Despite the help that Landon and Holly gave her, Daphne still found herself working late. Their help had been excellent and had maybe taken two to three hours of work off her plate. But it still wasn’t enough.


    She sighed, taking a quick glance at her cellphone to see what time it was. Six thirty already, she thought. Okay, I can probably work for another half hour and then I’ll head straight to the café to meet up with Gary.


    She nodded her head at herself, and put her phone away, going back to her tasks at hand. It’s unfortunate that I’m still going to have so much to tackle when I come back to work after Christmas, she thought. How miserable.


    But without Landon and Holly it would have been way worse, she added, typing on her computer. Her heart warmed a little at the thought of them. I would have never guessed I would have such kind allies on my side. It has always felt as though no one at this company was on my side. I would have been here all night without their help.


    Daphne switched her focus to putting together a slideshow for one of the projects she had been helping to manage. As she was copying and pasting the text the project director had asked her to put into the deck, her mind started drifting to Gary.


    I can’t believe we’re going to spend our first Christmas together this weekend, she thought. I really hope that this is still just the beginning of our time together. Her heart felt warm and fuzzy in her chest. I really like him. He’s so sweet.


    Her mind drifted to when the two of them had first met. It was at the same café they usually used as their meet up spot, only a few, easy, walkable blocks from her apartment complex.


    Similar to the morning she’d had earlier, the day that she’d met Gary, she’d also been having a very difficult start to her day.


    And then, to make matters worse, I tripped over that college student’s laptop cable, she thought, shaking her head at herself. My coffee ended up all over the floor… She giggled a little, thinking of that moment.


    She had been frustrated that she was going to have to clean up coffee, go back to her apartment, change her clothes…tears had pricked her eyes at the idea that she wasn’t even going to have her favorite coffee at work to get through her day.


    And that was when I saw his hands beginning to clean up the mess I had made, she thought, a smile blossoming across her face. I looked up, and there had been his cloudy colored blue eyes. Her heart skipped a beat at the memory, as she copied some more text into the slide deck.


    She knew she would never forget that he had cleaned up the majority of her spill that day. He had also ordered her another coffee as she ran home and changed. When she made it back to the coffee shop, he’d been standing outside waiting for her, his hair shining under the early morning June sun. Her heart had also shone in that moment, in a way that it hadn’t in such a long time.


    He asked for my number, she thought, gently chewing on her lip. And we agreed to meet up at the café again.


    Over the following two and a half weeks, they’d met up at the café around eight times, and as they saw each other more, Daphene’s heart became more and more excited to see him. It had been years since her last romantic relationship, and at twenty-six years old, most of the people she knew had been getting married, not starting relationships.


    Their six-month anniversary was on Christmas, and Daphne knew that she would probably never be able to forget when Gary had asked her to be his girlfriend. It as the first time that he had run late. Usually he was there before her. As the minutes had ticked by, she had gotten more and more nervous that he had stood her up. He had shown up, ten minutes late, a bouquet of flowers in his hands.


    “Sorry,” he had said, a lopsided grin on his face, and his hair standing up a bit from the heat outside. “I just really wanted to get you flowers.” He handed them to her, and he sat down, the coffee that Daphne had gotten him in front of him.


    “They’re beautiful,” she had replied, her heart sinking into her chest. She had pretended to smell them, everything inside of her screaming in protest, feeling ill at the scent of them.


    “I wanted to ask…” Gary had looked sheepish. “If you’re willing to be my girlfriend?”


    Daphne had looked up at him, the sea of white flowers fading from her vision, her heart soaring.


    He feels the same way, she had thought.


    “I would love to,” she replied, smiling goofily at him, her heart skipping a beat.


    It was the first time in my life that I’ve actually liked flowers, Daphne thought in the present, carefully adjusting some images in the slide show. I figured I’d never have a reason to like flowers.


    It had been about a week after they had gotten together that Gary had gotten laid off from his job, and things had gotten tough for him. Daphne started buying all of the coffees and lending him money from time to time.


    She smiled at her computer. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he finds something and brings me flowers again, she thought, her heart feeling light at the thought. Though, I don’t mind him relying on me so much, she added. It at least makes me feel a bit better about missing out on time with him to work late.


    She glanced down at the clock on her computer as she finished the slideshow and sent it off to the project director. Her heart dropped, and her mouth fell agape at the time the clock said.


    Shit, she thought. I’m late to see Gary.


    It was seven forty-five.


    Daphne began closing down her computer and called Gary, putting her phone on speaker phone, so that she could continue getting ready to leave while she was calling him.


    It’s going to take me another fifteen minutes to get home, Daphne thought while audibly groaning. He’s going to be pissed.


    The phone abruptly went to voicemail. Daphne ended the call. What the hell? She thought. Did he just reject my call?


    Her heart that had just been soaring over the joyful moments that she and Gary had created was now sinking in her chest. Her stomach was souring.


    I’ll just finish getting ready first, she thought, and then I’ll call him again. Maybe he’s in the bathroom…or something.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    She swallowed hard at whatever that something might be and began packing up her belongings and putting on her outerwear again. Just don’t overthink it, she tried to convince herself. Still, the doubt lingered in her mind.


    She grabbed her purse and walked over to the elevator, hitting the “down” button. It only took seconds before the elevator doors opened for her and she pressed the button for the ground floor.


    She tapped her fingers on her leg, hoping that they typically slow elevator would speed up a little bit so that she could attempt to call Gary again.


    Once the elevator doors opened, she stepped out and dialed him again. It quickly went to voicemail as she was walking out of the office building’s doors into the cold, windy night.


    Shit, she thought. He isn’t just pissed, he’s furious. She looked at her phone. It was already seven fifty.


    As she got to her car, she felt her phone vibrate with a text message. She put her bag in the passenger seat and got in on the driver’s side before she read the message from Gary.


    You missed our date, it said. There was a second one, immediately after that said, Let’s meet at eight forty-five. Same place.


    Daphne swallowed hard. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of his words. He didn’t seem all that upset, but there were definitely darker undertones to his first text, and the fact that he had rejected her calls. Twice.


    It’s not my fault, she thought, running one of her hands through her hair. I didn’t have a choice. I had to work late.


    Sighing, she sent a text back that said, Okay. She turned the car on, hoping the heat would get going quickly and ease the chill she was feeling in her heart.


    I guess I’ll go home and see Tanpopo for a little while, she thought, driving away from work.


    ~


    Daphne put her keys into her apartment door, and heard Tanpopo mewling on the other side of it. Her heart felt light at hearing his voice. At least someone is happy to see me today, she thought.


    She opened the door in front of her, and slipped in, Tanpopo curling around her legs. He looked up at her, meeting her eyes with his green yellow ones.


    “I’m home, Tanpopo,” she said, looking down at him with a smile. She squatted down, and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so glad to see you, too,” she said, hugging him tightly and then scratching under his chin to help appease him.


    He creaked at her, his little meow turning a bit high pitched at the end. It sounded like he was asking a question.


    “My day was absolutely shit,” she told him as he headbutted her hand. “And I think that Gary is really angry with me now, too,” she added.


    Tanpopo squeaked at her again, looking at her innocently, with his big, round gemstone-like eyes. His nose was little and pink, and his ears were fluffy and black. He put one little white mittened paw on her thigh. “I don’t want Gary to be angry with me for Christmas,” she said. “I want everything to be happy and peaceful.” She looked in the direction of her kitchen table, where she ate breakfast every morning. On top of the wood veneered table, sat a small, wrapped package, complete with red and green wrapping paper.


    She sighed, looking down at Tanpopo who was still throwing his body weight against her legs and wrapping his fluffy black tail around her. “I hope that I’ll get a chance to give him his gift on Christmas,” she said. “It would be awful to spend Christmas alone again this year.”


    Her heart squeezed in her chest, and her stomach felt like it was starting to go sour. “I’m sure Maggie would let me come over,” she murmured to herself. “But I don’t want to crash her family’s Christmas again.”


    Daphne thought back to when Gary had first invited her to his family’s Christmas get-together. She ahd been incredibly nervous and concerned about meeting his family so soon after they started dating, but Gary had reassured her and told her that they wouldn’t mind. Now, she couldn’t help but wonder if those very same plans were in jeopardy.


    And we were going to celebrate our six-month anniversary the day after Christmas…she thought, her stomach fluttering. Surely, he’ll forgive me enough not to put those plans at risk, too? She thought.


    Tanpopo mewled at her again, his hot, stinky breath hitting her in the face. “Ugh,” she replied back to him. “Come here, ya stinky.” She tried to reach for him to pull him into her again, and he managed to get just outside of her reach. He spun around in a circle and meowed at her again, looking as though he was trying to beckon her towards the kitchen.


    “Ah,” Daphne replied. “You’re hungry.” She let out a heavy breath as she stood up to her full height. Tanpopo yelled at her in the language of his people, seemingly trying to explain to her how excited he was to eat.


    “Yes, yes, I’m coming,” she told me.


    She went into the kitchen and turned on the light so that she’d be able to see him and not accidentally trip over him. Over the course of the day, he seemed to have pushed his wet food bowl to the center of the room, probably trying to clean out every last morsel of food he was able to. Now, he circled around it, shouting at Daphne in anticipation.


    “Yes, yes,” she said again, picking the bowl up off the of the floor and washing it. She picked the wet food she had stored for him that morning out of the fridge, and dumped the half that was left in his bowl. She carefully chopped it up and then put it in the microwave to warm it up a little, just like Tanpopo liked it.


    He was now curled up around her legs again, still shouting. She looked over at his dry food bowl and noticed that it was empty.


    “Ah, bud,” she said, walking to the cabinet that she stored his food in, and pulling out the dry kibble bag. She walked over to his bowl and added some kibble to it, just as the microwave went off. She sighed and set the kibble bag on the counter, pulling Tanpopo’s meal from the microwave over her stove. She gently put it down in front of him, and he began chowing down heartily, purring a little as he did. She put the dry food away, and noticed the trash needed to go out.


    She pulled the trash bag out, rolling her eyes up towards the ceiling. Ugh, she thought. I feel like I’m always working. It’s like I can never catch a break at all.


    She tied up the old bag, grabbed her keys, and headed out of her apartment, quickly going down the flights of stairs down from the third floor.


    She got outside and let out a huge puff of air that she could see from how cold it had gotten. As she walked towards the dumpster, she noticed tiny little snowflakes coming down.


    Maybe it will be a white Christmas after all, she thought. It’s been so long since I’ve had a white Christmas that I was convinced that I was never going to see one ever again.


    She threw the bag in to the dumpster and made her way up to her apartment again. Tanpopo had finished his food, and had now jumped into his favorite cat bed, a grey cat hammock that Daphne had placed close to her couch so that she could pet him when he was pretending he didn’t like her.


    “Was it yummy?” she asked him as she placed a new bag in the trash can and washed her hands. Tanpopo didn’t respond, but as she turned off the sink, she could hear him happily cleaning himself.


    She smiled. How could I survive without this silly cat? She wondered. He brings me so much happiness. He loves me no matter how late I get home from work, or how many times I make a mistake.


    She looked over at him as he curled up into a little black and white ball in his hammock. If only it took as little to make me happy as it takes Tanpopo, she thought. How much simpler my life would be.


    Daphne looked over at her stove clock, wondering if she would have enough time to feed herself before she had to go to the café. Even though she had gotten home just after eight, it was already eight thirty-eight, and walking to the café typically took her about five minutes.


    So nothing for dinner for me, she thought, hearing her stomach growl angrily. At least, not until I get back from meeting with Gary.


    She let out another heavy breath and then nodded sharply. “Alright,” she said. “Let’s just go apologize and try to have fun after that.”


    She looked over at Tanpopo, tempted to stay at home with the cat. She couldn’t ignore the pit in her stomach that just kept suggesting to her that something was going to go wrong.


    She shook her head at herself, trying to clear her dark thoughts. I’m probably just feeling this way because it’s been such a bad day, she tried to convince herself. The pit stayed in her stomach, not convinced by a few measly words she hadn’t even said aloud.


    She glanced over at the clock. It was eight forty now. There was no more time to debate. It was time to go.


    “I’ll be back soon, Tanpopo,” she said as she walked over to the door to her apartment. Tanpopo raised his head off of his hammock bed, and gave Daphne a dirty look, as if he did not want her to leave again.


    “I know,” she said, sighing again. “I can’t stay out late, so I promise I’ll be back soon.”


    The cat still looked forlorn as she opened the door. She gave one last look at the plain, sparsely decorated apartment, and her adorable cat, and shut the door behind her.