I stewed about Hollythe rest of the evening as I assembled with Gunnar, Dana, and several other Romance Creative workers in my condo. The TV was set to the Internet-streaming channel. A countdown clock of happy elves tossing numbers on the timer was ticking down to the premier ofThe Great Christmas Bake-Off.
Belle was setting up another flat-screen TV that displayed several stats, including number of viewers and shares on social media.
“I made snacks!” Penny called, bringing in a charcuterie tray from the kitchen. Garrett followed his girlfriend with several more dishes.
“I didn't peg you as a Christmas Bake-Off fan,” I said to him, snagging one of the pinwheel sandwiches off the tray he held.
“I'm supportive,” he said, settling on the couch and wrapping an arm possessively around Penny. She giggled and fed him a bite of sandwich.
I was suddenly jealous. Not that I wanted Penny—Garrett would flat-out murder me if I even thought that—but I wanted what Garrett had. When I'd originally agreed to go out with Sloane six months ago, she had seemed perfect. She checked all the boxes: Ivy League educated, good career, slim and tall, with conservative fashion sense.
I had been ready to find a partner, a girlfriend and eventual wife I could settle down with. Then Sloane had turned into a disaster, and I was in damage-control mode. But now there was Holly.
The timer on the screen reached zero. The cartoon elves cheered, and the theme song played.
“I had to basically sell my soul to Lilith and Morticia to get them to create that little cartoon,” Penny explained with a laugh.
Morticia was standing in a corner, glowering.
“Don't you feel a little bit of Christmas spirit?” Penny teased her friend.
“Never.”
That was how I felt unless I was looking at Holly in a sexy costume or Holly's Christmas cookies or Holly in that outfitwiththe Christmas cookies. I jumped up, suddenly warm, and threw open the French doors to the balcony.
“It's freezing in here,” Gunnar complained.
“Shhh, it's starting,” Belle said.
Upbeat Christmas music played while the contestants baked. I sucked in a breath when the show cut to a close-up of Holly, hair swept into a messy updo, that ridiculously festive and ridiculously short sweater dress emphasizing her curves.
“There's a lot of people watching,” Penny said, chewing on her lip. “Are all those people going to crash the system?”
“Of course not,” I retorted. “My company runs the server infrastructure for WebFlix. You could have ten times as many people watch it all at once and not notice a difference.”
“Hopefully we have that many,” Dana said, making notes on her tablet as the episode played.
“How are the stats looking?” Gunnar asked, looking at the adjacent screen.
“Shit, we're up to eight hundred thousand,” Belle said. I watched as Holly presented her dessert on screen.
“Owen's really hitting it out of the park,” Garrett remarked. “That shot where Anastasia asked him a question and he just scowled up at the ceiling and grunted was particularly insightful.”
“He's eye candy,” Dana said.
“He's definitely helping to sell the show,” Gunnar said, scrolling through his phone. “From the stats, a good thirty percent of the comments are about Owen. This woman said, 'I want to smear him with frosting and lick it all off'.”
“He's drawing in viewers,” Belle said. “We're at one point three million!”
“Fantastic!” Dana said, pleased. “I think we had that many viewers during the season finale last year. We're going to blow those numbers out of the water this season!”
“Someone needs to give Owen a crash course in baking. We're trying to ensure his company does not fail theTechBizranking again,” Garrett said. “He can't just sit there with a blank look on his face. That does not inspire confidence.”
23
Holly
I'd stayed up late into the early morning, first watching the premiere ofThe Great Christmas Bake-Offthen interacting with fans online. The Taste My Muffins baking subscription boxes also experienced a surge in subscribers, which I was grateful for. I'd received another note from the storage facility where my grandmother’s Christmas decorations were. The owner said I needed to make some sort of payment or they were going to auction off my unit. I didn't even have to check my accounts or my credit card to know that I did not have enough money for that month’s payment.
