DANNY: Guys on crutches?
ELDA: No.
DANNY: Guys who used to play basketball?
ELDA: Don’t make me say it.
DANNY: Well, now you have to say it.
ELDA: Guys with your…considerable good looks and charming personality.
ELDA: And now I’m blushing.
DANNY: So am I. Isn’t it great?
Chapter Eleven
Thursday, December 21
“I went to a bunch of your games last year,” Dr. Jackson said as he paid for his coffee. “You have so much talent.”
Danny opened the register and took his time gathering his doctor’s change. Dr. Jackson was wearing a wool stocking cap that looked like a Santa hat, something that definitely would’ve been out of place anywhere else in the world. And this was the man charged with making sure Danny’s leg healed okay. At least it was December. If it had been any other time of year, Danny might have found himself in the market for a new orthopedic surgeon.
“How’s the leg doing, by the way?” Dr. Jackson asked. “It was such a strange injury. We don’t normally see tibia breaks on the basketball court. You’re a special guy, Dan.”
Yay. Just another way Danny was “exceptional,” though he would’ve preferred to be totally average in this situation, spraining an ankle or something instead of a compound shin fracture. Of course, he had to go and shatter his leg in spectacular fashion. He couldn’t do anything half-assed, not even injure himself. He wondered what Holly would have to say about it. She’d probably think Danny was just trying to get attention by breaking his leg. Danny handed his customer sixty-seven cents, which the doctor promptly added to the reindeer-patterned bowl they used as a tip jar. “My leg’s fine,” he said.
“It’s gonna heal well, Danny. You’re a strong young man, and athletes do come back from these injuries. I have every reason to believe you’re going to be back on the court in no time.”
The last time Danny had seen the doctor, for a post-surgery checkup, he’d given Danny a timeframe of four to six months. That was no one’s definition of “no time.” Besides, it didn’t change the fact that Danny was missing his entire senior season, or that the recruiters who’d only discovered the North Pole Reindeer because of Danny were now there to watch Kevin instead. It wasn’t fair.
But at least Danny was starting to think about his future in terms other than basketball, thanks to Elda.
He handed Dr. Jackson his to-go cup and waited until he’d heard the tinkle of the bell over the door, signaling that Santabucks was finally empty, then he pulled out a notebook.
Danny was working the early morning “rush hour” today, but it was pretty slow. Christmas was only a few days away, and the people who were normally up and caffeinating themselves before work were in no hurry. At first Danny had been grateful for the slow pace—he’d planned on working out a timetable for completing his showstopper over the final days of the competition—but he was finding it hard to concentrate. His mind kept wandering back to Holly and what she’d said and whether or not she was right. The uncomfortable truth was that he still found her incredibly attractive, even though she saw him as a dumb jock who needed everyone to like him.
Well, someone did like him. Elda. And they were going on their first date tomorrow. She’d even sent him a pink heart emoji about it last night.
He got into a bit of a groove, not on his showstopper to-do list, but on a list of ways he could stop being so pathetic in front of Holly. He’d just written “Stop whining to her about how she doesn’t like you,” when the bell above the Santabucks door jingled, and in came Elda all by herself. Danny immediately shoved his notebook under the register and scanned the counter in front of him for something to do. Straighten napkins. That was a thing.
This was the first time the two of them had been alone together, at least since the time he asked her out. He’d been preparing himself mentally for their date tomorrow, but he had not expected to see her out in the wild this morning. This was risky and terrifying.
She gnawed on one of her long, pointy nails as she stepped up to the counter. “Hi.” She kept trying to peer through the door to the back room as if looking for something, or maybe someone, like Jamison or Brian—some buffer to guide their conversation. Danny may have been wishing for another customer to walk through the front door himself.
“We missed you at the gingerbread contest yesterday.” His voice cracked a tiny bit. Pathetic.
“Oh my God. My dad and uncle tried to change out the basement toilet by themselves, and they forgot to shut the water off, so there was this huge mess.” She clamped her mouth shut for a second, then said, “It was…um…yeah.”
Back at the beginning of the year, his friends Oliver and Elena had been in kind of a similar situation to what he and Elda were going through. They’d started accidentally chatting online with each other while playing this augmented reality game, but they didn’t know who it was they were texting. The two of them absolutely hated each other in person. It was kind of how things were with Danny and Elda right now, minus the passionate loathing. Texting Elda was the highlight of his day. She made him think about things in a way he hadn’t in a long time. For too long, he’d shut off the more intellectual side of himself, at least from the public. On the phone with Elda, he could talk about geeky things, like how he thought Corinthian columns were due for a comeback, and it was an asset, not a liability. But, in person, somehow their conversations always came back to plumbing.
“So,” he said. “Did you fix it?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
And…crickets.
Danny knew what this was, at least on his end. He’d built up the impossible expectation that this was going to be some major, sweeping romance, because Elda’s grandma had predicted it, because they had seemed so perfect for each other when they were kids, because their text conversations came so easily. If Danny was scared of blowing it with her in person, Elda probably was, too.
“What can I get you?” he asked.
Relief crossed Elda’s face, and Danny totally got it. Coffee. Coffee was something concrete they could talk about. It was safe. “Half skim, half two percent, half caf, no foam latte with one Splenda and one Sugar in the Raw. Extra hot.”
Danny started entering her order into the register.
“Oh wait, no,” she said.
He looked up.
Elda was frowning. “Or should I get almond milk? I’ve been thinking about changing from cow’s milk. What do you think?”
“Um.” So, this was the kind of conversation he was doomed to have in real life with the girl he’d been texting for days about anything and everything, the girl who’d said last night that he had a “charming personality.” Well, that was certainly not on display right now. Had he and Elda exhausted every topic via text, so now they were relegated to discussing milk preferences? This was not the kind of story they’d one day eagerly tell their grandchildren. “I don’t know,” Danny said. “Choosing the right milk. That’s kind of a personal preference.”
“You’re right.” Elda spun around as the bell above the door jingled. Danny could’ve sworn she’d whispered “Thank God” under her breath. He was thinking it himself.
Craig and Dinesh strolled in. Both of them looked completely drained. “Caffeine,” Craig said. “We’ve been up all night working on our showstoppers.”
“Hey, guys.” Elda was positively beaming at them. She tossed her hair over one relaxed shoulder with an impressive flourish. It was not a move she’d ever used on Danny. But she was whipping her hair for Craig and Dinesh. Danny couldn’t tell if she was flirting with them or if their geekiness had just made her super comfortable and unselfconscious.
“Hello, Esmerelda,” Craig said.
“Did you get the toilet fixed?” Dinesh asked.
“The shower, too. Oh my God, let me show you.” Elda pulled out her phone. “I have pictures. They’re disgusting.”
Danny had entered some alte
rnative universe where Elda was way more excited to talk to Craig and Dinesh than she was to talk to Danny. And they seemed to have more in common, too. She and Dinesh were literally bonding over the hair and soap scum she’d pulled out of her grandma’s drain. They were talking about the wads of goo in Elda’s pictures with the kind of enthusiasm Danny usually reserved for basketball.
He cleared his throat. “Um, Elda. Did you decide on milk?”
She touched Dinesh’s wrist. “What do you think? Combo two percent and skim or almond milk?”
Dinesh scratched his temple. “I’d go with coconut, honestly.”
Elda turned to Danny. “Coconut.”
Danny made her beverage as his trio of customers chatted about extreme plumbing videos on the internet. Danny mentally tossed out everything he’d learned about North Pole architecture. Those things apparently weren’t going to impress Elda. He had some studying to do before his date tomorrow.
…
That night Holly and Elda took time out from working on their showstopper and cleaning out Grandma’s house to join the North Pole natives in some Christmas merriment. People had packed St. Nicholas Park to sing carols and drink hot cocoa. Since no snow had fallen yet this month and the temperature was near fifty degrees, a game of touch football had broken out on the grass where the skating rink usually went. Kids in light jackets and no hats climbed all over the monkey bars and swung as high as they could, touching the stars with their toes.
Holly had made a lot of headway on the gingerbread replica of the Page family home today. Throwing herself into showstopper work was a great distraction from the fact that she’d told Danny he was a pathetic dork who sought out other people’s approval. When she’d given him the Harry and the Hendersons treatment, she’d forgotten about the fact that she still had to text him as Elda. And, thanks to that, she knew exactly how much she’d hurt him by telling him she didn’t like him.
Nothing could be further from the truth. He was still the guy with a model’s physique and a nerd’s soul. Even though Holly knew that she definitely was not the one going on this date, she kept thinking about it as if she were—what she’d wear, what kind of knowledge she’d be able to drop on Danny, whether or not they’d kiss. But it was all in her head. Elda was the one going out with Danny, not her.
“Are you looking forward to your date tomorrow?” Holly asked Elda as they waited in line for free popcorn in the park. A booth had opened up near the big statue of St. Nick, and the queue was already thirty people deep. No one in North Pole could turn down free popcorn.
“Yeah,” Elda said. “But I’m nervous.”
“That’s good,” Holly said. “Nerves are good. They mean you’re excited.”
The smell of popcorn had made its way to Holly’s nostrils, and her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten much all day. She’d been too busy working on the showstopper, and she must’ve really been in the zone.
“I went into Santabucks today,” Elda said. “It was…awkward. I wonder if we’re going about this all wrong.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean, Danny and I have nothing to say to each other in person. The only reason he likes me is because of the stuff you’ve texted him. You’ve made him think I’m this person who likes architecture and historical non-fiction. I like dead things and plumbing and gross YouTube videos. I have no clue what we’re going to talk about.”
“Well.” Holly wasn’t sure what to add. Maybe Elda had a point. Holly probably should’ve played to Elda’s strengths in those text conversations, but this had been all about wooing Danny Garland. He just happened to like the stuff Holly liked. That couldn’t be helped. Not many people were interested in watching videos of people snaking shower drains. That was a pretty niche obsession. “Well,” she said again, “you have all the texts Danny and I sent to each other on your phone. Just read through those, you know, get familiar with the stuff we discussed. If you want, you and I can go home tonight, and I’ll give you a tutorial on architecture and whatever else you need to bone up on—movie references, that sort of thing.”
“I’ve been thinking.” Elda pulled her jacket tighter around her waist. The temperature today was mild for Holly and the Minnesotans, but it was basically freezing for Elda, the California girl. “Maybe it’s time for me to take over the texting. Maybe it’s time for me to start being me.”
“Oh.” Elda being Elda. Duh. That was what this whole thing had been leading up to, right? To the point where Elda felt comfortable enough to show Danny her true colors? Holly was going to have to get off the phone eventually. But Holly didn’t want to get off the phone. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“It’s almost Christmas,” Elda said. “We’ve got, like, a week left here.”
“Yeah?” Dread coiled up Holly’s spine.
“And…you’ve been awesome helping me out with Danny so far, and I’m so grateful to you for opening that door, but…at some point he has to start liking me for me.”
Elda was watching the gazebo in the middle of the park, which was being used as a stage. Dinesh was at the microphone, wearing a red, green, and white Elvis costume while belting out “Blue Christmas.” Man, North Pole loved karaoke almost as much as it loved Mariah Carey. Elda let out a massive “woot!” for Dinesh and clapped like a very noisy seal.
She was right. Danny deserved to get to know the real Elda, because Elda was great. Yeah, she had some weird interests, but that was part of her charm. If a guy couldn’t see that, then he didn’t deserve to be with her, even if he was someone as awesome as Danny Garland.
Holly was going to have to Harry and the Hendersons her last tether to Danny. For his sake, and Elda’s.
Holly placed her hands on her cousin’s cheeks and turned her head away from Dinesh in his sparkly, fitted jumpsuit. “You’re absolutely right. You and Danny have to do this on your own. I’m tapping out.”
“Tapping out?”
“I’m handing you the reins. Danny Garland deserves to meet the real Elda.”
Elda gave Holly a quick hug. “Thank you. I mean, I’m nervous as hell, and I’m not sure how this is going to turn out, but I really need to give it a go.”
Holly barely heard her through the ringing in her ears. She was desperately trying to think back to her last conversation with Danny. What had they talked about? Did it have something to do with the Chicago skyline? Maybe. Or food? Was it their discussion of the hierarchy of fast food places while on a road trip? She bit her top lip. It sucked that she couldn’t remember. It was unfair. She had to remember. She needed this one thing.
Elda put an arm around Holly’s shoulders. “Hey. You okay?”
Holly nodded. “Just thinking about how much work I still have to do on the showstopper.”
“You sure that’s it?”
“Totally.” At least Holly still had that to focus on. And cleaning out her grandma’s house. Danny had been a nice distraction, but that was over now. He and Elda were going out on a real date tomorrow, and they were going to be so happy. It was a good thing, for everyone. This was what they’d both wanted from the start.
Elda pulled Holly closer to her side, and the two of them stood in line for popcorn, cheering on Dinesh and his swiveling pelvis.
Chapter Twelve
Friday, December 22
“Dan,” Jamison whispered in his ear as she passed by him. He was still perched on his stool behind the counter at the coffee shop, even though his shift was long over. “I was wrong. This girl is rad.”
Danny spun halfway around and checked out Elda, who was lying on the floor near the end of the counter, her legs sticking out from under the sink. She was fixing their leaky faucet.
As she slid out from under the cabinet, her shirt went up a bit, revealing a very toned stomach. Yes, Danny noticed, and he definitely noticed Jamison noticing, as well.
“So, you think she’s hot now,” he whispered as Jamison refilled pitchers with milk and cream at the counter next to him.
Jamison blushed slightly and made a big show of screwing the cap back on the container of half and half. “I never said she wasn’t hot. But a girl with a tool belt, I mean, come on.”
“Shallow.” Danny nudged her in the arm.
Jamison winked. “Maybe I am.”
It was the day of his North Pole architecture tour date, and Danny felt a bit like someone was forcing him to eat his vegetables, which was silly. Elda wasn’t broccoli. She was a beautiful, nice, friendly girl who knew her way around a p-trap, which was a word he’d learned from Elda five minutes ago. He simply couldn’t get over how different she was in person from when they were chatting via text. Elda on the phone knew a lot about history and art and architecture. Elda in real life seemed to only want to talk about her most recent finds in her grandma’s garbage disposal.
“You’re okay to walk?” Elda asked as the two of them strolled down Main Street.
“Totally fine,” Danny lied. He hadn’t thought this through when he’d bought the tickets. He’d been so excited about the idea of taking Elda out on the perfect date that he’d forgotten entirely about his leg situation, which was unfortunate, since this was a walking tour. The crutches were horribly annoying and hurt his armpits, but he wouldn’t let Elda know that. He’d make it work. At least it was fairly warm outside this afternoon, and the sidewalks were miraculously clear of ice and snow. December had been precipitation free, which was the only tangible proof that maybe the entire universe wasn’t conspiring against him.
“You’re really good at the plumbing stuff,” he said, as the two of them strolled past the video store on the corner, and Danny caught sight of their reflection in the window. They were an attractive couple. He couldn’t deny that. They looked like two people who should be together. But appearances could be deceiving.
Elda shot him a shy smile. “My best friend from home, Lexi, her dad’s a plumber. She’s an only child and has no interest in what he does, but I’d have him show me stuff when I was over there. Like, Lexi’d be lying on the couch watching TV, and I’d have him teach me how to install a sink. I’m not good at sitting still.”
Approximately Yours (North Pole, Minnesota) Page 11
