“Goodnight, Natalie Gonzalez-Torres,” he said. “Drive safely and I hope you get some rest.”
“Uh, yeah, thanks. You, too.”
Too bad she couldn’t drive away from trouble so easily.
*
A couple dayslater, Natalie sat in her office, staring at the order form on her computer screen while crunching on a hard cinnamon candy. After fifteen minutes of trying to focus, she gave up. She spent a few days inside Pony Expresso during the week to give Enrique a break from managing but, seeing as how he wasn’t used to the position, it created more work for her. At this point, it was as if she had two jobs: working the horse trailer and spending a couple days in the coffee shop cleaning up whatever mess her uncle left for her. The current problem: they’d run out of paper towels for the bathroom because the weekly supply order hadn’t been done. Natalie had to run to the store to get enough to hold them over.
She pulled another hard candy from her desk drawer and left her office. The morning rush was nearly finished but she looked for some busy work, something to keep her mind occupied. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much. She was too nervous, like she was waiting for something to spring on her. Natalie unwrapped the candy, popping it in her mouth.
“¿Estás bien?” Diego asked her.
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” Then she saw it. A new ornament had been added to the tree. Near the top was a smiling marshmallow sitting in a mug of cocoa. She looked at it while running a finger across her lips.
“Natalie?”
“What?” She jumped, finding Mia beside her. “God, M! Where’d you come from?”
Her best friend tilted her head, appearing concerned. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t things be okay?” Everyone was being ridiculous, as though she was acting differently than normal. They were wrong—she was still the same old Natalie.
“Well, I’ve been talking to you for a few minutes, and you haven’t even noticed me. Oh, did you get a new ornament? Cute! I like it.”
“Your friend dropped that off for you yesterday morning,” Crystal said as she wiped a nearby tabletop.
Mia’s attention homed in on her. “You have a friend decorating your tree? Was I supposed to bring an ornament? Am I failing my best friend duties?”
“No, it’s not—It’s nothing. Crystal doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “But the ornament came from somewhere. Are you going to make me guess or are you telling me? I can guess, but it’s probably going to be more fun for me than for you.”
This was all getting out of hand. “It’s nothing. They came from Mason.”
“Mason? The Christmas tree guy?” Her mouth fell open in happy astonishment. “And what do you mean,they? Did he also bring the blue jay ornament? Good Lord! Is he wooing you? Are you being Christmas wooed right now? I knew it! I’m telling you, Natalie, I saw something at that tree farm. He likes you.”
She grabbed Mia’s arm, dragging her from the Christmas tree to a more private corner in the rear of the shop. “Okay, stop. You’re making too much out of this, especially considering you know that nothing is ever going to happen between us.” At least nothing more than the brush of his lips that happened at his beehive. Nothing more was going to happen—an important distinction.
Her friend flicked a hand in her direction as though to brush her words away.
“What? You don’t think I can maintain my boundaries with the guy?”
“No. I know you can. What I’m saying is why would you want to?”
She huffed out a frustrated breath and crossed her arms. “I’m not going to have a fling with the Christmas tree guy.”
“Well, when you put it like that, it sounds incredibly snobbish.”
“Why are you pushing this so hard? I don’t need to be in a relationship or to have a fling with this guy. I’m fine. I have work and this partnership to worry about. And I’m happy with how things are. I don’t need to be wooed.”
Mia adjusted her glasses. “Nat. You’re one of the most resilient women I know. And you’re right, you don’t need a guy. I don’t get excited about things like this because I feel like you’re incomplete or you need to get laid or whatever. It’s more of a case that I think you deserve to be wooed. I get excited when I see someone who looks at you like you’re special, because you are.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond. While she knew this was Mia being Mia, it was hard maintaining a level of annoyance toward her. Her friend had a way of saying things that made her look at everything differently. Still, she had trouble accepting it. “Mason doesn’t look at me that way.”
“It’s okay. I know you have blinders on. And I know people see me as a people pleaser, but I hope you see me as your friend and, when I say something is true, you believe me. Because he does look at you that way.”
As much as Natalie wanted to continue pleading ignorance, in her gut she knew Mia was right. She closed her eyes, leaning against the wall behind her. “God, Mia, what am I going to do?”
