Page 18 of The Santa Swap

That was a surprise. In all his years of eating at the Frisky Cow Cafe, he had never known them to close their doors. Luke looked up as a small envelope was pressed into his hands, his name written across the front. The brown eyes staring back at him winked and then Olivia was moving on to the next person.

Before long, every employee was told to open their envelope. Olivia stood at the front of the room. “Inside your envelope you will find a colorful sheet of paper. Please find the table that matches your colors.”

Luke found the bright green table and sat down next to Susan. As their seats filled, he noticed that one chair remained empty.

Olivia cleared her throat and the room turned their attention back to her. “Tara and I have been working together on a project that we’d like your help with.”

There was a murmur of voices as people around the tables began to whisper to each other. “As you know, the company gives a fairly generous donation to a different local charity every year. This year we thought it would be nice if we changed things up. Instead of handing someone a check, we’ve agreed to team up with the local fire department and host a toy drive.”

The voices raised in volume until Olivia held up her hand. “I can see you have questions. What can I do to help answer some of them?”

A hand in the back shot up. “What does this mean? You need each of us to bring in a toy?”

“Not exactly,” Olivia said.

Tara walked up to Olivia’s side. “That is why we called you here,” Tara said. “We’d like each department to come up with an idea for the event. The group that gathers the most toys will win a dinner for the team here, at the Frisky Cow Cafe. As you can see, we’ve combined some of the smaller departments into teams so the numbers even out.”

Olivia was weaving between the tables, passing out small spiral notebooks and pens. She handed a pen to Luke, her hand lingering on his for just a fraction of a second longer than he thought was necessary. Her touch set his nerve endings on fire.

When she walked back to the front of the room, all eyes followed her. “Go ahead and begin brainstorming. Lunch will be served soon.”

Luke reached for one of the small notebooks and flipped it open to the first page. He looked up to see everyone at the table watching him. “Hey. I’m not the boss here. As figureheads of the company, we’d look pretty silly if we didn’t come up with something, though. Who has an idea?”

Olivia and Tara joined their table. “This should be fun,” Tara said.

“I’m hoping it is their best event yet,” Olivia said. “When my neighbor told me that the funding for the toy drive had been cut in half by the city, I knew we could help. The firehouse was trying to figure out how to make up the difference.”

“I think it is a great idea,” Luke said. “So, what are we going to do?” He made it a point to look at the faces of everyone around the table even though his eyes tended to drift Olivia’s way the most often.

By the time lunch was over, Luke’s notebook had several pages filled with doodles, half-ideas, and a to-do list. He sincerely hoped the other departments were having better luck because his table hadn’t come up with anything good.

Olivia made her way to the front of the room again. “Alright teams, let’s hear those suggestions.”

Luke watched Olivia try to school her facial expressions as some ridiculous ideas were thrown out.

“We could do a luau,” one team offered.

“In the snow?” Olivia asked. “I’m not sure summer decorations are in stock right now.”

“What about a bake sale?” another team suggested.

“Possibly, but that would only bring in enough money to buy us a handful of toys.” Luke could see her trying to keep a smile plastered to her face.

“Any other ideas?” Olivia asked. Luke silently added the word “good” to the sentence because some of the ideas had been awful.

Susan leaned across the table. “I’ve got it, guys.” Then she stood up to face Olivia. “What about a Santa booth?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked.

“Well, the mall always has a Santa booth set up for photos. We could do something similar. What if we require a cash or toy donation to sit with Santa, and then we give them a QR code to scan for their pictures? It could be an easy way to gather toys without a lot of the overhead expenses.”

People all around the tables began to talk excitedly as the idea sunk in. Olivia raised her hand to quiet the group. “I think we have a winner. All in favor?”

Every hand in the room shot up.

“Alright. Great idea, Susan. We’ll let you know when your teams can start advertising for the event. Remember, the team that brings in the most donations wins dinner.”

Luke was proud of Olivia when she sat back down. She had a sparkle in her eye that he hadn’t seen since their impromptu skating date. He reached over and gave her arm a little squeeze. “Good job, up there,” he said. “You’re a natural.”

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