a christmas miracle

five

Charlie's shop was insanely busy in the first few days of the New Year, thanks to many people's resolutions to read more. He found himself glad that he'd had the foresight to hire an extra couple of young assistants to get through this busy period. Otherwise, his usual staff would probably have burnt out and quit within two days.

At the end of another busy day, Charlie had sent his staff home for the night and he was finishing up tidying things away and closing the til when there was a knock at the front door.

Looking up, he smiled, Nick was waving cheerfully through the glass with one hand, the other balancing two takeaway cups of something hot; the steam fogging up the window. Charlie set down the books he'd been holding and hurried to let Nick in from the freezing cold.

"Hi."

"Hey, thought you might appreciate a caffeine boost at the end of the day." Nick handed over one of the takeaway cups and Charlie lifted it to smell the coffee.

"Thanks. Where's Élodie?" They moved away from the door to where the heater was actually able to warm them both.

"Having a play date with another girl from school. I thought I'd use my rare free time to say 'hi' to you, and see if you want to get dinner, maybe?" Nick's eyes drifted to the pile of books sat on the counter and the hope in his eyes faded a little.

Charlie followed his gaze and let out a little laugh, "Believe it ot not, that's not work. That's my Christmas gift to myself."

"Oh." The hope reignited in Nick's eyes.

"I didn't get a second to pick them up before Christmas and I had some time today, so..." Charlie trailed off. He didn't want to admit the somewhat dorky deal he'd made with himself to help choose which books he would get for Christmas.

"I get it. I meant you saw how frantic I was about getting Èlodie's gift and she's my daughter. The one person I spend my whole entire day focused on."

"Fair enough. Well, I just have to lock up the back room and then I'm all yours. I can leave the books here until tomorrow, although I wouldn't mind some help getting them all back to my flat." It wasn't until Charlie noticed the faint red blush creeping up Nick's neck and cheeks that he realised what his request sounded like.

"Um..."

"No. No, I didn't mean, um, I just meant actually help getting them to my flat. You don't have to. Or if you do, you don't have to come inside. I can run upstairs and you can wait outside. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I just...just jumped to conclusions." Nick rubbed a hand over the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm happy to help you carry the books, but I think I'll wait outside, if that's alright?"

"Of course. Just give me five minutes to lock up."

Charlie made quick work of closing down the shop for the night and carefully stacking his new books into carry bags before joining Nick outside in the cold.

They fell into step beside each other, chatting about anything that came to mind. Nick asked about the huge stack of books they were currently dragging through the streets of London and Charlie asked about Èlodie. The conversation was easy and before they knew it, Charlie's building was in front of them.

"Give me ten minutes to get them upstairs and I'll be back." Charlie smiled, taking the bag Nick had been carrying.

"Sure. I'll be here."

Charlie hurried up to his flat, struggling with the heavy bags of books. Usually he would now spend a couple of hours sorting them into his shelves but today, he carefully set the bags in the corner of his living room and rushed to the bathroom to make sure he didn't look a complete mess for a date with Nick. His heart fluttered at the thought of the beautiful man currently waiting downstairs for him.

How was he so lucky that he'd met this perfect man?