Page 49 of With Love, from Cold World
He held up his hand to stop her. He really,reallydidn’t want to hear her say anything else about Lauren in that vein. Already those words were rattling around his head, pounding behind his temples.
“Second of all, if you see Daniel asanyman in that movie—and yes, before you protest, including bumbling Hugh Grant the sexual harassment nightmare, including the dude with the cheesy boundary-crossing signs, including even that self-centered little kid—”
“Colin Firth,” Kiki cut in. “You can’t say anything against Colin Firth.”
“I don’t even remember his plotline,” Asa said. “That’s how forgettable it was. The point is, if you’re comparing Daniel to any dude in that movie you’re only proving me right.”
Kiki straightened a stack of Cold World brochures so the edges were even. “I’m going to laugh my ass off when Lauren gets you coal for Secret Santa.”
“Wait.” He leaned against the counter so his back was toLauren and Daniel on the other side of the gift shop. “Lauren has me?”
Kiki put her hand over her mouth, looking genuinely stricken. “Shit,” she said. “I just broke the first rule of Secret Santa, didn’t I? And I had to do it to the chief of Christmas police himself. This was entrapment. You tricked me into saying it—”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “And don’t call me the Christmas police. If anything, I prefer to think of myself as leading a holiday community support team.”
He glanced over at the table again. Now Lauren was earnestly explaining something to Daniel, and wonder of wonders, he appeared to be actually listening. She was gesturing with her hands, forming some kind of slope, almost like a mountaintop, and Daniel reached over to adjust her wrists so that the angle was different. Asa waited for her to look annoyed, or irritated, or even just dismissive. But instead she got a dreamy look on her face for a moment, like she couldn’t believe he was deigning to pay attention to her.
Asa pushed back against the counter. “Shouldn’t they be wrapping presents?”
Kiki looked around. “There are no customers.”
“They should wrap practice ones,” Asa said. “I’m getting some boxes from the back.”
When he dropped the empty boxes on the table a few minutes later, Lauren startled, like she’d had no idea he was even there.
“For you to practice your technique,” he said. “Each of you can wrap a present, and I’ll give you feedback. Once you’ve mastered that, I’ll introduce you to ribbon curling.”
“Come on,” Daniel said. “That’s completely unnecessary. That chick said it herself—nobody is even going to come.”
“Thatchick’sname is Kiki, and it sounds like this is what Dolores sent you here to do,” Asa said. “You might as well do it.”
“I’d like to practice,” Lauren said, clearly wanting to defuse the tension. She reached for the blue metallic paper printed with tiny silver snowflakes, sliding it under one of the empty boxes.
Daniel grabbed the other roll of paper but made no move to unfurl it yet. “What do you say we make this interesting?” he said. “Have a contest to see who’s the best wrapper.”
Asa’s gaze slid to Lauren. She wasn’t one to turn down any competition. But already he didn’t like this. Daniel was angling for something, and he didn’t know what.
Clearly, Lauren was having her own doubts about the proposition. She flicked her thumb against the edge of the tape dispenser, wincing a little as she seemed to realize it was sharp. “What did you have in mind?”
“If I win, you help me with my PowerPoint for the presentations,” Daniel said.
Asa resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If Daniel ever had a job in his life that required an actual résumé, he’d be the type to put “proficient in Microsoft Office” under the skills section and then spend the whole time at his new job demanding other people show him how to do the things he’d said he already knew how to do.
“And if you win,” Daniel continued. “I’ll take you on a date.”
Making it sound like a prize forher, and a sacrifice for him. What a jackass.
Lauren glanced up at Asa, almost like she was waiting for him to intervene. But what could he say?No, you can’t do this because either way you lose? You can’t do it because I hate the idea that you might want to win?
“Go for it,” he said. “Kiki can judge.”
There was no way he could be impartial.
Asa called Kiki over, and they established the rules—the test boxes were chosen to be relatively equal in size and shape, and the task was to do the best wrapping job they could in a single try, with time factoring in only in the case of a tie.
Daniel actually put more effort into the competition than Asa might’ve expected. Such was the power of having someone else do your work for you as a potential prize. But Lauren went for the pro move of finishing off the sides of her present with the elegant double triangle approach, sealing the points in the middle with a single piece of tape. She had a crinkle in one corner, but Asa would’ve picked hers, hands down.
Kiki made a big show of picking up both presents, examining them from all sides like she was a judge on one of those cupcake shows they’d watched at the house.
