AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Matt Hilbert cleared his throat and finally must have realized he was staring. He was probably just jetlagged. “How’s the coffee?”
“What?”
“The coffee.” He indicated the cup in her hand.
“Oh. Right. It’s- uh- it’s good now. Or- just good. It’s good.” Matt blinked. No, he is not Matt. Don’t think of him as Matt. He is Mr. Hilbert or Matt Hilbert or Matthew. Not Matt.
“Good.” He picked up his case, which he had set down on the floor by her desk and walked off into his office.
Callie stayed frozen at her desk for a minute. She didn’t know if it was her, or if her boss had definitely just acted really damn weird.
A sudden, horrible thought filled her gut with dread. What if Matt Hilbert had seen her kiss someone? What if he knew how out of line she’d been? Or worse, he could have seen how drunk Chantara was. She could barely stay upright. Thank god there had been no cars for her to dance on. They’d taken a cab home right after her embarrassing kiss and that was that. Of course, just her luck, Chantara didn’t remember a thing past eleven the next morning. She was shocked when Callie asked her about the mistletoe incident. Callie hadn’t elaborated after Chantara said she didn’t remember a thing. Her best friend had been way too hungover to press her for details.
Callie’s stomach dropped out completely when she thought about what could happen if Matt did see her kiss someone. Would she get written up? Her job prospects weren’t great. She had an English degree, which didn’t leave room for a lot of jobs. Ones that paid beyond minimum wage, that was. If it wasn’t for Chantara, she wouldn’t even really have this job.
Despite the fact that the whole kiss thing was completely out of line, she’d actually enjoyed it. That was the kicker, the icing on the cake, whatever dumb cliché she could think of. She’d spent the entire weekend thinking about that kiss. How she’d felt it in every single limb, right down to her toes and the tips of her fingers. And pretty much everywhere else. She was hot and cold at the same time when she thought about his lips on hers, how his tongue had darted into her mouth just for a second. God, he’d lit a fire in her she didn’t realize was even still possible.
And she didn’t even know who he was.
If only I hadn’t lost my damn contacts.
Callie spent the rest of the week in uncertainty. She felt that around every single corner was a danger waiting in the form of her being fired for what she’d done. Wednesday and Thursday were nearly unbearable. She could hardly concentrate on her work. She was sure her boss was giving her funny looks. She caught him a couple of times, staring at her through the glass of his office. Her desk was right in front of the large glassed-in room.
She tried to pass it off as her imagination. She was being paranoid. That was it. She was seeing things and thinking things that weren’t even there. Period. Nothing else was going on.
By Friday, her paranoia got the best of her. She managed to corner Chantara in the hallway when no one was around so that they could talk.
“Hey, what’s up?” Chantara’s forehead crinkled in concern.
“I… sorry. I just- do you have a minute?”
“Yeah, of course.” Chantara shifted the files she was holding under her arm. “I always have a minute for you.”
“Thanks.” Callie laughed nervously. “So… about that night. The Christmas party- when I asked you if you could remember anything about the mistletoe, there was actually a reason.”
“What?”
“Yeah- okay, here it goes.” Callie exhaled sharply. “I might have kissed someone. And I have no idea who it is.”
Chantara stared blankly at her for a second before she broke into a huge smile. “What?” she gasped. She remembered to keep her voice low, even if it was filled with shock and amazement.
“It was- well- I was a little bit drunk and you were right behind me telling me to do it and before I could say that I couldn’t even see anything and that I didn’t know who it was, he just kissed me. I was drunk enough that I really don’t even remember any details. Like his voice. It’s just all kind of foggy.”
“Except for the kiss, I’ll bet.”
Callie knew she was blushing. It was one of the total downfalls of having a pale complexion. “Well, whatever. It wasn’t right. It had to have been someone from here.”
“Of course it was, who else would it have been?”
‘Well, I know people bring friends and stuff, but I doubt that was it. It was getting late. A lot of people already left. We kept drinking after the DJ wasn’t playing and I lost you somewhere in the place and I was looking all over, mostly blind because I lost my contacts and you were supposed to stick with me. I ended up in the hall, I think, and I bumped into someone, I think. It’s kind of hazy. And then suddenly you were there and saying something about mistletoe and then we kissed, and we left. I think. I don’t really know if those are all the details or if they’re even right.”
