Upon naybaybay's encouragement, I decided to include the plot of Annie Warbucks into this story since this production leaves on such an ambiguous note.
Christmas morning hadn't gone as any of them had planned a week ago. There was no way it could. What mattered now though was that Annie was here to stay. Her parents were gone, Ralph and Shirley Mudge were caught for the frauds they were, and by the end of the day, Annie would officially be the daughter of Oliver Warbucks. It seemed as though happiness was finally here to stay. But for Drake, he was beginning to realize all too clearly that like Annie, he was going to need to start accepting a different ending than he'd always hoped.
"This Christmas is going to be the beginning of a wonderful new life."
Drake stood motionless as Mr. Warbucks eyed Grace, inviting her to stand next to him as the Christmas celebration began. What pained him more was watching the looks they gave one another, Grace going as far as to straighten his tie. He wondered what had transpired between them and when. Grace had been speaking of him far more often lately, but a lot of that had been in relation to Annie. He hadn't realized things had reached a certain seriousness between them.
He braced himself for whatever she might say over tea later that night – if they ever got there. He could see it now. Chances were he'd be forgotten. That might be the less painful route, he decided, for she was likely to speak nothing of him aside from Annie's adoption. He wanted his friend to be happy, of course, and as much as it pained him to admit it, Oliver Warbucks made Grace happy. However, this was at the cost of his own emotions.
He could never tell her now. He'd missed his chances. There sure had been plenty of them. He chickened out every time, too afraid of rejection. Might she have gone after Oliver if he'd been honest with her all along? So often she said herself how much she valued their friendship. Did that mean she might have been open to more at one time? Had he been responsible for her gravitating toward someone else?
Maybe tonight would be his last chance. It's not as though the two of them had made any grand gestures toward one another. It was subtle flirting at best, simply entertaining the idea that someday something could happen between them. The window was short, but if given the chance, Drake decided he needed to take it, fully prepared for the likelihood that she was going to choose someone else over him. If nothing more, he needed to tell his best friend how much he cared for her.
However, a woman named Commissioner Doyle had other plans.
"This child needs a mother!"
"Oh no I don't!"
"Oh yes you do!"
"Oh no she doesn't!"
Grace was no longer thinking of flirtations and celebrations. Mr. Warbucks had tasked her with the job of putting together a list of women he could marry in order to keep Annie's adoption legal. Even through his moping, the look that crossed Grace's eyes when the favor Mr. Warbucks asked of her was not a marriage arrangement as she so evidently had anticipated broke his heart. Her face fell, and Drake nearly forgot his place to go to her side.
. . .
"How are you doing?"
By the end of the day, Grace had pushed herself into denial of some sort. Her voice an octave higher than it should be, she answered Drake's question. "Perfectly fine. Why do you ask?"
"Don't try to fool me," he said. "I saw how disappointed you were when Mr. Warbucks asked you to write that list."
She laughed. "What else did you expect him to say to me?"
"Miss Farrell, I can see right through you. You thought—"
"Don't even say it," she interrupted, instantly switching to a harsher voice.
"It's okay that—"
"No, it's not. I got carried away. So he paid me a little more attention this morning. We'd been up all night. He wasn't thinking professionally, and neither was I."
Not sure why he was trying so hard to argue this point, Drake said, "We all saw you together. I saw the way you were looking at him."
"That's only because…"
"… I know you have feelings for him."
Her shoulders tensed as she looked away.
"It's okay."
"No, it's not. What happened today is proof of it."
"It was a misunderstanding."
"I feel like an idiot!"
Standing up, Drake went around to the back of her chair and started massaging her shoulders. "Would you like me to make the list for you? Perhaps only search for the oldest and ugliest women I can find?"
With a crooked smile, she leaned back against his hands and closed her eyes. "I wish it were that simple."
"It never is." I speak from experience, he was tempted to add, looking down on her with more admiration than she would ever realize.