It was starting to snow.
Riley looked up at the sky in disbelief as chubby snowflakes started to fall.
They were moving so slow you could catch them, but right now the only thing Riley was catching was grief from Mike.
“You need to find your car now,” Mike barked. “Or get a cab, I don’t care. Just get here.”
As Riley watched the snow start to fall faster, beginning to cover the sidewalk, she gave her stilettos a nervous look.
“It’s snowing,” she said with disbelief. “It wasn’t supposed to snow today. It was supposed to be sunny and clear. I am not dressed to go wandering around trying to find a car that isn’t here.”
“Then grab a cab. Just get here! You’re on live in forty-five minutes,” Mike shot back at her. “I called in a lot of favors to get you this interview.”
“Then you should have made sure a car was here for me,” Riley grumbled under her breath.
But Mike didn’t hear her. He’d already hung up.
The snow and the wind were picking up fast. Riley quickly put up the hood of her black wool coat to try to salvage her TV-ready hair and makeup.
“This is unbelievable,” she muttered to herself as she stepped out into the street, slipping and sliding in her stilettos as she tried to hail a cab.
But all the cabs raced by her.
She was about to give up and head back to the hotel when all of a sudden, she heard loud Christmas music. This time the Christmas music wasn’t carolers, but a car radio on the street blaring “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
“Need a ride?”
Riley whirled around to see a cab had pulled up.
“Yes!” she said, relieved, but as she made a run for the cab she forgot about her high heels and practically fell onto the front of the car before jumping in the back seat.
“Thank you so much!” she said, out of breath. “I need to go to twenty Franklin Street as fast as you can.”
As the cab pulled back into heavy traffic, Riley texted Mike.
I’m on my way!
When they passed Rockefeller Center, Riley peered out the window at the spectacular Christmas tree, watching silvery snowflakes swirling in a winter dance, pirouetting perfectly before gently resting on the tree’s branches. The tree’s twinkling red Christmas lights magically illuminated the plaza, but right now, the only red lights Riley cared about were all the brake lights in front of them.
Her cab was barely moving.
She fidgeted in her seat. At this rate, she’d never make her interview. The snowflakes were getting bigger and falling faster.
“This traffic is crazy,” Riley said, turning her attention to the taxi driver. “Is there any way out of this? Another way we could go that would be quicker? I’m really running late.”
The driver was happily humming along to the Christmas classic playing on the radio, “Let it Snow!”
The irony was not lost on Riley.
When the grinning driver turned around and smiled at Riley, she did a double take.
He had white hair, a white beard, and twinkling blue eyes, and looked suspiciously like . . . Santa Claus.
She’d jumped into the cab so fast she hadn’t noticed what he looked like, but now she couldn’t miss how he was wearing a bright-red jacket with white fur trim.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” the Santa driver said with a big belly laugh. “You just need to believe I’ll get you to where you need to be on time.”
But right now, all she could believe was that her Santa driver had spiked his hot cocoa this morning or was on a sugar high from eating too many Christmas cookies.
She cringed as her phone dinged with another text from Mike. The text was in all caps. She hated when he did that.
WHERE ARE YOU?!!!
YOU’RE LIVE IN 20 MINUTES!!!
If she missed this interview Mike would serve her up like a turkey at a Christmas dinner. Her publisher and agent were counting on her, and right now she couldn’t afford to do anything to upset them.
As her cab crawled forward, she looked around and looked behind them.
There was no escaping the glaring red brake lights.
She couldn’t believe this was happening. She was never late. She prided herself in always being organized and showing up early to everything, and she would have been early if the car Mike had set up for her had actually arrived.
She knew she was lucky she’d been able to get a cab at all. When she’d lived in Manhattan, she’d always battled to get a ride whenever there was any kind of bad weather. All this gridlock was one thing she didn’t miss about living in the city.
She also couldn’t figure out where all this snow was coming from. She had checked her weather app right before leaving her hotel room. There had been no snow in the forecast. None. If there had been, she never would have worn the shoes she was wearing. Now her brand-new black suede stilettos, with their spiky sky-high heels, which had seemed like such a perfect choice, were mocking her.
Wearing the right shoes always gave her a boost of confidence, and that was something she needed today. If she’d known it was going to snow, she would have worn power boots, not power heels. She frowned as she looked down at her soggy shoes and wiggled her cold, wet toes.
She looked back at her taxi driver, who was now munching away on a candy cane. She needed this jolly good fellow to be the real deal for a second.
“Santa?” she said, leaning in, realizing how ridiculous she sounded but willing to play along in this Christmas fantasy if it meant saving her interview.
Stopped at a light, her Santa driver immediately turned around and smiled at her. “Yes,” he answered with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Does this ride come with a Christmas wish?” Riley asked. “Because my wish would be to get to the TV station in the next five
