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“Anyway,” she says, “since I’ve so generously volunteered to help out at the estate this holiday season, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I wasn’t able to secure the top suite for you and your fiancé, and that’s not all.”
Okay, it’s time to come clean.
“Look, Taryn,” I say. “I need to tell you something.”
“Me too.” She places her hands on my shoulders. “You’re fucking screwed.”
“So, you already know the truth?”
“Yeah.” She nods. “I just found out why you’re about to have a serious skeleton crew on hand…Taylor Swift just announced a surprise holiday festival here and I’m pretty sure you’re about to experience some ‘suddenly sick’ employees.”
“Taylor Swift is coming here?” I smile. “Really? I mean, they wouldn’t do that to me during the business time of the year, right?”
She blinks.
Rushing over to the employee check-in screen, I notice that six people have called in today.
What the hell?
Convinced this is an error or a last-minute holiday prank, I call the first employee on the list. Sarah Folsom.
“Hello?” she answers on the first ring.
“Hey Sarah, it’s Georgia from The Grace Estate.”
“Hey there, Georgia!”
“I noticed that you called in sick for today, with an indefinite return date. Am I reading this right?”
“No, um…” She coughs. “Something serious is coming to town. I mean, ‘going around,’ and I don’t want to miss it, you know?”
“You mean, catch it?” I cross my arms. “If you’re supposedly sick, don’t you already have whatever it is?”
“Um…” She coughs a few times before ending the call.
I call her right back, and it goes straight to voicemail.
“I’ll call everyone who is still scheduled and get back to you.” Taryn takes the phone from me. “Go get some fresh air.”
“Fine.” I head to the courtyard and pace between nutcrackers, mentally calculating how small of a staff I can use to run this estate.
“Georgia Bee?” My grandmother’s voice makes me stop.
“Yes?”
“Happy Seven Star Day!” She approaches me and hands me an emerald green gift box. “You can open this one before Christmas.”
In need of good news, I tug at the ribbon and push off the top. Inside is a huge diamond key with my name etched onto its handle.
“The Grace Estate would still be a regular resort if it weren’t for you,” she says, “and as soon as I meet your fiancé this Christmas and you show me that you can handle running this busy holiday on your own, this resort is yours.”
“Seriously? That soon?”
“It would’ve been a lot sooner, but I wanted you to have a life outside of work, so you won’t make the same mistakes I did.”
“I thought you wanted me to be more like Savannah….”
“Where would you ever get an idea like that?”
