The Fashion of Love | Adult F/M Romance [COMPLETE]

ch. 59 - December

DECEMBER

December was somehow not the worst month of the year. Sora was chalking that up to patience and lessons well- and painfully learned.

She supposed, in the end, it wasn't the worst year after all.

...

"Dad invited us over for Christmas dinner," said Ravi over after-dinner drinks, and it was like déjà vu all over again.

"As if Diwali-Thanksgiving wasn't explosive enough for one year. A house packed with the extended Misra brood is probably not a great idea."

"Anthony might be there."

"Is that supposed to be an incentive?"

"Dhiren can spend Christmas Eve with his mom and Tommy with his dad. Gia's bringing Sam; Yelena invited the Parrillas. Evelyn and Ishir might be dropping in. It'll be a full house."

"Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Someone will be dead by dessert." He grabbed her around her waist to kiss the base of her neck.

"We'll leave after the main course."

Sora groused, "I hate it when you get persuasive."

...

...

By some scheduling error, it happened that the Misra and Himura Media Christmas parties were being held at the same time on the same day, therefore Sora and Ravi weren't able to attend either together. Sora thought it was important that her employees had a chance to clear the air after they year they'd had under her leadership. She wanted to go into 2017 free and unburdened by old insecurities; hopelessness could stay in 2016. But she had to face the music for that to happen. They had to believe that Sora could take the good with the bad; that she was as strong if not as ruthless as Anthony had ever been. So here she was, sipping spiked eggnog and debating whether demoting Michael had been a wiser move than firing him outright.

She and Sam had just ended a brief whirl on the dance floor to 'I'll Be Home for Christmas' where they spent more time conferring over gifts for Tommy and trading observations on employee morale than enjoying the music. She figured they both had people they'd rather be dancing with. They were debating getting mulled cider when a modelesque visage appeared, startling them bot h. Evelyn Misra was the perfect combination of her mother and father: Ravi's height and her mother's fair complexion. His passion and Jasmin's fiery tempery and intellect all rolled into a beautiful package.

When she beckoned Sora was helpless not to go.

The younger woman pulled her aside, though not out of earshot of eavesdropping employees.

"I came as close as I'd like to to losing my father last year, and I don't know what next year will bring. If you waste what time he has left on an ego trip or a jealousy game against Anthony, I'll make losing your job seem like the best thing that could possibly happen to you and certainly the least painful. Am I understood?"