Page 15 of Under The Meh-stletoe

Ale

Daniel and I entered the community hall together. I pretended we hadn't spent the past fifteen minutes playing a game of anti-romance whack-a-mole, where both of us did our best to knock our flirting down as hard as we could with verbal mallets. Unfortunately, we hadn’t been altogether successful and I didn't know what to make of it.

Without speaking, he went to check on the hot drinks team while I did the same with the group organizing the letters.

"How does the tree look this year?" Janet asked.

"Pretty." I took off my scarf, jacket, and hoodie combo, and hung them all from the back of a chair. I rearranged my sweater around my form, checking that the V-neck showed a bit of the goods, but not too much. "Want to go look? I can keep an eye on things until you're back."

"Thanks!" She put on her puffy jacket and smiled. "My kids are out there with the husband. I'll check on them for a minute and come back ASAP."

"No worries. Enjoy."

She left me and María by the letter wall; this year, we'd made a big sign for the sponsorship drive, and hung the letters from garlands we'd attached to the largest side of the building. The wordsBe A Family's Miracleheadlined the night, painted in bright red on light green paper, with gold accents.

Just as Janet made it out of the community hall, people started trickling in from the outside gathering.

"It's all ready," María said. "Perfect."

We moved to the side of the letters and hovered for a while, ready to help if anyone needed. We held on to clipboards and, once someone chose a letter, they came to us so we could write down their names and facilitate the gift donation to families in financial stress.

Forty minutes into the event, Daniel brought María and I coffee.

"How are things going here?" He asked.

"Going well. This is the easiest part. Just waiting around for donors." I sipped from my drink.

"How's the coffee?" He asked us.

"Mine is perfect, thanks." María wrapped her hands around the cup, the clipboard held between her arm and torso.

"This isn't how I drink it, but it's still good."

"How do you drink it?" He asked.

"Doesn't matter." I waved his question away. "It's good. Thanks."

"Hey." An attractive man approached us, a big smile on his face. He showed us the letter he held in his hand, his eyes glued to me. "Can I give you my number?"

Something in his tone told me he had meant more than one thing with the question.

I laughed. "We'll take your number, your email address, and even your name."

I held my clipboard in front of me, pen to paper, and stared at him. I grinned.

"I'm Will." He dictated the rest of his contact information. "Under which circumstances could I expect a call from you?"

I arched an eyebrow. "Once we coordinate with your sponsored family, we'll call you to arrange delivery details."

María hid her humor at Will's flirting behind her coffee cup. To my other side, Daniel glared.

At least this game of whack-a-mole was fun to play. With Will, I didn't have to spend any more time testing boundaries. With him, it was easy to stay off the market— he was attractive, but there was no spark.

"And what about something more casual?" Will asked, no shyness at all. "I don't remember seeing you around. You must have arrived recently, right? I would remember you if I had had the pleasure before."

"That's not going to be possible." Daniel's eyebrows were doing double duty with the way they furrowed. "As the co-chair of the committee, she can't use donors' information that way."

"Shush," I said to Daniel, and turned again to Will. "I appreciate that, but I'm not available."