He looked around for Lauren, but she must not have arrived yet. He busied himself by helping John and his bandmates carry in amps and drums from their van, then answered a few last-minute questions about Secret Santa （Yes, if you got yourself you were supposed to put the name back and draw again . . . Well, it was too late to do anything about it now, wasn’t it?）。
He was scanning the crowd again, looking for Lauren, when Dolores came up behind him. “Another year,” she said, surveying the tall decorated tree in the lobby, real presents now added to the silver-and-blue fake-wrapped presents that were usually under there. “I always remind myself to enjoy it, because you never know if it will be your last.”
Well, that was more intense than he’d expected. “Do you have reason to think this will be the last?”
She waved her hand, which glittered with a large ruby ring. She was in all red, from the feathered fascinator on her head to her stiff taffeta dress to her pointy-toed shoes. A small candy cane pin on her hat was the only formal nod to Christmas, but she was fully festive.
“I try to be realistic,” she said. “As long as people enjoy coming to Cold World, I want it to be here for them. But I know that there are a lot of things that pull people’s attention these days, ticking tock videos and whatnot. It can be hard to keep up.”
“That’s actually part of what I was thinking for my proposal,” he said. “There are so many ways we could build up our social media presence. Like—”
“Oh, I don’t want to talk shop,” Dolores said, before waving to someone at the front door. “Over here!”
Asa glanced up to see Lauren walk through the front door. She must’ve put in contacts, because she wasn’t wearing her glasses, and he could see even from a distance that she had some shimmer around her eyes and cheeks. She wore jeans and a simple fitted black shirt, long-sleeved and scoop-necked. She looked pretty and young and happy and . . .
From behind her, Daniel put his hand at the small of her back, in an almost possessive gesture. He must’ve seen his mother’s wildly waving arm—not like he could miss it—and led Lauren over in their direction.
“Daniel!” Dolores leaned in to give her son kisses on each of his cheeks. “And I see you brought Lauren. How wonderful.”
Lauren’s eyes were bright, and not just from the clear sparkle she’d applied on her eyelids. Just his luck, it appeared that she was finally getting that date with Daniel she’d wanted for so long, and it happened to be . . . tonight.
But as he watched, she stepped awkwardly to the side to get out from under Daniel’s touch. He didn’t know if she did it because she didn’t want to be with him at all, or if it was just because she wasn’t comfortable with the public display in front of her boss.
“You look nice,” he said, leaning in so only she could hear.
“Thanks,” she said, her gaze traveling down his face to his shirt, the slide so slow it was like she was counting every button. She jerked her eyes up before the survey went any lower, glancing away. “So do you.”
Asa bit back a grin. He was dressed up for him, which meant a real collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just under his elbows. He was trying to figure out what to say next when Kiki came up, frowning down at her phone.
“Marj isn’t coming,” she said. “Of fucking course. After I made so much pointless small talk with every Stetson grad in a clearance suit at her party. She barely acknowledged me.”
Kiki glanced up, seeming to notice her boss for the first time. “Oh, hello,” she said, waving her phone. “Sorry about that. Girlfriend troubles.”
“Are there any other kind,” Daniel said. Asa supposed it was the guy’s way of trying to show some sympathy, but the comment rankled nonetheless. Of course there were an infinite number of problems, including the inherent misogyny in Daniel’s own statement.
Or maybe what really rankled was the way Daniel had stepped closer to Lauren when he said that, putting his arm casually around her shoulders. As if she were his girlfriend. As if she were trouble.
“Uh,” Kiki said, voicing his thoughts aloud, “a ton of other kinds, actually.” She turned to Asa, deliberately cutting Daniel out of the conversation. “You want to go grab a drink at the bar? I could use one.”
“Sure,” Asa said, raising his eyebrow at Lauren. “Want to join?”
Next to them, Dolores and Daniel had started speaking in rapid Spanish, the conversation appearing to escalate quickly. Daniel had dropped his arm from around Lauren’s shoulders, or she’d sidestepped him again, but she was watching the exchange with a line between her brows.