Page 9 of Midnight & Magic
“That doesn’t sound boring at all! It actually sounds like a lot of fun to me. I’ve always wanted to do that myself, but I never had anyone to accompany me.”
“The adventure of trying to find a treasure amongst what many consider junk is pretty cool, yes. But you often come across over-priced stuff that you may find cheaper at TJ Maxx.”
Camden let out a chuckle.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Have you ever gone antiquing on your own?”
“Me? No. I really don’t have the time—even if I wanted to. Running the company doesn’t allow me a lot of days off. Frankly, I don’t even remember the last time I took a day off.”
“Well, we are going to have to change that! As your secretary, it is partly my job to carve some time for you to decompress from work. So tomorrow, I will see I get started on that for you.”
“That’s very kind of you, but that isn’t part of your job. Especially since I take my work home with me.”
“Well, I’ll have to make sure I keep you occupied on your day off, then. I’m determined to get you to relax. You don’t want those furrowed brows giving you premature wrinkles, after all.”
“First, I think I’d like to see you try. Second? I’m a vampire. We don’t do wrinkles.” His lips turned upright and formed a full-on smile. “But since we are talking about work, let’s discuss this merriment we are supposed to have in a few weeks.” He rolled his eyes.
“Oh, you mean Christmas?”
“Yeah, that.”
“Tell me you aren’t a grinch!”
“Bah-humbug?”
Cassidy let out a giggle that vibrated in the room.
“Oh my! I guess there are going to be a lot of things I will have to teach you! Where’s your Christmas spirit?”
“I don’t like parties. I’m not one for superficial people making small talk so they can appear to look important. To me, the only good thing about the holidays is that I get a day to work with zero interruptions.”
“You work every Christmas?”
“Well, not just Christmas. I work through every holiday. I mean—I don’t have any family to speak of, and it’s been a long time since I left the coven I used to hang out with. Most of them live in Europe.”
“You ever want to settle down?” Cassidy asked while taking another sip of wine.
“The thought never really crossed my mind. I mean, there’s a reason they call me the most eligible bad boy bachelor, and it’s because I haven’t come across any woman that will look past my being rich. No one sees me for me. They only see my bank account. And I tire of how shallow people are because of that.”
“I can appreciate that. My husband was always worried about status and hated that I’d food shop in my sweats with a messy bun and zero makeup. Me? Not so much. I like what I like, which won’t change because I added a few more zeros to my paycheck. But? I didn’t make anything near your net worth, yet I was proud of my accomplishments. I just wish I could get back to feeling that pride in myself that I once had. Maybe one day.”
“Well, I think that will be something I can promise you. How about you teach me to relax, and I’ll help you regain your confidence? Does that sound good to you?”
“Yeah, that does!”
“Great! So the first task in getting you your confidence back will be you coming up with some fun things for us to do for this Christmas gathering. Every year we do an auction, and all the money goes to charity. So we can do that again. But I need your help finding some great gift donations to add to what we have accumulated throughout this year.”
“An auction sounds nice, but it’s a little stuffy—isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m sure it’s fun to bid on stuff, but it’s also fun to do a Christmas Angel for some local orphanage—wouldn’t it?”
Camden nodded slightly.
“I’m listening.”
