Chapter 2
Theo
“Look, Daddy!” Hazel pulled something square and glittery out of her backpack. “I made a gift for Mr. Elf!”
Fridge my life.
“Ohh, it looks wonderful, sweetie,” I said, trying for a real smile while dread coiled tightly in my stomach, turning the cereal bar I’d eaten an hour ago into lead.
I’d gotten amazing feedback from the guys in the forum, but I had yet to do anything about the Elf-Crisis, as I dubbed what’d happened two days ago.
I loved my daughter’s compassion. She was such a fierce and kind person, always standing up for what she thought was right—just like her mom had—but sometimes, just for a fraction of a second, I wished she’d not be quite as outspoken.
“Do you think Mr. Elf will like my gift?”
“I bet he’ll adore it.” If he actually came, which I wasn’t sure about. Hell—ooo Kitty, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted him to come.
“Good.” Hazel nodded once, a satisfied smirk on her lips. “I don’t want Mr. Elf to go without a gift, you know, and I’m not sure Santa would get him one. Because kids get gifts from Santa, but he’s not a kid. Grown-ups don’t get gifts from Santa, but he’s not a grown-up, he’s an elf.”
Ohh… this was the opportunity I’d been waiting for.
“Mr. Elf might be an elf, but he’s also a grown-up,” I told my daughter, patting the dark blue couch cushions next to me.
Raising her eyebrows doubtfully, she followed my suggestion and skipped over, plopping down on the couch with a little huff that clearly said she didn’t buy what I was telling her, but she was willing to hear me out before she started grilling me again.
“You see, helping Santa out is Mr. Elf’s job,” I explained.
I took a deep breath to get a little more time to come up with a logical explanation that did not bend the truth too much.
“Just like my job is to go to school. Or work at the on-campus bookstore. And do you remember what I’m wearing on days I’m working in the bookstore? ”
Hazel nodded, curling herself up against me. “The itchy blue shirts you hate.”
“Exactly.”
“So Mr. Elf doesn’t always wear his work clothes?”
I nodded, relieved she’d caught on so quickly. “Yes, that’s right. I imagine wearing bells all day long gets really annoying. And just imagine him trying to go to sleep, but every time he moves his head jingles.”
Hazel giggled. “That would drive me nuts… Hazel nuts.”
I chuckled at the inside joke and ruffled her hair.
“I bet it would.” I took another deep breath.
Okay, I’d managed to solve the first problem.
I might as well barge on while I was ahead.
“Hazel, sweetie, would it be okay if I went downstairs for a minute to talk to Mr. Elf? Just to make sure he knows he doesn’t have to wear his work clothes on Christmas. ”
And to figure out if he’d show up at all. And maybe get his name. Calling him Mr. Elf was starting to feel weird.
Hell—ooo Kitty, maybe on the way downstairs, I’d finally manage to make up my mind about wanting Mr. Elf to come over or not. Because that was likely after obsessing over this question for the past two days.
“Okay, Daddy. Can you put on a show for me first? I want to learn more about lions.”
“Lions?”
She nodded. “Mrs. Coleman taught us about lions today, but I want to verify.”
Snorting out a laugh, I opened up my—well, more like our—tablet to put on a kids’ documentary about lions.
“Here you go, sweetie. You know the rules?”
Her eye roll was epic. “I’m four, Daddy, and I’m gonna be five soon. Of course, I know the rules. No opening doors, I’m not allowed to put on a different show, even though I know how to, and if I think something’s wrong, I’ll call for you because you’re literally going to be out in the hallway.”
I nodded, feeling a little pang as I watched her for a second before getting up and ruffling her hair again.
Shi—take. She was getting big. Five. Holy cr—ustacean. My little girl was turning five in two months, yet it still felt like yesterday when the nurse had handed her to me for the first time. That teeny, tiny bundle of spitfire with a set of lungs a professional diver would envy.
Turning around, I grabbed my keychain out of the small ceramic bowl Hazel had made for me and left the apartment.
It was just a conversation. Just a super quick chat I was about to have…
with the guy I’d been crushing on since he’d moved in a year ago.
The guy I’d never ever had a conversation with that went beyond a simple hello.
You know, except for the one time when my daughter had invited him over for Christmas.
The air in the hallway, as stale as it might normally be, carried a hint of vanilla and cinnamon.
I took a deep breath and let the smile spread across my face.
I closed my eyes just for a second and inhaled deeply again, focusing on the scents.
Definitely Mrs. Morrigan’s Christmas cookies.
She always started baking her buttery pieces of heaven right after Thanksgiving—and I knew she’d be coming over asking for a little helper to cut out the sugar cookies in the upcoming days.
After a while, I opened my eyes again and headed toward the stairs, the smile still on my face.
A few of the stairs creaked a little, and the walls could use a fresh coat of paint, but this building was still nicer than I ever expected to be able to afford as a teenage dad. Good thing I knew the owners.
The way down the stairs didn’t take much time at all, and before I knew what I was going to say, I stood right in front of the dark brown, wooden apartment door that looked just like my own apartment door, with the difference that this one said 4C instead of 5C.
To knock or not to knock, that was the question. I’d come so far already, but taking that last step was really fudging hard. Social interaction was hard. Period. But social interaction with someone as gorgeous and adorable as my downstairs neighbor? That seemed daunting.
What was I even going to say?
My palms were getting sweaty, and even the calming notes of Mrs. Morrigan’s Christmas cookies failed to keep me calm.
If I didn’t knock now, I’d turn around and go back upstairs, so… I did it. The knock-knock resonated through the hallways, ripping through the peaceful quiet.
For a while, nothing happened.
The tension inside me curled tighter and tighter.
He probably wasn’t home yet. It was just after five, and if he really worked as a mall elf—which, given his costume, was an educated guess, but a guess nonetheless—he might still be out helping little kids sit on Santa’s lap.
Just one more try, I told myself. One more try, and if he doesn’t open, you can go back upstairs and write him a letter instead.
That was probably what I should’ve done in the first place, but it was too late now. I knocked again, adrenaline surging through my veins.
It’s okay, he isn’t home; you can go back up… Fudge.
The door in front of me swung open and revealed my downstairs neighbor. I blinked at the sight in front of me. My downstairs neighbor was covered in paint.
“Uhm…” I said, unsure how to proceed because, quite frankly, I couldn’t stop looking.
There was so much to see. His copper curls were tied in a loose bun that still managed to show off his unruly hair.
A fat stripe of blue covered his left cheek, sprinkles of a deep, luscious red sat atop his freckles, and a dark green was smudged right above his copper eyebrow.
His eyes sparkled almost playfully, and his lips were tilted into a smirk that challenged me to say… probably anything.
“Hi,” I added eloquently. “I’m Theo. Uhm… I’m your neighbor. The one with the kid? Though there is the Porter family in apartment 2A, and also Mrs. Smith with her son in 1E. What I mean is…”
“You’re the one whose kid invited me to celebrate Christmas with you guys,” he finished for me. “I remember. Nice to officially meet you, Theo. I’m Luci, and I’d offer you my hand but…” He held said hand up for me to see it absolutely slathered in paint.
“Oh, uhm, that’s okay,” I said. What else was I supposed to say? “You didn’t expect me, soo…”
“So I was in the middle of work, yeah. Sorry, if I’d known you were coming, I’d have cleaned up a little.” His smile was bashful, his full lips a stark contrast to his pointy chin. “You have a talent for catching me by surprise. You and your kid.”
“Hazel, yes.”
Holy hell—ooo kitty. I was feeling so damn out of my element that I was turning into a stumbling, mumbling mess that couldn’t even finish a single sentence. Not that I was faring much better on the best of days.
“Cute name,” Luci said, burrowing his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
I was about to warn him that he was getting his clothes dirty, but caught myself in time.
He was definitely not my kid, hellooo, he was definitely older than me, and by the look of his jeans, they were a lost cause anyway, as they had paint all over them and were absolutely shredded to pieces at the knees.
“Uhm… thanks. Anyway, that’s why I’m here in the first place.”
“You’re here because of your daughter’s cute name?” He chuckled, but he didn’t sound mean, more like he was letting me in on a joke.
“Yes. I mean no. I’m here because of the invitation to celebrate Christmas with us.”
Luci nodded. A curl slipped from his bun and promptly fell into his face, tickling his narrow, pointy nose.
“I figured.” He tried blowing the stray strand away but lost his patience halfway through, tucking it away behind his ear, leaving smudges of red on his ear, cheek, and nose.
“You know, I won’t hold you to it. It was obviously the spontaneous idea of a child. ”
I nodded, my eyes still transfixed by the way the paint sprinkles enhanced his features, making him even more alluring to me than he usually was.
I should say thank you and go, but… I didn’t want to.
I didn’t want to stop talking to him. Didn’t want this colorful guy to disappear behind his apartment door and tilt my world into a gray fog.
I didn’t want us to go back to being barely speaking neighbors.
“Okay, but if you wanted to, you could. Come to celebrate Christmas with us, that is,” I rushed to say, my cheeks burning with heat as I did. What the fu—dge was I doing?
Going after something you want for the first time in your life, a little voice inside my head supplied.
“Really?” Luci pointedly raised one of his copper eyebrows at me, the green paint above crumbling a bit. “You’d want a complete stranger to celebrate Christmas with you and your daughter?”
That was creepy, wasn’t it? Also, he was right. I wouldn’t want a random stranger to join us for Christmas.
“Uhm… no, I don’t.”
But I wanted him to spend Christmas with us. Did that make me a bad father?
“But you want me to celebrate with you?”
“Only if you’d like to.” My heart was beating in my throat. Oh, how much I wanted him to!
“Well,” Luci said, grinning at me. “I guess I have the whole of December to become not-a-stranger, then.” He chuckled.
His hand chased after a couple of other stray strands that’d escaped his bun.
“Hey, what about you and your daughter come to the mall on Saturday… let’s say at six?
I can get her an exclusive meeting with Santa, and we can go have a hot chocolate afterward to get to know each other?
” Biting his bottom lip, he furrowed his brows.
“If that’s okay? I’d still be in costume, so she’d recognize me and might feel more comfortable around me.
Though I’m afraid I can’t spend all my time around you in costume.
Those tights are so fucking itchy, you won’t believe it.
Half the time, I’d be desperate to scratch my balls. ”
My eyes immediately dropped to his crotch.
I couldn’t help but imagine his bulge trapped behind those ridiculous green tights, and…
oh fudge, I was a pervert. Forcing my eyes away from his crotch, I felt my cheeks and ears burning.
If he hadn’t figured out I had a crush on him before, it had to be more than obvious now.
This was the moment he’d retract his invitation and tell me to go to hell—ooo.
But he didn’t.
The silence between us stretched until I couldn’t help but dare a quick glance at his face.
He was smirking at me, the gleam in his eyes telling me my wandering eyes hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Still, he didn’t admonish me or anything.
Instead, his tongue darted out, licking over his bottom lip before pulling it between his teeth.
I couldn’t help but shiver.
“Well, Theo, I’m afraid I need to go, but I’ll see you on Saturday, right?”
I nodded. “At six. At the mall.”
Luci grinned devilishly. “Exactly. At the North Pole, to be exact. Bye.”
He gave me one last indecipherable look before heading back inside.
I didn’t know how long I stood in front of his closed door, desperately trying to get myself back in check and work through everything that had happened, but it must’ve been a while. Because it was my daughter’s impatient voice that finally broke through the fog.
“Daddy, the show is over. I think I need to speak to Mrs. Coleman tomorrow.”
Great, just great. That meant the next parent-teacher night was going to be awkward. Again.
Swallowing a groan, I turned around and went back up the stairs. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
Hazel was waiting for me in the doorway, her arms crossed in front of her. “Mrs. Coleman wasn’t very thorough today. There’s sooo much about lions she didn’t tell us. Did you know…”
I ruffled her hair with a smile while listening to her ramble on about lions, but my mind was still fixed on my adorable, sexy neighbor downstairs. Luci. What an interesting, yet oddly fitting name for him.