vowing to buy an umbrella at her next opportunity, she approached the driver of the closest carriage. Since he was busy talking to his horse as he fed him a carrot, Shelby waited for him to turn and notice her before she spoke.
“Excuse me.” She smiled, wondering if she should apologize for interrupting. “I’m looking for a carriage driver named Cynthia. Do you happen to know—?”
“Ah, Cynthia.” He made a clucking sound from the side of his mouth, which Shelby would have assumed was a communication with his horse if he hadn’t been looking directly at her. “She’s a great gal.”
“That’s what I’ve heard.” She nodded. “Any idea where I might find her?”
“You’re in luck.” Using a second carrot as a pointer, he gestured up Fifth. “She’s just now pulling in.”
Shelby watched as another carriage, led by a white horse wearing, of all things, a Santa hat, passed the three that were already there, then edged up to the curb. The female driver wore a long red coat, a black top hat, and a pleasant smile. Shelby smiled too. Cynthia looked like a person who would be liked by all.
She thanked the driver and wove her way through the throng toward Cynthia’s carriage. The woman dismounted and moved to assist the elderly couple who had been her passengers.
Shelby waited as the man helped his wife down, then while the couple thanked Cynthia profusely—telling her they’d had the time of their lives.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for years.” The tiny silver-haired woman smiled up at her husband as she looped her arm through his. “Joseph surprised me with an early Christmas present.”
“Well,” the man looked down at her lovingly and patted her arm. “You’re only young once.”
Cynthia let out a hearty laugh and handed each of them a candy cane before saying goodbye and stepping over to tend to her horse.
Shelby jumped at the opportunity to snag her attention. “Cynthia?”
“Yes?” The woman gave her a curious look as she stroked her horse’s muzzle. “What can I do for you?”
Moving quickly so as not to take too much of the woman’s time, Shelby swung her backpack off her shoulder, then took the receipt out of the bag. Handing it to Cynthia, she explained the situation. “I know it’s a longshot, but do you happen to remember anything about the customer who bought these?”
“Sure I do.” The warm smile seemed right at home on her face. “He was a cutie. Dark hair. Nice eyes.”
Nice eyes…? Her heart did a little bell kick. It had to be him. “Were they green?”
Cynthia looked at her with a twinkle of amusement, then lifted her gaze as if consulting her memory. She nodded. “I think so, now that you mention it.”
Dark hair. Green eyes. This was encouraging. “You wouldn’t happen to know his name, would you?”
“Sorry, sweetie. And I wouldn’t be able to look it up because he paid with cash. That always stands out in my mind, because not a lot of people do that these days.”
“Oh.” That’s right. He had paid for his coffee with cash too. Even if she’d had the presence of mind to look for his name on his card, it wouldn’t have mattered. “Would you happen to remember anything else about him?”
“Let me think…” She rubbed the horse’s nose as she thought. “He was wearing a jacket with a company logo on the front.”
“Was it a maroon jacket with a white logo? A cross and something else?”
“Sounds right.” She gave her a compassionate look that reminded Shelby of her mom. “He must have made quite an impression on you when he bought his coffee.”
Shelby attempted to wave off the notion, but she knew she wasn’t fooling anybody. “Some people just…stand out more than others.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” Cynthia leaned toward her, as if they’d just shared a deep secret.
A warm feeling of sisterhood buoyed Shelby’s spirits. “Anything else?”
Cynthia considered. “Just that he seemed thrilled to find these. Said they were going to make the perfect gift for someone special.”
“Oh…?” Someone special. The phrase felt like a rug being pulled right out from under her newfound sense of optimism. She tried to shake off the thoughts it brought on. Mr. Gorgeous already had a ‘someone special.’
She smiled, pretty unconvincingly if she had to guess. “Thanks a lot.”
Cynthia, who had turned her attention to collecting her fare from a flock of giggling teenage girls, spoke over her shoulder. “Hope that helped. Have a merry Christmas, sweetie.”
“Merry Christmas.” The words sounded weak and uninspired, but it felt good to say them, anyway. Shelby turned and took an aimless step into the courtyard.
“Oh, wait.” The sound of Cynthia’s voice turned Shelby back around, and she saw the woman holding a couple of candy canes out to her.
Smiling at the gesture, Shelby reached out to take them. When she did, Cynthia pressed something else into her hand along with the candy.
She squeezed Shelby’s hand in both of hers and gave her a wink. “Don’t give up hope. You’ll find your man.”
After giving Shelby’s hand a bonus squeeze, she turned around and climbed into her carriage, leaving Shelby wondering what exactly she had meant by that.
Chris consulted the time on his phone and heaved an impatient sigh. It was almost three twenty. In the ten minutes since he’d gotten in line at Streebecks, he had moved from just inside the door to the center of the room. At this rate, he wasn’t going to have time to pick up the instruments and still make it to the mall by four fifteen.
He craned his neck to once again check the line-up of workers behind the counter. There were four of them at the moment, plus the blonde he had seen there the other night, who was out bussing tables. There had been enough movement in and out of the back room to give him hope that Shelby might show up, but that hadn’t happened yet. And considering that seeing her was only one of his reasons for being there right now, he was starting to think that maybe he should bypass the line.
Standing up a little straighter, he looked over the mass of happily caffeinated customers who either crowded around tables or hovered, waiting for one to free up. He spotted the blonde, who was wiping up the crumbs left behind by a family with what had looked like five kids under age five, and made a quick decision. He’d
ask about the bells now, but that didn’t mean he was giving up on playing Romeo.
Plowing as politely as he could through the narrow walkway, he resolved to become a regular Streebecks customer if that was what it was going to take to get to know Shelby.
Chapter Nine
As Shelby watched the carriage clip clop away from the curb, she rolled Cynthia’s words over in her head. You’ll find your man.
What had she meant by that?
Was it just a general statement of encouragement like, ‘You can do it’, or ‘I believe in you’? Or had she intended something deeper, as in, ‘The right guy is out there. Don’t give up hope’?
A large raindrop splatted onto her nose, and as she shook it off, she glanced down and recognizing the other item in her hand as a business card. Next to an image of Cynthia in her top hat were the words, Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
Her head snapped up and she caught one more fleeting glimpse of the back end of the carriage as it got absorbed into the flow of traffic. Was this a coincidence, or had Cynthia been intentional in passing on such a timely message?
She shoved the card, along with the candy, into her jacket pocket. Maybe the lesson she was supposed to learn from all of this was that she needed to have hope, and leave it up to God. She’d been trying so hard to make this work out, and it had obviously gotten her nowhere.
As she wandered in the direction of the enormous unlit tree at the center of the crowded courtyard, she pondered. At least now she knew she’d been right about Mr. Gorgeous being the one who had left the bag behind, but as far as finding him went, she was no better off than when she’d started. Without knowing his name or where he worked, she didn’t have anything more to go on. Besides, even if she did find him, she would never be anything to him but the clumsy barista who went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure his ‘someone special’ received their perfect Christmas gift. The best she could do now was to return the bag to the lost and found and hope he came back for it.
Stepping through the line of happy families waiting to ride the holiday carousel, she glanced up. God, why am I obsessing over this guy? Please help me to take my focus off him and to put it on You.
Her lower lip started to quiver. All around her, families, friends, and couples shared in the joy of the holiday season, and she had never felt so alone.
As she pulled her hood up to fend off what had become a regular drizzle, she heard her phone buzz in her backpack. She swung it off her shoulder and headed for the cover of the overhang outside the See’s Candies. She flicked her phone to life and saw that a text message had just come through from Kendra.
Where r u?! I think yr guy s hre!
Shelby’s brain started to whirl around just like the carousel. What did ‘yr guy s hre’ mean? Her guy? Her guy was at Streebecks? Yes!
No…wait. He wasn’t her guy. Her stomach buckled. But he had come back looking for his bag, and it was her fault it wasn’t there. She had one more chance to complete her mission of returning the bells to their rightful owner, and she couldn’t blow it.
She was a good three blocks away. How long would it take her to get there?
She started to move, barely looking where she was going as she swerved through the crowd and typed a response.
On my way.
She started to put the phone away, then took it back out and added—
Don’t let him leave!
She couldn’t help the optimism swelling in her chest. Did this one more chance confirm that she shouldn’t lose hope?
“Excuse me.” By the time Chris reached the busser, she was hunched over another table, wiping up after a kid who had spilled his hot chocolate. “Is Shelby working today?”
“Shelby? No.” She stood upright, then planted a hand on her jutted-out hip. “Can I help you?”
“Oh…” He tried to ignore the way her expression had shifted from a slight sneer to a subtle leer. “Actually, I think I might have left something here the other night. It’s a small white bag with five little boxes in it.”
“I’ll go check our lost and found.” She gave the table a final swipe, then headed toward the espresso counter, swaying from side-to-side like a runway model.
Chris pulled in a long breath and trailed behind her, more anxious than ever to just get out of there.
He watched the blonde shimmy her way to the area behind the cash register. She dipped down, then stood and made the same trek in reverse. When she got back to the end of the pastry case, he was disappointed to see her hold up two empty hands.
“Sorry.” She stuck her lower lip out and angled her head.
“Well, thanks for looking.” Giving her a polite smile, he took a step toward the door.
“Wait.” She hurried from behind the counter and blocked his way. “I can tell Shelby you were looking for her. If you want to give me your name.”
“No. I’ll just come back another time.” He tried to step around her, but she countered his move.
“Okay. Well, are you a friend of her and Gerald’s?”
Chris froze, while her last sentence slowly slithered around his heart. Gerald? Shelby had a Gerald?
“Um…yeah…” No…wait, what was he saying?
She nodded. “Oh. Then you probably have their number. She’s not working tonight, so I bet you can catch them at home.”
“Uh huh. Thanks.” Nodding dumbly, he scooted past her and made his way to the door.
Queasiness accompanied the growing tightness in his chest. Why hadn’t he even considered that Shelby might already be involved with someone? He hadn’t noticed a ring…he would have noticed that, wouldn’t he? But the way the blonde had said it, it sounded like Shelby lived with the guy. That really flew in the face of the impression he’d gotten of her.
He pushed his way through the door, grateful for the bracing air against his cheeks. He couldn’t think about this now. But on the upside, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about making room in his budget for overpriced coffee.
Shelby slogged through the door of Streebecks, dripping water onto the Welcome to Streebecks mat. Warm air, the familiar smell of coffee, and the sound of Christmas music bombarded her senses as she scanned the noisy, packed room. There was no sign of Mr. Gorgeous anywhere.
She tossed a questioning look at Kendra, who glanced up from behind the Beast. She said something to Peggy then rolled her hand for Shelby to follow her into the back room.
Shelby wound her way through the crowded tables, defeat warring with hope in her heart.
“Where have you been?” Kendra’s tone was a cross between a reprimand and a whine. “This mission is an epic fail.”
Shelby looked around in the vain hope that Kendra might have tied him to the dishwasher to keep him from leaving. “He’s gone?”
Nodding, Kendra backhanded a strand of hair off her forehead. “I tried to get to him before he left, but I was on Beast duty. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Shelby slumped down onto a folding chair, allowing her backpack to drop off her shoulder and clunk onto the floor. “Just tell me what happened.”
“Well, he came in about twenty minutes ago and stood just inside the door looking around. I happened to notice him then because, well…what girl with two good eyes wouldn’t.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
“Well, he was wearing a maroon jacket. And I couldn’t get close enough to see his eye color, but even from where I stood, I could feel their magnetic pull.”
Shelby sighed. “Go on.”
“Then he acted like he was trying to decide if he should get in line.”
“And did he?”
“Yes. But he kept doing that thing people do when they’re looking for someone they’re supposed to meet here. But he wasn’t looking out at the tables so much as up at the counter. I thought he might be looking for you, like maybe he’d figured out that he left the bag behind. But I had a line-up of o
rders to fill, and it was all I could do to grab my phone and send you that text.”
“Right. So, did he make it to the head of the line?”
“No. That’s where the fail became epic.”
A sick sort of trembling that normally only happened to Shelby when she’d exceeded her quota of free shots for the day kicked in. “What happened?”
“Well…” Kendra pulled up another chair and plunked it down in front of Shelby. “I think maybe he got tired of waiting. Like he was in a hurry.”
“And…?”
“And, he got out of the line.”
“So he left? That’s not so terrible. Maybe he didn’t have time to wait and he’ll come back later when it’s not so busy.”
“Or…maybe he won’t…”
“Why wouldn’t he?” Shelby’s stomach started to hurt. “Did something happen?”
“Well, Victoria was out on the floor cleaning, and your guy went over and said something to her.”
“Oh no!” Her body slumped like a rag doll. No man was safe around Victoria and her man-eating appeal.
“No, it’s not what you think.” Kendra waved her hands in front of her as if to erase the mental image she’d inadvertently conjured. “But then Victoria came behind the counter and looked in the lost and found.”
“…oh…”
“I’m so sorry. I tried to get over to him—to tell him that you had his bag and that he should wait—but I was up to my elbows in eggnog. Then the next thing I knew, I looked up and he was gone. When I asked Victoria, she confirmed that she had told him there was no white bag in the lost and found.”
Her heart sank. “So, Mr. Gorgeous will have no reason to come back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know. But you did your best.”
