Page 43 of Snowflakes and Ice Skates

I tried to hand the envelope back to her, but she shook her head. “It’s up to you to give those out to our new friends.”

Of course, she was going to make me go to their floor. “Right.”

Her smile grew. “I took some to give out to people in our department. I’m also inviting some friends from yoga too.”

“That sounds good. Have you seen Matt yet?”

She shook her head. “Not since we left for lunch yesterday.”

“I’ll save one of these for him.”

She nodded and walked the short distance to her desk. Matt would be in meetings all afternoon, and we hadn’t yet had a chance to update him on everything that happened. He wouldn’t forgive us if we didn’t invite him to the party. He wouldn’t miss the chance to watch everything unfold after listening to us talk about Goldie—Lane. I needed to break the habit of referring to him by the nickname we made up. If I let it slip in front of him, I’d die of mortification.

Since this was the last full day of work this week, I forced myself to focus on finishing everything I could.

“There you are.” I glanced up and saw Matt coming towards me from the elevators.

“What do you mean? Of course, I’m here.”

He laughed. “Well, I know, but now I’m here too.”

I shook my head. “Where have you been?”

He groaned. “Endless meetings. Closing out the year and making sure all of the numbers match up. It’s been mind-numbing.”

I cringed. “That sounds awful.”

“The worst part has been waiting! I want to know what happened at lunch.”

Cora appeared over his shoulder. “You’ll need a chair.”

I laughed as they circled my desk, dragging chairs over until we were in a tight circle.

“So you were right. They do eat on the second floor,” Cora started.

Matt’s eyebrows jumped. “Did you see them?”

She nodded while widening her eyes. “Oh, we did better than that.”

Matt’s eyes darted to mine. “Tell me.”

“Milly, one of the women in their department, remembered me from the elevator. She invited us to sit with them.”

“Who was there?”

“A guy named Hayden and Goldie.”

Matt beamed. “No way!”

I nodded, excited once again by everything that happened. I loved that my coworkers were as invested in the story as I was. “His name is Lane.”

Matt nodded. “I like it.”

“We talked about our plans for New Year’s Eve, and Cora ended up inviting them to the party at her house.”

His eyes narrowed, and he looked a little hurt. “You’re having a party?”

She chuckled. “As of that moment. I came up with it on the spot.”