Her Secret Santa - Miley Maine Page 0,15

that I might. I wasn’t sure I was going to do anything in the realm of romance or what might be interpreted to be romantic with any woman any time soon. I was too focused on work, and lately the memories had been pulling at me. It had been over ten years, but I still could not stop thinking about how much I missed her.

It was a devastation I would never get over, and while I knew that moving on was not the same thing as forgetting, moving on was especially cruel at reminding. I didn’t want to be reminded about the love I’d lost anytime I felt anything with a new woman. I’d tried it over and over and it had become too much for me. I would not move on and actually see it through and the woman I was with would eventually leave, and rightfully so. It wasn’t fair to them. I needed to just be single. I’d had my chance at love. And I’d lost it. That was the way it was.

Or at least, that was what I thought...

About an hour after I spoke with Quinton, it was time to begin the Secret Santa program we always did. It was the most fun time of the party in my opinion. We all took turns drawing a name out of a hat as it was passed around and we would seek out this person to be their personal Santa for the time being. We had to buy them a gift or perform any service they needed done.

“Mr. Caplan,” Bryan Johns said on the microphone. I always let him host these things since he was so good at it. He was a natural born comedian and was born to be on stage. He would announce the games, the events, and hand out the door prizes. The guy was a total clown. And a hell of a nice man that I liked to consider a friend.

I ran up to the lectern and shook his hand. “Thank you, Bryan. How is everyone doing? We enjoying the festivities?”

The crowd erupted in cheers. “Fantastic. Glad to hear it. I hope you all get completely hammered tonight. It’s on me.”

Another round of applause. “Ok, let me get this game started.” I drew the name out of the hat.

“Julie Ashby,” I read the name out loud. The crowd cheered, but it was half as much as it had been, mostly because a lot of them did not know who Julie was.

Julie…yes, she was definitely on my radar. I had thought of her a lot since I first met her. Since that time, I’d run into her several times and we always had a nice conversation. She was fun, pleasant, sweet, and she was so smart and talented. She was bringing a lot of greatness to the team and I couldn’t wait to see some of her ideas in action.

But I was very hesitant to get too friendly with her. I had been fairly firm in my convictions that I was not going to let myself get attracted to another employee and have it turn into something. But I couldn't help it. Julie had this thing over me, this hold. When I was around her, I just got lost in her little world. I wanted to hold her, caress her, kiss her, and make beautiful love to her. Dammit, why was I so in lust with her?

It was enough to drive me insane sometimes when I saw her walking through the halls. She had this confident attitude, this sweet shake to her walk that said she meant business and people needed to get out of her way.

“Alright, Julie. I’ll come and find you,” I said with a grin.

I shook Bryan’s hand, and I left the stage. It took me a few moments, but I did find Julie hiding out by the punch bowl. I wasn’t sure how long she’d been at the party. It couldn’t have been too long. I would have noticed her when I was moving around talking to people.

When I saw her, I had to stop mid-step and take her all in. I almost forgot what I was doing, and I didn’t see that someone was walking right in front of me, so I almost collided with them. Luckily, I pulled up just enough right before I collided with them and I was able to do it in a very inconspicuous way. I’m not sure if Julie even noticed it. She was