Page 3 of Mistletoe Mistake
“Damn,” Jackson muttered under his breath. “We’re going to the wrong party.”
Indeed. I looked over at the door she had come out of, where the sign read: ‘Anchor Design Christmas Party’. That didn't give me any further clues as to why she would be dressed that way.
I shared my guess with Jackson anyway. “She must be working the party. Maybe there's more just like her inside our party too.”
“In that case, let's get in there.” Getting to the door first, he opened it for me and I headed inside, but not before taking one last glance down the hallway where the woman had gone. To my frustration, I couldn’t see any sign of her.
~Gemma~
“Hols?” I called out when I got to the ladies toilet.
Her reply came from inside one of the stalls. “Yup, I'm here. I made it.”
Sighing with relief, I leaned back against the sinks to wait for her. We may have overdone it with the champagne in our room earlier, and after she left the party to find the toilet, I suddenly got worried that she'd end up going into the wrong party on the way back. It seemed more than possible, so I figured I better go and check on her.
Not that it would be the worst thing in the world to end up at the other party, I couldn't help thinking as I remembered the two men I'd just bumped into in the hall. The one with the Christmas tie had been cute, with slightly curly blond-ish hair and blue eyes, but the other one... wow.
He towered over me, his height and build conveying power while his short, trimmed dark hair seemed to highlight his strong, angled jawline. An expensive-looking suit and tie completely covered him, but it couldn't entirely hide the toned body underneath. His eyes were dark and deep, and somehow, the fact that he hadn't smiled made him even more attractive. The intense look on his face had been sexy as hell, dark and smouldering.
My stomach fluttered as his eyes watched me, making me feel like a blushing schoolgirl more than I ever had while in school. Honestly, I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt such an instant attraction to someone, but it must just be the alcohol, I told myself. It had knocked my internal calibrations off course, making it impossible to accurately judge anything.
The men were American, or at least the one who'd spoken to me was. The other guy hadn't said a word, I realized.Cole.The memory of the firmness of his chest as I’d hooked the candy cane onto his suit, along with that unblinking stare, made me shiver.
He couldn’t be more different from the last guy I'd been with, the one I thought I would be with forever, but that might be a good thing. My previous choices were obviously defective, so maybe I should be looking for something different.
When the stall door opened and Holly appeared, her Santa hat precariously close to falling off her head, I reached out and straightened it out before we made our way back to the party together.
A cheer went up from the crowd as we returned, which we acknowledged with a wave and a bow. We were blessed with an amazing team of employees, and I loved having a chance to kick back with them and their partners. Our party might not be big compared to the one across the hall, but we were all having a great time.
“Martini?” Holly suggested, and I nodded enthusiastically. Our event the next day didn’t start until late afternoon and we had the hotel room upstairs for the night, so we might as well make the most of it.
After a couple more drinks and many dances, Holly and I managed to make it through our speech celebrating all our achievements for the year and we started to hand out presents to the staff. We'd got them all personalized ornaments, my own design of baubles containing miniature London landmarks, along with Marks & Spencer gift vouchers for their Christmas dinners.
"Thanks so much, Gemma!" My assistant Denise gave me a hug as I got to her with her bag of goodies. "You remember my partner, Neil, right?"
I gave the man next to her a warm smile, trying to focus my eyes on his face. "Of course. It’s lovely to see you again."
He smiled back; or at least, one of him did. "Nice to see you too. Where's Edwin tonight? I hoped to get a chance to rub it in about his team’s performance last night. He’s still got shares in Tottenham, right?"
In spite of the many drinks I’d had, my mouth went dry as Denise stared at Neil in horror. It seemed obvious that she had already told him about me and Edwin, but he'd either forgotten or just hadn't been listening. I almost felt worse for her than for myself.
"I have no idea where he is. We broke up." I kept the smile pasted on my face as I stated the facts bluntly. It got a bit easier to say it every time I did, though the mention of the football club shares that I'd bought him as a gift added an extra sting.
Uneasiness quickly descended on Neil's face. "Oh, uh, well, I'm sure you're better off without him."
It looked like Denise wanted to murder him, so I figured I better help him out before things turned ugly. "I definitely am. Have a fun night, you two!" With a cheery smile, I moved on to the next person before he could stick his foot in his mouth any further.
When all the gifts had been distributed, I realized I hadn't used the toilet when I'd gone to find Holly, and I really needed to now. After letting her know my intentions, I headed back out the door. Music thumped from within the room across the hall and I tried to read the sign on the door as I walked by, which turned out to be easier said than done with my slightly blurred vision. By squinting at it for a while, I could make out that it seemed to be a party for the hotel we were staying in. Did the men I had seen earlier work here at the hotel? They seemed like management types, though I might be stereotyping them based on the way they were dressed. What would they think of me based on my dress, I had to wonder?
I took a step back, shaking my head at my inability to get the tall, handsome stranger out of my thoughts. After everything I'd been through this year, the last thing I needed would be to get hung up on a guy. Although, just fooling around with one for fun definitely didn't sound like a bad idea at all.
Briefly, I flirted with the idea of going into the party to see if I could find him, but I quickly realized I would stand out like a sore thumb and probably make a fool of myself in the process. He hadn't given me any indication that he would even be interested, and I hadn’t drunk enough to completely lose my sense of shame.
No, the best course of action would be to use the toilet, go back to my own party, and put the whole thing behind me. By tomorrow, he would be nothing more than a fuzzy memory.
~Cole~
The hotel manager continued to drone on about holiday yields as I took another drink. We'd already been here a lot longer than I wanted to be, especially since, to my disappointment, no scantily-clad women in Santa dresses could be seen at our party. It must have been part of the entertainment for the other party, and the idea of going over there and seeing it for myself tempted me far more than it should have.
