Page 1 of A Holly Brown Christmas
One
It was a disaster.
A nightmare!
A catastrophe of epic proportions!
Jumping to her feet, Holly Brown rushed out of her office and down the hall to her bestie’s office.
“Did you see it? Did you read it? It’s awful! What are we going to do?” she frantically demanded. “This is the worst possible thing that could happen!”
“Um…what?” Crystal Cassidy—who almost everyone called CeeCee—looked up from her computer screen in total confusion. “What’s happening?”
Groaning loudly, Holly came around the desk and took control of the laptop to pull up the email that had just gone out to everyone in the company. “Here! Read this! Read it and tell me you’re not devastated! Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
“O-kay…”
But before Crystal could finish reading, Holly was already asking, “It’s crazy, right? We have to do something!”
When she was done, Crystal calmly turned in her chair, giving Holly a patient smile. “I think maybe you pulled up the wrong email. What I just read isn’t devastating. It’s just a party, Holly. And it’s not like there isn’t going to be one; it’s just going to be on a much smaller scale.” She shook her head. “Poor Mr. Brooks. You just know he’s got to be a mess right now.”
“Mr. Brooks? Shouldn’t you feel sorry for Mrs. Brooks? You know she’s probably off somewhere crying right now.”
“You don’t know that for sure. For all you know…”
“How can they be getting divorced?” she cried miserably. “They were like the perfect couple! They were always laughing and smiling, and those Christmas parties at their gorgeous home were always the highlight of my year! I’ve been Mrs. Brooks’s assistant for most of that event! I loved working beside her and bringing it all to life!”
“I don’t remember it being quite like that. You had a few meetings with her, but it’s not like you were hanging out at the house being her right-hand or anything. You made calls and handled the invoices.”
“Why are you ruining this for me?” she wailed. “I have worked with each of them together and apart and I’m telling you that this is just wrong! Maybe if they waited and…you know…focused on each other and their family and the holidays…”
“Holly, you need to calm down. You’re acting like these are your parents getting divorced. They’re our bosses and we don’t know anything about their personal lives. All the laughing and smiling could very well have been a facade, you know?”
She was already shaking her head. “No. I’m telling you, they’ve been married for almost forty years and they were happy. Whatever’s going on can be fixed. I know it.”
“Holly…”
But she wasn’t listening. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks might not be her parents, but she felt like they were all a family around here, so maybe they were like a favorite aunt and uncle. And for them to just throw away all those years of marriage didn’t feel right.
“You need to respect their privacy,” Crystal told her, but it sounded a bit like she was being reprimanded. “This isn’t any of your business. All you can do is be a team player here, do your job, and whenever they figure out what this year’s party is going to look like, be thankful they’re having a party at all.”
She made a non-committal sound, but there was no way she was going to allow the company to do anything different this year. They couldn’t. That party was her one time a year to hang out with Lucas. She had so few things that she looked forward to, and those parties with Lucas were at the top of the list.
Crushing on the boss’s son was a little clichéd, but she couldn’t help it. He was perfectly dreamy.
Okay, he was also a little stiff and antisocial, but those parties brought out a different side of him that she didn’t see the rest of the year. He worked in their legal department and was always so serious and uptight. But at Christmas he became a different person.
A sexier, friendlier version of his dreamy self.
Ugh…I’ve got it bad.
“CeeCee, there’s so much at stake here, don’t you get it? Our boss is getting divorced; parties are being canceled. I mean…what’s next? Don’t you think we owe it to our coworkers—to ourselves—to keep morale up?”
“No one else is running around like the sky is falling. Just you. If anyone asks for a cheerleading squad, believe me, I’ll nominate you to head it up. But…it’s just a party. Not the end of the world.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Look, I get that you’re disappointed, and I’m sorry. Why don’t we talk about it later? I have to run this payroll report or my boss will have my head.”
