Chapter 17
Penny
“Penn?” Keira’s voice carries across the storage room.
It’s Saturday morning—another lap-sitting event is happening downstairs—and I am currently upstairs, elbow deep in a cardboard box full of Christmas panties.
“In here!” I shout, my voice muffled as I dive into the box headfirst.
“What are you doing?” she asks when she reaches me, my feet tipping in the air. She yanks my skirt down where it’s riding up my thighs.
I emerge from the box, out of breath. “Looking for XL Ho panties. A lady needed an extra-large yesterday, and I promised her I’d find her some this weekend. I’ll be damned if our plus-sized customers can only find small and extra small options available at our store.”
“I wasn’t aware we carried ‘ho panties,’” Keira says.
“They say ho, ho, ho on the butt,” I explain. “Those suckers fly off the shelves this time of year. They market themselves.”
“Cool, cool,” she says, not sounding all that interested. “When I asked what you’re doing just now, I was really asking ‘why are you up here in storage with your ass in the air when you should be in Santa’s Village handling Matthew?’”
“Matthew?” I scoff. “Since when do you call him Matthew? I mean, is that even his full name?”
“I would assume so.”
“Could be Matthias,” I say. “Or Mathilda. Mattholomew, maybe?”
Keira looks at me curiously. “You’re hiding from him, huh?”
“Hiding from who?”
“Mattholomew.” She smiles.
“I’m not hiding from anyone,” I say and promptly dive back into the box.
If I’ve learned anything this week, there is no hiding from Matt Barbera.
He’s everywhere. But the scary thing is, I no longer seem to mind.
In fact, I look forward to seeing him. At Herald’s.
At Holiday Schmoliday rehearsal (I still can’t believe that is the actual title).
And at this very moment, I’m actively hoping Keira will ask me to do her another favor and film more workouts with Matt so I can begrudgingly say yes and see him at Bossfit too.
For the record, I can’t stand Bossfit.
But I sure do like Mattholomew.
Matt.
I like Matt.
I finally find a few pairs of the XL briefs that I was honest-to-god looking for and triumphantly hold them up to Keira. “See? Mission accomplished!”
“Great. Now we can go back down to Santa’s Village.” She gestures to the door knowingly.
“You realize my responsibilities as assistant manager don’t just disappear because horny women want to sit on a sexy Santa Claus.” I put a hand on my hip.
“True.” She nods. “But last time I checked, we have plenty of sales associates on the floor who can help customers find what they need. Besides, ‘adult hour’ is over. Kids are up next.”
“Oh.” I immediately grab my phone and thermos and head for the door.
Seeing Matt with the kids really is the cutest thing.
“Yeah, oh,” Keira says, a mischievous grin on her face.
“What?” I say defensively.
She holds her hands up. “Nothing.”
My phone rings as we approach the elevator. I check the screen. Five missed calls from my mother. And that’s just from this morning. She called four times yesterday and three times the day before that. Seems her campaign to get me to Connecticut next weekend is ramping up.
Keira peeks at my phone. “She’s still at it, huh?”
“You know it,” I sigh.
I press the elevator button, and we ride down to Herald’s main floor. This time of year, we employees always ride the freight elevators and avoid the crowds. So for the moment, it’s blissfully quiet.
“I’m sorry,” Keira says. “I wish that relationship were easier for you.”
“Me too,” I give her hand a squeeze and pocket my phone. “Speaking of challenging relationships, what’s the latest with Tagg?”
“You’re about to see for yourself. Yay!” She faux cheers. “He’s here with the kids for their annual Santa pic. We’re trying to keep things as normal for them as we can, ya know?”
“You’re an incredible mom. Do I tell you that enough?”
“It’s not your job to build me up,” she says. “But, hey, I’ll take all the encouragement I can get these days.”
“Well then, consider me your personal hype squad,” I say. “You’re amazing. Truly.”
The elevator dings at our destination. I wrap my arm around my friend as we head to Santa’s Village. We arrive to find Tagg standing with his back to us, encouraging their kids to smile and “say cheese” as they happily surround Matt.
“Wow,” Keira says. “The line moved fast.”
We stand and watch the proceedings in silence. Keira waves to her kids. Her eyes go misty, and I’m not sure what she’s thinking.
I clear my throat. “It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. I’m really sorry you’re going through this. I know you and the kids will come out on the other side of it stronger and happier. And I am one hundred percent here for you as you navigate all the next steps.”
“We pressed pause on the divorce proceedings,” she says, her tone flat.
“You did? Why?” I pause. “Sorry, I want to be supportive, but— god, why?”
“Please don’t give me a hard time about this, Penn,” she pleads.
I place a hand on her shoulder. “Of course not. You’ll get no hard time from me. You just—You seemed so sure a few weeks ago.”
“Yeah, well, I was really hurt.”
“With good reason!”
“I know!” She peers over at Tagg, then looks away. “Believe me, when I think of him with what’s-her-name, I want to scream. But—” She throws her hands up. “He says he made a mistake. He says he broke it off with what’s-her-name. He wants to try again.”
“And is he? Trying?” I don’t think I do a great job of hiding the doubt in my voice. I’m not convinced at all that Tagg deserves a second chance after what he did.
“Yes?” she says rather unconvincingly.
“Keir…”
“I don’t want my kids growing up in a broken home, okay? That’s what I had with my parents, and it sucked!”
“I hear that,” I say softly. “I do.”
We watch Tagg and the kids head to the photo kiosks to look at their images.
“Are you open to another perspective, though?” I continue.
She takes a breath and gestures for me to go ahead.
“I grew up wishing my parents would get a divorce. The number of fights and tension and, gosh, disrespect I had to witness between them? I think it would have been better for all of us if they’d called it quits.
And try to remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all situation for what a family is supposed to look like.
Your kids can still have a beautiful childhood, no matter what you and Tagg decide. ”
Keira nods and sniffs. “Thank you, Penny. You’re a good friend.”
“Last batch of kids before the break!” Dottie announces as she sidles up beside us, full of bubbly energy. This has been her overall vibe since she and Leo made things official. “What’s the scoop, ladies? What are we talking about?”
“Matt and Penny had sex in Santa’s House!” Keira blurts.
Where the hell did that come from?
“How did you know that?” I squeak. “I mean, that’s not what we were talking about! And no, we did not!”
I need to simmer down. Because at this moment, I am the epitome of “the lady doth protest too much.”
Dottie narrows her gaze on me. “You were all flushed when you came back to conference room two last Saturday, and then you hid upstairs the rest of the afternoon…”
“She sure did,” Keira says, suddenly full of energy. “And now, here we are again, and you can barely look at him without your eyelashes going fluttery and your breath getting all choppy!”
I tilt my head and study Keira. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this. I see you trying to matchmake with me and Matt. Cool it, okay?”
“I’m sorry! Your love life is just way more interesting and promising than mine.”
“I have no love life! Matt and I are just friends!” My shout startles a shopper walking by. I smile at her in silent apology.
“Ooooooh,” Keira coos. “When did you become friends?”
“Since my friend Keira became weirdly obsessed with me, and I figured it was time I found a new one.” I glare at her.
Matt chooses that exact moment to approach us. He’s dressed in his civilian clothes for lunch break, no trace of Santa on him.
“Hey, Penn,” he says.
“Hey, Matt. How’s, uh, how’s the lap sitting going today?”
I make a special point to keep my breath smooth and my eyelashes unfluttered in case Keira is taking notes on my reaction to him.
“Good, good. Nice to spend some out-of-school time with the Klaus crew.” He smiles at Keira.
“Thank you for being so kind to them,” she says. “They really love Mr. B.”
“Well, they’re great kids.” He checks behind him to make sure they’re not within earshot. “Hey, they’re still believers, right? I hope having their PE teacher dressed as Santa doesn’t mess with the Christmas magic you’ve got going on.”
“All good on that front.” Keira gives him a thumbs-up. “I told them the real Santa couldn’t be at Herald’s this weekend, so you are one of his kind and muscular helpers. Now they think you’re even cooler than they did before. If that’s possible.”
“Matt, hon, we didn’t get your lunch order today,” Dottie says. “Can I call something in for you?”
“’Preciate it, Dot, but no thanks. My buddy Gene and I are going to head out for lunch today if that’s okay?”
“Of course it’s okay!” she says.
It’s then that I notice Eugene by the exit, buttoning two little boys into their coats.
“He brought two of his niblings over to get their pics with me,” Matt explains. “He gave them a similar story about Uncle Matt being one of Santa’s helpers.” He nudges Keira. “Though he left out the ‘kind and muscular’ part.”
“That’s so sweet,” Keira says dreamily, her eyes not on Matt, but firmly on Eugene.
Well, well, well. Looks like Keira has a crush.
“Care to join us?” Matt asks.
It takes me a moment to realize his focus is on me.
“Oh. Me?” I ask.
“Unless you’re committed to another Cobb salad.” His expression makes his feelings on Cobb salads clear. “No offense, Dot.”
“None taken.” She playfully swats his shoulder.
“Well? What do you think?” Matt waits, wide-eyed for my answer.