A Christmas Surprise: Bundle of Joy Series Read online

  “Alright, have a good time.”

  I tucked my phone back into my pocket. “Great guy, right?”

  Charlie raised his brows and nodded in agreement.

  “So, he told me you’re a hedge fund manager. Sounds like serious business.”

  His body tensed. “Uhhh, yeah. Can definitely be serious business. Being a managing manager and all.”

  My lips tugged up into a smile. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one being affected by first date nerves. “What exactly do you do as a hedge fund manager?”

  His lips pressed together as he opened his eyes wide. “Oh, you know, just the typical hedge fund managing type of stuff. Managing hedges, paperwork. I could tell you all about it, but I wouldn’t want to bore you to death.”

  I glanced down to the pavement. “Managing hedges?” I scratched the back of my head. Suddenly, I cracked a smile and looked back to Charlie. His eyes were still open wide. “Funny,” I snickered. “Nick said the two of you went to college together. Where was that again?”

  “You know, it’s actually slipping my mind.”

  I shot him a sideways glance. “You don’t remember what college you went to?”

  Charlie cleared his throat. “I transferred a couple times, so it’s hard to remember where I met who, you know?”

  I nodded. “When I first moved to New York, before I sold my car, I once forgot where I parked it for a whole week.”

  Charlie threw his head back and started to laugh. “You did not,” he replied, looking back at me inquisitively.

  I shrugged my shoulders. It was definitely a lot funnier now than it was at the time. “I did. Have the tickets to prove it.” Suddenly, like a light switch on in my brain, it came to me. I slapped the palm of my hand against my forehead. “Columbia!”

  “Columbia?”

  “The college you and Nick went to together.”

  He nodded his head in agreement, but the expression on his face was that of surprise. “You know what?” he exclaimed. “Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself? I don’t think Nick told me what you do for a living.”

  My brows arched in surprise. Nick had told me so much about Charlie, I just assumed he’d talked about me as well. “I work in software development. It’s alright, I mean, it pays the bills.”

  A couple crosswalks later we finally arrived at the café. We stepped inside and I got each of us a latte. The plan was to take a stroll in one of the nearby parks, but by the time we received our orders an overcast had begun to set in.

  Annoyed that our date would be cut short if we got stuck out in the rain, I let out a sigh. I checked the forecast earlier this morning, but it wasn’t calling for any rain. Still, it didn’t call for it to be overcast either, and I thought it might be a good idea to play it safe. “What do you think? Should we risk it, or just stay here?”

  Charlie glanced up at the sky from the window. “Well, why don’t we stay here for a bit and see how it goes? If it clears up, we can always change our minds.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  The café was bustling with people, but fortunately, we managed to find an empty table near the far window.

  “So, is this where you take all your blind dates?” Charlie asked. He nestled both hands around his latte and took a small sip. He let out a comforting sigh as he relished the comfort of his vanilla soy latte.

  My lips pulled up into a smile. “Truthfully, this is where I’ve brought every one of my blind dates.”

  He peeked up at me from over his latte. “Actually?”

  I nodded my head. “Coincidentally, this is my first blind date.”

  Charlie rolled his eyes and gave me a smirk

  Considering how nervous I was feeling this morning when I was getting ready, I was surprised to notice how comfortable I was starting to feel. All the reservations I had about showing up for the blind date had ended up being short-lived.

  I took a sip of my latte. It was absolutely delicious and made the eight-dollar price tag almost seem justifiable.

  “So, you didn’t think a blind date would be absolutely horrific?” Charlie asked.

  I shot him a sideways glance. I did think meeting somebody through a blind date would be a little bit awkward, at first, but I never once suspected it would be absolutely horrific. “Not really, no,” I replied. “I mean, I may have had some reservations at first, but Nick is my friend and I definitely trust him. It’s not like he would set me up with someone I have nothing in common with.”

  “True, I suppose,” he replied. “Still, that’s putting a lot of faith into someone. I mean, really, you’re pretty much trusting somebody to know what you’re looking for in a relationship.”

  I shrugged. I could see where he was coming from, but it wasn’t that black-and-white. After someone got to know you well enough, it was possible they knew what you were looking for and someone that you hadn’t even considered.

  After all, I met my ex-husband, Perry, without any outside influence, and that obviously didn’t work out.

  “Well,” I said. “What exactly are you looking for in a relationship?”

  Charlie raised his brow and leaned back against his seat. He looked up into the left for a couple seconds as he processed my question, which seemed to catch him off guard. He tapped his knuckles against the table and averted his eyes back to mine. “Honestly?”

  I nodded my head.

  He twisted his wrists until his palms were facing upwards and shrugged. “I don’t even really know,” he admitted. He paused for a few more seconds, lost in thought, before continuing. “I feel like I’ve been single for so long now, that the concept of relationships, much less of what I’m looking for in one, seems like such a foreign idea.”

  I started to laugh. Having not dated for as long as I had since my divorce, I knew exactly what he meant. “Since Tony, right?”

  His face went blank. “Tony?”

  A jolt of confusion rushed through me. “Sorry, I thought that’s what Nick had said. That you hadn’t dated since you and your ex-boyfriend, Tony, split up.”

  Charlie’s face started to pale and then flush. “Right” he exclaimed. He scratched at his lower jaw. “What about you?” he continued, bringing the conversation back to me. “How’s the dating world been treating you?”

  “My turn to be honest?”

  Charlie nodded and tugged his lips up into a smile.

  I couldn’t help but smile back at him, but a nervous shiver ran down my spine. I move my hands under the table and wiped my palms against the fabric of my pants. I figured Nick would’ve told him about my divorce. I wish he would had. Divorce was always an uncomfortable subject to talk about and I didn’t want my revelation to surprise and turn him off. “It’s been a while, since I’ve dated,” I admitted. “Not since my divorce a couple years back.”

  When he didn’t look surprised or taken back, I took a breath of relief. “At least you and Tony didn’t end up getting hitched. Things get a lot more complicated when you have to decide who gets custody.”

  “Custody?” He raised a brow. “You have kids?”

  I pressed out my lips and shook my head, trying to keep a straight face.

  “So, you don’t have kids then?”

  At this point, I couldn’t help but crack the smile I was trying so hard to hold back. “No, but I could imagine it’s definitely a lot harder.”

  “Well aren’t you just hilarious.” His lips pulled up into a smile as he rolled his eyes.

  I nodded my head and took another sip of my drink.

  His lips tugged up into a smile. Then, he started to chuckle. Soon enough, his chuckle turned into a full-blown fit of roaring laughter.

  A warm blanket of happiness wrapped around me. It had been a while since making someone laugh had made me feel so happy and alive.

  “You’re such a dork,” he said finally, catching his breath and rolling his eyes. “Seriously though, you think you ever want kids?”

  My eyes opened wide. �
�Whoa whoa, we only just met. You have to at least let me finish my latte before you proposition having kids.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m being serious.”

  I always thought kids were going to be in my future. To have a family to call my own and face the ups and downs of life and the smiles and sorrow and every moment in between. I thought I was going to have all that with my ex-husband. He always told me he wanted to have kids one day. That one day just never seemed to come, though. Every time I brought it up, he always said it wasn’t the right time. When he should’ve said was that he wanted kids, just not with me.

  “Eventually,” I admitted. “What about you?”

  “Definitely.” He brought his eyes down to the table and bit down on his lower lip. He looked back up to me. “I mean, eventually, definitely. I’m not freaking out about it or anything, but I definitely, for sure, want to have kids.” He nervously chuckled to himself. “Not freaking out about it though,” he repeated.

  “Well, why should you,” I said, nodding my head. “You’re only twenty-four.”

  “Twenty-four,” he repeated. His face started to flush with blood again as he burst back out with laughter. “That’s right, I’m definitely only twenty-four.”

  “Hey, you have anything going on today?” I asked spontaneously.

  Charlie quickly glanced at the clock on the wall adjacent from us and shook his head before bringing his eyes back to mine. “There was something I was supposed to do this morning, but something tells me it won’t be happening anymore.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t mean to get in the way of your other plans.”

  He gave me a smile and shook his head. “Don’t apologize, I can guarantee this was a lot more fun.” He took another sip of his latte. “Why, do you have somewhere you need to be?”

  A warm fuzzy feeling filled me from the inside out. “No, I don’t.” I was having an amazing time with Charlie and it felt so nice to be spending time with someone who seemed just as thrilled to be spending their time with me. We’d already spent a couple hours together, but the time seemed to fly by. I wasn’t positive about the etiquette of a first date, but I wasn’t ready for it to end quite yet. “What do you say we keep this going?”

  “What did you have in mind?” he replied, seeming somewhat hesitant.

  My face burned with regret and my shoulders slouched as I slumped down in my chair. Maybe I was pushing my luck by asking to keep the date going. I wet my lips before speaking, suspecting I was about to be turned down. “Was just wondering if you might be down to hit up a bar for a couple beers and a round of pool.”

  He looked at me with a face that was hard to read, and for what felt like an awkward amount of time, said nothing. I was running through a list of excuses to retract my offer in order to save face. Why did I have to say anything at all? Why couldn’t I just be happy with how the date had been going instead of trying to keep it going? He probably would have agreed to a second date, but I probably just ruined any chance of that by coming off as needy.

  Suddenly, he broke the silence between us. “Let’s do it.”

  A jolt of relief pulsated throughout my entire body and my eyes opened wide with excitement. I wasn’t positive what his hesitation was about, but I was just ecstatic that I hadn’t ruined an otherwise perfect date. “Let’s do it,” I repeated, my heart throbbing against my chest and my lips pulled into a smile.

  5

  Elliott

  “Yeah, we get four shots of tequila, please,” Clay said, holding up four fingers to the bartender who was taking our order.

  I could feel my throat starting to burn already as I shuddered at the memory of every previous tequila shot I had ever taken. My lips pursed. “With lemon and salt,” I added.

  “You got it,” the bartender said, before reaching back to one of the shelves and grabbing a couple shot glasses for each of us and a bottle of tequila.

  When the four small glasses were filled, he placed them down in front of us. Clay reached for his back pocket and snaked out his wallet. “Can you start us a tab,” he asked, pulling out a credit card and handing it over.

  The man nodded.

  Clay looked over to me and slid one of the shots a few inches closer to my reach. “Ready for this?”

  I grabbed the bottle of salt from the bar, licked the area between my thumb and finger, and shook some salt over the area. “For tequila shots?” I said, taking a few deep breaths to steady my stomach. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I picked the shot up in one hand and one of the slices of lemon the bartender had set out in a bowl with the other.

  Clay raised his shot. “May the best of our past be the worst of our future.”

  My lips tugged up into a smile. “I can drink to that,” I said. I licked the salt from the crevice between my thumb and finger, clunked our shots together, tapped them down against the bar rail, and then downed it.

  The burning liquid went down my throat and set my chest on fire. As soon as I swallowed it all back, I sucked the juice from the lemon. I squeezed my eyes shut as the sour juice neutralized the burning of the alcohol. “Whew!” I cheered, shaking my head.

  Clay slammed the empty glass down on the rail. “There you go, champ. Mind over matter.” He gave me a wink.

  I rolled my eyes and wiped my lips on the sleeve of my shirt. “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter,” I added.

  Suddenly, the pop music playing over the speakers started to fade and “Nocturne” by Blanco White, one of my favorite indie bands, took its place.

  My eyes went wide and a shot of excitement coursed through my veins. Most of my favorite music was by indie bands, and I listened to them exclusively on either my laptop or smart phone. It was always an experience to hear I listened to regularly be played through something other than headphones. Whenever I did hear one of my favorite songs or bands when I was out and about, it was always a pleasant surprise and never failed to get me a little more amped.

  “I love this band,” I said, starting to dance to the music.

  Clay’s lips tugged up into a smile. “Really? I couldn’t tell.”

  I gave him a playful jab on the shoulder. “What kind of music are you into?”

  He started to pump his fist into the air and move somewhat to the beat. “What do you mean, you don’t think this is my jam?”

  I burst out in laughter when I noticed his back and forth swaying had progressed into the worst attempt of the robot I think I’d ever seen. “Oh yeah? Big fan of Blanco White?”

  “Oh yeah. The biggest,” he sarcastically replied. He went from the robot to starting the lawnmower, to reaching for the groceries and putting them in the cart.

  My face flushed red with embarrassment. Only, I wasn’t feeling that embarrassed. I was actually having a great time and couldn’t remember the last time I had so much fun on a date. Suddenly, the excitement coursing through me turned to ice. This wasn’t actually a date. I mean, it was, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t the person Clay thought I was.

  I tried to tell him when he first confused me for Charlie, but I couldn’t get the words out. When we went for coffee, the plan was to explain the mix-up then. But it was so nice just to sit and chat with someone I really liked, I decided to put off telling him until we had something a little harder to drink. Now, we were drinking and dancing and laughing and having a great time and the guilt of pretending to be someone else was eating away at me. I needed to tell him. Now.

  “Clay,” I said, giving him another playful jab. I pulled out one of the barstools and took a rigid seat. I reached out a hand and grabbed his. Electricity wove through my body when we touched. I pulled him to the seat next to me. “I have a confession.”

  He took a seat and wiped the sweat from his brow. The emotion drained from his face as he averted his eyes to the floor. His tongue ran over his lips, wetting them, and then he brought his eyes back to mine.

  My heart pounded in my chest and I could hear the blood rushing through my ears
. I had no idea how he would take me telling him that I was only pretending to be the person he thought I was, but I couldn’t imagine a scenario, at this point, where the conversation ended positively. Still, I needed to tell him, it was the right thing to do. I drew one last deep breath. “Clay, I’m not—”

  “I have a confession as well,” Clay interrupted, throwing his hands into the air.

  The surprise of his outburst completely threw me off. “Oh?”

  Clay inhaled a deep breath, glanced up to the ceiling, brought his eyes back down to meet mine, and slowly exhaled. “Yeah,” he continued, nodding his head. “I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just gonna spit it out.”

  My eyes stayed glued to his. Did he pick up on the fact that whenever he was talking about what Nick had told him about Charlie, about who he thought I was, that I always seemed surprised? Did he notice how I’d always try to bring the conversation back to him when he brought up something Nick had told him about Charlie? Did he know, or at least suspect, that maybe I wasn’t… Charlie?

  He reached his hand back out and clasped mine. Again, electricity. His pine and cinnamon scent assaulted and caressed and teased. His blue eyes encompassed me. Beckoning, comforting, and trapping my every fiber.

  “Charlie,” he said.

  Disappointment and relief draped over me. Pushing and pulling for the same reason. Because he didn’t know I wasn’t who he thought I was.

  “I’ve never actually,” he continued, pausing for a second, and repeating himself. “I’ve never actually heard of Blanco White.”

  His lips tugged up into a smile as he leaned back against the chair. His hands pulled away and rested on top of the bar rail. Mine fell to my lap.

  “I’m sorry,” he added, his voice returning back to its joking tone. “I just want to be honest with you. Honesty is important, right?”

  I nodded my head. “Yeah, it definitely is.”

  Clay nodded his head as well. “Well, this is me being honest with you. I’m pretty sure I’ve never even heard of this band before.”