Page 9 of Wrap Me Up

“Oh, you know. Everything is back to rights. And I know exactly how I’m going to take you down this year.” I give him a sweet smile and he snorts back at me.

“It’s not my fault the judges like glasswork.”

“But,” Snow says, “You said you were doing silicone this year.”

Dylan nods. “Yep.” He taps his head. “Got the best idea.”

“I’m intrigued.”

“I’m not telling the competition what it is.” Dylan sticks his tongue out, but his eyes sparkle with mischief. We’re just barbing each other for fun, no malice behind it.

I take another drink before looking Dylan dead in the eyes. “I’m going to wow everyone with my leather carving skills.”

“You already wow everyone with your leather carving skills,” Snow says.

“You don’t understand the hugeness of the piece I’m doing for the competition. It’s going to be vast. Ginormous. You’ll see. No one can deny I’m first place this time.” I turn on my heel and sashay out.

Today, nothing can take away my smile. I have a date with Noel, and I can’t wait to see what he has planned.

As soon as I make it over to my studio, I’m hit with Christmas pop music because Snickerdoodle and Jolly beat me in today.

“You’re smiling a lot more after your talk with Noel,” Snickerdoodle says.

“We cleared things up.” Well cleared up enough that I’m not sad. There’s still a little bit we need to address. Eventually we’ll get there. “But we’re not talking about me and Noel today. No, we’re talking strategy to take Dylan down in the competition. He’s amazing, but leather will rule this year!” I drop my hand like a gavel.

“Leather!” the two yell, and we snort at how ridiculous I am.

Jolly tips her head. “What is the plan? Usually, you tell us by now what we’re doing.”

“So glad you asked.” I set my to-go cup on my worktable and scurry to one of the backroom storages where I have my secret stashed. I gather it in my arms and hurry back to the front of the warehouse. “We’re going to do a leather carving of the North Pole. On this.” I fling open the leather and it takes over my six-foot table, just barely not knocking over my drink.

Snickerdoodle whistles. “That is a lot of leather to carve.”

“I know. You’ll see I started just here.” I point out the far corner where I have about a hand width of snow drifts carved into the leather.

“This is a huge feat. Are you sure we can get it done in time?” Jolly nibbles her fingernail as she looks across the table.

“I’m sure we can. We’ll take it little by little between our custom orders. We’ll get it done in no time.” I also plan on using free time to do what I can.

“I’m excited,” Snickerdoodle says. “I think the other three will be too.”

On my phone, I pull up the drawing I did and show it to them.

“Oh, Tinsel,” Snickerdoodle says. “You’ve outdone yourself.”

My cheeks heat at the praise. “I just hope everyone likes it. I think it’d be pretty in the meeting hall if we win. It’s not like we can display dildos right there for everyone to see!” I snort at the thought. “We got this. I have no doubt.”

“Then let’s get started on our orders so we can have fun with this later,” Jolly says.

“Good plan.” I stuff my phone back in my pocket and pull up today’s orders we need to get done. “I divided the day’s work between the six of us. Let me know if I need to adjust.” The other three aren’t here yet, but it’s still early. I won’t worry just yet.

Before I can think another thought, Mistletoe, Snowflake, and Peppermint stroll in, laughing at a shared joke. We all quickly get to work. I don’t want to go too hard because tonight Noel and I have our first date.

Chapter 10

Noel

I slick my hair back and give myself one final look in the mirror. I’m in black slacks and a silver belt. And a dark green dress shirt with lace along the collar. Dressy, but not overly so. I’m taking Tinsel on our first official date tonight. I hope he likes what I have planned. I may or may not have snuck into Dylan’s studio to chat with him for a moment on what Tinsel might swoon over and win me brownie points.

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