Page 54 of A Festive Surprise

Chapter Eighteen

Holly

Holly rested her chin on her hands, staring at the screen. No, no, please no. Not a crisis at three o’clock on a Friday. If she couldn’t fix this, and fast, it would mean a weekend of work.

She tapped several keys and waited, clamping her lip between her teeth. Nothing happened. ‘Oh, come on!’ she yelled at it. ‘Why won’t you just work?’

Farid’s door slammed shut and she held her breath momentarily. Since she’d crashed his chat with his family the other night, he’d been distant. Two nights alone, with him on the other side of the wall, was torturous. If she could just fix this damn glitch. Then she’d go round and see him. Check he was ok. His excuses of needing sleep because work was tough didn’t wash. While it may be true, something wasn’t right. Had talking to his family made him rethink? Had they persuaded him not to date her? Maybe they’d hated the look of her and his translations had been fake.

Code after code she keyed in, and still nothing happened. Her fingers moved like lightning. A knock on the door broke the cycle. Then it opened and closed.

‘Marhaba,’ Farid called.

‘Hey.’ Holly looked around as he came into the living room and teased her fingers through her hair, tossing it up so it fluffed over her shoulders.

‘Are you ok?’ He lowered his head, blinking his sparkling blue eyes.

‘Yeah. I was going to come and see you later. I’ve missed you.’

‘I’m sorry. Seeing my family again… It made me stop and think. But I missed you too. Now…’ He arched an eyebrow suggestively. ‘Close your eyes.’

‘Why?’

‘Please.’

Holly did it, trying not to peek, but sensed he’d moved closer. The warm scent of amber oil filled her nostrils.

‘Now open.’

She flicked up her eyelids. He was behind her and when she turned, her gaze was drawn upward. A sprig of mistletoe dangled over her head. ‘Seriously.’

Shaking the mistletoe, he pouted his lips and closed his eyes. She did the same, giving him a Charlie Brown style kiss. He chuckled.

‘You didn’t need that to get a kiss.’ Holly eyed the mistletoe. ‘In fact, I’ll give you a better one if you get rid of it.’ She returned to her screen and grimaced.

‘Are you sure you’re ok?’

‘Yes. It’s just work.’ She hammered a key. ‘Something’s gone wrong with this bloody program.’

‘What?’ Farid grabbed the stool from the far side of the breakfast bar and pulled it up to sit beside her.

She threw some more lines of code at it. ‘I’m debugging a program I’ve been developing, and something has gone wrong. I don’t have time to go through it again and I don’t want to ask Gavin to help.’

‘Who’s he?’

She let out a sigh. ‘An ex. But also someone I used to work with a lot and I’ve been working with him again on this.’

‘Oh yeah?’

‘Purely work, Farid. I won’t be going down any other route with him again. No danger. But he’s really good at his job.’

‘Ok.’

‘I thought this would be a quick fix.’

‘Can I see?’ He shifted his seat closer, peering at the screen.

She frowned. ‘Do you understand incremental program development?’

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