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I raised my eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?”

She shrugged. “I told her that it means you cannot date anyone, in case being associated with you puts them in danger.”

I sighed. “Ranjeeta.”

She glanced over, no longer bothering to hide her smile. “Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

“Hmm,” I said, pondering the latest predicament Ranjeeta had gotten me into. Though really, it was my own fault for asking for her assistance rather than sorting it out myself. I should have just manned up and told Stacey that (a) I wasn’t interested, and (b) relationships within the workplace were not permitted. And it would be especially problematic because I was her boss. I was not the sort of man who would wield a position of power over an employee like that.

Filing that issue away as a problem for future me, I opted to move on. For now.

“So what’s happening with your Christmas lights debacle?”

I eyed the grin on her face. “Why do I get the feeling that you delight in my discomfort?”

She laughed. “It’s not that.” She paused. “Well, when it comes to the Stacey thing, maybe a little bit. You’re cute when you’re all awkward.”

I huffed, feeling my cheeks heat a little.

“But the lights thing is different. It’s nice to see you being passionate about something outside of work. Even if that something is petty in the extreme.”

She had me there. This thing with Nisa was very petty. But she’d started it. “It’s gotten worse since we last spoke.” I leaned forward. “This morning I found my Santa was deflated. A hole poked in him.”

Ranjeeta gasped. “And you suspect foul play?”

I nodded. “I suspect Nisa did it.”

“Wow. That’s next level.”

“Mm.”

“What are you going to do about it? Oh! I know. You could decapitate her reindeer.”

“Ranjeeta!”

“What? She started it.”

I was quiet for a moment. Escalating acts of vandalism did not feel like the right path to go down. And I certainly did not have it in me to decapitate a reindeer, fake or otherwise. “No. I think I need to do something more understated than that. Something that sends a message but stops short of criminal damage.”

“The message being?”

“I know it was you who burst my Santa. Obviously.”

“Oh.”

I frowned. “Why, what message did you think I meant?”

Ranjeeta was the picture of innocence. “Nothing.” She studied her nails. “Maybe that this entire feud is giving you life?”

I stood, eager to escape this turn in the conversation. “Ugh. You sound like Greg.”

She shrugged off my comment. “Great minds think alike. Anyway. I just think it’s good that you’ve got a bit of va-va-voom about you. I was worried for a while there about you being lonely.”

That struck a chord within me. One in a sad, minor key. “I’m fine.”

“You can always come to ours for Christmas, you know.”

Without missing a beat, I went with my standard response. “Thank you, but I wouldn’t want to intrude.”