Page 52 of Single Girl Rules: HoHoHo

My heart skipped a beat, but I’m not sure why. Everyone wasin love with me. So this was not new information. “Of course he is,” I said aswe exited the stairs into the glass atrium.

And then everything went dark.

“AH! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!” yelled Ash, momentarily relapsinginto her two-drink paranoia.

I put my hands out to feel for one of the tables that hadbeen near the secret passage. But instead my hands just found a lovely pair ofbreasts. Or really…one breast and one oversized bow.

“HANDS OFF, PERVERT!” yelled Ash. I felt a slight breeze asher fist whizzed past my face.

“It’s just me!” I said with a laugh as I stepped backwards toget out of her range. I tripped over a big metal rod sticking straight up. Andthen the room lit up like a Christmas tree.

Seriously.

Christmas lightseverywhere.

“Woooooow,” gasped Ash.

I was actually a little speechless too. Because I’d seen theglass atrium decorated for Christmas before. But I’d never seen it decoratedlikethis.

Dozens of giant presents surrounded us, stacked one on top ofthe other. It felt like we’d been shrunken down and plopped in the middle ofall the presents on Christmas morning. Except cooler, because all thesepresents were lined with a bajillion Christmas lights. A snowflake drifted downand landed on the tip of my nose.

How the hell did Ghostie and Teddybear do this?Decorationslike this would take weeks. Maybe months. But they’d totally transformed theglass atrium in a couple of minutes.

“Ho, ho, ho!” boomed the voice from the gramophone. But thistime it felt closer. And less metallic.

“HOLY FUCK IT’S SANTA!” screamed Ash, pointing behind me.

I spun around. The wrapping tables had been replaced by thebiggest sleighs I’d ever seen. And next to them was a red and green throne on araised platform. And sitting on the throne was…

Holy fuck, it really is Santa.

“Merry Christmas,” said Santa. And this was no fat mall Santa.This was a tall, sexy Santa. Just like Ash had described.

Which made sense…because it was actually just Teddybeardressed up like Santa. I smiled. For a second, he’d almost fooled me. Butseriously, how did he and Ghostie pull all this off?

“Thank you girls for helping me deliver those presents. I’llannounce the winner in a minute, but first I’d like to grant you each aChristmas wish. Who wants to go first?” He patted his lap.

I expected Ash to run up there before his sentence was evenfinished. But she was completely frozen.

“You wanna go first?” I asked Ash.

“Is this really happening?” she whispered back.

“Yes, yes,” said Slavanka. “I go.”

She walked up to Santa and sat on his lap.

“Merry Christmas, Slavanka,” he said. “Have you been naughtyor nice?”

“Very naughty.”

“The elves tend to agree. But they also advised that in theinterest of my personal safety, I should still give you a present. So whatwould you like for Christmas?”

“I marry prince.”

“Like…the artist formerly known as Prince? Or just anyprince?”

“No, no. Not singer. Real prince.”

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