Page 55 of Holly Jolly July

and the last thing I want is for

your hatred of Christmas to get

any worse. Your life is hard enough

as it is.

JAMES

Why do you think my life is hard?

ANNIE

I’m assuming you’re grumpy for a

reason.

JAMES

(taken aback)

I’m grumpy?

ANNIE

(smiling)

The grumpiest.

JAMES

Fine. But I’m making the cookies.

ANNIE

Deal.

James offers his hand for Annie to shake.

JAMES

I’m James by the way.

ANNIE

I know. I’m Annie.

Annie takes his hand and they hold on longer than necessary for a customary handshake, their gazes lingering.

Chapter 10

Mariah

The next day on set is similar to my first. I show up late, having miscalculated how long it would take to get there from Ellie’s cabin. I look like shit since I overslept on her surprisingly comfortable fold-out couch. Thankfully, my hickey is faded enough for regular makeup to hide most of it, but I can’t say the same about the bags under my eyes. And my head hurts from the two(?) bottles of wine we drank. My memories from near the end of the night are fuzzy, of the two of us struggling to figure out the pull-out, of fighting with a fitted sheet together, of Ellie giving me one of her pillows since the linen closet didn’t have extras.

And, of course, of finding out Jax is a fuckboy.

I knew he was too good to be true. After all this time I still haven’t learned to listen to the little voice inside my head, succumbing instead to the little voice inside my pants. Even that would have been okay if I’d got it out of my system and scratched the itch I’d had since high school, but no, I had to go further and fall for all the tricks in the fuckboy book.

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