Page 40 of His Off-Limits Christmas Gift

“Hey, I can’t make any promises,” she argued.

Neither can I.With or without Julie’s “encouragement”, I simply had to wait for a clue from Rachel whether she could forget about all this mentoring nonsense and look at me as a man she’d want to rebound with—for good.

15

RACHEL

When I next faced Julie, it was the following morning from my almost kiss. All night, I suffered from thinking about how close Nate and I had come to kissing at the office. It would’ve felt so naughty, but good. It would’ve been crossing some serious boundaries, fooling around with my boss at work, but I couldn’t stop wishing we hadn’t been interrupted.

Julie stopped by my office early. Armed with her tote bag, a cup of coffee, and a stack of folders, she hadn’t stopped to remove her hat, gloves, or scarf yet.

“Rach?” She tilted her head to the side. “I’m curious about something.”

Oh, fuck. Here it comes. She’s going to tell me that she’s reporting me—and Nate—to HR. It’s over. I’m toast. So much for my stellar résumé I’m supposed to be building with this experience.

“Yeah?” I smiled slightly, not letting my panic show.

“Has your mom always been like this?”

I slumped, deflating at the mention of the champion of forced Christmas cheer. “She’sstilltexting you to reach me?”

“Nope. Even worse.”

I gaped at her. “Don’t tell me she showed up at your apartment or something.”

She laughed, juggling the things in her arms to slide her glasses back up her nose. “No. Lord, no.”

“Then what?” This was getting exhausting. A week remained. Seven days, and it would be Christmas, and it felt like a marathon of putting up with my mother.

“She friended me on socials somehow. And she’s messaging me there.”

I sighed, dropping my face into my hands and massaging my temples. A headache would brew soon, just from the thought of my mother meddling.

“I’m sorry,” Julie said. “At first, I kept thinking, oh, gosh. She’s just a mother who wants what’s best for her daughter. It’s not crazy for her to be so inquisitive about why her daughter’s boyfriend dumped her.”

I lifted my head to scowl at her.

“But now…” Julie smiled and shrugged. “Now I know she was wrong. That Kyle boy isn’t the one for you.”

Huh?

“What’s that saying? When one door closes, another opens?”

“Uh, yes? That’s a common phrase…”

She grinned. “It’s a true one.” With that cheery remark, she turned and left for her office.

What the heck was that all about?I grew suspicious about what she and Nate could’ve said after I ran out of the room yesterday, but I didn’t have time to focus on figuring out what. My phone rang with an incoming text. This time, it was Mrs. Jones reminding me that it would be “so great” if I came back for their annual pre-Christmas party.

“I think not,” I grumped as I set my phone down.

It was another busy day. Most of my tasks were central to the smoothness of which the Malley, Inc. holiday party couldhappen. For hours, I delivered receipts, forms, and even boxes of gift cards here and there. The closer the staff members came to the party, the more excited everyone became. It was a hectic time, that was for certain, so much so that I didn’t have downtime to be idle and fret about how to face Nate.

He was in meetings. Or out doing other things. While it saved me from the anxiety of seeing him after our almost kiss that shouldn’t have happened in the workplace, I was also spared from trying to understand what he wanted from me.

He was flirting, but was that it?

At the end of the day, when I was summoning the courage to text him and take the initiative to ask him what was happening between us, he showed up in my office.

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