Malcolm

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“I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO tell you, man, she made a call, then handed me an address.”  Aaron’s voice comes through my phone as I slam my fist into the door of my apartment and burst out into the hall.

“Get here.  Now.  I’ll meet you outside and you can take me to that address.”

Penny isn’t answering the phone I gave her and she’s not replying to my texts.  When my frustration got the better of me, I dialed Aaron and he ran down what he knew.  I picked up the newspaper that’d been delivered that morning outside my penthouse door and my heart sank.

Fucking news leak has sent Penny running, and I can’t even say I blame her.  Now, all I can think about is finding her and making things right.  As right as they can be.

Can she ever understand that I’m not the same person they describe in that article?  Not anymore.  Not since I met her.  In the last couple of weeks everything in my world has changed, including my feelings about Christmas.

Especially my feelings about Christmas.

And reading the newspaper article, finding out about what she did.  How she took the last money from her own pocket just to give some kids a bit of joy at Christmas.  Kids who otherwise would not have been able to get inside the Christmas Village because of the exorbitant entrance fee we charge.  Fuck.  I’m a fucking asshole.  All I’ve cared about is profit and loss.  It’s all I’ve been interested in for so long, I had almost become numb to the real world.  What was it Willie had said?  You don’t care about anything.  She was right.  I didn’t care about anything.  Not about anything that mattered.

Ignoring the elevator, I race down the fire escape stairs, taking them two at a time.  I can’t afford to stand there waiting.  I need to be with Penny.  I need to be with her right now.  An instant later I’m outside, my former priorities in a heap around my feet as I stand in the snow, checking my phone anxiously while I wait for my limo to pick me up and take me to where ever she is.

AARON IS SPEEDING DOWN toward Brooklyn, heading for the address where he dropped Penny off.  I’m dressed in my tux, her Christmas gift in my pocket, and in my gut there’s a knot of tension I can’t shake.

Apparently, Penny left with nothing from the store, wearing her Elf costume and demanding to be taken to an address in Brooklyn. Aaron had tried to call me from the car, but I was on the phone making the final arrangements for her to come back with me to my place and have everything she needed to be at home.

“Faster,”  I snap.  “This is a fucking limo, not a hearse.”

Anxiety courses through my body.  My fists clench, hating myself for the man I’ve become and wanting so badly to be the man she needs.  Hoping beyond hope that she will see in me the heart she’s uncovered and understand how, for the first time in my life, I see the world differently now.  And it’s all because of her.

Penny.

Her name pounds in my head. As it has from that first day I saw her.  Sure, I fought it.  I didn’t even understand it that first night as I thought about nothing else.  But now it’s all I can think of.

She’s mine.

Mine. 

I can’t stop the drum beat of that word in my head.

And to think, my cold heart and profit-at-all-costs attitude could be the very thing that takes her from me.  The idea turns my blood cold, the poetic justice of it all not lost on me. 

Now, I wake each morning with her on my mind.  Every thought in my day is filled with her; the world of business, profit, winning at all costs – it seems a foreign language to me now.

To my heart.

A heart which, after lying dormant for most of my life, is now running the show.

The limo slows outside a small bungalow on a street crowded with rows of similar homes. 

“Wait here,”  I bark, already out the door.

I take the porch steps two at a time and pound my knuckles against the wooden door, making the evergreen wreath that’s pinned to it bounce and shake.

As I pause between breaths, waiting for the door to open, I hear it.

The sound of ‘Silent Night’ being played on a piano filters through the closed door and wraps around my heart.  Irrational need grips me.  My dick hardens.  The melodic song is like a primal call. 

It’s her.

She’s playing.

When the door opens and I see her there, I nearly bolt inside.  She’s sitting at a piano in the middle of a room full of people, all gathered around her to listen.

“Can I help you?”

I must be a shock, standing here, a stranger on this man’s porch.  It’s Christmas day and I’m wearing a tuxedo.

“Yes.  Penny is...”  I pause, unsure how to explain to him what she is to me.  “I’m here for Penny.  I’m sorry to interrupt, you see, we had plans today but coming here was important to her, so I’m late.”

“Oh, well, come in!”  His polite invitation startles me.  I could be anyone, and yet, he’s inviting me into his home without any further questions.  “A friend of Penny’s is a friend of ours.”

Inside the small home, it’s warm.  It’s filled with the scents of comfort foods.

There must be thirty people in the living room, ranging from an infant sleeping in a woman’s arms to an older man, grey hair and beard, his cane resting against his leg as a young girl sits on his lap listening to the beautiful Christmas carols drift through the room from the old piano where Penny sits.

Her fingers move effortlessly over the yellowed keys.  I can hear the piano’s tune is not completely accurate, but it doesn’t matter.  Penny makes the music come alive, and from the wide eyes of the children and the smiles on the other faces, everyone else hears what I do.

Magic.

I take a breath and step along the wall to where I can squeeze in and listen. And watch.

She’s performing.

In front of an audience.

And it’s perfection.

She’s perfection.

I’m never letting her go; I know that now with every ounce of my being.  My heart aches at the thought that my own stupidity almost caused me to lose her, but nothing again will ever come between us.

As she ends the song, her head bows forward slightly.  I long to see those shocking blue-white eyes turn my way, but there’s a sorrow in her and I cannot help myself as I’m drawn forward.

I work my way through the children sitting on the floor to stand behind Penny.  Her scent catches me, and the room seems to sway as I set my hands on her shoulders and bend down next to her ear.

“Merry Christmas, my love.”

She doesn’t startle.  Her head comes up and she looks forward.  Her hands fall from the keys to her lap and her spine straightens slightly.

“What are you doing here?”  Her words are tight and each one cuts into me.  Knowing I’ve hurt her is the worst kind of torture.

“There’s nowhere else I can be.  You are here, so I am here.  Penny, I’m so sorry.  I lied, I can explain that.  But what is worse is I didn’t understand the meaning of Christmas.  Not for years.  Until now.  Until you.”

“But you hate Christmas.  I read the article.  I know you are closing all the Christmas Villages in all the stores.  All Christmas is for you is a chance to turn a profit.  A chance to make money.”

“That’s the thing though, it isn’t.  Not anymore.  Come with me.  I need to explain.”

I turn her on the bench, reach down to grab her hands and pull her into me.  The room hums with muffled conversation.  The image of me in my tuxedo and Penny in her elf costume must be a sight, but I don’t care.  She’s become my everything in such a short time, I would make a fool of myself in front of the entire world if it meant seeing her smile.  Making things right.

“Excuse us, please.  I’m sorry, but I need a word with Penny.  Then, I’m sure she will be back to delight you with more of her exquisite playing.”

With that, I guide her through the cast of interested eyes and into a small office just down the hallway off the living room and close the door behind us.

Penny turns and the doubt I see in her eyes feels like a fist to my stomach, knowing I’m the reason for the sadness she’s feeling.

I raise my hand when her lips open to speak, cutting her off.

“Let me go first.  Please.”  I lower a finger to her lips before I continue.  “Everything you read in that newspaper article is correct.”

I watch as her shoulders drop and her eyes well.  She reaches up to pull my hand from her mouth.

“I thought I knew you.  I thought...” She pauses, looking up then back to my face, her eyes growing harder.  “I can’t be with someone that doesn’t believe in Christmas. In joy. In the magic of it all.  I’m sorry.  I thought I loved you—”

The words die on her lips as a tear from each eye spills over and stalls on the pink roundness of each little elf cheek.

My heart breaks at the knowledge that I’ve made her cry, and yet all I can focus on is the last three words she’d spoken.

“I do love you, Penny.  There’s nothing I need to think about.  And before you say anything else, I’ve already made an emergency executive board decision to reinstate the Christmas Villages.  Even if I have to fund them myself, I will make sure that they will not close.  And—”  I wrap my arms around her shoulders to her back, pulling her into me, her tits soft and full against my chest.  “From now on, there will be no charge for anyone to visit the Village.  The full tour, everything. Free.  To everyone.”

Her eyes go wide, the remnants of tears sparkling as I lean down and kiss away the ones that have already fallen on her cheeks, then lower my hand to her ass and squeeze hard.  Feeling her in my grip again sends my dick higher and cum threatens to ruin my trousers but I don’t care.  If we were anywhere else, I’d be on my knees, her skirt covering my head as I bow down and worship the cunt that owns me.

“Wow,”  she speaks on a hitching breath as my fingers dig deeper into her soft flesh.  “So, every store, every city?  All free and none will close?”

“Yes. Yes, and yes.  It’s all because of you, Penny Evergreen.  You’ve taught me something I’ve never known before I found you.  It’s love, Penny.  That’s what Christmas is about.  And I didn’t understand the perfection of that until you.  You’ve given me the greatest gift of them all.  My heart.”

“This has all happened so fast.”

“If Santa can go all over the world delivering presents in one night, who’s to say two people can’t fall in love as fast as we did?  Fuck, I think I knew I loved you from the first moment I saw you.  Standing there in your elf costume, smiling and jingling as you strutted this amazing ass around Santa’s wonderland.  I felt like the dirtiest old man in the world. But it didn’t stop me from coming back the next day.  It didn’t stop me from taking what’s mine.  And you are mine, Penny.  You understand that, don’t you?  You are mine. Forever.”

My free hand comes up and I pinch under her chin as my grip on her ass holds her steady against me.  Our eyes catch and hers light up with a thousand, Christmas lights.

“I understand.”

“Good.  Now, let’s go back out there and give your new friends the joy of Christmas.  A gift they will never forget.  Your music.”

“Then, we’ll go to your party?”  Her eyes darken.  “Oh no...I didn’t take anything from the store.  I don’t have anything else to wear.”

I lean down and kiss her, long and deep, my tongue taking its time to enjoy her taste before pulling back, both of us breathless.

“No party.”  I shake my head.  “I’m taking you home.  To my penthouse.  I’ve already had everything you would need delivered there.  I want you, Penny.  And not just for tonight.  Forever.  I love you.”

“I love you too.  I didn’t even know what I wanted for Christmas, and I got it anyway.  I got you.”

“Without a doubt, my little elf.  You have me.  From this day forward, until death do us part.”

The words hit me and for the first time in my life, I want to hear them said aloud in front of a room of our friends and family.

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t realize it until now, but that’s what I want for Christmas, Penny.  You, standing there, saying those words to me.  Marry me, Penny Evergreen.  Give me everything I’ve ever wanted for Christmas.  Say you’ll marry me, please.”

Those tears spring to her eyes again and I raise both hands to cup her cheeks, worried that I’ve gone too far, too fast.  Then I see her expression change and a look of pure joy comes over her.

“I’ll marry you.  One on condition.”  Her cheeks pink and her hands come up to rest flat on my chest.

“Anything.  I’ll give you anything.”

“Keep the Christmas Villages open all year.  Because Christmas isn’t about a single day.  It’s about every day.  Remembering what matters.  Every day, not just once a year.”

My heart swells three times its size as the grin spreads over my lips.  “My perfect little Christmas elf.  Your wish is my command.”