Page 23 of Snowed

Joy smiled sadly, and over the next few minutes proceeded to explain how she’d come across my Instagram one day and gotten the bright idea to make the fake card, sending it to her ex. He was apparently dating a coworker of theirs now. I could understand wanting to make him jealous under the circumstances.

“I have to give you credit. You did a damn good job on the photoshop,” I said.

“Thanks.” She laughed. “I think.”

“Anyway…” I held out my hand. “I’d like to officially introduce myself. I’m Nolan Bradstreet.”

“Joy Hannigan.” She took my hand. “If you don’t know Davis, how did you end up here?”

“A friend of mine is a friend of Davis’s. Ben dragged me here. Except I have no idea where the hell he is at the moment. I’m really just here for the free booze. Didn’t think I’d be meeting my fake girlfriend tonight. That’s for damn sure.”

She sighed. “Gosh, I guess I lucked out that you’d never met Davis through your friend, then. That would’ve been a disaster.” Joy laughed. “Well, even more of a disaster.” Her face reddened. “God, I owe you an apology.”

“No need.” I placed my hand on her arm. “Truly. I get why you did what you did. And I’m sure you never imagined you’d meet me.”

“You can bet on that.” She exhaled. “I could really use a drink. Care to join me?”

I winked. “Well, it would look a little weird to Davis if I abandoned my girl now, wouldn’t it?”

Joy and I walked together over to the bar. After we got our drinks, she pierced a maraschino cherry with a toothpick and popped it into her mouth. “So, what do you do, Nolan?”

I arched a brow. “You don’t already know?”

“Okay…” she conceded. “I might’ve seen a few posts about your job on your page.” She shrugged. “How are things going at Seaver Pharmaceuticals?”

“Good…good.” I nodded. “It’s a lot of traveling, but I like it.”

“Go anywhere interesting lately? Besides cat cafés in Tokyo?”

“I actually did go to Tokyo for business. Even went to one of the cat cafés. Just never met a beautiful woman there.” Okay, am I seriously flirting now? This night kept evolving into the unexpected. I sipped my beer. “What do you do?”

“I work at Pride Bank with Davis. He’s a vice president, and I work in customer relations.”

“Sounds…” I hesitated.

“Pretty boring, actually.” She laughed.

Not gonna argue that. “So, that must be weird working with your ex and his new girlfriend, huh?” I looked around. “Is she here?”

Joy pointed her chin toward the left corner of the room. “She’s the one over there with the hyena laugh.”

I turned to check out the brunette in the corner who had nothing on the beautiful woman in front of me. “I’m guessing there are still feelings there on your part, if you went through all the trouble of making a fake holiday card?”

Joy shook her head. “It wasn’t about that. It was more about…appearances.”

Hmm… I wasn’t sure if I bought that.

A text chimed on my phone, reminding me of the time. Shit.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m so sorry, Joy. I have to leave. I’m late.”

“Late for what?”

Oh, the irony. I hated leaving her when we were just getting to know each other. But considering where I was headed, it would’ve been an asshole move to ask for her number.

“I have a date.”