Jack
The day had not gotten off to an auspicious start.
My younger brothers, Matt and Oliver, had left that morning, and I already missed them. I was never able to spend that much time with them now that they were away at college, and they didn't even want to stay all of Thanksgiving weekend to see me. Instead, they wanted to return to Harvard early and play video games with their friends.
Now I had to contend with this bake-off that was going to start filming tomorrow. I already regretted agreeing to allow Gunnar and Dana to film in my tower. The whole place reeked of sugar, butter, marzipan, and spices. And Gunnar didn't have enough money to pay a third judge, so I had been enlisted as a judge–not that I was qualified.
To make matters worse, now the short little blonde was taking my picture.I better not see it plastered all over the internet,I thought.
As I loomed over her, I could smell the sugar wafting off her, mingled with the scent of fresh pine boughs. She smelled like Christmas, and when I said I hated cookies, she gaped at me, eyes wide with shock, as if I was the Grinch personified.
"I cannot wait for Christmas to be over," I muttered to myself as Gunnar ran after me and grabbed my upper arm.
"You need to remember why it is that we're filming here at all," he hissed. "You can't find tenants for this tower, and no tenants equals no rent money. Romance Creative is a paying tenant—"
"You haven't paid me a cent yet," I said to him.
"But we will, as long as this show is popular. You want the rent money? We can't have any more problems. The decorator quit, I barely have enough money to make payroll, and now you're threatening Chloe, who is the contestant with the most popular Instagram account by a wide margin."
So Chloe was her name. Not that I cared, of course.
"It'sTheGreat Christmas Bake-Off, Charlie Brown," he said, patting me on the shoulder, "and you need an attitude adjustment and a heaping tablespoon of Christmas cheer. This is going to be good publicity for both of us. We'll have fancy establishing shots of the tower and B-roll of the contestants in that beautiful lobby. Speaking of which, we need more decorations outside and in the lobby to make it seem festive."
Though this was far from the ideal situation, I knew Gunnar was right. This bake-off was my last shot at drumming up paying tenants for Frost Tower.
I walked with Gunnar down to the lobby to try and find someone who could procure and install Christmas decorations inside and out. I needed the tower to look impressive. I glanced over at the empty retail space off of the lobby. It was an expansive two-story space. I had envisioned it as an upscale restaurant, but now it sat empty.
The security guard was nowhere to be found.
"I can't believe I pay that useless man," I said irritated.
And to pour a tanker’s worth of gasoline on this dumpster fire, along came the person I despised most in the world aside from my parents: Hartleigh, the girl who had been obsessed with me and had stalked me since I was a young teenager.
She saw me, shrieked, and made a beeline in my direction.
"What is she doing here?" I yelled.
"Seriously, Jack, you need to stop accosting contestants," Gunnar said.
"Hartleigh cannot be a contestant, she's my stalker!" I protested.
Hartleigh looked at me as if I was a piece of meat and she was a hyena.
"Jack," she purred, sidling up to me and wrapping her arms around me. She was wearing some sort of vintage fur stole, and it made me sneeze.
"As soon as I heard this show was filming in your tower, I had to be a participant." She grabbed the lapels of my suit and pulled me in, rubbing our noses together. I pushed her away.
"We're meant to be together, Jack," Hartleigh said, making a kissy face at me.
"If you'll just check in upstairs," Gunnar said, and Hartleigh sashayed away. Not that she did it convincingly. She was thin, bordering on scrawny.
"She'll make for great TV," Gunnar told me while I brushed little pieces of fur off of my suit. "Is she really the girl who's been stalking you?"
I nodded, and Gunnar looked thoughtful.
"I guess she does look kind of unhinged," he said. "Still, if she tries to murder you, wouldn't that put the show on everybody's radar! Romance Creative needs all the publicity we can get."
I glowered.
