“It’s wrapping a present,” he said. “Not brain surgery.”
But he grabbed an empty box meant for one of their display snow globes, flipping it facedown onto an unfurled sheet of candy-cane-striped paper. He grabbed a Sharpie from under the counter but didn’t bother to uncap it. “On a real present, you’ll black out or remove any price first,” he said. “Put the best side of the box on the flat of the paper so the uglier taped underside ends up on the bottom of the gift. Cut the paper—” He sliced the scissors through the metallic wrapping, a sensation that always gave him a shoot of satisfaction whenever they slid right through. “Fold it under at the edges to create a clean seam, leave enough paper at the ends to fold into neat triangles but not so much that it gets crumpled, and if you’ve done it right you should only need three pieces of tape, one here—” He pressed a long piece down the center seam before adding two shorter pieces to each of the triangles folded into the sides. “And one each here. Voilà, the present is wrapped.”
Lauren was staring at him like he’d just demonstrated advanced necromancy.
“Why do you black out the price?” Daniel asked.
Asa shifted his attention to him with some difficulty. “Because it’s the class move, Daniel.”
“And why do we wrap at all? Gift bags would be easier and more efficient.”
“Wrapping is more cost-effective,” Lauren pointed out. “A roll of that paper probably costs as much as a single bag, and we can get several gifts out of it.”
A couple days ago, the human cash register joke would’ve written itself. But now he didn’t know where he stood with Lauren, didn’t know if humor would move him forward or set him back. “More importantly,” he said, directing his words more to her than to Daniel, “gift-wrapping shows a certain amount of care. It shows that you took time and effort with your present, that you thought of the recipient. That you wanted them to have that moment when their pulse quickens, right before they tear off the paper. Or maybe they open it carefully, undoing each piece of tape, savoring the anticipation of revealing what’s underneath.”
Lauren’s dark eyes looked big and luminous behind her glasses. He wouldn’t have known she was up half the night except for the slight purple shadows there. And under that cardigan and button-up shirt, he knew she probably still had a small rosy circle on the curve of her neck, where he’d sucked at her skin.
“Are we still talking about wrapping up snow globes?” Daniel asked derisively. “I doubt there’s anything in this shop worth being that precious about.”
Kiki gestured over at a table in the corner, which they’d intended to be a gift-wrapping station once it got a little closer to Christmas. “You can set up over there,” she said. “Just don’t be surprised if no one comes.”
Lauren gathered up the supplies and headed over to the table, but Asa called Daniel back, holding up the Sharpie. “You forgot this,” he said. The way the other man snatched it from Asa’s fingers, he seemed to understand that there was some kind of implied insult in the gesture, even if he couldn’t figure out what it was.
“What do you think that’s about?” Kiki whispered once Daniel and Lauren were settled in at the table on the other side of the gift shop.
“You know how Dolores gets around the holidays,” Asa said gruffly. “She’s obviously in the middle of some frenzied game of workplace musical chairs.”
“The dinner date last night must’ve gone really well,” Kiki said, ignoring him. “I tried to ask her about it this morning, but she was her usual Lauren self about it.”
Daniel said something that made Lauren laugh, and for the life of him Asa could not think what that walking GQ background model could’ve said that would be remotely funny. Lauren glanced up, the smile fading from her face as their eyes caught, and he studied the sales tax guide slid under the glass top of the counter like he’d be quizzed on it later.
“What does that mean,” he asked, “her usual Lauren self?”
“You know how she is,” Kiki said. “Getting her to talk about anything personal can be like pulling teeth.”
He thought back to things she’d revealed the night before. He got the impression she didn’t have a lot of family, but he couldn’t pinpoint anything beyond that. She’d mentioned not having a lot of pictures. The only time she’d mentioned any kind of family had been when she was talking about her mother, and the ritual they’d had around good-luck flowers.