14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Walter

I had to have misplaced my elf. There was no other explanation.

I had a security system. It wasn’t as if someone could have broken in and only stolen an elf figurine—unless, of course, the elf was valuable and I just didn’t know it. Still, no one knew I had the damn thing.

It shouldn’t be important at all. It should be inconsequential, just another knick-knack.

But it was my elf, and I really liked it. So much so that I spent the weekend deep-cleaning my house on the off chance that it had landed somewhere I didn’t realize. I even tipped my couch upside down and made sure it hadn’t somehow fallen into the back and was trapped somewhere.

I had lost my mind along with my elf.

Now it was Monday morning. My house was sparkling clean. My elf was nowhere to be found, and I had not heard from Shimmersnap at all. Not a text, not a call, not anything.

I sat at my desk in my office, tapping my pen impatiently on my mouse pad. I should’ve been focusing on work. We had deadlines. It was the end of the year after all, and people wanted their paperwork done. I should’ve been preparing for tax season. Yet all I could think about was that stupid elf and Shimmersnap.

Neither one of them were far from my mind at any given moment.

Shimmersnap reminded me of that elf in a lot of ways. If that elf came to life, I imagined it would be Shimmersnap—all sparkly, bubbly, happy about everything, the polar opposite of me. He was the light to my humdrum darkness, the sparkle to my dull.

I was just about to reach for my phone to call him when Shimmersnap floated into the room carrying a cup of coffee. He set it down in front of me.

“I thought you might need this today,” he said.

I smiled up at him, but it was fake. I hadn’t slept much since losing my elf. But how could I explain that to Shimmersnap? I’d already driven him away with my obsession over the thing.

We had yet to talk about what this attraction was between us. We really needed to. I didn’t want to give him the wrong idea that this was casual for me—we were past that. It was anything but. I was in it for the long haul. Gone were my concerns about him working for me or me not being good enough. I’d make myself good enough for him.

If he’d have me.

I’d find a way to make it happen.

“How was your weekend?” I asked, still hurt that I hadn’t heard from him. Though, he had taken his cues from me. I hadn’t said anything about changing my mind about us working together and being in a relationship.

His brow furrowed. “Good. I visited a friend and, well, I used to work with him, so I kind of got pulled into doing some jobs there.”

Oh. That made me realize just how much I didn’t know about my assistant. Where had he worked before? Where had he lived before? Where did he live now?

“That’s good, I suppose.”

“Yeah, it was fun, but kind of made me realize I made the right choice by being here, you know?”

I smiled. “I’m glad to hear it.”

He flicked his gaze toward the door, then pushed it closed. There was a window to my office, and plenty of people could see in. It wasn’t inappropriate for us to have a closed-door meeting, but I couldn’t help but worry what others out there might be thinking.

“I sort of wanted to talk to you,” he said. My usually confident assistant had a slump to his shoulders and a hesitation in his voice I wasn’t used to.

Oh no, I was going to get the brush-off. I should have seen that coming. Shimmersnap was amazing, and I was… not. I had hoped I had more of a chance to prove to him that I could be the alpha he needed. He was most certainly the omega that I needed.

I wasn’t ready for this conversation.

I took the coward’s way out. “I’m trying to focus on work here at the moment, Shimmersnap, and... well, I still didn’t find my elf figurine. It’s really starting to bother me.” I hoped to put this conversation off. If we had it later, at the end of the day, I could convince him to give me a shot.

“Right,” he said. “That’s sort of related to what I want to talk about.”

My brow furrowed. How could that possibly be related?

A knock sounded on the door, and then it opened. My boss stuck his head in. “Walter, we’re going to need your expertise on this account issue that just came up. Shimmersnap can handle your paperwork for today, right?”

My gut clenched. No, now was not the time for me to be going off and doing something work-related. I wanted to talk with Shimmersnap, or rather, I wanted to sit and think about what I needed to talk to Shimmersnap about and how I could convince him to give me a shot. I had been dumb to think that I could deny the connection between us—a mistake I wouldn’t make again.

“It’s all right,” Shimmersnap said. He turned to me with an expression I couldn’t read. Hope? Concern? “I will see you at the holiday event tonight, right? We’re handing out toys.”

“Yes. You’ll be the elf, right?”

He flinched, then laughed nervously. “The elf. Right. I will be the elf.”

Not wanting to keep my boss waiting, I got up. “Give me a call if you need any help with our projects, okay?”

“He’ll be fine. Come on, Walter. This is a high-end client, and I think you’re the only person who can straighten this out.”

I had my own things I needed to straighten out, and none of them had to do with accounts at work.

My personal life was falling apart before it could even get started.

“I’ll be right there,” I said to my boss.

He left us alone, thankfully.

Shimmersnap wrung his hands in his lap.

“Can we… Can we talk later?” I asked.

Shimmersnap jerked his head up and searched my face. Looking for clues as to what I wanted to talk about? Which direction did he want the conversation to go?

“Of course,” he said.

“I made a mistake.”

His shoulders slumped.

“The first time, I mean. When I pushed you away. If you’re interested—”

“I’m interested.” He perked up and color filled his cheeks, looking more like the Shimmersnap I knew.

Hope glimmered in my chest like a tiny sparkle burning light into my dark. I smiled. “We’ll find a way,” I said. “Even if it means we can’t work together, I’d rather be with you outside of work.”

“Me too.”

I wanted to kiss him. To pull him into my arms, but my boss was insistent that he needed me, and he knocked on the door again. “Walter, let’s go, please!”

“I have to go,” I said.

Shimmersnap grinned. “I’ll be waiting.”