Saffron scanned the toy shelves, looking for the perfect gift for one particular boy on her Christmas list. It needed to be soft but tough, whimsical but with a deeper meaning. Something he'd always associate with her.
Eventually, she found it. Just looking at it made Saffy smile. Tucking the toy under her arm, she quickly purchased it and had it sent off to be gift-wrapped.
Returning to the toy department, Saffron looked around for Tony. Walking among the aisles, sidestepping the throng of shoppers, she felt like a girl again — it reminded her of when Gran would take her out for a day of fun and they'd go to Harrod's mainly to stroll about and look at, but almost never purchase, the many wonderful items for sale. Gran always managed to buy a small trinket for Saffy, though. The agreement between Saff and Gran was that Saff keep these special goodies a secret just between the two of them.
"But it's not nice to keep secrets," Saff told her, parroting something she'd learned from her teacher in class. Note-passing and whispering had overtaken the lot of girls at school and Saffron, not wanting to get into trouble, had taken her teacher's warning quite to heart.
Gran had winked knowingly at her.
"That's true at school," Gran said, adding in that conspiratorial way of hers that was always so much fun, "but you and I can enjoy our little mysteries."
Saffron had eagerly agreed. She couldn't understand why her Mum didn't see how wonderful it was to be with Gran. Mum thought "Auntie Patsy" was the most fun person in the world and that made no sense to Saffy. Auntie Patsy only ever scowled at her and never seemed to want her around.
"She's not my auntie!" Saff had told her mum, rather indignantly, more than once. That never went over well, though, so she'd stopped saying it. But Mum had eventually stopped teasing Saffron with the "Auntie Patsy" bit, which seemed to make Patsy as happy as Saffron had ever seen her, so it had been a well-played gambit, even for a small girl.
Sighing, Saff wished she and her mum shared the sort of closeness she and her grandmother had. But since Jack's death, and even a couple of years before then, Mum had admitted just how much she truly loved her and that she only ever wanted Saffron to be happy.
She'd actually meant it, too, based on the way Mum had treated her throughout the years after she'd lost Jack. Helping Saff with paying for university, helping her find her own flat, getting excited about having a new place to pop in from time to time — which meant nearly every day, offering to handle all the decorations. Saff had politely declined this last gesture, but allowed her mum to select a single accent chair for the place, which turned out to be predictably loud and out of place among its surroundings. Still, she'd come to adore the chair and wouldn't part with it for the world. It was her personal chair, not for anyone else to enjoy. Gran, who shuddered at the sight of it whenever she visited — which meant nearly every day — graciously remarked that Saffron should take full advantage of having such a… colorful piece of so-called furniture.
Gran always made her laugh. She'd like Tony, Saffron knew.
And speaking of Mister Draper…
Rounding a corner in a section of the toy department that was clearly targeted to boys, Saff saw Tony holding a small girl from the children's home on his shoulders. The tot was thrilled to be so suddenly tall and able to see over everything normally out of her sight.
The sight of Tony being kind and, quite honestly, fatherly to the little girl touched Saffron so deeply that she desperately wanted to kiss him then, a deep, inner longing for the feel of his lips against hers suddenly overwhelming her. But that would have to wait… if it even happened at all.
"What d'ya see up there, Miss Giraffe?" Tony asked his tiny new friend.
"Father Christmas is way down the other end! He's taking… taking orders!"
Hiding so Tony and the girl wouldn't see her, Saffron chuckled at the way the girl said "taking orders." Obviously, she'd heard some grownup make the remark and it stuck with her.
"Yeah, I'll bet 'e's takin' orders, a'right," Tony said, adding, with a grin on his face that only Saff could see from her stealth position, "'E is a man, after all. Takin' orders is what we do best, 'ey?"
That comment also made Saffron laugh. She covered her mouth so she wouldn't be found out. Little Miss Giraffe frowned, confused. Clearly, she was far too young to get the joke. Saff liked her already for her obvious sweet nature.
Suddenly, Saff had an idea. She crept around to the opposite end of the shelf she'd been hiding behind and was about to sneak up on Tony when Miss Giraffe, so high on her perch, noticed her. The little girl started to warn her new friend, but Saffron shook her head "no," smiled and winked at the tot and put her index finger to her lips to signal "Shhhh!" Then she pointed towards Tony, indicating that he was the target. Tony's small admirer got the gist of it and flashed a snaggletoothed grin that nearly melted Saff's heart.
Miss Giraffe turned out to be an excellent accomplice, getting Tony to focus his attention on a group of little boys having an epic battle with rubber swords.
Saffron stealthily made her way up behind Tony. A giggle fit overtook her partner in crime just then and the little girl buried her face into Tony's close-cropped black hair, unable to stop laughing.
"Oy, Miss Giraffe! What'cha goin' on about up there?" Tony joked, looking up (as much as possible) towards his diminutive friend. "Father Christmas don't look that old an' creaky, now!"
Winking once again at her small pal, Saffron tiptoed right up to Tony's back. Miss Giraffe went completely silent, watching in awe. Clearly, she thought Saffron was the most delightful playmate ever.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Saff burst out, grasping Tony around the ribs gently with both hands. He jerked violently, absolutely taken by surprise. Miss Giraffe squeaked with glee and let loose with a high-pitched little girl torrent of unbridled laughter.
Tony turned around to face his attacker. He found Saffron smiling and laughing. At this, he raised an eyebrow and narrowed his deep brown eyes at her, but only as a show of pretending to be riled. His lips curled into that silly grin of his that Saffy had once found so annoying. Now it charmed her whenever Tony flashed it her way.
He blushed, caught off guard by the joke. Seeing the way Saff looked at him as he held the little girl on his shoulders was completely disarming. So Tony quickly found refuge in the usual safe harbor: humor.
"Gangin' up on me, eh, you two?" he said. "I see 'ow it is now! An' 'ere I thought we were a team, Miss Giraffe!"
Tony tweaked the little girl's leg and she shrieked with joy. Saff reached up and tenderly rubbed her new friend's tiny forearm.
"You, sir," Saffron said rather formally to Tony, "have been outwitted, outplayed and outmatched. Admit defeat and we may go easy on you."
Then she winked at him.
It was a fun, cheeky gesture straight out of his own bag of tricks and it nearly undid Tony. He took a deep breath, steadying himself. Had Miss Giraffe not been riding on his shoulders, he realized that he would have taken Saffron into his arms and kissed her right then and there in the store for everyone around them to see.
"We win! We win!" Miss Giraffe shrieked happily.
Tony gathered himself, smiled and said "Ha! I reckon you did, then! What 'appens to the loser in this game, 'ey?"
Saff, seeing that she had Tony a bit at loose ends, opted to take a rather bold tack. Slipping her arm through his, she offered him her best smirk and fixed him with a look suggestive of good things to come, should he bide his time that evening.
"Nobody loses tonight," she said.
Tony's breath caught harshly in his chest. Their eyes met again and the look on Saffron's face let Tony know she wasn't teasing. She tenderly stroked his forearm with her free hand and they made their way towards the Father Christmas line, Miss Giraffe giddily directing the way through the holiday traffic.