Page 44 of Single Girl Rules: HoHoHo

The peaceful glass atrium exploded into chaos.

Tommy sprinted towards the factory door.

The banana king jumped over our wrapping table to get to thetable where all the presents were going to drop from the conveyer belt.

And Ghostie and I crouched down and got ready to sprint tothe first room.

The other teams were just as chaotic. The only difference wasthat Flash sprinted faster than Tommy and stiff-armed one of the bellhops alongthe way.

The three assemblers disappeared through the factory door andthen… We all just kind of stood there.

I guess none of us had thought about the fact that we’d haveto wait a while for the first present to get assembled and wrapped.

“We should plan our delivery route,” I said to Ghostie.

He nodded and we looked over the map while the banana kingtidied up his wrapping station and did a few practice wraps. As expected, hiswork was impeccable.

But our work was going to be even better. We only had aboutan hour until midnight, so we figured it was best to start with the roomsclosest to our current location. That would make it quicker for Ghostie to get thepackages to me. And we’d also possibly get an advantage by me taking the firstpackage all by myself. That way if the second package came out quickly, Ghostiewould already be here to grab it and bring it up to the next room for me.

“The stairs will probably be faster than the elevator,” Isaid. “And just leave the packages in front of whatever room they go to.”

Ghostie grunted in agreement.

I looked up at him. I couldn’t believe he’d gone to thetrouble to set all this up. Not only that, but he’d trusted that my plan wasthe right one. Any of Daddy’s other men would have just gone right in and triedto break Crazy Isabella’s kneecaps. But this plan was better. Because it wasalso going to make us a valuable alliance and Isabella would no longer be ableto make a move. “Thanks for setting all this up,” I whispered.

“Huh?” he said. He tilted his head and stared down at methrough his mask. “I didn’t set this up. I thought you did?”

“What?” I asked.

“I got a package from you with this outfit and a lettersaying to meet you up here. Actually, it said it was from Santa. But I couldtell it was from you. Because who else would pick this out?” He gestured to hissexy outfit.

“I knew it!” said Ash. “This is all Santa’s work!”

I turned. I didn’t realize she’d walked up behind me.Oooooh.I knew what was happening. Ash must have been there the whole time. AndGhostie knew how much she loved Santa. So he was just being sweet and pretendinglike Santa really did this.

“Did Teddybear not get an invitation?” I asked.

Ghostie shook his head. “He’s busy.”

I bet he is.Probably busy dressing up like Santa tosurprise Ash at the end of all this. They were really putting together theperfect Christmas Eve for both of us.

But there was no time to thank him, because the conveyor belthad whirred to life, and the first box had just popped out of the factory.

We all watched as the belt carried it across the room.Whichteam is that for?I thought I saw a red dot on the side...

It dropped off the edge of the conveyor belt and fell ontothe table.

Ah! It does have a red dot on it! Good job, Tommy.

The banana king snatched it off the table and wrapped itfaster than I’d ever seen anything wrapped before.

And then I was off, sprinting up to the second floor to makemy first delivery.

I cradled the package in one hand as I gently slid thekeycard into the door. It gave a little beep and blinked green.

Here we go.

I figured I had a few minutes before the next package wouldbe ready, so I really took my time with this first delivery.

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