Holiday Escort (4 page)

"Cheeky girl," she whispered in my ear.

"You don't owe me another dance if you don't want to," I told her. "If you step away from me again, I'll let you go, but otherwise I'm happy to dance all night."

She ha
d lost track of which foot I was on, so she offered a weight shift. I was hooked, my right foot hooked behind my left ankle, so when she shifted, I didn't.
She did another weight shift.

"I can't tell what foot you're on."

"Sorry. You ended the last song with me hooked. I'm on my left." I tapped her shoulder with my left hand for emphasis.

She stepped forward and we were dancing again.

"You're better than I am," she said.

"You're a better lead than I am," I said. "And the only girlfriend slash
boyfriend slash
boss I've ever had who could tango. These are nice dances for me."

She laughed quietly.

At one point in the dance, she hesitated. I think she'd lost the music. But to me a hesitation is an invitation for an embellishment. I leaned into her and wrapped my leg around hers. She caught her breath and I smiled into her ear.

"If you can't handle it, don't invite it," I told her playfully.

She stepped forward, causing a
secada
, which turned into a
molinete
. I don't think she was expecting that, but she went with it.
"Did I lead that?" she asked.

"Yes."

The dance finished and she set me firmly on my feet. "Thank you, Madeline."

When she stepped away, I let her go. "Thank you, Karen." We stared at each other for a moment. She was stunning. She turned away.
She looked upset.

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked her.

"No. Jessica was the dancer. This space was my gift to her."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know. I won't ask again."

"No. It's time." She turned back. "She taught me to dance and insisted I learn to lead because she liked to follow. For a while, we danced here for an hour or two every night. Then I started working longer hours, and we were dancing less and less." She paused. "I should have listened when she kept asking me to dance." Karen walked over to the stereo and turned it off before turning back to me.

"Will you dance with me again tomorrow night?"

I smiled. "Karen, I'll dance with you as much as you want."

* * *

Lying in bed that night, I couldn't stop thinking about the dancing. About how good it felt when Karen held me.

"Do not be an idiot,
Maddy
," I actually said out loud. "
She is a she
.
Thus, not your type.
"

* * *

I made sure I got up when Karen did. I heard her shower. I
pulled on a bathrobe and
waited outside her room until the shower ended. I knocked at her door. "Karen?"

"Madeline?"

I opened the door. "I didn't ask what you do about breakfast."

"I'm in the bathroom. Come on through."

I stepped in and found her in front of the mirror, primping. "I normally get coffee and a
bagel on the way to the office,
"
she said.

"Espresso or coffee?"

"Coffee. Cream. But there's no coffee. I haven't used the coffee maker."

"Ever?"

"Jessica."

"Sorry."

"Stop apologizing."

"I'm sorry."

She caught me smirking at her.

"Plain or blueberry?" I asked her.

"Blueberry coffee?"

"Don't be silly. No one would make blueberry coffee. Blueberry bagels, on the other hand
, are pretty good
."

"I don't have time to wait for you to hit the bagel shop."

I gave her The Look. "Karen. Listen very carefully. I am the best personal assistant in the Twin Cities area. Do you really think I would make you wait for a bagel?"

"Blueberry," she said, laughing.

By the time Karen came downstairs, I had a travel coffee mug ready for her and a bagel toasted with cream cheese. "Is this right, or in the future do you want it packed to eat at the office?"

"This is amazing. Thank you," she said. She started to head for the door.

"Hey!" I said. "Fake girlfriend here. Where's my fake kiss?"

She laughed then walked up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"That's better," I said.

* * *

I show
er
ed, had my own bagel,
then
planned the day.

The Christmas cards were first. Karen's contacts list was two hundred and forty-one names long. I logged onto the same site where I used to buy cards for Marsha and ordered three hundred for overnight delivery. I made sure she had all the software I would need for addressing the cards so it looked like they were addressed by hand. Doing them all manually would take way too long.

I looked around for a tape measure. I never found a single tool. I estimated sizes, drawing a floor plan of the house.

Finding a handyman took five phone calls. The fifth call was the right one.

"Handyman Fred," he said, answering his phone.

"
Hello, Fred.
I need help in Plymouth, either this afternoon or Frid
ay, with Christmas decorations, mostly stringing lights in the trees and hanging garland."

"I can give you this afternoon," he said. "Friday is booked."

"You'll need your own ladders. Is that a problem?"

"Nope. I've done this before. I can go up to two stories. I can string fruit trees, but I won't make it to the top of a really big tree."

"That's perfect."

He'd promised to arrive at one. I had four hours to buy everything I needed.

I started at the hardware store. I bought basic tools, picture hanging hardware, and lots and lots of lights. I could bring back anything extra. I added exte
nsion cords. A nearby church had
a Christmas tree lot. I stopped in and made sure they had plenty of good trees and garland, but I didn't buy one yet. I then drove to the mall and started buying decorations.

It's easy to buy Christmas decorations. Buying some that aren't cheap is harder. By the time I got out of the mall, I had forty-five minutes left. I stopped back at the church and picked out a tree and a lot of garland. I arrived back at the house minutes before Fred arrived.

"I'm Fred," he said.

"Thanks for coming, Fred. I'm Madeline. I need you to set up the tree for me, but we need to move the furniture around first. Then we'll do the trees and exterior garlands. After that, we'll see how much time you have left."

Fred was a professional. We rearranged all the furniture in the great room,
then
he carried the tree in and set it up. We both stepped back and looked.

"There's a balance problem," he said.

"That's what I was thinking."

We rearranged three times before we both declared it perfect.

I showed him everything I bought. "We can use as much garland outside as we want. Whatever is left over goes inside.
For the lights, I want understated outside."

He used a ladder to arrange the garland around the front entrance. But when stringing lights in the trees, he used a long extensible pole. It went amazingly quickly with both of us working on it together. We plugged it all in, and it looked amazing.

"Garland and lights around the garage doors, too, I think," I said. Those were the only lights we put on the house.

We moved back inside. I had an hour left of his time. There were two tall, bare walls in Karen's great room. "Do you have a ladder?"

"Of course."

I'd bought tapestries for the walls. He hung them for me. Then we draped garland practically everywhere. We strung lights on the tree and swapped out all of the artwork in the house for more cheerful winter scenes. We looked around the house together then I turned to him. "You're amazing, Fred." I hugged him. "Thank you. I'll need an invoice."

* * *

I texted Karen.
"Text me when you are in your car and leaving. Dinner will be ready for you when you pull up."

"Expect six thirty," was the response.

Dinner would be
stir fry
. I chopped everything up and had it ready to go. Then I ran around the house, getting as much as
I could get done by six
.
After that, a quick shower, primp, and I dressed in a little black dress.

Karen called at six forty. "Madeline, I am leaving the parking garage."

* * *

Dinner was nearly ready when she pulled up. The rice was done, the food was done, and I had raided her wine cellar for a bottle. She entered via the laundry room and I met her with a glass of wine.

"You put up lights outside."

I smiled.
"Before I let you further into the house, I need to tell you. I'm not done. I need at least another day, then I'll be tweaking for a week or so."

She offered a funny look. That's when I walked backwards, letting her into her house.

The kitchen was only lightly decorated, so she didn't see the big changes right away. Then she turned to the right. Her jaw dropped.

She walked around the house, looking at everything I had done. She didn't say a word.

"Is this what you envisioned?"

She turned to me. "No."

My face fell.

"It's significantly better than anything I could have envisioned. It's brilliant."

I began to beam, happy that I had pleased her.

She turned and looked at me. "You dressed for me again." I nodded. "Are you going to do this every night?" I nodded. "Do I have time to change before dinner?"

"No more than ten minutes," I said. "Faster would be better." She nodded, handed me her wine glass, and headed upstairs.

By the time she came back down, I had everything on the dining room table and the candles lit. Her glass was at her place, and I stood waiting for her. She came down wearing a bright red dress. I realized it was a tango dress. I grinned.

She spent the meal praising the house, the meal, and my dress. I couldn't stop smiling from all the praise. Eventually I realized she was babbling and I was acting like a golden retriever, ecstatic to be praised.

"Karen," I told her. "So far I stayed downstairs. There is a lot to do here yet, and I barely touched the basement. I haven't done anything upstairs. Do I have permission to decorate your bedroom, or do you want me to leave it alone."

"You don't have to decorate my bedroom," she said.

"That's not what I asked."

She smiled at me. "I'd love if you did."

We finished dinner and she told me, "I need to work for another hour or so. I want you to find me precisely at nine and make me dance with you." She paused. "You are not to accept 'no' for an answer. Or I'll work until midnight."

I laughed.

She worked in her office with the door closed. I began hanging decorations from the tree. Precisely at nine, I knocked on her door and entered without waiting. "It's nine, girlfriend," I told her.

"Ten more minutes," she said without looking up.

I retreated and closed the door and smiled. I walked downstairs and put on a pair of dance shoes. I then found a pair of hers that would match her dress and carried them back upstairs. I knocked and entered.

"That wasn't ten minutes," she said. I didn't respond but instead walked over to her and pulled her chair away from the desk. "Hey!" she complained. I rotated her chair towards the door, then knelt down in front of her and began putting her shoes on. She stared at me. Then I stood up, grabbed her hands, and pulled her to her feet.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Following orders." I looked directly into her eyes. She looked pissed. I didn't back down or look away.

"I'm sorry, I'm countermanding those orders," she said. "I need to finish this."

"No. You're done for the night. You are coming downstairs and dancing with me for an hour, then
you are going to bed
."

"I think you're forgetting who is paying whom." She put a lot of steel into it.

I
smiled and
pulled Karen
towards the door
. I thought she was going to fight me further, but s
he followed me
docilely
into the basement. She stopped and stared as soon as we entered the dance hall.

"I thought you said you hadn't been down here."

"It's just a garland and some lights," I said. "Barely a start
.
"