Page 67 of Grinch Girl

A complicated solution. I kinda liked that.

“Ooh!” I’d exclaimed. “Can you tell him that you love him during theSingle Bellsfinale? Imagine what that would do for ratings!”

Bella had snorted and thrown a pancake at me. Then she’d driven straight to Michael’s house and professed her feelings in front of his Christmas tree. When she’d returned home to Greta’s, her hair was mussed and her cheeks were rubbed red from Michael’s beard scruff.

Now, I saw Michael heading to the diner from the opposite direction. He beamed as he caught sight of us, and Bella let out a breathless little sigh. “You guys are gross,” I muttered, hiding a smile.

In the empty diner, I plopped on the counter between Jim and Diane. Bella and Michael cozied up in a booth. Uncharacteristically quiet, Carol filled everyone’s coffee mugs.

I cut to the chase. “What’s wrong? Why are we here?” I looked out the window, where workers at the Christmas Village were beginning to arrive. Everything looked fine.

Carol sighed. “It’s about New Year’s Eve.”

“Do we need extra budget for the Yacht Club?” Bella asked gently. “Do you want me to call the GM and see if there’s any room for negotiation?”

Carol shook her head. “The Yacht Club has been reserved by another group,” she said grimly. “In fact, every hotel ballroom and large restaurant space in a four-town radius is also suddenly unavailable.”

“They didn’t!” Diane exclaimed, her voice tight.

“They did,” Carol confirmed.

“Who did what?” Michael asked. He and Bella exchanged confused glances.

I did a swivel and hopped off my stool as angry suspicion lowered my voice. “Is this another shitty trick from Wontana and Vienna?”

Carol put the coffeepot back on the burner with a loud thump. “Yes. They are now hosting an ultra-ritzy New Year’s Eve party at the Yacht Club—and spending a heck of a lot of money on advertisements for tickets. Somehow, they’ve also convinced the other larger event spaces not to work with us.”

Jim harumphed. “So now we’ve mentioned the New Year’s Eve party on the show, but we have nowhere to hold it?”

“Exactly.” Carol sniffed.

Oh shit. I’d checked the web series platform this morning and hundreds of our viewers were queued up to buy tickets as soon as we released the event details. Since they were planning to travel here in less than a week, it wouldn’t be hard at all for the Wontana/Vienna folks to capitalize on this and grab their dollars once we admitted we couldn’t host a party.

“If we don’t have a New Year’s party, did you all make enough revenue in December for your businesses to survive the winter?” Bella asked.

Jim blew out a long breath. “Probably?”

Diane nodded slowly in agreement. “We’ll have to tighten our belts, as always, but probably.” Her lips thinned. “God, it pisses me off that they did this though. For once, we could have had an easier winter.”

Carol looked miserable. “I was really looking forward to the party too.” The lines around her eyes deepened. “We’ve worked so hard this month. We deserved a big finale. A huge, fancy shindig to celebrate our accomplishments and each other.”

She looked at me, her mouth turned down at the corners. “I guess we should cancel the finalSingle Bellsdate. I’m sure everyone would like to find other New Year’s plans since this isn’t coming together.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. “We are not canceling the finale,” I announced, my voice allowing no room for argument. “And we are not canceling the New Year’s Eve party.”

I did a lap around the diner, thinking furiously. “We have hundreds of people ready to party withSingle Bells, and we are NOT letting stupid Wontana and Vienna steal them.”

“J-Bird’s got an idea,” Bella sang.

Hmmm, yes. An idea was forming, and just likeSingle Bellsitself, it was a really bad one. Deliciously bad.

“We do deserve a big finale. A huge shindig to celebrate.” I glanced apologetically at Carol. “Just like you said. But it does not need to be fancy.”

I sighed dramatically and whirled in a circle, including the whole group in my impassioned little speech. “You know what? We can’t compete with Wontana and Vienna when it comes to fancy. So let’s not try!”

I put my hands on my hips. “In fact, let’s lean in the exact opposite direction.”

Carol looked intrigued. “The opposite direction? What does that mean?”

---