Page 56 of Merry Little Hate Notes

“Yes, we do. But be warned: We haven’t closed any of our deals yet.” I was actually getting worried about whether any of them would close—especially Artemis, which was the biggest account. It felt like Blake Vanderbilt had ghosted me.

“You will,” she promised. “This is so happening for us.”

I hoped she was right. I was still wary, even though this past weekend had been all sorts of magical. Even the hard parts. “I’d better go.” I had arrived on the third floor.

“Okay. Call me soon.”

“I will, after I catch up on the bathroom gossip.” I hadn’t seen anything on the news over the weekend about Rita burning Amy’s house down. Which I was selfishly disappointed by, seeing as Brandon wasn’t letting me out of our bet. I’d hoped to wake up with laryngitis this morning, but sadly, I was more than healthy.

I tossed my phone into my bag as I strode across the floor to my favorite desk. There were only a few other people here, but it felt as if they were all staring at me. Had someone seen Brandon and me at Costco? We should never have shared that ice cream while we waited to check out—it was pretty flirty. I was done for. Krista and Jane were probably talking about me in the bathroom now. I needed to check that out. But first, Brandon.

He was covertly smiling at me when I approached. “Good morning, Holly,” he said, extra formally.

We’d decided it was probably best not to advertise we were dating, even though I feared the dang cat was already out of the bag.

“Good morning. Did you have a nice weekend?” I shed my coat and deposited my bag on my desk while pretending I didn’t know he’d left my house at one a.m. after we fell asleep on the couch together. We’d talked a lot about Christian. I hadn’t realized how much my brother haunted Brandon, how life had never been the same for him. I’d falsely assumed he’d just gone on and lived his charmed life with hardly a thought of me or my brother. Sure, Lauren had said things over the years, but I hadn’t wanted to believe Brandon was anything but a jerk.

“Verygood. How about you?” he asked.

“It was all right,” I teased.

He looked down his nose at me, a hint of a smile playing on his handsome face. A face I wanted to kiss the heck out of. You know, once we discussed the TED Talk and it was respectable for me to do so. I figured since we were spending so much time together, he would have mentioned it by now.

“It definitely had its moments,” I amended.

“That’s better.” He slid his hand across his desk to my desk. Through the cracks between his fingers, I could see a bright-blue sticky note.

“What’s this?” I whispered. This wasn’t how we played the game.

“New game. New rules.”

“What game is this?”

“You’re a smart woman. I think you’ll figure it out.” He removed his hand and started typing something out on his laptop, leaving the note behind.

I picked up the note to read it.You’re like visions of sugarplums. You keep dancing through my head.Oh. I had a feeling I was going to like this game. Major butterflies erupted in my stomach. I so badly wanted to wrap my arms around Brandon, but for the sake of propriety, I refrained. Instead, I pulled out the stack of sticky notes from my bag and grabbed a pen. Thoughts of Shakespeare ran rampant through my mind. While Shakespeare was the master of insults, he was just as good, or even better, when it came to expressing one’s heart. But he was too good for what I needed now. He could say I love you so poetically it could bring a tear to the eye, but Brandon and Iweren’t there yet. Something cute and holiday themed was probably more appropriate at this moment.

I tapped my pen on the desk until this thought came to me.I am sMITTEN with thee.So I added a little Shakespeare language to it—I couldn’t help myself. Regardless, it was true. I was smitten with Brandon.

Casually, I walked past Brandon and sneakily placed the note in his hand like I was handing off secret launch codes or something. “I’ll be back soon.” I had to fight the urge to keep ahold of his hand. The zing of the connection almost won out, but I fought the good fight.

Brandon smiled and curled his fingers around the note.

I snuck a glance behind me to find him grinning from ear to ear as he read it. It gave me a certain satisfaction. And hope. Hope for the future and hope we could move past all the hate, even the good kind. If there was such a thing.

Still feeling like everyone was looking at me, I hustled to the bathroom to get the latest gossip, hoping I wasn’t the star of it. My two best sources for all the office drama were already there.

Krista and Jane were sitting on the couch in the seating area, whispering to each other. My heart beat triple time.

Jane’s head snapped up when she noticed me. She eyed me from head to toe, scrutinizing every part of me. I felt so exposed I almost ran out.

“I rarely give compliments, as I believe most people aren’t deserving of them, but I have to say, you’re actually beautiful. Never noticed that before,” Jane spat out, like those sweet words left a bad taste in her mouth.

“What a thing to say, Jane.” Krista rolled her eyes. “Holly’s always been beautiful. Although I will say, you are glowing today.”

“Are you pregnant?” Jane threw out with no regard for decorum.

“Jane, you can’t ask that,” Krista scolded her. “But are you?” Krista wondered out loud.

---