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“So, is you being stuck here going to get in the way of your big fancy pron skyscrapers reives me a sliver of satisfaction to see his eye twitch at the question

“It ht,” he says “But everyone slacks over the holidays, so I ht be able to fix this”

“Wait, did you just say that everyone slacks over the holidays?”

“So much time off the month of December The damn office is half deserted”

“You ful tihast He’s even Grinchier than I iined

“You don’t need an entire month off to do that,” he says “And don’t act like people spend the holidays holding hands and singing Christ selfies for Instagram This holiday spirit that you’re so obsessed with… it’s just a cover for laziness and narcissism”

Now that… that etting warmer, and not in the sexy way, either

“What is wrong with you?” I snap “Why do you have to shit on Christmas?”

“I’m not,” he protests “But I’ to recapture a time I still believed in Santa”

“I’,” I blurt out “I didn’t have perfect Christ and divorce, okay? So get off your high-and- about people”

I sit back, breathing hard I didn’t realize I’d leaned across the table in the first place Ryan’s face softens as he takes in my words, which is worse I don’t need his pity I don’t even knohy I said that in the first place

“Food’s ready!”

It’s our server, plopping down ourour enorrateful for so to focus on that isn’t Ryan Sheppard On the other, though, I’reat meal on an asshole

But I refuse to ignore good food, so I pro intoelse in Reindeer Falls I mean, the perfect part

“I know it doesn’tso much about this promotion”

“Why? Because it’s too fancy for me to understand?”

“No,” Ryan says “Because it isn’t here”

I take a bite of chicken, think, and then s “Why do you want the promotion so bad?”

“It’s everything I’ve spent the better part of a decade working towards It’s the next logical step in my career, even if it’s a cookie-cutter skyscraper”