Page 6 of Santa Daddy’s Accidental Little Helper

CHAPTER SIX

Henry

Whatever was bothering Elaine had me worried, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I had done something wrong this entire time. For all I knew, I had accidentally scared her off before I even had a chance to do anything about it all, and she was already trying to come up with an excuse in order to get out of spending time with me that night. Despite my worries, I sat there in the car, waiting for her to exit the mall as I hoped that she would still show up.

After a while, she finally made her way out of the front doors of the mall, looking like a vision as she walked through the freshly fallen snow and approached the vehicle. I wasn’t sure if she saw me sitting there, parked by the sidewalk at the edge of the courtyard where children liked to play when it was bright, sunny, and warm outside. So, in order to attempt to get her attention, I rolled down the window and smiled at her.

“Over here,” I called out, waving a hand to get her attention. “I’m right here.” A smile spread across her rosy face as she hurried to catch up to me.

“I thought that was you,” she said as she leaned in to stare at me from the other side of the wide open door. “I was just wondering how I was going to find you.” She then looked at my car. “I like the car.” A soft chuckle escaped me as I motioned for her to get in.

“Let’s get going,” I told her, keeping my eyes on the clock. “They’ll stop making meals in about an hour, so we have to hurry.” Following my example, she climbed into the passenger seat, and we took off towards the restaurant.

As much as I wanted to get the conversation done and over with as soon as possible, I knew that the car ride to the restaurant wasn’t the best thing to do. At this point, letting the radio play the Christmas carols as we drove along, talking about the day we had just had, was the best option. There was no point in ruining the moment we were having at this point.

When we got to the restaurant, I ordered us our dinner, and we sat there in silence for a little while longer until I couldn’t take it any longer. This dinner date clearly wasn’t going anywhere near as great as I would have liked it to have been, and I was racing to think of something to do in order to make things better before it was too late. Before I could say a word, she looked up at me.

“So, did I do something wrong?” she asked, catching me off guard as she spoke. “You’ve been pretty quiet this whole time. If I did something wrong, you should at least tell me.” Wincing at the pain in her voice, I couldn’t help but shake my head in response.

“No, of course not,” I reassured her before giving her a gentle smile. “I’m just tired from the shift.” Elaine looked confused as she tilted her head at me.

“Are you sure?” she asked, and I nodded in response. Even though she didn’t seem convinced by my response, she left things alone, and a silence fell between the two of us.

This was proving much harder than I had expected, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I was making a big mistake. Just because she had agreed to go out for dinner didn’t exactly mean that she was interested in me. If anything, she likely thought that I was just being friendly with her rather than trying to show I was interested in her. By the time our meal came out of the kitchen, I couldn’t help but smile at her.

“So, are you planning on staying in the city after the holidays?” I asked, trying to make light conversation as we ate. “Or is there somewhere else you’ll be going?” She swallowed hard, seeming lost in her thoughts before responding.

“I’m going to continue to stay with my sister until her lease is up in the spring,” she informed me. “After that, I plan on getting a place of my own.” Having never known that she had a sister, I frowned in confusion and tilted my head at her.

“You have a sister?” I asked, and she nodded in response.

“Her name’s Jessica,” she informed me. “She works in the accounting department at Advanced Technology and Partners.” Staring at her in shock and disbelief, I couldn’t help but laugh at this new development.

“Is that so?” I asked, wiping a tear of laughter from my eyes as I spoke. “What a coincidence!” Seeming even more confused than before, she continued to stare at me.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, and I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down so that I could speak.

“I just find it funny that your sister works in the accounting department of my company, and she never told you that we were hiring,” I informed her. Seeing the way her eyes widened as she stared at me, I continued. “Not that I would have minded. I just find it funny that, if she had told you and you had gotten the job at my company, the chances of us meeting before the holidays were over are practically nonexistent. There’s no telling what would have happened at that point.” Realizing what I was saying, she lowered her gaze to stare at the plate before her.

“Really?” she asked, and I nodded in response. After a moment, she looked back up at me. “You think we still would have met and gotten to know each other if I had met you after Christmas was over?” Caught off guard by her question, I had to think for a moment.

Considering the fact that I rarely associated with any of my employees at work, it was impossible to say for sure that we would have ever properly met, but I knew that wasn’t the answer she was looking for. Instead, she wanted to know if things would have been different between us if she was my employee, not my coworker. While I couldn’t tell for sure if that was the case or not, just looking at her made me hope that, as soon as I saw her, things would have still worked out in the end. After taking a moment to consider all this, I took a deep breath and nodded at her.

“Yes,” I finally answered her. “I would like to think that we would have.” Take a sip of water to chase down the bite of food I took, I continued. “If anything, I would like to think that, not only would we have met, but we might have ended up together in the end.”