Merry Christmas

Lana gave a disgruntled sigh as she tried to balance all of the used glasses onto her tray. Despite bartending in LA’s most exclusive clubs for years, she still tried to stack more on the tray than logically possible to lessen the amount of trips she took. This was a completely different scenario though. She was in her friend Rosie’s expensive bachelorette pad, clearing a table in the early hours of the morning after a humungous Christmas party. Rosie had insisted that Lana joined the bartending crew, but hadn’t mentioned at the time that she had to wear a Santa’s helper dress that was too short and bright red heels that were too tall. Trying to balance and keep her dress low enough was partly why it was difficult to focus on loading the glasses onto the tray.

The other reason why her mind was so distracted was because of Tom. He had ordered drinks from her many times throughout the night, constantly charming her with flirtatious yet genuine remarks and his gorgeous English accent. Lana had continually kept one eye on him during the party, spotting him turning down Rosie’s attempts to seduce him, dancing like nobody was watching, and joyously drinking beers with his male friends. She had become so intrigued by the man and was disappointed that she hadn’t gotten his number by the time the party had cleared. Now only a few of Rosie’s best friends remained, as well as the other bartenders, cleaning up as much of the mess possible that was on both storeys as well as out on the patio.

Finally Lana gave up on trying to squeeze the beer mug on the tray and she headed back towards the kitchen. In her mind she replayed some of the hilarious moves that Tom had busted out while dancing and she chuckled to herself. She rounded the corner and slammed into the person coming down the stairs. Lana frantically tried to prevent the empty glasses from falling and so did the man she had bumped into, despite carrying his own load of empty trays that had once held a variety of food.

“I am so sorry,” Lana breathed as she looked up to see who it was. Her pink cheeks darkened from further embarrassment when she saw it was Tom.

“It’s fine; I didn’t drop anything,” he said politely as he gazed down at the beauty he had been captivated by all night long. Tom wouldn’t deny that the things that had first attracted his attention were her long exposed legs, as they were perfectly curved in his opinion, but after having chatted to her many times he quickly learnt that she was a delight to speak to. It appeared to him as though Lana had a never-ending list of jokes that he adored, a laugh and smile to die for, and a surprising passion for theatre. Tom decided to take a risk and leant in for a kiss, which Lana gladly accepted despite being surprised.

“Why…?” she trailed off when they broke apart, wondering why it had taken him all night.

“Mistletoe,” Tom said with a gesture to above them. Lana spotted the mistletoe dangling from the ceiling and grinned wildly, still in disbelief that she had kissed the amazing man who she had thought she would never see again. Tom pulled out a business card with his cell phone number on it and then slipped the card with ease into the top of Lana’s dress. “Merry Christmas.”