“No, I answer the phone like a normal person.”
“Like a boring holiday-averse person you mean.”
“I wanted to see whether you could do me a favor. Are you busy tonight?”
She waited a beat. “Is this, like, a sexual favor?”
“No.” But it could be. “I need you to speak on our behalf at the town hall tonight.”
“For your farm expansion?” she asked. “Let me tell you, people are not happy about the project.”
“Really?”Dammit.
“Yeah, there were people coming in last night to complain about it.”
“Shit.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I have a plan! But you have to tap into your inner Christmas-loving child!”
39
Merrie
Ihad slept in the nativity scene last night.
Decking the halls in the atrium of city hall had been very contentious. The decorating committee had split into factions, and we ended up having cold war-style Christmas decorations with the purple team on one side and the traditionalists on another. Things had gotten heated, my great-aunt had hit someone in the head with an inflatable gnome, and the police had been called. By the time they let us all out of the holding cell, I did not want to go back to my great-aunt’s place where she and all her senior friends were going to drink and rehash the events of the evening. So, I stumbled across the street and napped for a few hours in the nativity scene.
In reality, though, I wanted to stay with Matt.
You just want a hot bath in that amazing tub. You don’t actually want to be with him. He hates Christmas, remember?
But did he really? Maybe all he needed was the right person to help him find his inner Cheermeister.
Or you could actually spend your energy being concerned about your own issues and not other people’s.
And one of my own personal issues was my failing shop.
It had been almost twenty hours since I’d been back. I opened the door, expecting the place to be ransacked. At least I could have filed for the insurance money. But only a few ornaments were missing, along with all the cookies.
“Oh well,” I said, picking up the tray to wash it. “I hope the ornaments make someone happy.”
I picked up the box with the slit for payment. Inside, coins jingled.
“Did someone pay for the ornaments?” I was shocked but tried not to get my hopes up as I opened the box.
Though the sign had said, “Pay what you can,” I wasn’t expecting more than a few quarters. However, there were almost a hundred dollars in the box!
“It’s a Christmas miracle!” I crowed. I darted around the shop doing a bit of inventory. People had been paying way more than what the ornaments were worth.
I was singing along with Christmas carols when Matt called wanting me to bail him out. As soon as I hung up, the gears whirred in my head. After the contentious decorating session, I knew that we had to bring the big guns for the December town hall meeting. Specifically Matt’s.
A few hours later,I met Matt in front of his condo building
“I only needed you to say a few words,” Matt said when I rolled up with a shopping cart full of boxes and bags.
“You’re plunking down alien spaceships in the pristine Harrogate countryside,” I reminded him. “We have to make sure people are on your side.”
I waved to the doorman as I pushed the shopping cart into the lobby of the building.
