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PROLOGUE

CHRISTINA

MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL: Happy Holidays, sexy Been thinking about your body lately Want to come over to watch Netflix and chill? (We can even bake if you like)

howyou under the ain…

e from Austin: Shit, I meant “Christina” You kno autocorrect is I really wasn’t cheating on you last Christmas

e from Blocked Number: Happy Holidays, Babe Ito do that “thing” you alanted in bed if you’ll takeorder) this season…I mean, I still don’t think real ina, but I’ to put my face on yours

Ugh!

I tossed my phone across the room and held back a scream

I wasn’t sure why the start of every holiday season triggered a series of texts frouys I barely remembered, but today was the fourth day in a row that I’d woken up to the type of es I hated to receive

Ithat always made me remember exactly why each ex would forever remain an ex

My late grandmother’s cookbook

Inside the perfectly preserved pages, she’d leftout the typical “Sweet & Sticky Cinnamon Buns” and “Grandma’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies” (Those were bullshit) Instead, she had things like “When Motherfuckers Let You Down Shortcake (don’t you dare share a single slice), “Worst Sex of My Life Cannoli” (use only four inches of dough), and my personal favorite, “Cinnamon Cheater Croissants” (bake two dozen and leave his ass)

I flipped to the page for Caramel “Cut Them Off” Truffles and pulled out my pan

I’d followed this recipe dozens of times, just like I followed all of her others There was only one recipe in her entire three hundred treat collection that I’d never had a reason to make, one recipe that I preferred to leave unmade forever

It was a concoction called, “Please Strangle This Cocky Bastard Pie”

Even though I still dated rateful that I never dated a man who drove me to bake that particular treat

As a matter of fact, I swore I would never make it unless I met a man as so full of hio Aa smack-able, sexy set aith anything

I turned ona man like that anywhere near me

“RUN, HE’S A BUM” BONBONS

4 cups confectioners’ sugar