Kimber Chin

I started this Christmas short a couple years back
and recently rediscovered it.
I’ve always been curious as to how it ends.
Posting it here will encourage me to finish it.

It is long (10,000 words)
so when it is finished,
I’ll have this story available for download as a PDF.

***

She had failed. Her staff. Her mom who partially relied on her income. Everyone. Joy held her face in her hands, her elbows propped up by her knees. She couldn’t think of anything more to do.

“Santa!” An eardrum bursting shriek came from the gate.

Joy’s sharp glance in that direction immediately softened. A little boy was waving hands and feet, trying to get out of his stroller. He couldn’t. He was securely strapped in. And she thought she had problems.

“Robbie, hush. I’m talking to the nice lady.” A harried woman quieted the kid before she turned back to the airline employee. “We have to get on this flight. Please. My mother is expecting us for Christmas.”

“Santa!” Joy followed the kid’s line of sight. A bone thin woman in a long red coat typed into a handheld.

“You don’t understand how important this is,” the mother pleaded. “It will be the first Christmas without… without…” The sentence cut short by a sob.

“I do. I do understand. I also understand that everyone here,” an arm swept across the waiting area, ” wants to go home for Christmas and we can’t fit everyone on this last flight. Who would you have give up their seat?”

Joy sighed, knowing who that person would be. She might not be able to make her own wishes come true but this she could do. She walked to the counter. “I’ll give up my seat.” She handed the ticket to the surprised employee.

“Oh, thank you, thank…”

“It’s nothing.” Joy interrupted, embarrassed by the gratitude. She glanced down. “Are you going to see Grandma?”

“Nana.” The boy corrected and then she was ignored as the lady in the red coat stood. “Santa!”

“One of you will be seeing Nana.” The airline employee jabbed the computer keyboard. “You need another seat.”

“No, that’s okay, Robbie can sit on my lap.” The mom’s eyes were bloodshot. She had been crying. Joy sighed again. Everyone had problems.

“That’s not okay.” The employee scanned the screen, looking everywhere but at the two of them, the lines around her mouth deepening. “He’s two. A child two years or older needs his own seat.”

As the mom’s shoulders slumped in defeat, Joy took up the defense. “He’s a small child,” she lied, the kid’s weight rocking his stroller as he tried to escape. “It’s the holidays. Surely you could make an exception in this case.”

“I would if I could, Miss Monrie.” Joy heard the regret in her voice. “It is FAA regulations.”

“What am I going to do?” the mom moaned. “It’s Christmas Eve. We’re all alone. What am I going to do?”

“How about fly business class?” a familiar voice piped up from directly behind Joy.

Joy straightened, her body immediately reacting as it always did to his presence. What was HE doing here? “Mr. Hamilton,” she managed to squeak out.

“Please, Joy. We’ve had enough breakfasts together for you to call me Tyler.” Brown eyes sparkled.

Both the airline employee and the mom stared at her. “I run a muffin shop,” she hastened to explain. She got a sure-you-do smirk from the employee.

“I missed you.” The words whispered in her ear as he handed over the boarding pass, the mother bubbling over with thank you’s.

Had he missed her? She missed him this week away. He was her favorite customer, always bounding into the shop with a smile and a laugh.

The muffin shop. What was she going to do?

“Business class is full tomorrow, Mr. Hamilton. I can put you on the waiting list but I can’t promise…”

“No business class.” He wasn’t wasting this opportunity. “Put me in the seat next to Miss Monrie and I’ll be forever grateful.” Tyler leaned over the counter. “I love her muffins.” He loved everything about Joy. With each generous act, he watched the young mother tickling her son’s cheeks, he loved her more.

“That I can do.” The employee blinked back at him, a hint of a smile on her otherwise grim face. “Early flight or late?”

That was up to his favorite muffin lady. “Joy, hon?” His parents and his romance reading sister would forgive him missing the Christmas lunch. He would make it up to his niece. A Barbie tea party for the two of them, no, he glanced down at the woman beside him, the three of them.

Joy’s mouth twisted, there were dark shadows under her big blue eyes. She needed that tea party more than Brit. “I have to be at my mom’s for dinner.” All American being closed on Christmas.

“Is the two o’clock available?” Tyler gave the woman his best smile.

“It is. I’ll give you an exit row. Extra leg room.”

“I appreciate it, Cheryl.” He read off her nametag. “I want to be fresh to meet my future mom-in-law. Bit nervous, you know. A lot resting on this dinner.”

“Mom-in-law?” Joy bumped into him, as he hoped she would. “You buy your breakfast from me. That’s it. We haven’t even had a date.”

“Second breakfast, I’d like it to be more, and I keep asking…” And she kept saying no. He didn’t know why.

“I don’t date customers.”

His beloved was such a poor liar. He widened his eyes. “You’d make me choose between you and your muffins? You’re a cruel woman, Joy Monrie.” Soon to be Joy Hamilton.

“I don’t have time for romance.” That answer, unfortunately rang with truth.

“You have time tonight.” Much to his delight. “I know. I had Mother Nature clear your schedule.”

***

Read Part 2 of Bumped on November 11th.