Page 71 of So This Is Christmas

“Do you have any moves?”

“Now you’re insulting me.” He smiled to show that he wasn’t truly taking offense and considered her advice.Just ask.

Hmm.

Late that night, Cara was tucked into bed with a book that she was having trouble concentrating on—what a day it had been!—when her phone pinged with an incoming text.

Matteo:The king has made time in his schedule tomorrow to see us at 4 p.m. if that suits. I notice that he has a late dinner booked with Lucille Müller, so this is good timing.

Cara:Sounds great. Well, not great, but you know what I mean. Thank you for arranging this.

Matteo:I was also wondering if you would

Hmm. That was weird. Matteo always texted in full sentences, using proper punctuation.

Cara:If I would what?

Matteo:My apologies. I hit send there too soon.

The bubbles that indicated he was typing appeared, and they kept bubbling. Sure enough, when the next text arrived, it was long. And back to being very Mr. Benzy with an immaculately composed and punctuated paragraph.

Matteo:I was wondering if you would care to join me for dinner after our meeting. I admit I’m a little unsettled by the prospect of what we have to tell the king, and I was thinking about how my customary way of relaxing after a particularly stressful day is dinner in front of Star Wars. Perhaps you’d care to join for such at my apartment? I’ll even let you choose the episode.

Cara could think of nothing she’d like to do more tomorrow night than to debrief the day and watch Star Wars with Matteo in his apartment, and not just because she wanted to jump his bones. Which she still did. Unfortunately.

Cara:I would love to join you, thanks. But I think we should watch Trek instead of Wars.

Matteo:All right.

Cara:All right?! I was kidding! I didn’t expect you to capitulate so easily.

Matteo:Well, if we watch Trek instead of Wars, then I don’t have to listen to youmonologuing about bloodlines and the divine right of kings. That doesn’t actually sound very relaxing, now that I think about it.

And then he sent a winky face emoji.

Wait. Was she sure that it actually was Matteo on the other end of this conversation? Had he been bitten by a particularly accommodating zombie with a sense of humor?

Either way, she was irrationally excited to watch TV tomorrow with the equerry to the throne of Eldovia.

Chapter Twelve

Five days until Christmas

Matteo worried about the emoji all evening and into the next day. He worried about it so much that during a break in sorting and wrapping at Kai’s workshop, he called Martina. Given the amount of time she spent on her phone, she should be able to advise.

“Talk to me about emojis.”

“Huh?”

“I need a crash course on emojis. When should you use them? On their own or in concert with written text? To accentuate written text or to soften it?”

“What are you talking about? Just use an emoji if you want to use an emoji.”

“The problem is, I already did. Now I’m concerned that it wasn’t appropriate.”

“Did you send the peach? Or the eggplant?”

“Why would I do that?”

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