Page 42 of The Holidays with Dr. Mitchell
“Where did you get the idea to blackmail us anyway?” Collin laughed with carefree ease.
“You two shitting in the woods isn’t all we have recorded,” Jim said, strangely still smiling. “Cameras were everywhere, even when your cute little faces were sound asleep andtalkingin your sleep.”
“Who cares about talking in our sleep,” I challenged. “Everybody does that. It’s perfectly normal.”
“You’re right about that much,” Spencer said. “However,whatyou two were cry-babying about while you slept makes the recorded material worth it in the end.”
“I’m not taking that bait,” Collin said. “You three are fucked. You’re scared and have no idea when or where my boy and I will get you back.”
I leaned back in the comfortable train chair, smiled, and crossed my arms, “Show the fucking videos to the world. Hell, Jack Masterson will be grateful to Collin and me for making him famous, but you three are fucked, and you know it.”
“You’re willing to let down the women and all the kids at Christmas just to get us back?” Alex questioned.
Collin grinned and leaned forward. “The only ones being let down will be you three. It was a dumb idea to prank us right before the holidays,” Collin said, smiling back at me.
“It was even more foolish to attempt to blackmail us with your cheesy-ass videos,” I added and then stood when Collin did.
We eyed the men cockily before leaving the three executives to ponder what Collin and I would do now.
“Insurance, my ass,” Collin said as we left the dining car and walked into the lounge car filled with sofas, an adorable fireplace, and three Christmas trees to keep the festive appearance of Jim’s North Pole Express flowing flawlessly throughout the train.
“Well, they are fucking scared. I mean, it’s the first proper prank they were bold enough to play on us,” I answered, walking over to the sofa and sitting down.
Collin sat in the deep red velvet chair to my left, facing the ornately carved wooden fireplace. “What should we do?” he questioned with excitement.
“This one is a hard one because it’s the holidays,andif we get their smug asses back, it has to be impactful.”
“Something that will teach them not to fuck with us, of course,” Collin added, as deeply in thought as I was.
“Jim’s right. We can’t fuck up Christmas for the women and the kids,” I said. “We have to play by the rules.”
“Of course,” Collin answered, “but let’s think about it. We never fuck up things when we pull off our silly pranks on those assholes. In fact, the women enjoy it.”
“We are a great time when it comes to shit like this,” I said with a smile. “We can pull this off easily, and it will make for a fantastic Christmas that no one shall ever forget.”
“But what are we going to do?” Collin said. “I mean, we’re in Christmas Country. I don’t know shit about anything in Switzerland.”
“We’ll do the only thing we can do,” I narrowed my eyes at him. “We go balls deep with all this Christmas shit. One thousand percent Christmas spirit.”
The lights went on in Collin’s eyes, “Nothing like this Christmas train to inspire us to go all-out, obsessively covering every Christmas tradition known to man?”
“We can kick it all off by singing everyone’s favorite Christmas tune by the Queen of Christmas herself?” I arched an eyebrow with a smile.
Collin raised his mug of eggnog toward me, “All I want for Christmas isyou,baby!”
I tipped my mug to salute my best friend, knowingexactlywhat we were about to do. We were going to make these businessmen do every fucking Christmas thing that we could think of, forcing them not to open a laptop or check business numbers and holdings on their phones until we were done with them. Isn’t that what all our lovely wives and children wanted from us lately anyway, to disconnect from everything keeping us from them? Well, this would be the Christmas miracle they’ve been dreaming about.
It was time these smug CEOs found their own form of ego death this Christmas, and Collin and I would happily and festively give it to them.
CHAPTER 23
Ash
Contrary to how my husband and Collin felt, spending the first part of this vacation in the Maldives was a perfect way to kick off the holidays. Even though we’d been in an island paradise, it was lovely to be pampered in a stress-free environment while making adorable Christmas ornaments that I couldn’t wait to show the kids.
I initially worried that being on the island would take away from my holiday spirits, and even if that were a little bit true, the train we were riding had surpassed all my expectations when it came to immersing myself in the holidays.
I’d decided to take a quick nap, but I’d fallen into a deep sleep and woke up having no idea how long I’d been out. I was bummed, thinking I’d missed the whole train ride and all the gorgeous scenery that came along with it, but when I looked out the massive window to my left, I saw the majestic beauty of the snowy Swiss Alps and was overcome with serenity.
