An Unexpected Christmas Eve

T W O

"Dinner has been exquisite! I loved every single part of it!" Leslie, a girl who worked with me at the magazine, said in a frenetic voice.

I had to bite my tongue in order to prevent myself from saying something rude or impolite. I couldn't understand why she had liked that, I mean, food had definitely sucked! It didn't even deserve to be called food.

Now I understand Killian's loathe towards it, it's simply disgusting. I thought.

I wasn't even able to eat it all; I only managed to have three spoonfuls of the onion soup with cucumber and egg plant, a small bite of the highly seasoned hard-to-chew beef, and a quart of the flavorless brownie.

Yeah, it had definitely won the prize for worst dinner of all times.

"Are you going to eat that?" Leslie asked me, pointing at my abandoned brownie with her fork.

"Uh no, you can take it if you want"

"Really? Thanks, sweet pumpkin!" She replied before quickly taking it with her hands.

I frowned, not knowing what had disgusted me the most: the fact that she had eaten that ugly brownie or that she had called me sweet pumpkin.

Thankfully for me, time for eating was over and we were given a thirty minute break to stand up and talk with other people. I left the table and made my way to the bar. Nonetheless, there were a lot of folks standing there and waiting to be attended, so I realized that the second glass of Scotch would have to wait.

I began to wander around the restaurant until I spotted a familiar face not so far from me. Killian was standing in front of what seemed to be a fancy sculpture, analyzing it as if he were a professional.

I had nothing else to do, and since Killian seemed to be a fun person who shared with me the same hate towards the event, I thought it would be nice continue our previous conversation. So, I walked towards him with an unexplainable smile on my face.

"Appreciating art?" I asked him, dragging his attention to me.

"Ah, no. I'm just trying to figure out what the bloody hell this is. Is it a slug?" A worm?"

I stared at the sculpture with a frown "Looks like a frog to me"

He glanced at me "Huh, seems like we have totally opposite views. Still, I think we can agree that it is definitely ugly"

"Quite, but the whole place is. It doesn't surprise me that they have such horrible sculpture here"

Killian was about to say something when my stomach suddenly rumbled.

"Whoa! That was you?" He asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah..." I replied blushing "Sorry, it's just that I'm starving. The dishes were so awful I couldn't eat properly"

"I get you. I'm also very hungry" he replied while patting his belly.

"God, if I could I would leave this place immediately and buy myself some decent food. And do something more entertaining too"

Killian stared at me for a matter of seconds before speaking "For real? I mean, would you walk out of here if the chance appeared?"

"Yeah, of course. Why are you-"

"It seems like a Christmas miracle has just happened, look. The guards at the entrance have left their places to eat, we could easily walk out of here and they wouldn't even see us"

I thought it was a mere joke, so I laughed and followed him "And what would we do?"

"Go somewhere with decent food and find entertainment, as you said. We could go to McDonalds and buy ourselves a Happy Meal, go skating at Rockefeller Center, go to the cinema... I don't know, anything that gives us more fun that staying here and listening to boring statics. It's Christmas Eve, Emma. We should be having a good time celebrating and not being locked away"

Oh. So he isn't really joking. Is this man nuts?

"Killian... This is insane, you know that, right?"

He pursed his lips "Perhaps. But I'm certainly not spending the rest of my Christmas Eve listening to the CEO, oh no. I'm heading off to an adventure... And I wouldn't mind getting a sidekick. What do you say, love?"

I really thought the situation was crazy, however, some part of me liked that.

And that part was pushing me to say yes.

Whoa, whoa. Slow down, you silly. I told myself in my mind. At least think about it.

First, what if someone realizes we are gone and penalizes us, or worse? What if we get fired for leaving?! Okay, no. That would be way to exaggerated. I don't think they're gonna notice our leave... Everyone's going to be either paying attention to the CEO or falling asleep on their chairs.

Second, I met Killian less than two hours ago, he technically is a stranger to me. Isn't it odd to leave with a stranger? Well, yes, it is. But my sixth instinct tells me that he can be trusted. And it had never failed me before.

I don't know... For some strange reason I feel like going.

I gazed at him and sighed.

Oh to hell. It's Christmas Eve.

"Alright. I'm in" I responded him with a grin "But it better be worth it"

"Trust me," he replied, extending his hand gentlemanly "it's going to be the best Christmas Eve you'll ever have"

I arched my eyebrows "Yeah? Because I've had many epic moments before. It's going to be hard to beat them"

"One thing you need to know about me is that I love challenges"

I smiled and finally took his hand.

We walked with discretion towards the door, trying not to catch anyone's attention, and stepped outside the restaurant with no problem.

We didn't look back. Killian and I, still holding hands, crossed the avenue and made it to the other side successfully.

"Huh, that was easy" I said once we were across the street "So, where to now? Are we getting one of those hamburgers you mentioned before?"

"Actually, we're getting much better hamburgers. Come, I know of a place that serves the best ones I've ever had"

"You really like the word best, don't you?"

"Aye" he answered with proud.

"Well, I'll be the judge of those hamburgers"

We let go of each other's hands and walked under the starred sky of New York.