Page 60 of A Winter in Wonderland
‘Back atcha,’ I remarked, and he jangled his bell-tipped boots.
‘I saw you earlier standing by the dance floor with your eyes closed, and you looked kind of sad. I nearly came over to check you were OK, but I thought maybe you’d seen enough of me by then, after sitting with me during dinner.’
‘Are you fishing for a compliment, Elf Josh?’
He laughed.
I put my hand over my face for a second. ‘I was just remembering something. I didn’t mean to be looking forlorn and dramatic under the mistletoe.’ I kept my voice light but we both heard it catch at that word.
Josh put his hands in his pockets and looked down again,a flick of his hair falling over his forehead. ‘I noticed you were standing underneath it.’
‘I didn’t even realise it was there … to begin with.’
His eyes flicked up and met mine, briefly, and my breath stopped.
On the other side of the stage, the band were playing ‘Cozy Little Christmas’, the Katy Perry song, and as we looked at each other wordlessly, I knew I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening. I had feelings for Josh.
And I think it showed.
At that moment, movement of someone else passing by the end of the stage pulled us out of ourselves. I grabbed Josh by the T-shirt and pulled him to me so we were both pressed into the dark, hidden by the curtain-like fabric.
Our bodies close, I untangled my fingers from his shirt, and realised his hand was behind my shoulder, holding us together and protecting my back from the hard wall.
We stayed quiet, close, both pretending it was because we didn’t want to be caught flaking on our jobs, both aware the jobs had nothing to do with it.
‘What are we doing back here, Josh?’ I breathed, not making any movements in case he moved his hand, moved himself, and right now he was everything I didn’t know I wanted for Christmas.
Josh moved his hand a centimetre further around me. ‘I just wanted to say, before the night was over, a Merry Christmas, from the real me.’
‘And to you,’ I replied. ‘From the real me.’
We looked into each other’s eyes, as if we were seeingeach other for the first time. As if we were back on the plane, meeting each other, clueless how intertwined we’d become even when we couldn’t spend much time together other than in our thoughts.
When his eyes left mine for a second, his eyelashes lowering as he glanced at my lips, I knew I wanted to kiss him. And he wanted to kiss me.
There was no turning back now. Whether I liked it or not, Lapland was going to have left an impression on my heart.
But the song drew to a close, and the sound of the band telling the crowd they were finishing up meant we reluctantly stepped away from each other.
For now.
