Page 8 of Daddy Christmas

A few of us found a table in the back of the cafeteria and spent the next hour doing more shots and speculating wildly about this year’s gift from corporate. They all knew I’d designed the logo, but I wasn’t going to blab.

“It’s another beach towel, isn’t it?” Trina slurred.

“Could be.” It wasn’t. I actually loved this year’s gift. For once, I planned on using it.

“Hey, everyone!”

I squinted toward the booming voice near the exit of the cafeteria. It was Henric.

“Time for Santa’s speech upstairs!” he announced.

Oh, my grumpy grinch in a Santa costume. I was so ready.

As I stood up, I was hit by vertigo, and I started laughing. “Holy shit.” Now I felt the shots. “I’mma hold on to you, Mya.”

“She’s more wasted than you are,” Kim guffawed.

Yeah, and Kim was what, sober? Riiight.

Since everyone was heading upstairs, we didn’t even consider one of the elevators. They’d be packed. And screw standing in line. So the three of us—and Henric, I noticed—took the stairs.

Ouch, the lights were too bright here.

“You’ve got some moves, babe,” Henric told me.

I snorted, finding that funny for some reason. Maybe it was having him call me babe. It was weird.

“Babe,” I said, sidling up next to him. “You know we’re not happening, right, babe?”

He shot me a lazy smirk. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” I would’ve draped an arm around his shoulders if I hadn’t been so damn short. Instead, I settled for linking my arm with his. “You’re hotter than sin—you already know that—but you’re way too young for me. And way too much of a player.”

He chuckled. “I’m older than you, squirt.”

I laughed. Man, I hadn’t been called squirt since kindergarten.

We left the stairwell and reached the lobby of the seventh floor at the same time as a loud group of people exited the elevators.

“By what, five or six years?” I guessed. “We’re about to hear my type give his annual holiday speech in a Santa costume.”

“He’s got a serious Daddy fetish,” Mya tossed over her shoulder in agreement.

Legit.

“It’s so serious that he’s ogling the most boring man on the planet,” Kim laughed.

I couldn’t help but crack up. It was true! What the fuck was I doing?

Henric merely shook his head in amusement. Then he left me to join his friends—and hopefully to find another target—but that wasn’t entirely good for me. I hadn’t leaned on him to be cute. I just needed some fucking support to stay upright.

“Hey, can someone help me, please? The world is spinning.”

Thankfully, I could count on my girls, and we supported one another on our way into the office.

This was the dull section of the party. They had Christmas music playing in the background, and they’d cleared a part of the bullpen, but the lights hadn’t been dimmed down enough, they served wine and cheese instead of shots and chips, and people were talking instead of dancing.

“The mature crowd doesn’t seem happy to see us,” Mya stage-whispered.

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