Impress Me Not: The Architect

Chapter 42

"What was your favorite Christmas tradition?" Benny asked.

"I didn't really have one," Justin shrugged.

"Did you celebrate it?"

"Well, yeah," Justin said. "But my family wasn't exactly well off. We just kind of opened presents and ate dinner and left it at that."

"Dinner is good," Will said, rubbing his stomach. "When I was a kid, we were all just happy to be eating a ham on Christmas. One toy and some food were the best thing we could ask for."

"My brothers always tried to steal my presents," Sarah rolled her eyes. "They'd do it just to see me run after them."

"That sounds horrible," Benny frowned.

"Not really," Sarah gave him an evil smile. "It only took two Christmases until I figured out how to catch them. And, once they were in my grasp, I made them regret it."

"Sounds like you were meant to be an Anticupid ever since you were a girl," Justin laughed.

"That's what sisters are for," Sarah told him. "What about you, Benny? What did you do on Christmas?"

"Well, I got more than one present," Benny put his hand on the back of his head nervously. As soon as Will told his story, he was kind of nervous to tell everyone about his holidays when he was mortal.

"You got spoiled when you were a kid, didn't you?" Cassandra popped up, hair blowing in the sharp winter winds.

"Cassy!" Will smiled brightly at her. "What are you doing here?"

Cassandra lived and breathed the filing department. She had been with the department since the 1800s, and had hardly ever taken time off to come down to civilization. Instead, she had prided herself in her work and making sure that as many files were put in the right place as possible. It still hurt her pride when she found out about Casimir's case. She still wasn't sure how that slipped right from under her nose.

"Besides making sure you didn't get yourself in anymore trouble?" she teased. "This is the first time in a while you haven't spend the holidays with me, Will."

That was true. It had been a while since Will was able to come down here around the holidays. He had gotten himself in so much trouble for a while that he had been forced to stay in the office until he was given permission to leave. Many of those times he spent with Cassy, making sure she wasn't too lonely in her stack of papers. Oliver was good company, and it was about time that she finally got another assistant, but he still liked to stop by her department and wish her a happy holiday.

"Sorry I didn't stop by," he hugged her really quick. "I just couldn't leave these two."

He pointed to Valentino and Casimir. They had spent the whole day together with the rest of Valentino's family. It was nice to see them together. And it was the first time Will and Benny had truly seen him so happy. They were standing outside now, just enjoying the last night of Christmas lights, talking quietly in the night.

"You think they're going to kiss?" Benny asked, bouncing in excitement.

"You want to make a bet on it?" Will looked at him playfully.

"I don't know about you guys," Sarah clasped her hands on both of their shoulders. "But I think we've made enough risky bets."

"Aww," Will pouted. "And here I was going to try and make you dye your hair Christmas colors this time."

"You realize it's going to be after Christmas before I can even dye my hair, right?" she asked.

"Well," Will put a hand to his chin. "There's always July. You know how some fanatics are about the whole Christmas in July thing. You could always do it then."