Learning to Fly - 10

Chapter 10 - Christmas Eve Presumption!

Christmas came far too quickly, and the whole of the resort, the town, even the country were preparing well. Everywhere Carly went there were candles, gingerbread and decorations. She'd always loved Christmas, but as it got closer Carly started to feel more and more sad, this was the first time she'd not been in the heart of her family for the holiday. Camilla was travelling to Paris with a school friend, so much for trying to live frugally, Rochelle was going to her family, Marta was the only friend staying in the hotel, but she was newly and besottedly in love, so that was a no go for her too.

But it was all about growing up and evolving, Carly was convinced she'd learn from this experience. Two days before Christmas she was called to Danica's office.

"Hi Carly! I'm going to our sister resort in Germany later, they've been struck by a terrible stomach virus, there are hardly any staff there so I'm hoping to calm things down. The creche is closed for the next three days. So..." She rifled through papers on her desk, "I've made you a schedule. We're short of staff on reception most of all, but then the restaurant on Christmas Day. Will you be happy to slot in?"

Carly nodded, "I can do that." Browsing the paper in front of her she smiled at Danica, "in fact it'll be good to get to grips with how everywhere else works!"

Danica nodded in a pleased fashion, "great! Thanks Carly.I'm glad I can rely on you!"

As Carly left the office and strolled through the management suite, she almost walked into the wall of muscle that was Jens. Taking a step back and steadying herself with a hand against the wall she looked up to find him laughing.

"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going!"

The look he returned was both filled with humour and something else, interest? She shook the idea straight out of her head.

"Oh don't apologise, it's not every day a beautiful woman runs into me...literally!" His eyes had a laziness to them as he slowly ran them over her.

Carly was blushing crazily, but she knew that Jens was just playing with her, he'd laugh at this later, her almost virginal response to a compliment, "thank you Mr..." she saw his warning glance and smiled, "Jens."

With that she ducked out of the room and away from the heated exchange with her handsome boss.

Christmas Eve saw her saying good bye to the people who'd so quickly become her friends, by the evening she was technically alone. As she closed the creche that afternoon, knowing she was working in the restaurant the following day she heard footsteps coming to join her, it was one of the chefs from the staff canteen.

"You know there's a staff party? Chalet 56...that's the one at the top of the hill! Eight o'clock."

No she definitely did not! With a smile she thanked him as he rushed past her.

Carly deliberated for ages about the party. Did she go or not that was the big question? The options were a Skype call to her parents, who'd treated themselves to a laptop as an early Christmas present, and an early night...or go out alone to see how the staff partied. She'd heard from other people at dinner that the hotel put on the party, so there'd be drinks, entertainment, and as it was held in the most isolated chalet in the complex, she knew it'd be wild. But she deserved fun, didn't she?

Knowing that Camilla wouldn't mind, she searched her room-mates wardrobe for something to wear. Finding a short red dress that had a black bow tied beneath the breasts, yet wide billowy sleeves, she slipped it on and LOVED it. With thick black tights and a tentative first trip into black heels, she left the sanctity of her room for the unknown events of the party.

It was a precarious journey up to the chalet, the path was cleared, but any snow that had melted through the day was freezing into ice as the temperature plummeted. The chalet was a typical Alpine creation, a huge A-line roof framed many shuttered windows and flanked the veranda that opened from the Master bedroom on the first floor. It was like a Christmas card scene...except for the disco lights flashing from the ground floor windows and the line of empty beer bottles already building on the entry veranda.

Pushing open the door she paused, it was a whole different World. There was a lot of dancing going on in one room, and in the other downstairs room was a huge unmanned bar, bottles of anything and everything that you could care to mention were lined up on the bar, as well as large coolers filled with ice cold beer.

She took a bottle, shaking the water off it, and was searching for a bottle opener when a voice caused her to jump.

"Need help with that bottle top?"

Carly turned around  far quicker than was healthy, to see Jens lounging against the doorway, a bottle opener dangling between his fingers. He had the air of authority that only a man in his position could have, and suddenly the air in the room changed, Carly found it difficult to raise a breath.

She stepped nervously towards him holding out the bottle.Trying to break a smile she added, "does this make you a knight in shining armour?"

Jens burst into laughter, and the tension of the moment lifted as he removed the bottle top. "I'm a lot of things, but never a knight!"

Carly gave him her best smile, before sliding past him out into the party. As she entered the other room, the one almost filled with dancing people, she heard a squeal and looked up with immense relief to see Marta and Bernard were performing their own version of dirty dancing. Never had Carly felt more out of her depth than here.

Laughing, Marta immediately untangled herself from Bernard and rushed over. "I didn't know about tonight until after I'd left work! I tried calling your mobile but it was off...I'm SO glad you made it!"

Carly accepted the hug, wrapping her arms around her friend, "I'm so glad there's a friendly face here, it was all a bit daunting!"

Within moments she was absorbed into the dancing and shenanigans of the party, and the time ticked by as she finished another couple of beers.

Marta had insisted they dance to the Macarena, whereas Carly was unable to believe that she was dancing along to that tune in 2010. It was popular though, and it never failed to amaze Carly how the cheesiest tunes saw the dance floors filled in this town. Wild! But she threw her arms in the air and gave into the vibes.

Half an hour later Marta pulled her close, "so what have you done to be the focus of our darling boss' attention?"

Carly felt a shiver travel up her spine, she'd tried to ignore the sensation of someone watching her all evening, but now that Marta had identified it too, she couldn't deny it any longer. Turning slowly she took in Jens, in his familiar confident way lounging against the doorway to the room, he raised an eyebrow then his eyes moved slowly down the length of her body, it was several seconds before his eyes returned to hers. Several other staff members passed, high-fiving or patting his back. He was both popular and charming, the world seemed to love him. But Carly was unsure. If something seemed to be too good to be true, then inevitably it was. And his sudden attention in her wouldn't come without a price, and she was in no rush to experience either side of that deal.

Giving a magnanimous smile, she shrugged, "no idea, but he's barking at the wrong tree!"

Marta nodded, "that's sensible, he's...how can I put it...popular with the ladies?"

Carly had already heard that from several sources, but he'd been nothing but charming to her, she had no intention of being schmoozed by him, to become another notch on a very worn bedpost.

Ignoring everything she threw herself head long aback into the music.

An hour later Marta found her, she was chatting to a few of the barmen that she was working with the next day.

"Carly. We're leaving. We've got a long day tomorrow. Do you want us to walk you back first?"

Carly was having a great time, meeting more people, laughing. A few hours earlier she'd been nervous at the room of virtual strangers, but now she was happy, relaxed and content to stay.

"Go! I'm OK. I'll see you soon, what time you working tomorrow?" Marta was working the evening, so they'd overlap by an hour or so before Carly finished.

Grabbing a beer from the one of the rapidly emptying ice buckets, she once again searched for an opener.

"Damsel in distress again?" Jens looked at her in that lazy yet languorous way as she held out her bottle, a silent request for him to open it.

"Thought you were anything but a knight?"

He laughed and tension sizzled between them as he cracked off the bottle top, "if you keep painting me that way I may have to revise my opinion of myself! Though I do love to help a beautiful lady...and tonight you look exceptionally that!"

She punched his arm playfully, the only way she knew to hide her embarrassment, or stop herself reading too much into his words, then she suddenly gasped at her presumptuousness, realising what she'd just done.

It was strange because for as good looking, successful and almost aloof Jens appeared, she wasn't intimidated by him, not on a social level anyway. Her mother had always instilled in her that she was as good as anyone else in the World and she truly believed that. She may not have had the opportunities of others, but she was no dunce and she knew that if she'd gone off to university the world would have been her oyster. But if he gave her another of those hot seductive looks then that was a different matter.

She waited for his response to her punch. He, however, laughed elbowing the man stood next to him, "this is what I like, a woman with a bit of spark." The man laughed, but Jens' eyes never left Carly.

"Do you want a dance?"

She shook her head, "don't think me rude, but I hurt my ankle a week ago, and it's letting me know I've either done to much, or not anaesthetised it enough!"

She groaned before his eyes widened, and he snapped a quick retort, "in that case, let's get mojitos!" The rest of the party guests seemed to know what a mojito from Jens entailed, as there were whoops and shouts from around the room.

Taking Carly's wrist, wrapping his long fingers around it, he led her into the kitchen, a dozen or more following in their wake.

Perching her on a stool near where he stood, Jens became a mixologist extraordinaire, tossing bottles, catching ice, and of course crushing the mint leaves before tipping the shaken cocktail into the glass. The room dissolved into oohs and aahs. But with only two complete drinks in his hand, he left any further drink making to his mates. Taking her hand in his, yet managing to balance the two high ball glasses in his other hand, he led her out of the kitchen door to the veranda that flanked three sides of the chalet.

The corner was deserted, and a wall mounted heater made it a secluded yet toasty warm spot. Somewhere in the last half an hour the mood had changed. Jens was being charismatic and more than charming. His eyes had rarely left hers since starting making the drinks.

Carly leaned against the railings of the veranda and studied her glass, she was suddenly a little out of her depth.

"How's the mojito?" Jens asked propping himself opposite her.

She smiled, meeting his eyes briefly, "lovely...but I still rather beer!"

Jens laughed, "me too! All a bit pretentious this cocktail lark, but I have to say that the tourists seem to love it."

Her eyes flashed up to him, "so you make them and drink them just to attract the ladies?"

Jens eyes widened at her insinuation, "I see the grapevine has been providing you with information!"

Carly watched him intently, those beautiful blue eyes seemed to penetrate her soul, he wasn't someone who backed away and he brazened out her stare before finally easing into a smile. She hadn't realised she was holding her breath until it escaped in a long exhale, "not really, if you aren't like that, it seems you're alone in that."

Jens nodded, "there is a lot of love in the skiing season, but not everyone is as promiscuous. What about you?"

Carly felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, what about her? There was so little to reveal about her. Sometimes she wondered why she was even here, she was so different from these people, privileged bordering on spoilt. She'd worked for everything in life, and looking at Jens as he stood near her, watching her, she knew that if he wanted something he got it, probably with little effort. She had no intention of becoming his latest achievement.

"I'm just Carly, here to work, do well...this is important to me."

He digested that for a moment, then smiled, "you presume again that this isn't important to me?"

She shrugged, "I think that people seem to like the partying more than the job...that's not how I work."

Nodding towards the picnic bench to their left he lowered him self on one side, she sat opposite. then he drained his drink before responding, "this place means everything to me, yes my father runs this company, but I've battled to make this resort one of the most profitable. We've got gold standard rating from TripAdvisor, three ski magazines recommend us as their star resort all year around, and next month we're hosting the biggest amature downhill event in Europe. I coudl've stopped pushing months ago, but I can't. I want people like you to realise that I'm not advantaged...I work for everything!"

Carly immediately felt awful, "I wasn't..."

He placed a finger over her lips to silence her, and any attention to speak dissolved with the sensation of his warm slightly rough skin on her soft, delicate lips. She attempted to swallow, but her suddenly mouth suddenly made her splutter.

"You ok?" Carly nodded, so he added, "let me get you a drink."

Carly was surprised that she'd upset Jens so easily, he seemed to ooze self confidence and more than that, he was so comfortable here, such an integral part of the social scene that she was amazed that he was also so driven. Prejudging! She chastised herself. It was her own pet hate, and she'd been so defensive of people making snap opinions of her since she'd been in Austria, that she'd not realised that she was guilty of it herself.

Jens appeared with a couple of beers a few seconds later and she smiled at him, "I didn't mean to insult you! Earlier..." She sipped the beer before adding, "I don't know, it's just taken a long time for me to break away from teh restrictions of home, family...I hate seeing people taking freedom and opportunity for granted.

He lowered himself next to her, and she instantly felt a predatory threat, so she slid the five inches along the bench until she clung to the edge rather inelegantly. If Jens noticed her discomfort, her reluctance, he didn't reveal it.

"Suitably anaethetised? Fancy a dance?" Jens leaned in close, his breath warm on her cheek. He chuckled as he saw her visibly shake, not knowing it was fear or excitement, "I don't bite...promise."

As he stood and offered his hand, she slid her fingers into the warm strong grasp and followed him into the loud, busy chalet.