The Mistletoe Motive(40)

“Look at you two,” Luke says, sighing happily as he admires Jonathan and me. “The portrait of professional bliss.”

Jonathan gives his friend a death glare while Eli and I hug hello. Before I can unpack exactly what’s happening, June throws her arms around me next. “The place looks great,” she says.

“Thanks,” I whisper, hugging her back. “Um. So.” I clear my throat as we pull away and throw a thumb over my shoulder. “Don’t dismember him, but this is Jonathan Frost. Jonathan, this is my dear friend, June Li.”

June peers up at him, and it’s quite a journey, seeing as June is 5’2” on a good day and Jonathan’s well over a foot taller than her. She gives him a pursed lip, blank look. “Hm,” she says.

“We have a truce,” I tell her out of the side of my mouth. “Remember?”

Eli sighs. “June. Be nice. It’s the holidays.”

“Bah humbug,” she mutters.

Jonathan arches his eyebrow. “That’s my line.”

June’s mouth twitches. She’s fighting a smile. “So long as you’re treating her like a queen now,” she mutters, sticking out her hand.

Jonathan takes it and gives her a firm shake. “Doing my best.”

“He’s been a gem,” I tell her. “He brought me cookies and hydration.”

June nods. “I approve. She neglects herself.”

“See?” Jonathan says to me, sounding annoyingly vindicated.

“Hey.” I glance between them. “I get distracted sometimes. I don’t neglect myself.”

“What do you call not eating for six hours straight, Gabriella?” Jonathan folds his arms across his chest. “Hm?”

“Trust me,” Eli says. “We know all about it.”

“Okay.” I hop off the stool and shove the last of the cookie in my mouth. “Enough of Gang Up on Gabby Hour. I’m taking June for a tour of the place.”

Eli pouts. “What about me?”

I shoulder him playfully. “You saw it already for story time. Go browse with your honey. Oh, and Frost.”

Jonathan’s watching me intently. “Di Natale.”

“Don’t even try to steal my sales. Ring ‘em up, fair and square, promise?”

His mouth lifts in the faintest whisper of a smile. “Scout’s honor, Gabriella.”

“Good.” Dragging June with me down the hallway, I yank her outside to the back alley and slam the door behind us.

June frowns. “I thought I was getting a tour.”

“I’m freaking out.”

Her eyes widen. “Okay,” she says slowly. “About what?”

“About Jonathan. And Mr. Reddit. It’s like—my brain is this giant knot of tangled up Christmas lights, and I can’t tell what’s lighting up for who, and I feel guilty because it’s like I’m betraying Mr. Reddit, and I feel scared about Jonathan because this is all so new, being friends with him, but somehow it doesn’t feel new at all, and I’m weirdly happy around him and—”

“Woah.” June sets her hands on my shoulders and squeezes. “Deep breath, Gabby.”

I suck in a breath.

“And out,” she says calmly.

I exhale.

“Good. Now.” She yanks open the door and drags me back inside. “It’s cold as Satan’s balls out there. Let’s go find a closet to talk.”

“But it’s hot in hell.”

“Not according to Dante,” June mutters, guiding me ahead of her. “Find a closet, would ya? In Dante’s Inferno, Satan’s frozen up to his waist, his wings beating furiously, but ironically that just keeps the lake frozen. The innermost circle of hell is self-sabotage…and balls that are blocks of ice.”

“Wow. I forgot about that.” I open the closet door where we keep janitorial supplies and lunge over a box of industrial-strength cleaner. June follows behind and shuts the door.

“Speaking of self-sabotage,” she says, rounding on me. “Sit.”

I sit. “I’m surrounded by bossy pants.”

“Someone’s got to balance out Eli,” she says, nudging items off a box of toilet paper until it’s clear for her to sit on. “He’s too nurturing. Listen.” June leans in, elbows on her knees. “You need to cut yourself a break. You’re busting your ass at work, trying to save this place. It’s your last day before holiday break, you’re crushing it, and you’re spending the day beating yourself up about a guy you’ve never met in real life and a guy you’ve hated for nearly a year and just started to be civil with. You owe them nothing, Gabby.

“If this Mr. Frost, who actually keeps an eye out for you and makes you happy, ends up being your person, then that was how it was meant to be, and Mr. Reddit was someone who was right for you at one time and not the other, and that’s okay. If, once you meet Mr. Reddit in person, you realize that while you have an intense bond with your coworker after close quarters the past twelve months, the bond you and Mr. Reddit built over nightly chats has forged something much deeper, then that will be what you were meant to figure out and that’s okay. Or they might both turn out to be assholes I have to beat up, and I will, and that will be okay, too.”