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The Christmas Arrangement

As the holidays approach, Tessa -- a warm, ugly-sweater loving personal assistant -- finds herself spending yet another holiday away from her family. Unable to fly home, she must find something else to do with her time. Little does she know, she's in for the holiday of a lifetime when she gets called into her boss's office three days before Christmas.<br><br> Colette Sylvestre is not someone you could call warm -- collected, intelligent, charismatic, maybe, but not warm. She is, however, in the running to take over her family business, a prestigious publishing house; all she has to do is convince her grandfather she has settled down enough. Her cousin Bernard, however, is determined to undermine her and take the position for himself. To convince her grandfather, Colette must bring a date back home to celebrate Christmas with her family. The only catch? Colette is currently single.<br><br>n a spur of the moment decision, she asks her personal assistant Tess to be her date for the holidays. What follows is a series of holiday related hijinks, from a fancy gala ball to awkward conversations with Colette's family as Tess tries to convince them she really is Colette’s girlfriend. When Tess realizes her little crush on Colette might not be so little, things are complicated even more and she has to decide whether or not to tell Colette.<br><br>Will Colette return her feelings? Will they be able to convince her family their relationship is real? And, most importantly, will Colette ever forgive Tess for her frankly awful sweater choice?

A.J. Morrow · Urban
Not enough ratings
27 Chs

Chapter 7

“I thought you didn’t have any commitments.”

Tess looked away, blushing. “I usually volunteer at a soup kitchen for a few days during the holidays. They have loads of people volunteering at this time of year, though—holiday spirit and all that—so they were quite glad I wanted to move my days. Said that it was right after January when they have the least people.”

Colette pursed her lips in a way Tess knew meant she was thinking hard. A beat passed as both waited for the other to say something. “Why do you volunteer?”

Tess laughed. “Well, not all of us can go to charity galas, Ms. Sylvestre.”

“Colette.”

“Huh?”

“If we’re going to ‘date,’ then you better call me Colette.”

Tess nodded. “And you better call me Tess. No one calls me Tessa.”

Colette’s eyes widened in shock. “I thought that was your name?”

“Well, technically my name is Theresa, but I go by Tess. I’m not sure why you started calling me Tessa, I just didn’t want to correct you before.”