The Boss Who Stole Christmas - Jana Aston Page 0,4

can add a few tables and an additional merchandise counter on the takeaway side. Holly will accompany me on my trip to Germany next week and meet with the management of the original café in Nuremberg. See how they operate during their peak season and what ideas we can implement for our version."

Wait one minute. Did he just say travel with him?

"Oh, my God, no!"

Every eye in the room turns to stare at me.

"I mean, um…" I stall, brain racing. "The Jack Frost Candle Company is closing? Wow, they've been in business forever." I shake my head sadly, looking anywhere but at Nick. My friend from accounting gives me a sympathetic grimace. "I'll, uh, need to stock up on Candy Cane candles before they close. It's my favorite scent. ’Tis the season." Jiminy Christmas, Holly, stop speaking! "How do you know they're closing, by the way?" I straighten the screen of my laptop and bounce my foot nervously under the table. "I haven't heard a word about it."

"I'm friends with their daughter, Taryn."

Ugh, Taryn. She was a senior at Reindeer Falls High when I was a freshman, so she's two years younger than Nick. She was the kind of girl who made fun of your favorite Christmas socks when you accidentally-on-purpose wore them in March. The kind of Christmas troll who shuts down a beloved local candle company—

"She's taking over her parents’ shop and moving the store to a new location at the River Place Shops," Nick says, interrupting my thoughts. "She needed more space to add candle-making workshops and it seems someone beat her to the vacant spot located next to their original location."

Oh.

Okay, that was me. I'm the one who beat her to that empty retail space for the Teddy Bear Café. And she's not closing the business, she's expanding it, so maybe she's not on Santa's naughty list after all. I stare at Nick, wondering what kind of friends they are. Wondering if they're naked friends.

Gross.

"Will the kitchen design accommodate the additional workload required to support the takeaway business? Can we make the needed adjustments now before construction is completed?" Nick glances up from typing on his laptop.

"It will." I know it will because I had the kitchen layout reviewed by three separate pastry chefs and they all indicated the workspace was sufficient for double the projected output. I'd wanted to ensure we were covered if we decided to expand or add a catering component.

"You'll double-check?" Nick says as he continues typing. He says it like it's a question but it's not. It's an order. I'll have to reconfigure all my numbers to include the additional takeout quantities and then show him my work and then he'll question why we have twenty percent more refrigeration space than I'm projecting we need and I'll spend ten minutes explaining that refrigeration space is not custom but comes in predetermined cubic feet and a twenty-percent overage is a better option than the next size down, which will only provide us with a projected two percent of excess refrigeration space.

And he'll stare at me the entire time. Silent and brooding.

It'll take me a week to revamp my entire financial plan for the Teddy Bear Café to include the additional rent costs of the unit next door, additional construction costs, and additional staff costs. Then I'll have to redo all the estimated sales forecasts. Hire a designer to create a design for to-go containers and bags and cups. Then I'll have to source all those items, get samples. No, it won't take me a week, it'll take the rest of the month.

"Send me a report when you're done," Nick adds as if this is all a foregone conclusion simply because he's tossed out the order. I mean, I understand he's the boss. I do. But this isn't how his grandfather ran things, let me tell you.

His grandfather didn't wear a single suit that made me wonder what he looked like naked, for starters.

Gah! There is no way I'm going on that trip with him. None. Not happening. Maybe he's already forgotten about it? I fidget in my chair and glance at Nick out of the corner of my eye while he grills the warehouse manager on the costs of cardboard. I've never been on a business trip. I wouldn't even know how to go about scheduling it. Am I supposed to book my flight and hotel and then submit an expense report? Or will his assistant book me? Perhaps… perhaps I can