“Okay. And thank you again, Lily.” She rattles off her email and I jot it down. We say our goodbyes and I continue with my work. When I have a few moments to spare, I create a new email address and shoot a quick note off to Michaela. She responds with a smiley face, so I know she has my email address.
It’s just before lunch and Peter walks in clutching several bags from different stores.
“Did you have a productive time?” I ask as he walks past my desk.
“Why do people leave their Christmas shopping to the last minute? It makes it difficult for us to go do Christmas shopping at the last minute,” he grumbles as he walks into his office.
“Would a coffee help?” I ask as I stand and follow him into his office. “And wouldn’t that mean you should’ve done your Christmas shopping along with all those people you’re complaining about?”
“Stop using woman logic on me. My wife tries that. My daughters try that, hell, even my granddaughters have started. I don’t need it here, too.” His lips turn up in a smile, and I know he’s just joking. “How are the driving lessons going?”
“Good, I have another one when I finish here. It’s my third one. I may try and go for my license in early January.”
“You can do it, Lily. Have faith in yourself.” The words jolt me, as if he’s referring to more than just my driving. “Now, I’ll have that coffee.” Peter is a man’s man. He’s direct when he speaks, and incredibly fair. But he doesn’t often use words like ‘please’ or ‘thank you.’ That’s okay, because it’s just him being direct and getting to the point. Even though I’ve only held this role for a couple of weeks, Peter’s strong reputation filters down to the floor. Before my time up here, I was one of those staff who was intimidated by him. Now I know he just demands excellence, and rewards it when he finds it.
“I’ll get it for you.” I go downstairs and buy a packet of cookies, Peter’s favorite ones, and go back up to the staff room to make him a coffee, while putting two cookies on a small plate and taking it in to him. “Here you go.” I place the coffee and cookies down on his desk.
“I only get two today? Have I angered you? Or are you waiting for me to give you your Christmas bonus?” he jokes.
“Please, Peter I don’t need a bonus, so I really hope you’re joking. And no, you only get two because on Monday you came in saying your wife called you ‘cuddly’ and I think I may have been adding to you becoming ‘cuddly’ by giving you cookies.”
“Pfft.” He waves his hand at me dismissively, and I smile. “I’m not cuddly.” He is. Very.
“Okay, well, it was the last two in the cookie jar.”
“Really?” He shoots his eyebrows up at me in question. He then turns and goes to his messy desk and sits. “So you just running down there and buying cookies has nothing to do with these?” He points to the small plate.
He misses nothing, not a single thing. “Guilty.”
“I have work to do, and I believe you’re leaving early so you can go do what every other nut job, myself included, does just before Christmas.”
“Yes, Peter, that’s exactly right.”
He flicks his hand at me, and that’s my cue to leave and close his office door.
The next two hours fly by as I do the rest of the day’s work. I barrel through it, and by the time I’m ready to leave, I only have a small amount of work left undone.
I look at the time and know if I’m going to make the driving lesson this afternoon I need to get going now. I grab my/Shayne’s coat, and head downstairs. There’s a cab stand half a block down, and when I get there, there are two cabs waiting.
I’m on a tight time schedule and only have Shayne, Liam, Max, Dale and Peter to buy for. First place I head is to Target to buy me a coat, so I can give Shayne hers back. As it turns out, I find an identical one, so I merely replace hers with a new one. Then I try and find her something for Christmas. But I can’t find anything, and as I’m walking around, I come up with a brilliant idea. As a way to say ‘thank you’, I’m going to send her and Liam on a weekend away. A small vacation, somewhere away from winter and me.
Next, I go to the liquor store and buy both Dale and Peter a bottle of nice, aged scotch. I’ve bought them both the same, because they’ve both been incredibly kind to me.
For Max, I’m struggling. I’m unsure what to get for him, because I don’t want to buy him something too personal and give him the idea I’m even remotely ready for an intimate relationship, but I also want to get him something that tells him how much I appreciate him for being him.