Page 117 of Fierce-Hyde

“Not telling you what to do,” he said. “But maybe if you cut her off she’d have to figure it out more.”

Tori sighed. “I don’t know. I’m not sure it’s worth that chance. She honestly hasn’t had this happen in years. If she hadn’t been fired she would have been fine or at least close to fine. I’ve got her bills set up for her, but she does stupid shit.”

“Like we’ve all done in life,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “And I don’t want to talk about her anymore. Let’s open gifts if you don’t mind. Or are you one of those people who has to wait until Christmas morning to see if Santa came or not?”

“Santa stopped coming for me years ago,” he said, smiling.

“The same,” she said. “We can have our dessert when we are done.”

“That works,” he said, putting their empty plates in the dishwasher while she wrapped up the remains of their dinner.

They moved to the tree, sat down, and pulled out the few gifts they’d bought for each other.

He wanted to push his boundaries and get her more than what they’d agreed on but decided maybe it wasn’t worth another fight to go as far as he wanted.

Even when they were getting along they still butted heads.

“Here,” she said. “Open it.”

He pulled the first box in front of him, ripped off the paper, and then lifted a purple golf shirt with white stripes on it.

“Nice,” he said, holding it up in front of him.

“You look good in purple,” she said. “And you can wear it the next time you play with your boss and Ryder.”

He laughed. “Perfect. They are always stylish and I just grab whatever is the first thing my hand lands on in the closet.”

He nudged his box to her and she opened it. “UGG slippers. You remembered.” She was all but bopping while she sat on the floor.

“I did,” he said, laughing at her. She was wiggling now and pulling them out of the box.

She’d said that she always wanted a pair and always ended up with the cheap or generic ones. That she couldn’t bring herself to buy the real ones.

“These cost more than what we said we were going to spend,” she said, lifting an eyebrow, but she was slipping the caramel-colored suede on her feet and kicking her toes up to admire them.

“So?” he said. “It’s worth it and they look really cute on you.”

More like ridiculous with her black leggings that she changed into. They were so fitted to her body and the slippers were big and bulky, almost like clown shoes.

But she was happy and that was the only important thing.

“They do,” she said. “Silly, I know, but still cute. Here, open this one and then your stocking.”

He reached for the gift bag and pulled out a dark green fleece jacket. “I like this a lot,” he said. “I needed a new one. My last lightweight jacket has seen some years.”

“I noticed,” she said. “And you normally look really good, but that jacket is probably from college.”

He laughed. “It is,” he said. “I never think to buy jackets because I don’t wear them much.”

“Now you’ve got one,” she said simply.

He handed her a little gift bag before they opened their stockings. It was his idea to do them because he wanted to fill it with fun things.

One of those childhood memories he had that he wanted to give her knowing she might not have had many growing up.

She pulled out the red and green glitter paper. “Fancy,” she said. “Or did someone else put this together for you?”

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