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“What the hell happened?”
“I told you, I don’t want to talk about it.” He walks off.
I frown, puzzled. At that moment, Henry walks past me, over to Juliette, and hands her a present. “Here you go,” he says softly.
She doesn’t look at him. “Thank you.”
I don’t know what happened between them either, but he hesitates, waiting for her to say something. She keeps her gaze on the gift as she unwraps it, though, and in the end he walks away, over to the next person.
I walk over to her as she examines her gift—a book about the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns. “Nice,” she says. “Haven’t read this.”
“How are you doing?” I ask.
“Great.” She balls up the paper and tosses it into one of the nearby black rubbish bags.
“Everything all right between you and Henry?” I ask.
“Mind your own business.”
I fix her with a steady gaze, and she flushes. Today she’s wearing a red sari, and the color is a little too harsh for her pale skin. She’s incredibly beautiful, but she’s lost weight recently, and she has hollows in her cheeks and shadows beneath her eyes.
“If you want to know if it’ll affect our working relationship, it won’t,” she snaps.
“Hey, give me some credit. I’m worried about you.” I dip my head to try and catch her eye. “Are you still with Cam?”
She swallows hard. “Yes.”
So whatever happened with Henry last night wasn’t enough to convince her to leave Cam for him. I feel a wave of sadness. “Aw, Juliette…”
“Don’t…” Fighting back tears, she takes her present and walks away.
A little depressed, I leave the rest of the staff to the music and food and go back to my office. Zelda is waiting there for me, and she wags her tail as I go in and comes up to lick my hand.
“This should be a time for miracles,” I murmur, lifting her up onto my lap as I sit in my chair. She stands on my chest and wags, then gives a high girlie yap. “Yeah, I know,” I reply. “I’ve got to let them sort themselves out.”
She sniffs my shirt, then sneezes.
“Bless you. I hope there’s enough Christmas magic for me, anyway.”
She licks my chin. I kiss her head, and she sighs and collapses onto me, looking up at me with her big puppy eyes. At that moment, my phone buzzes on my desk, and I look at the screen to see a text from Missie. Zelda gives me a reproachful look.
“Aw,” I say, “come on, you know you’ll always be my number one girl.” I give her another kiss, then bring up the text.
Missie:How’s your party going? Miss you!
I smile, my spirits lifting.
Me:I miss you too. It’s going okay, but I’d rather be with you!
Missie:Aw, not long now!
Me:What are you up to today?
Missie:Getting ready.
Me:For Christmas?
Missie:For you.
