Chapter 6 Intriguing

• *Patrick*
• Emily's was the last face I wanted to see. I'd been having such a good time with the other volunteers and the intriguing woman.
• I honestly hadn’t thought about Emily since before the Santa Claus Ball. I’d been too focused on trying to find my mistletoe match. I’d checked all three bakeries in the next town over to no avail. Of course, it didn’t help that I didn't have a description of the woman I was looking for. All I knew was she was about five-foot-nine in heels and she was between twenty-one and twenty-five per the Santa Claus Ball’s rules for the first round of the Mistletoe Mystery.
• I should have known that Emily was going to pop back into my life again after I decided to get back in the dating world. She and I had been broken up for a year now, but she still weaseled her way back to me at least once a month. She’d probably heard from one of my friend’s friends that I attended the Santa Claus Ball and wanted to make sure that I hadn’t met anyone else.
• “What do you want?” I asked her, all the joy that had been built up in me melting at the sight of her smug little smile.
• I used to think it was cute when she clung to me or when she acted innocent and frail. But it didn’t take long to realize it was just an act. And I wasn’t falling for it anymore.
• “Why do you say that every time you see me?” she asked, touching my arm.
• My initial reaction was to turn and walk away, but I looked over my shoulder to see a couple of the other volunteers still hanging around. I didn’t want to cause a scene in the middle of the parking lot, but I couldn’t help but flinch away from her touch. I couldn’t trust her anymore. I had no desire to be in her presence or to hear the gaslighting and the fishing for compliments that always came from being around Emily.
• “I thought you might like that I wore my hair like this,” she said, pulling her hand through it and tossing it behind her shoulder. “You couldn’t keep your eyes off of me when I wore it down and kept it long like this.”
• I crossed my arms and stared over her head at the muddy bumper of the cars in the background.
• “Well, no matter,” she said. Even though I wasn’t looking at her, I could feel the effort she was putting into her smile to try to appear charming. “It’s been a while since I saw you and I was around, so I thought I’d surprise you with a visit.”
• I sighed and closed my eyes. I truly didn’t understand why she thought this tactic would work on me anymore.
• “What?” she asked with feigned innocence. “I’m not allowed to want to see you?”
• I crossed my arms even tighter across my chest. “How did you find out I was here anyway?” I asked.
• The corner of her mouth twitched wickedly. She really had no shame. “You know I have connections,” she said offhandedly. Like that was supposed to impress me.
• “Just tell me why you’re here.”
• Emily’s smile collapsed a bit. “I already told you. I wanted to see you.”
• I shook my head. I needed to really start putting my foot down if I was ever going to get rid of her. “It’s been a year, Emily. You have to start leaving me alone.”
• She scoffed. “The biggest mistake I ever made was letting you walk away from me,” she said, rubbing my bicep and sliding her hand over my shoulder.
• I stepped away again. “That was my decision,” I said firmly. “You didn’t let me do anything. I chose to walk away from you because of the liar you are.”
• She pressed her lined lips in a straight line and stared at me fiercely. It seemed like she wasn’t going to make this easy.
• “Just go home,” I told her before she could say anything else.
• “I want to talk,” she said quickly with that whine that I used to find adorable.
• “There’s nothing left to talk about. Let me move on.” I stared straight at her. “You need to move on.”
• Emily crossed her arms. “With who?”
• “With anyone else!” I said, accidentally raising my voice a little.
• She huffed. “Not me. You. Who is it that you want to ‘move on’ with?” she asked with finger quotes.
• The first woman that crossed my mind was my mystery mistletoe match. I’d been trying so hard the last few days to find her. And now there was this funny, intriguing volunteer. There were good women out there, right? Surely they weren’t all like Emily. I wasn’t sure how I had gotten trapped with Emily for so long, but I wanted to be rid of her. As far as I was concerned, she was fossilized into the previous year.
• “Just go home,” I repeated, choosing not to engage. If I had mentioned anyone, she would have probably taken that opportunity to find a new target or a new digging point.
• She curled up her nose. “You loved me once,” she said. “You’ll love me again.”
• Apparently she didn’t know that I was a different man then. Now I was stronger. I had more self-respect. I wasn’t naive anymore.
• After staring me down for a solid silent minute, she swiveled on her heel and left. I waited until I saw her get in her car and drive away before I went back to see if any of the volunteer group was still there.
• One guy, Jason, was loading the extra stuff into one of the city vehicles. “Is anyone else left?” I asked.
• He shook his head. “I think they all took off about five minutes ago.”
• Another woman to an interruption–it was too bad. She was kind of nice. She was cute. I might have asked her out someday if I couldn’t find the mysterious woman from the party. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be fair to her to come in second like that.
• I caught up with Andrew, who had started to drive away before he spotted Emily and decided to watch us from afar. “Wanna go out?” he asked.
• I wasn’t sure what version of ‘go out’ he meant, but I agreed.
• * * *
• The next morning, I got out of bed with a full buzzing mind. It wasn’t that I had any drinks when I went out with Andrew, but rather that I had a strange dream about the intriguing volunteer woman. I couldn’t quite place the events, but I felt like in the dream we knew each other. Maybe it was because we got along so well and my mind was so desperate to find my mistletoe match. It was a fuzzy dream, like when you’re looking through a frost-covered window. But I knew she had been there.
• Too bad I would probably never be able to find her again either.
• On top of the strange dream and the general grogginess I felt most mornings, as soon as I looked at my phone, I had about twelve more things making my mind buzz. Emily had sent me a message every forty five minutes since we parted the night before. I couldn’t say that I was surprised. If anything, she was persistent when she wanted something. I just wished I wasn’t on her radar anymore.
• ‘I miss you.’
• ‘Don’t you miss me?’
• ‘Is there someone else?’
• ‘How could I ever love someone other than you?’
• ‘Why won’t you talk to me?’
• ‘What did I do to make you hate me?’
• ‘Let’s try again.’
• Now, my phone buzzed again. I saw that it was from her, but rather than reading it, I simply deleted it and tossed my phone onto my bed. I heard it buzz again.
• This just wasn’t going to end, not until I played a bit colder. I grabbed my phone from my twisted mess of sheets, brought up Emily’s contact, and blocked her. I didn’t feel the slightest tinge of guilt after I did it. I knew it was for the best. This was the official start of the official end.
• I had a full day ahead of me and much more pressing things to think about. With the commencement of Christmas and the first of December over, there were a lot of calls for installing and wiring special Christmas displays and lights. That was probably eighty percent of my work in December. I didn’t mind, though. I felt like I got to help fuel the town with the light and magic of Christmas.
• I wondered what kind of thoughts my mystery match had about Christmas. I wondered what her name was, what she did for work, what she did for hobbies. I wondered where in Noel she lived. Or was she there at all? I was beginning to doubt that I’d actually seen her get in that van. Or maybe it was her friend’s van or her friend worked at the bakery. Heck, maybe she’d stolen it for all I knew.
• I rolled my eyes at myself. Even after being tricked by Emily for nearly two years in our relationship, I trusted myself not to pine over car thieves. I thought I had a better sense of character than that.
• Then again, I had been, oh, so wrong about Emily. It still stung, if I was being honest, mostly because I was mad at myself for believing her con for so long. I wondered whether my mystery match would treat me the same way. I doubted it.
• As crazy as it might have been to most people, I was totally taken in by her. She didn’t have to do anything to hold my interest, except for the time we spent and our first kiss.
• I pulled on a work polo and a pair of work jeans and looked at myself in the mirror. I tugged a dark blue hat on over my wild hair and gave myself a stern look in the eye. “I just know you’ll find her,” I told myself. Then I patted on some after-shave and headed off for work.
• Throughout the day, I saw some postings for volunteer work and some other Christmas events around town. I thought it might be nice to run into the intriguing volunteer woman again if the chance occurred, but mostly I was holding out for the mistletoe woman. I figured if she attended the Santa Claus Ball, then maybe she would be at some of the other events in town. And maybe I should do some work or attend some events in Noel, too. That way, I could cover more bases.
• When I got home from work and collapsed on the couch after a shower, I looked online and found a local toy drive event. It was in a couple of weeks, and I didn’t want to wait that long. But I was willing to take every opportunity I could.
• To make myself feel better, I also told myself that it was for the kids, not just to find my mystery woman. I enjoyed kids, and I really did want to support them. Christmas was always so important to me as a kid, so I wanted to make sure these other kids had some of those beautiful, uplifting experiences too.
• Whether I found the girl or not, I decided it would be worth it to go, so I called to register.