Page 8 of The Christmas Accomplice

“Just stopping by to tell you not to muck up my activities when you run them.”

“Well, I guess I’ll throw that anti-muck up statement right back at you, too,” Reece said.

Graham scrunched up his face in confusion, and Reece glanced over to see Nick doing the same thing.

“What did you say?” Nick asked.

“Are you drunk?” Graham asked, his voice a bit louder than necessary.

“No!” Reece said, then he lowered his voice. “Shut up, Graham. Just get out from behind the desk if you’re not on the schedule.”

“Well, you might not be drunk now, but I’m sure you will be once you see my excellent activities. Don’t count your chickens, Reece’s Pieces.” Graham waggled his fingers and walked off, his chuckle lingering almost as long as his cologne.

“Such a dick,” Nick muttered.

“And yet, he still has a job here,” Reece said.

“What’s he mean when he says Reece’s Pieces like that?” Nick asked.

“Hell if I know. It’s Graham, it could mean anything inside that vapid expanse within his skull.”

Nick snorted a laugh, then quickly pointed a finger at him and glared. “I did not snort.”

“Kind of sounded like a snort to me.”

“Would you like to hear what disemboweling sounds like?”

Reece smirked. “You went from snorting to disemboweling that quickly?”

“Tis the season.”

Reece opened a drawer beneath his work station and pulled out a red file folder stuffed with notes and detailed descriptions of activities. “I need to go through these and try to get some ideas about activities other than what I turned in, maybe loosen up my brain to be able to switch gears more easily.”

“How many ideas have you got in there?” Nick asked.

Reece grimaced. “A hundred and nineteen.”

She blinked. “Were you a cruise director in a previous life or something?”

“Maybe?”

“Well, you know which of them is my favorite.”

“Yeah, I do.”

She sniffed and looked away. “Still don’t know why you didn’t turn that one in.”

“It seemed really complicated, that’s all.”

Nick had really enjoyed the Christmas themed game Who or What Am I? Reece, however, was pretty proud of his Christmas obstacle course. He leafed through the ideas he’d written on different pieces of paper the past few months, smiling as he recalled jotting them down whenever inspiration struck. He shifted through several of them, but soon everything started blurring together.

You’re not going to figure out how to run Graham’s activities by looking through your own.

“We’re getting a line,” Nick said over her shoulder as she worked on checking in a guest.

Reece closed the folder and slid it back into the drawer. He’d look through it again later. He did think reviewing his old ideas would help him with the unexpected activities Graham had submitted. With a smile at the next guest in line, he got back to work.

As Reece was leavingthe front desk at the end of his shift, Edward asked him to assist with one of Graham’s activities, a snowman building contest, in a couple of hours. Reece was actually looking forward to it. It sounded like a fun activity, which he hated to admit.

He took his folder of ideas and crossed the lobby to the hotel bar called, amusingly enough, The Ski Lift. He found a small table off to one side and ordered a Monte Cristo with fries and an iced tea. Extra cardio would be in order to make up for the meal, but he didn’t mind. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do.

Reece tried to focus on reviewing the activities in his folder and guessing what else Graham had planned for him, but his mind didn’t seem to be up to it. It kept wanting to shift back to his time in the cart with Welton. There may have been a hint of a spark in their interaction, but Reece wasn’t about to get his hopes up. Or, at least, not get his hopes up very much. He’d been through this situation enough to know how it turned out.

Nick liked to tell him he was every gay man’s wet dream: athletic, laid back, social, patient, and well-versed in things sci fi and otherworldly. He’d tried to tell her that wasn’t actually a thing, but it only made her say it more often.

Reece had met and dated a few men while he’d worked at Snowcapped, and each one of those relationships had ended badly for him. The majority of men had already been involved with someone else, either telling him so upfront or accidentally revealing it during one of their dates. And the other guys Reece had found attractive hadn’t felt the same way about him.

Reece took a bite of his sandwich and sighed. Deep fried deliciousness. Definitely worth the extra time on the elliptical. Or a run down the slopes. It had been a while since he’d made the time to actually do some skiing. Everyone thought since he worked at Snowcapped and lived in an apartment nearby that he skied every day. Sadly, his work schedule didn’t allow for all that much free time, and when it did, he tried to stay away from the lodge because he usually got pulled into work situations even on his days off.

He could never understand why romance was so difficult for him. It wasn’t a matter of meeting a guy. He was pretty good on that part. But he didn’t want to be a home wrecker. And even if the guy was involved in an open relationship, that wasn’t what Reece was looking for himself. He was old fashioned that way.

Since he worked at a ski resort, the men he did meet weren’t going to stick around. He needed to focus on the men he either worked with—never a good idea—or the men he met in town. Though most of those were employed by Snowcapped as well.

All of which led Reece back to where he currently was: alone again for the holidays.

However, there was hope in the possibility of him being promoted. Like his mom used to tell him: Focus on yourself and everyone else will come to you.

He took another bite of his sandwich, stuffed some fries in his mouth, and started leafing through his activities folder once again. He was really going to excel at the snowman building activity in a little while, but he was getting nervous about the surprise activities still awaiting him.