“Dasher, you’re kidding, right?”

“I am.” Gregor winked. “See, I can lighten things up sometimes.”

Blaze shook his head as he stood. “Sure, man, you’re the epitome of lightness.”

“Keep it up and we’ll have to have a football game in the snow and your team will be no shirts!”

They slapped each other’s backs as they left the private room and entered into the bustling tapas bar that belonged to Atticus.

“Don’t remind me,” Blaze groaned, “I swear I got frostbite that day.”

“I think we all did, brother. I’ll see you later.” Gregor left his Land Rover parked at the bar, choosing instead to walk the fifteen minutes home and clear his head. He wanted to confront Atticus. If the little Greek had anything to do with the mix-up, he swore he’d knock him into next week.

But when Gregor arrived home, he found the place empty, and only the lingering scent of Atticus’ favorite cologne was evidence that he had been there. He growled in frustration. Damn the man! Whipping his phone out of his pocket, he called his erstwhile roomie.

“Atticus Papadakis.”

“Don’t Atticus Papadakis me, you know perfectly well who it is.”

“Ah, there is the grumpy bosshole,” Atticus replied in a happy tone.

Gregor growled into the receiver. “What do you have to be so damn happy about?”

“I have a date.”

“So? You always have a date.”

“Yes, I am rather popular, aren’t I?”

Gregor ignored the smug reply. “We need to talk.”

“Fine.”

Gregor gritted his teeth. How after all these years did Atticus manage to still get under his skin?

“Something happened last night.”

A chuckle came through. “I’m well aware, I arranged it, remember?”

“Do you also know that it wasn’t a woman from Cherie, but a woman Blaze sent to us for employment?”

There was a long pause, which spoke volumes to Gregor. Whatever else he may or may not know, Atticus did not know about the switch.

“How? All you had to do is find the woman at the bar with the cat mask on. I made sure no one else wore a cat mask, it was in the memo.”

There was a memo?

How had Gregor missed that? Unless the little shit was straight-up lying to him right now.

“I don’t know how, but it did. I just finished running damage control with Blaze.”

Another chuckle. “I bet you did! My only question is, did you have a good time?”

Gregor sighed and felt some of the tension melt from his shoulders. There was never judgment from Atticus, never. It was his most endearing quality that he accepted Gregor exactly as he was.

“I did. It was even better than I’d hoped for, but be that as it may, I’ve been warned off already by Blaze, and having an affair with my PA while not forbidden as I wrote the rules, it is way too cliché, even for me. It’s best I forget about the lovely PA and send her to work elsewhere in the company.”

Another moment of silence from the other end of the phone. “Maybe you’ll change your mind. In the meantime, I’ve got a date, so I’ll see you at the sleigh ride. Later.”