don’t know,” Jake commented as he slipped his arm around Holly’s waist. “Women aren’t so bad.”
Gabe considered his comment carefully. “Aunt Holly’s okay, I guess.”
“You guess,” she sputtered. Using her chopsticks she removed the last bit of almond fried chicken from her nephew’s plate.
“Hey, that was mine,” Gabe cried.
“That’s what you get for criticizing women,” Holly told him, and then, to prove her point, she reached for his fried dumpling, too. In retaliation, Gabe reached across for her egg roll, dropping it on the table.
Jake immediately retrieved it and stuck one end in his mouth. “Five-second rule,” he said just before he bit down.
When they’d finished, they cleared the table and settled down in front of the television.
As Jake flipped through the channels, Gabe asked, “When are we gonna put up the Christmas tree?”
“This week,” Holly told him. She’d need to budget carefully now that she wasn’t going to get her bonus. The tree—she’d hoped to buy a real one—was an added expense she’d planned to cover with the extra money. This year she’d have to resort to the small artificial tree she’d stuck in the back of her coat closet.
The news that she wouldn’t be receiving the bonus was devastating. Holly’s first instinct had been to strike back. If everyone else was getting a bonus, it didn’t seem fair that she wasn’t. Still, Lindy Lee had a point. Holly hadn’t been as dedicated to her job since Gabe came into her life. She had other responsibilities now.
That afternoon she’d toyed with the idea of looking for a new job. She could walk out—that would show Lindy Lee. Reason quickly asserted itself. She couldn’t leave her job and survive financially. It could take her months to find a new one. And although this was an entry-level position, the chance to advance in the fashion world was an inducement she simply couldn’t reject that easily. She’d made friends at the office, too. Friends like Marsha, who’d willingly defended her to their employer.
Besides, if she left her job, there’d be dozens who’d leap at the opportunity to take her place. No, Holly would swallow her disappointment and ride this out until Mickey returned. Next Christmas would be different.
“Can Jake help decorate the Christmas tree?” Gabe asked.
Jake was sitting next to her and Holly felt him tense. His face was pale, his expression shocked.
“Jake.” Holly said his name softly and laid her hand on his forearm. “Are you okay?”
“Sure. Sorry, no decorating trees for me this year,” he said in an offhand way.
“Why not?” Gabe pressed. “It’s really fun. Aunt Holly said she’d make popcorn and we’d have cider. She has some ornaments from when she and my dad were kids. She won’t let me see them until we put up the tree. It’ll be lots of fun.” His young face pleaded with Jake to reconsider.
Holly gently placed her hand on her nephew’s shoulder. “Jake said another time,” she reminded him. Jake hadn’t participated in any of the usual Christmas traditions or activities in more than twenty years, ever since he’d lost his mother and sister.
“But there won’t be another time,” her nephew sulked. “I’ll be with my dad next year.”
“Jake’s busy,” Holly said, offering yet another excuse.
“Sorry to let you down, buddy,” Jake told Gabe. “We’ll do something else, all right?”
Gabe shrugged, his head hanging. “Okay.”
“How about if I take you ice-skating at Rockefeller Center? Would you like that?”
“Wow! “ In his excitement, Gabe propelled himself off the sofa and landed with a thud on the living room carpet. “I wanted to go skating last Saturday but Aunt Holly doesn’t know how.”
“She’s a girl,” Jake said in a stage whisper. Then he looked at her and grinned boyishly. “Frankly, I’m glad of it.”
“As you should be,” she returned under her breath.
“When can we go?” Gabe wasn’t letting this opportunity slip through his fingers. He wanted to nail down the date as soon as possible. “I took skating lessons last winter,” he said proudly.
Jake hesitated. “I’ll need to get back to you once I see how everything goes at the store. It’s the Christmas season, you know, so we might have to wait until the first week of the new year. How about Sunday the second?”
“That long? ”
“Yes, but then I’ll have more time to show you some classic moves. Deal?”
Gabe considered this compromise and finally nodded. “Deal.” They clenched their fists and bumped them together to seal the bargain.
The three of them sat side by side and watched a rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond for the next half hour. Jake was beside her, his arm around her shoulders. Gabe sat to her left with his feet tucked beneath him.
When the program ended, Gabe turned to Jake. “Do you want me to leave the room so you can kiss my aunt Holly?”
“Gabe!” Holly’s cheeks were warm with embarrassment.
“What makes you suggest that?” Jake asked the boy.
Gabe stood in the center of the room. “My dad emailed and said if you came to the apartment, I should disdiscreetly leave for a few minutes, only I don’t know what that word means. I think it means you want to kiss Aunt Holly without me watching. Right?”
Jake nodded solemnly. “Something like that.”
“I thought so. Okay, I’m going to go and get ready for bed.” He enunciated each word as if reading a line of dialogue from an unfamiliar play.
Jake winked at Holly. “Pucker up, sweetheart,” he said, doing a recognizable imitation of Humphrey Bogart.
Holly rolled her eyes and clasped her hands prayerfully. “Ah, sweet romance.”
As soon as the bedroom door closed, Jake pulled her into his arms. The kiss was everything she’d remembered and more. They kissed repeatedly until Gabe came back and stood in front of them. He cleared his throat.
“Should I go away again?” he asked.
“No, that’s fine,” Holly said. She had trouble speaking.
“Your timing is perfect,” Jake assured the boy.
Jake left shortly after that, and once she’d let him out of the apartment, Holly leaned against the door, still a little breathless. Being with Jake was very nice, indeed, but she had something else on her mind at the moment—Intellytron the SuperRobot and how she was going to afford one before Christmas.
Chapter Nine
It’s
