Chapter 6
Daniel
It’s been two hours, and Amber has not texted me. I honestly thought she would. After all, she has a pretty much impossible job, getting the tinsel up in some semblance of order, in order to make the room look magical.
Maybe underneath that soft exterior, that steel core holds a stubbornness that I’m all too familiar with.
I’m not sure what it is, but I’m supposed to be going over the guest list and making some last-minute phone calls, but instead, I find myself walking back down the hall and heading toward the ballroom. As though pulled by an invisible force.
I laugh at myself. I don’t do this kind of thing. Sure, I’m fun-loving and approachable where my brother is taciturn and known to be a bit of a bear, but I don’t shirk my work.
Still, I find myself opening up the doors to the ballroom and stepping in.
I am not prepared for the sight that greets me.
There is tinsel everywhere. And by everywhere... I guess I don’t mean like hung up and looking beautiful everywhere, I guess I mean scattered on the ground all around Amber, who seems to be...tangled up in it everywhere.
I hesitate. A lot of times when people are caught in situations that are embarrassing or uncomfortable, they get upset at the people who see them. I don’t want her to be embarrassed or to think I’m making fun of her, but it definitely looks to me like she needs help.
I seem to be pulled toward her, but if she reacts badly, that will be a clue that maybe this isn’t the girl for me anyway.
I clear my throat, and that’s all I need to do in order for her head to swivel toward me. Her eyes are wide and her mouth open, as though she’s been caught doing something terribly wrong.
“I didn’t realize that stuff was the attacking kind,” I say, hoping to elicit a laugh rather than anger, because even though in my head I know that if she snaps at me and gets upset, it will show me exactly what kind of person she is and will dissolve my interest immediately, I still don’t want to get yelled at.
Plus, I want her to be more. I want my gut to be right.
After about two seconds of her staring at me without saying anything, two seconds that feel like years, she finally laughs. And shakes her head.
“I guess that should have come with a warning label,” she says, lifting her hands. They’re both draped in tinsel. She bends down as the tinsel moves around her.
It almost makes her look like she’s dressed in a robe of tinsel, which is intriguing and beautiful. And a much better use of the tinsel than hanging it on the wall if you ask me.
“I had no idea it was so difficult to work with,” I say, stepping in and closing the doors behind me.
The previous decorator had all of their own people, and we don’t have anyone to spare to help her. Maybe that’s part of the reason I felt like I needed to come, although even as I think that, I know it’s not. I just wanted to be around her.
“I didn’t realize it either. And I guess this is what you get when you try to hurry. I thought if I got it all out and straightened it up, I’d know how much I have to work with, and...” She sighs, almost as though she’s defeated, and then adds, “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do this. I’ve been telling myself for the last two hours that I can, that it’s a piece of cake, that I can rise to the challenge, that even if it is hard, I can do it, but... Just between you and me? I think it might be too much.”
“Maybe that’s why Sheila had been holding this off until the last thing,” I say, suspecting that maybe Sheila wasn’t having emergency surgery after all. Maybe she took one look at all of the tangled tinsel, stuck it back in its box, and decided that someone else could do the dirty work.
“I wouldn’t blame her if it is. I have no clue how I’m going to get this done.” Then her mouth snaps shut as though she remembers who she’s talking to. “Please don’t tell anyone. At least no one who can fire me. I am going to give it my best shot.”
“I don’t know how you’re going to hang it up by yourself.”
“I figured as long as I had two ladders, it wouldn’t be easy, but I’d be able to get it done.” She grunts. “But I need to get it untangled first. Whoever put this away seemed to be in some kind of mad rage.”
“Do you mind if I help you?” I say that a little tentatively. I know she’s admitted that she’s not sure she can do it, but I don’t know if she will accept my help or even welcome it.
“Don’t you have something else you need to do? I mean, I’m not trying to talk you out of it or say that I don’t want help, but I don’t want to take you from something that you have to do.” Her face scrunches up in an apology. “I don’t want you to get in trouble. It’s one thing if I can’t do the job and I never get hired again, but I don’t want to be the cause of someone else—you—getting fired.”
All right, so she didn’t get mad at me, and not only that, but when I offer to help, she’s more concerned about me than saving her hide and her job. So, I’m definitely more than intrigued. That pull that brought me to her was right on. I love it when my gut is right. Although, I don’t feel it very often. Because I like to think I use logic and reason in order to make my decisions. But Amber is the kind of girl who is more concerned about others than herself, and that’s not the kind of person you run into every day.
“I’m sure I won’t get in trouble. I might have to leave for a few minutes, to make sure that some things are taken care of, but I can work from now until lunchtime easily.”