AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He glanced my way and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I haven’t completed my Christmas shopping yet, so I’m going to sneak out this afternoon to finish up.”
“Really?” I laughed. “You know you have less than a week left, right?”
“That’s why I’m going on a Friday afternoon,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “I know that if I wait until this weekend, I’ll be fighting a mob of other last minute shoppers, which sounds like a freaking nightmare.”
“That’s not much of a Christmas spirit,” I pointed out, mostly teasing him and his bah humbug attitude.
He shrugged. “I like Christmas well enough. It’s a day to spend with the family, but sometimes I wish it was simpler, you know? Less commercialized.”
“You want chestnuts roasting over an open fire and all that?”
“I don’t know.” He glanced out the window, where we were having an unseasonably warm winter here in the Midwest. “I don’t think I’m getting that white Christmas I’ve been hoping for though.”
“Probably not,” I agreed.
His gaze met mine and he grinned. “But, I think we can make up for it with the retreat this year.”
“Have you finally chosen a location?” I asked eagerly.
“Yep.” He opened the side drawer of his desk and started digging around for something.
I felt a sliver of excitement at the mention of the annual team building retreat. It took place every January and when I was hired last year, I missed it by just a week. All the company’s executives had gone to Nashville, and I’d heard them all talk about how much fun it had been to explore a place with so much culture and entertainment. The year before had been New York City.
This year, Connor was dragging his feet on making a decision, which was driving me crazy. The retreat was supposed to be in a month, and we were running out of time to make arrangements for anywhere decent. Of course, I’d been making suggestions to him for weeks. I was dying to go somewhere warm and tropical with an ocean view.
“Where are we going?” I asked, and threw out a few hopeful guesses. “California? The Keys?”
Connor smiled as he finally found whatever he was looking for in his desk and held it out to me. It was a brochure. I frowned as I took it from him and found myself staring at a man skiing down a snowy mountain, covered from head to toe in bulky, protective clothing.
“Mount Surris Ski Resort?” I read the name on the front of the brochure and met his eyes incredulously. “Are you kidding me with this?”
“What? It’s a great location for a retreat. They have skiing, snowboarding, great views, and a five-star restaurant inside the lodge.”
“It’s cold,” I pointed out, setting the brochure down on his desk without opening it. “Who wants to spend a week freezing their butts off?”
“I do,” he said, flashing a smirk that told me he had made up his mind.
But I wasn’t going to let it go that easily. I was his assistant, but I’d never been afraid to speak my mind. “Are you crazy? Think about it. We could go somewhere with a beach, where it’s warm and sunny. I want to smell salty ocean air while sipping on a fruity cocktail and working on my tan.”
An unreadable emotion flared in Connor’s eyes, and he quickly looked away from me before I was able to figure out what was going on in his mind.
“Sorry, no tan this year,” he said, rolling his mouse around on his desk and giving it a few clicks as he redirected his attention to his monitor. “But the sun shining off the snow is supposed to be quite captivating.”
“And blinding.” I sighed, shaking my head. “You’re hopeless.”
“Andyouhave arrangements to make.”
He held out the brochure again, and I made a disgusted noise in the back of my throat as I stood, smoothing down the wrinkles in my pencil skirt before snatching the stupid brochure out of his hand.
“Fine,” I said, seeing that he wasn’t going to budge on his choice for the retreat.
I guess I can kiss my dream of snorkeling goodbye.
I had also been secretly hoping to have a run-in with a man during the retreat’s downtime. Maybe a sexy surfer, someone with golden skin and drool-worthy abs that would sweep me off my feet and would allow me to finally move past this ridiculous crush on my boss.
Thatclearly wasn’t going to happen.
I left Connor’s office, heading to my own desk just outside his door and taking a seat. The caramel Frappuccino I’d picked up on the way to work was starting to melt, but I sipped it anyway as I turned to the computer and updated Connor’s calendar. Then, I pulled up the website for the ski lodge, going through the various activities they offered and checking out pictures of the rooms. At least they had a hot tub, so I’d get to wear my new bikini, after all.
If I was going to be stuck on a cold, snowy mountain for a week, I was at least going to make the most of it.
