by Brynn North
Under Wraps
Brynn North
Copyright © 2019 by Brynn North
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Brynn North
Brynn North is an emerging author of romantic comedies and contemporary romance. This is her first novella.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Thank You
About the Author
Six Times Six
1
Luci banged on the door. No answer. “What the hell,” she muttered under her breath, banging again. Alex was always, always home on Monday nights to watch Dancing with the Stars, ever since the Melissa Joan Hart season, at least. She’d threatened to out him with the information more than once to get him to do something for her he didn’t want to, like squash a large spider or give her the last slice of pizza.
“Alllllleeeeeex. I have Chinese,” Luci lied through the door and waited. Finally, she heard footsteps and what seemed like an eternity later, Alex appeared.
“It better be from House of Wong,” he growled in greeting. Hair mussed up and dark circles under his eyes, Alex looked like a hot mess.
“Wow. What happened to you?” Luci’s eyebrows shot up.
He pushed his dark brown hair back with a sigh and opened the door farther, allowing Luci in.
“She dumped me.” His voice was flat, dark brown eyes sad.
A pang of guilt went through Luci and she started rooting for her phone. If anyone needed DoorDash tonight, it was Alex.
“Don’t worry,” she soothed him, while swiftly hiding her disappointment that she couldn’t unload her own problems, the very reason she was pounding on his door during his favorite hour of the week. “I’ll order some food right now, and you can tell me all about how Dani did you wrong.”
He eyed her suspiciously as Luci tapped at her screen. “Thought you said you had Chinese.”
Luci shrugged. “I lied.”
“I should have known,” he groaned.
Luci gave him a winning smile. “Yeah, you really should have known by now,” she agreed. “I’ll be back in five with some wine.”
When she reached her apartment downstairs, Luci gnawed on her lip, debating between white and red, finally grabbing. He did just get dumped, after all.
Luci hadn’t planned on nursing Alex through a hard situation tonight when she had her own drama. Hell, she pretty much never planned on nursing him through any hardship. Ever since tenth grade, Alex had been Luci’s voice of reason, the steady-state to her zany, the rock to her roll. And Dani dumping him? From Luci’s perpetual singledom, they’d seemed like the perfect, smug, loved up couple.
Dancing With the Stars blared from the TV when she entered, and the food arrived just moments after she poured their glasses. Thirty minutes passed, and Alex still hadn’t spoken.
“So tell me about it,” Luci finally said, topping off his glass as some woman - popular for being on in daytime TV maybe fifteen years ago, she vaguely remembered - spun across the stage on TV, dolled up in a sequined dress.
Alex sighed and stabbed his food, taking his eyes off the screen for the first time to look at her. “Dani wanted to talk about the future before she moved in next month. You know. The future future. Rings. And I couldn’t give her an answer.”
“Alex, it’s been two years!” Luci yelped. And not just because he took the last egg roll. “How did you not know where it’s going?”
He shrugged a little. “Well, if I don’t know where the relationship is going, then doesn’t that mean it’s not going anywhere at all?”
Luci was shocked all over again. “Fair point,” she said after a few seconds.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, one of the many benefits of being best friends for years. Alex finally broke the silence.
“Hey, what are you doing here anyway on a Monday night? Isn’t that your usual night for...hmmmm...” he said, pointing at an imaginary calendar. “Mondays you go to Louie’s for bar trivia, Tuesdays is Pinstripes for bocce ball, Wednesday it gets really exciting, that’s when the hot spin instructor teaches his thirty dollar classes and all sorts of fit men show up in spandex shorts...”
Luci lobbed him with one of the fur throw pillows that Dani had insisted dressed up the couch. “I enjoy a good social life, what can I say?”
He snorted. “Please. You enjoy trying to find yourself a man.”
“Well, that too,” she allowed. “Fiiiiine,” she admitted, catching his eye roll. “It is to find a boyfriend. But it’s not like I’m about to find one walking between the TV and me on the couch, right? I need to get out.”
“You sure as hell would have a better chance of finding a decent man that way instead of sweating your guts out in spin class.”
Luci rolled her eyes so high she swore they touched her brain.
“Luce, I keep telling you. It will happen when the time is right,” he insisted.
If there was one more damn thing Luci hated more than being single, it was being told that love will happen when it happens, especially from people in long-term relationships - or, in this case, was in a long-term relationship.
“I got picked for this huge project at work.” Luci sighed, hoping that would distract him.
Thankfully, the ploy worked. “Well, that’s great, right?”
“No, it’s not! It’s a volunteer project that I was volun-told I have to do, and I have no freaking clue how to go about it!”
Luci toyed with her wineglass as she recapped the conversation she had with her manager earlier today.
“So Steve told me he had a great project for me. I was so excited. Thought maybe I had a chance at getting into the telecom system they are developing. Get me out of my boring ass job, do something more than troubleshoot network issues. Turns out he wants me tooooo…” Luci drew out the word for suspense, “run the entire company’s Christmas drive.”
“Run the what? Why?” Alex gaped.
“No shit, right?” Luci replied glumly. “Apparently, I need more visibility,” she said, giving the word air quotes, “at the company. I’m a terrible networker and it shows. If I show the big shots upstairs how much I care about the freaking company and make us look good, it’d give them some warm fuzzy feels, and I’d be a hell of a lot closer to the promotion I desperately need. I’d actually like to pay off my student loans before I hit forty, and it ain’t happening at the rate I’m going.”
“No fucking way,” Alex said, eyes wide. “That’s horrible pressure.”
“Yep. So now it’s completely on me to come up with a plan, make the company look good, and ultimately make the Christmas dreams of tons of people come true. All within, like, a month. This thing will make me or break me. Probably break.”
“What’s your current plan?”
She shrugged. “Don’t have one. Can’t I just do Toys for Tots or something?”
Really, Luci had no clue. She hadn’t been into Christmas for years, ever since her mom died. Luci had pretty much no other family, and usually her Christmases boiled down to exchanging gifts with Alex on Christmas Eve while they got drunk on champagne before they joined his family for a Christmas brunch
the next day.
“No!” Alex’s voice shot out. “This is your big break. Didn’t you say that your company was struggling with its competitors? You need to do this in style. Make a big splash in the community. Get a write up in the paper and all. Don’t just throw a box out for toys like every other company.”
“How in the hell am I supposed to do that?” she argued, even as she knew Alex had a point. The only problem was that Luci had no freaking idea how to ‘make a splash’ in the community. If she did, she’d be some Instagram influencer with men hanging over her every word instead of a single IT geek with exactly zero point zero men after her.
He shrugged. “That’s your problem to figure out, not mine.” He ducked as Luci heaved yet another throw pillow at him, this time the one with tassels. “Ow!”
“Some help you are,” Luci muttered. But she had to admit, the idea intrigued her. Maybe Alex was right, and to make a name for herself at Logical Solutions, she needed to do something big. Something unexpected.
“What about a Christmas drive for animal supplies?”
He scrunched up his face. “Overdone.”
“Homeless or victimized women?”
“Definitely worthy, but I can name three charities off the top of my head that already do that.”
“What then?” she asked exasperated, but was interrupted by someone knocking on the door.
Alex jumped up. “Not sure. But let’s talk later,” he said hurriedly. “You’d better get going. See if you can make it to the last part of bar trivia. Maybe one of the clues will give you an idea.”
Luci narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You aren’t having a breakup booty call with Dani already, are you? It’s only been, what, five hours?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed.
She was incredulous. “You’re obviously hiding something. Tinder hookup? Already? Really?”
“No! No woman at all!”
“Then what’s the deal here? Who’s at the door?”
Luci lunged for the door herself, ending up in a scuffle with Alex. She won and opened the door to a man so drop-dead gorgeous that she just stood there and gaped.
How in the hell does Alex know Jason Momoa? Or Jason Momoa’s younger, and less bearded, second cousin at least. She widened her eyes as she took in this stranger’s olive skin, jet black hair, and piercing brown eyes, almost swooning when she saw a tattoo sleeve peeking out from an LA Clippers t-shirt. Even more importantly, how in the hell would she get to know this man herself?
Alex glared at Luci and shoved her aside. “Come in, Sebastian. Don’t mind her, she’s just part of the decoration around here sometimes.”
“Mighty fine decoration you got here then,” Sebastian said with a wink, and a hot flash went through Luci as he walked through the door.
As soon as Sebastian’s back was turned, Alex shot her a look that said can you please fucking stop it?
She shot him one right back that said oh hell no.
“Nice place. Can you show me the room?” Dear God, Sebastina’s voice was almost as sexy as his looks. Luci almost swooned.
The room?
Alex answered Luci’s unasked question, rather reluctantly she noticed. “I told my brother that Dani wouldn’t be moving in after all, and he mentioned that his old college roommate Sebastian needed a room in the area until the first of the year. I figured I could use the money since I was kinda counting on her to help out with the rent.”
“Yup. Just got hired for my first job at Sacred Heart Hospital. Need a place for a few weeks until my new apartment opens up.”
“First job? Moving here?” Luci asked, hoping her voice wasn’t giving away her excitement as much as she feared. From the smirk on Alex’s face, she wasn’t succeeding.
“Yep,” Sebastian said, checking out the view from the balcony before crossing in front of the TV to join them on the couch.
Alex literally put his head in his hands as Luci grinned at him in victory.
Sebastian looked at them confused, then wisely pretended to not notice the little show in front of him. “Yup. I just graduated from med school and finished my residency. I’m a Geriatrican. I love working with senior citizens. They can be so hilarious, and they really need strong medical advocates.”
Luci’s eyebrows shot up. Hot guy, check. Doctor, check. Kind and sensitive, check.
She could feel Alex’s restraint from telling her don’t you dare radiate from his very soul and she grinned.
Deciding it was time to make her exit before Alex’s head actually imploded, Luci stood up and stuck out her hand.
“Well, it was a pleasure to meet you. I’m Luci, your downstairs neighbor. I’ll let you and Alex work out the details, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing plenty of you around.”
Unless it was Luci’s imagination, Sebastian’s hand lingered on hers a moment longer than was necessary. “Looking forward.”
Luci damn near skipped down the hall, bursting with excitement from the evening. Geri-freaking-atrics. A fresh idea for the Christmas drive, her boss would be thrilled, the company would look great for helping senior citizens in the community around Christmas....and she could ask her hot new neighbor for advice.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket before she even reached her front door.
Alex: Don’t even dare.
Luci just sent an emoji sticking out his tongue back. This could be the answer to more than one of her problems.
2
Luci twirled her pen as she nervously pitched her idea to Steve.
“Santa for Seniors? What gave you that idea?”
Since she couldn’t exactly tell her boss that she’d come up with the idea to help senior citizens because she wanted to get to know a hot doctor, Luci chose another truth instead.
“I was brainstorming and hit Google to see what was already going on in the community. So many other ideas I had are taken already, like helping shelter animals or children.” Luci flashed him a winning smile, trying to radiate care into every word.
Sensing Steve’s rising interest, she went for gold. “We could encourage everyone in the company to create shoeboxes full of things that elderly people would enjoy, such as lotions, new pajamas, stamps, or gourmet snacks. Give them out as Christmas gifts.” Please, Steve, please, she thought desperately.
Steve raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that? My grandma loves rum and poker, not pretty scented lotions. Excuse my language, but she’d call that ‘old people shit’.”
Dammit.
“Wellll,” Luci said, thinking in a hurry, really wishing she had a family. Luci’s grandparents had died before she was born, so she wasn’t super familiar with senior citizens. If her mother was alive, she would know what grandparents like, wouldn’t she? She had no idea what senior citizens were into, and truth be told, they intimidated her too much to actually ask. “What about...visits? Surely a lot of older people get lonely around the holidays?”
Steve nodded thoughtfully. “Granny would like that. She’s got this great blackjack set, loves pulling it out for company. As long as they bring cash to lose, that is. Last poker night I lost over a hundred bucks.” He shook his head, obviously sore over the memory.
Luci was getting the idea that Steve’s grandma might not be the best case study.
Pushing hard, trying to prove she was upper management material, she got a lightbulb moment. “What if I organize a party of sorts, with food and cake, and then we can hand out the shoeboxes then? And then some bigger items too, if donated?” Catching Steve’s look, Luci hastily added, “In addition, we’ll have an open bar and...casino games? Where they can win tickets for prizes and not money?” The last part at least would keep her out of legal trouble she figured.
He nodded firmly. “I like that. Like Granny says, old people ain’t dead yet!”
Luci nodded, eyes wide. “Point taken.”
Walking out of the office, she felt like she nailed it. This was going to go so well, Luci could feel it in her bones. Back at her d
esk, she excitedly grabbed her phone.
Alex grabbed his buzzing phone at his desk, pathetically grateful for the distraction. Most days he loved his job, but trying to get twenty-eight seventh-graders interested in the Constitution’s importance was tough enough. When the teacher is trying to hide a broken heart while doing so, it becomes a Herculean effort.
“Guys, practice your oral reports to one another. Get yourself ready to impress the socks off me on Friday,” he ordered.
A girl in the front row raised her and started talking without waiting. “Mr. Garcia, what kind of socks are you wearing? I need to know if it’s worth knocking them off or not. Are they at least Stance, or are they the kind that you buy in a plastic bag at Target?”
Alex internally sighed. “Tell you what, Noelle. I’ll answer that question for you....IF you get an A on the presentation. Now practice,” he ordered with a finger point, and mercifully the class broke off and started chatting. Surprising how reports on the Constitution of the United States could be so loud in a matter of ten seconds. And involve so many phones out on the desk.
Deciding it was easier to ignore the kids checking Snapchat than to discipline them, he looked at his own phone.
Luci: Hey, I got approval for my project! Santa for Seniors!
Alex: Santa for Who? What gave you that idea?
Alex: Shit. Never mind. I KNOW
Luci:
Alex:
Luci: So....
Alex: No
Luci: Please.
Alex: I’m not letting you use me to use Sebastian to get a promotion at work
Luci: Me? I’m not about that life.
Alex:
Luci: fine then. Deprive a bunch of lonely seniors a fun party and gifts just because you’re too selfish to invite me over to talk to Sebastian. I live underneath you. I can knock on your - I mean HIS - door in a neighborly fashion, you know