Secret Santa

☃︎Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ Eʟᴇᴠᴇɴ☃︎

Pippa enters the office with an anxious feeling in her chest.

She greets Mary as usual, then hesitates. Will she be able to sit at her desk without the stifling tension between she and Jasper?

Letting out a breath, Pippa works up the nerve to go to her desk. Then she takes a step. And another. And another.

She comes to a stop a few steps away from their desk clump. The nerves she felt before are back, and they're worse than at Mary's desk. Slowly, Pippa inches forward, observing Jasper carefully as she does so. He remains unaware of her presence.

With a final sigh, Pippa pulls off her coat and plops it along with her purse on top of her desk. Her actions startle Jasper, who jumps slightly in his chair. Pippa doesn't notice and seats herself, scooting up to her desk to the point of squishing her stomach with the desk.

"Hey, Pip?" Jasper calls out tentatively, worried Pippa would hold a resentment toward him. Pippa cautiously glances toward him, humming in acknowledgment. "Want to help me prank Mark?"

Pippa considers Jasper's question very carefully. She taps her chin thoughtfully, humming in thought.

"Do I want to help you prank Mark?"

Jasper nods slowly, unsure of Pippa's tone. Is she mad? He can't really tell.

"How are we to be pranking Mark?" Pippa asks finally, and Jasper's lungs fill in relief. He lets out a small chortle in disbelief, before grinning mischievously.

"We will be salting his coffee today," Jasper says, leaning back on the right arm of his chair, swivelling it slightly. Pippa laughs lightly, imagining the crazy faces Mark would pull.

"Okay, I'm in. What do I need to do?"

Jasper's mischievous grin only grows, and he opens up his top desk drawer, digging around a little. Finally, he pulls out three salt packets and lifts them up for Pippa to see.

"You'll do the salting," Jasper answers, handing the salt packets to Pippa. She gives him a Cheshire grin.

"I'm going to offer him a better cup of coffee, and I'll walk out with his mug. You go ahead to the kitchen, and I'll be there in a minute."

Pippa takes the salt packets with her as she goes into the kitchen with a spring in her step.

Jasper knocks on Mark's door, cracking it open.

"Hey, Mark, Pippa brought this super awesome coffee today, and I think you should try it," Jasper says, entering the cluttered office. Mark, who had been toying with a small choo-choo train, gasps in surprise at Jasper's presence. He claps his hands together, smiling in glee.

"Oh yes, yes! Gimme!" Mark says, grabbing his mug and practically forcing it into Jasper's hands, nearly sloshing coffee everywhere. Jasper, wide-eyed from the nearly-spilt coffee narrowly burning his hands, takes Mark's mug and hurriedly rushes from the small office.

He carefully enters the kitchen, pouring extra black coffee in Mark's mug and shoving it into the microwave. Pippa's eyebrows raise when she gets a small glimpse of the mug before it begins to heat up.

Shaking her head, Pippa asks, "'World's Best Boss'? Really?" Jasper sighs, shaking his head.

"He thinks he's the world's best boss," Jasper responds, a small smile tugging at his lips. Pippa gives him a small laugh.

"Well, he's obviously not, otherwise we wouldn't be putting salt in his coffee." Jasper shrugs, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, he thinks so."

The microwave beeps, and Jasper takes the mug out, careful to not spill the steaming liquid.

Pippa smiles mischievously as Jasper places the mug on the counter. She rips open a salt packet and pours the salt in, repeating the process with the other two packets. Jasper hands her a spoon, and she stirs the salt into Mark's coffee.

"Okay, go back to your desk and I'll give Mark the coffee a few seconds later, that way you won't be suspected unless Donahue says something," Jasper reasons, motioning with his head to the door. Pippa gives him a thumbs up and exits the kitchen.

Jasper breathes in slowly, letting out a long exhale. He's so glad Pippa's not mad at him.

Then, he takes the coffee and casually walks it to Mark's office. Mark, obviously excited, opens his door quickly and claps his hands together.

"Alright! Nice! Tell Pippa 'ah-thankya!' for me!" Mark exclaims, taking the mug of hot liquid from Jasper. Jasper agrees, nodding and returns to his desk.

Pippa pretends to get something from Jasper's filing cabinet, glancing toward Mark's office every few seconds.

"Has he drank it yet?"

"No, Pip. Trust me, you'd know. And I just left his office. He's probably cooing at his coffee, telling it how much of 'a good little coffee you are!' in that creepy voice he does," Jasper answers, tapping some keys on his computer. Pippa sighs.

Suddenly, a scream is heard from Mark's office, and Mark throws open his office door.

"JASPER!! PIPPA!! GET IN HERE!!"

Jasper and Pippa share a look.

This won't be good.