The Billionaire's First Christmas - Contemporary Romance (6 page)

“The smell of pine?”

“My housekeeper uses pine-sol.” She
wrinkled her nose and made a face at me when I said that. It made
me laugh, in spite of myself.

“Think of it this way Robyn, you’ve
read Dr. Seuss, right?”

She seemed amused that I would be
considering quoting Dr. Seuss but she said, “Of course, everyone
has.”

“Christmas is like green eggs and ham
to me. I don’t like it here nor there, I don’t like it
anywhere.”

She laughed and said, “I’d be willing
to bet that’s the oddest analogy a brilliant CEO has ever come up
with for anything.”

“You’d be surprised,” I told her.
“Besides, I’ve been more lucky than brilliant I’m
afraid.”

“I doubt that,” she said. “Winters
Inc. is a conglomerate because you made it that way. It takes a lot
more than luck to do that. Maybe you got lucky in the family
department and one of them was willing to finance the start-up, but
I suspect you took it from there.”

“I got a small inheritance when I was
twenty-one. That’s what I used as my start up capitol.”

“And eight years later your company is
a household name. What about when you were a boy, didn’t you
believe in Santa Claus and all that?”

“Of course I did,” I
replied.

“So, what happened?”

“I realized he was a fraud, like everyone else did.” The sentence
came out more bitterly than I’d intended, and I could see from
Robyn’s expression that she wanted to know more. Thankfully, she
refrained, and for a moment I thought I could see a trace of pity…
or was it sadness in her eyes.

“
Are you ready to go or
would you like more coffee?” She made a face at me again. I knew
she wanted me to open up more, but it was a subject I didn’t care
to talk about with anyone.

“I’m ready,” she said.

We picked up our coats on our way out
and I walked her to the limousine.

“I’ve got it, Jeffrey,” I told him. He
got in behind the wheel and closed his door. I looked at Robyn in
the moonlight and I was overcome with an urge to kiss her. I didn’t
know what it was about this woman, but she’d definitely gotten
under my skin. From the day I’d seen her getting on the elevator I
had been thinking about her. I asked Max and he told me who she was
and then I’d seen her name on the auction list. We’d been doing the
auction for five years and I’d never bid before. It didn’t seem
like the sort of thing a CEO should do. That night I went there on
impulse, and even more impulsively I began to bid. I felt like I
had to have her, if only for a day.

Once I had her, I hadn’t known what to
do with her. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a fantasy list, but that
would never do on a first date and with an employee to boot. I had
made the false assumption that she’d be intimidated by me, so I set
up the whole costume and delivering presents first to get a feel of
what kind of person she was. Jeffrey had checked in with me
periodically and had nothing but glowing reviews. They had bonded
right away and here I was a little afraid that now after our dinner
conversation, that she would think of me as a Scrooge and not want
to see me again. It was a new experience for me that someone liked
my chauffeur better than they liked me.

“I had fun, Aaron. It was a great day
all the way around. Thank you for everything,” she said.

“I had a good time too, thank you,
Robyn.”

I didn’t kiss her; it was too soon no
matter how badly I wanted to. I watched her get into the car and I
closed the door behind her. Suddenly her window came down and she
said, “Aaron?”

“Yes?”

“I was thinking. It’s such a shame
that you haven’t done anything festive in years. There’s a lot more
to the Christmas season than presents and parties you know. You
just need to explore it a little further. I was wondering if you
might do me a favor.”

I was very interested to find out what
kind of favor she might want from me. I didn’t want to commit to
anything without hearing what it was however.

“What kind of favor do you
need?”

“I’d really like to help you enjoy the
season this year, if you’ll just give me a chance. Maybe I could
have you for a day, the way you did me today?”

I was tempted to laugh. Instead of
angering me like it would if someone else harassed me about
Christmas, she amused me. I decided that one day couldn’t hurt
anything. I didn’t have to enjoy it after all. I doubted that I’d
enjoy any of it except for spending the day with this beautiful
creature that I didn’t understand at all, but couldn’t get enough
of. That was the bottom line here. I wanted to see her
again.

“How about next Saturday?” I asked
her. She looked surprised that I accepted.

“You’re on. You are going to so love
Christmas when I’m done with you,” she said with a
smile.

I chuckled and said, “Don’t get your
hopes up Robyn. Good night.”

“Good night Aaron,” she said, “Thank
you.” I watched the limousine until it was out of sight. I missed
her already.

ROBYN

I went into work on Monday morning
still feeling the glow of the weekend. I hadn’t been able to think
about much other than Aaron all weekend. I had already started
planning our activities for the following Saturday. I just knew if
I could get him to experience a few traditional Christmas time
events and have fun while he was doing it, he would change his
outlook on Christmas. We lived in the Christmas capitol of the
world. The whole of Manhattan was lit during the month of December
while we waited for the day to come. It was a travesty for him to
miss out on that. I tried to convince myself that taking him out on
Saturday was a charitable thing to do, but the truth was, I really
couldn’t wait to see him again either.

I had a meeting with Max
when I got in and when he asked me how my weekend went I said, “It
was good, quiet.” That wasn’t a lie. After Friday night I hadn’t
gone out again, and I had had a good one. I baked cookies and made
Christmas ornaments and yes… I know I’m a dork, but I
watched
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
three times and cried every time. I cried
sometimes because the ending of the movie made me so incredibly
happy and sometimes because the memories of watching it with my mom
when I was a little girl. Those were happy tears too, happy
memories.

Mostly, I didn’t want to complicate
whatever this thing was between Aaron and I. I worked with some
amazing, smart, professional people. One might be surprised at how
fast a rumor can spread amongst them. I wasn’t delusional enough to
believe that news I’d gone on a date with the CEO would be
something even the people I was closest to would be willing to keep
to themselves, so I kept it to myself.

Monday was as usual, a busy day. It
was over before I knew it and as I was wrapping up and getting
ready to go home I reached to turn off my computer. On impulse, I
typed Aaron’s name into the company directory. There were job
titles and short bios and a small photo of each of us in the
company directory. Once I’d typed in Aaron’s name, I was looking at
his face. He was more perfect in person, but since I wasn’t going
to see him until Saturday the little photo would do. I wondered
what kind of Monday he had and before I even realized what I was
doing I started composing an email.

Hi Aaron! I just wanted to
say I am looking forward to Saturday. I hope your Monday went well
and don’t forget to ring at least one bell today.
I hit send. While I was waiting to make sure it
had gone through, I packed up some pamphlets I was going to take
home. I was working on a new marketing campaign for the company and
was using the old pamphlets to help design a new one. I got them
packed into my bag and reached up to switch the computer off again.
I saw that Aaron had responded to my email already and I was
surprised. I wasn’t surprised at what he had written.

Why would I ring a
bell?

Because every time a bell
rings, an angel gets his wings.
I was
trying to sneak Christmas in on him a little at a time. He didn’t
respond to that, but I’d gotten it into his head. I switched off
the computer and left for the night.

AARON

I had been sitting at my desk going
over some reports Janice brought in when my computer made the
little noise it makes when I have new email. Not intending to read
it unless it looked like it was something of earth-shattering
importance; I looked up at the screen. I was surprised to see the
email was from Robyn. I sat there for a few seconds wondering if I
wanted to open it or not. Finally curiosity got the better of me
and I did. She was wishing me a good day and telling me to ring
bells. I had no idea why she wanted me to ring bells, so I asked
her why. Several more seconds later I got another email that
said,

“Every time a bell rings an
angel gets his wings.” I completely forgot about the work in front
of me and I stared at the screen. I still didn’t get it. I decided
to forget about it and re-focus on my work. That lasted less than
five minutes before I was looking at the computer again. Finally, I
cut and pasted the sentence into my browser and came back with
about a bazillion hits. It was a quote from a Christmas movie. The
movie was called
“It’s a Wonderful
Life”
and it had been made in 1946. I
stared at it for a minute and a vague memory came back to me. My
mother…who loved Christmas, singing in the kitchen…my father who
also loved Christmas hanging up the lights and me, sitting on the
couch eating homemade chocolate chip cookies and watching a black
and white movie that for some reason made my mother cry. For over
twenty years I’d done my best to stuff those memories down deep. My
parents were long gone and no amount of thinking about them would
bring them back. I’d decided long ago that if it wasn’t helping, it
was hindering. It was keeping me from moving on. I let it go and
now this woman who I’m completely infatuated with wants to put it
back in front of me and make me re-live it.

I was torn between being grateful to
her for treating me like a human and easing my loneliness, and
being angry that she wouldn’t let this Christmas thing go. I had to
wonder what she had in store for me on Saturday as her hired
hand.

I didn’t finish up my work that night
until after seven. I called Jeffrey and told him I’d be down soon.
I packed up my things and rode the quiet, lonely elevator down to
the lobby from the tenth floor. When the doors opened I found
myself thinking of Robyn again and the first time I’d seen her in
the elevator. I didn’t know her name and we had never spoken a
word, but even then I’d felt a connection. As I crossed the lobby I
saw Jeffrey waiting by the car. He stepped over and opened the door
for me.

“Hello sir, how was your
Monday?”

“Hello Jeffrey. It was busy, as usual.
How was yours?”

“Busy as well sir,” he said. I started
to get in the car and suddenly I completely lost my mind. That’s
how I like to think of it anyways. I saw one of those Salvation
Army buckets outside the lobby window and currently unmanned. The
bell they rang all day was sitting on top of it and without giving
myself time to think about it I picked it up and rang
it.

I sat it back down and stepping in
front of a confused Jeffrey, I slid past him and waited for him to
close the door before I smiled.

The rest of the week passed quickly
and every evening about the same time I found an email waiting in
my inbox from Robyn. They were short and simple, but they made me
feel like someone was thinking about Aaron Winters the man and not
just the business guy or the boss or the paycheck. They were nice
and it made me feel good to read them. She made me smile from six
floors down.

CHAPTER SIX

~

AARON

I received a text message from Robyn
on Saturday morning that told me to meet her in Central Park near
the coffee cart in front of the ice-skating pond and to dress
casually. I put on a pair of jeans that were like brand new because
I rarely got out of my suit long enough to wear them. I wore a
long-sleeved t-shirt underneath a thick, gray sweater. I grabbed my
jacket and my keys on the way out. Every step of the way I was
wondering what she had in store for me and I traveled to our
rendezvous spot with a mixture of dread and
anticipation.

I walked about half a mile from where
I’d parked my car before I saw her. She was standing near the
coffee cart wearing blue jeans and a pink sweater. Even from where
I stood, I could see how pretty she was. She had braided her long
hair into two braids that hung down past her shoulders and she had
on a pink knit beret that matched her sweater. She was sipping a
cup of something hot; the steam was evident in the cool morning
air. She was looking around, waiting for me and for the first time
in probably a decade, I felt the flutter of nerves in my belly. I
hated being out of my comfort zone and this was the first time in
years that I’d allowed myself to leave it full-bore. I almost
bailed, but Robyn suddenly spotted me and waved. She was smiling,
as usual, and her face was flushed with color from the cool morning
air. God, she was beautiful. We walked towards each other until we
met just along the fence around the little man-made ice-skating
pond that was surrounded by little decorated Christmas trees and
had a little house off to the side for when Santa
visited.