Christmas Cupid

Words: 1,573

Posted: December 7, 2018

Inspiration: aurorafiberarts (secret santa)

"That's Kunzite," Mina mumbled to herself, "and then Lita's desk is right by Serena's," she continued as she sketched an outline of the office floorplan. "With Amy by the radiator, since she's always so cold . . ., which only leaves Darien," she grinned to herself.

This year Mina was in charge of organizing "Secret Santa," though she was taking the organizing bit a little further than most. After laying out the names on her grid, she drew a series of arrows depicting how she would go about the office handing out the names. It would seem random, as she would draw the names from a hat, but she had a plan, oh did she have a plan.

Mina knew that her best friend Serena had been crushing on Darien for a while now, but she had also noticed recently that he often looked her way when he probably thought no one was looking.

"This is perfect," she whispered in the dimly lit apartment.

The next morning, she walked in proudly. There was a small bounce in her step, and she was excited for her plan to begin.

After greeting the girls by the coffee and the gusy by the water coolers, she slid into her chair and rechecked the slips to make sure they were in the right order. Mina pulled out her red hat with the white fluff and was about to put the slips in when she noticed an email marked urgent on her screen.

"Shoot," she said quietly as she scanned the message. Mina was in charge of outgoing materials and it looked like something wasn't accounted for in last night's shipment. She quickly spun her chair around and headed for the postal room to sort it out.

After thirty minutes of arguing with the department head downstairs, and conferring with a couple of her colleagues, they located the missing parcels and rectified the situation. Mina headed back to her desk, gathered the slips, the hat, and went on her way around the office. Completely ignoring the new item on her desk.

As she went to each desk, she gave a brief explanation of the rules: under twenty-five dollars, no gift cards or money, must be wrapped, and must include a card on the inside of the gift that says the name of the giver.

When she came to Serena's desk, she saw Lita leaning over her as they both laughed at a video.

"What's going on?" she asked as she peered over their shoulders. Getting lost in the moment, she failed to realize that Lita's hand was pulling a slip out of her hat.

"Nice!" Lita called out. "I already know what I'm getting for this one!"

"What di-hey! It's not your turn," Mina whined.

Serena turned in her chair. "Turn for what? Oooh, Secret Santa!" she beamed as she rummaged through the hat herself.

Mina tensed up as the situation that she had worked tirelessly to orchestrate was falling apart right in front of her. Knowing there was nothing more she could do – since admitting the whole thing was going to be rigged wasn't an option – she sulked through the rest of the office, and finally back to her desk.

Just as she tossed the Santa hat back down, she noticed that there was a yellow mug of coffee where there had been a green one. She looked around her and didn't see anything else out of the ordinary, so she took a tentative sip.

It was exactly how she liked her morning coffee, so she shrugged it off figuring she had been mistaken on the mug she'd grabbed earlier.

Later on, she tried to casually talk with Lita and Serena about the gift exchange.

"I don't like who I got," Mina said. "Anyone want to trade?"

"Not me," Lita smiled. "I've been waiting for this for a long time."

Mina's jaw dropped as Serena confessed she didn't want to trader either. She couldn't believe this; Lita likes Darien too?

As she finished up her work for the day, Mina overheard Lita talking with Zoicite about her gift. "Do you think he'd like it in green? I've heard that's his favorite color."

"Nephrite and I don't talk about favorite colors much," he said rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't think I have with most guys since kindergarten."

Lita laughed, "Well, thanks anyways!"

Mina furrowed her brow wondering how Lita managed to get Nephrite instead, but knew it was hopeless to investigate.

A week passed and it was time for the office holiday party. Cookies, non-alcoholic drinks, and smiles were all abound, with the nuisanced-lull of Christmas music.

She had managed to get a nice gift for Amy, who had been the last name in the hat. She hadn't even remembered to grab a name until the next day. In fact, she worried that she had forgotten a name or didn't hand out the correct number. A quick announcement that next day had clarified that everyone was participating.

As the time for exchanging gifts finally began, she watched as her happy colleagues shared presents with one another. In the end, she thought, at least everyone is having fun. Besides, Valentine's Day isn't too far off; I could try again, she grinned.

"This next one is for," Mina smiled as she flipped the little note over, "Darien!"

Darien walked up to retrieve his gift and opened it to reveal two bottles of Sriracha sauce and a cookbook to match. "This is awesome," he said as he flipped through the book. He noticed a note in the back of the book and read it aloud: "This should resupply your desk for a few months, hopefully. And this book is filled with all sorts of recipes for you to try out. I hope you enjoy! – Serena Tsukino."

He looked up at Serena and smiled. "Thank you. This was very thoughtful. I actually have a gift for you," he said kneeling by the tree. Mina was too distracted by the fact that Darien had gotten a gift for Serena to stop him from breaking the rules of the exchange.

Darien handed Serena a striped present which she opened eagerly. Her eyes widened as she lifted the item. "Chocolate . . . sheets?" An image of a confectionary bedspread appeared in everyone's minds until Darien chuckled.

"I know you love chocolate, but I couldn't decide which you might like the most, so I got them all. Those 'sheets' are completely edible and each one is a different flavor."

Mina's heart melted as she finally realized that somehow, someway, they still had both received the other's name. In a few minutes, she would begin to wonder about the how.

One by one, the gifts were distributed until only Mina's gift remained as she had wanted everyone else to enjoy their presents first. She pulled the ribbon on the box, and opened it to find two champagne glasses and a voucher for a free appetizer at her favorite restaurant.

Had she been paying attention, she could have guessed who the giver was before even opening the package, but alas she looked up to the small gathering of people and asked who gave her the gift. Kunzite raised his hand, "I did, Mina. I'd like to take you out on a date. You see, the glasses fall within the guidelines and the coupon cost me nothing." He smiled, proud that he had been able to be sneaky.

"And a date?" she giggled, "That would cost more than twenty-five dollars."

"Well, that's not contingent on the rules. I genuinely want to take you out on a date, if you'll have me, and not as colleagues."

Everyone 'oohed' and 'ahhed' as they awaited her answer, but instead she excused herself from the group. There was a bout of silence and then murmuring before Serena resumed the music.

Kunzite followed Mina to her desk. "Is something the matter? I'm sorry for the public display, but I thought you liked grand gestures like that."

Mina twirled around, "Huh? Oh, I do, it's just . . . I've been so focused on other things that I hadn't even given a thought to, well, who I might like." Kunzite furrowed his brow, and Mina continued, "You see, I tried to set it up so that Serena and Darien would get each other for Secret Santa, but then that plan blew up."

"But . . . they did get each other," he said with a smile.

Her eyes widened, "Did you give Darien that slip? You've already showed you can be very sneaky."

Kunzite laughed, "No, but I did take yours." He rubbed the bottom of his chin, "I came by your desk that day and tried to get your name from the slips when I accidentally knocked them off the table, and your coffee got spilt too. I cleaned it up and remade your drink as you like, but if you organized the slips in a certain order, they were messed up after that."

Mina's mouth hung open. "So, you took my slip and mixed up the whole stack, but Darien and Serena still got each other?"

He nodded. "Perhaps they are meant to be," he said in deeply rich voice.

Suddenly, a crush she hadn't realized she was harboring smacked her in the face. And there he was, the man of her dreams, and she had almost missed it.

This story was so sweet and Hallmarky, hah! Please let me know what you think in the reviews!