Aimee Duffy - The Office Christmas Party - A fun, feel good Christmas cracker of a romance!

‘Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude,’ the redhead said wrinkling her nose, ‘but did you know you smell a bit beefy?’

A laugh erupted from the bastard still standing at the door to the men’s room, quickly dousing any fantasies Natalie had of having switched places with the redhead. She glared first at the redhead, then him and stalked out of Mode with her chin up. Her exit only seemed to make him laugh louder and her face burned so hot she must be puce by now. Her only saving grace was that she’d never have to set eyes on either of them again.

As Natalie hailed a taxi, she vowed her next solo party crash would not be an embarrassing shambles. There was no way tonight could possibly get any worse, at least.

At home, she spread her plunder on the coffee table and was about halfway through when the front door opened. Rose’s cheeks were tear stained, like she’d been crying. Natalie stood and whirled on Tom, about to give him hell for hurting her friend when Rose stuck her left hand, palm down, in front of Natalie’s face.

The diamond set in a bed of sapphires on her friend’s ring finger was Natalie’s worst nightmare come to life.

‘Nat, I’m engaged! Tom and I are getting married!’ Rose said with tears of joy streaming down her face.

Well, that would teach her for stupidly thinking the night couldn’t get any worse.

A cold sweat broke out over her skin and what little she’d eaten of her plunder made a bid for freedom. ‘I’m going to be sick,’ she announced, then clapped her hand over her mouth bolted for the bathroom.

After, she lay with her head on the cold tiles of the floor, gripped with terror that she would soon be alone, really alone for the first time in years.

Two nights later, Dean Fletcher had just finished up for the weekend when his younger brother came into his office, closing the door behind him.

Well, he’d hoped he’d finished up, but Jeffrey had a panicked, jittery look that meant either a deal had gone bad or one of their systems had failed. ‘Spit it out, Jeff. I’m running late as it is.’

But his brother didn’t speak, he just paced back and forth in front of Dean’s desk.

‘What’s happened?’ he asked, pulling his laptop open and switching it on with a sigh.

‘It’s not work. Christ, I don’t know how to say this.’ Jeffrey stared at Dean with undisguised pity and his stomach took a nose dive.

There was only one other time his brother had looked at him this way – the day Dean had been jilted at his own wedding. But that was ten years ago, he was only a teenager and was so not about to rehash a past he’d long since buried. If Jeffrey wanted to bring up his personal life, Dean wasn’t having any of it – his dates were his business.

Not that he actually dated, it was more a string of flings throughout the year. Nothing serious, just a bit of fun here and there and the women were into it, so why not? It hadn’t been a problem until his brother had met Alana a few years ago, then he’d lost his wingman and gained a giant pain in the arse.

‘That’s not what I was going to say either! I was going to work up to this better but since you’re apparently incapable of patience, here goes. I’m going to ask Alana to marry me.’

Dean’s chin dropped, he couldn’t help it. His brother had seen first-hand how badly a wedding could turn out. In fact, after he was dumped on his special day, his family had blamed him. Jeffrey was the only relative who still spoke to him without contempt.

Jeffrey sighed. ‘Shit, Dean. Nobody died.’

‘Not yet,’ Dean said, then ran his hands through his hair. ‘What brought this on? I mean, after what happened to me, I thought you’d have learned the same lesson I did.’

That women were never what they seemed. They told you they loved you one minute, then ran away at the thought of spending the rest of their lives with you. Of course, now he could see that he’d dodged a bullet, but it had taken him a long time to realize that. And Jeffrey wasn’t made of the same steel he was. His brother had chased Alana around the city for months like a puppy before she’d agreed to date him.

Jeffrey rolled his eyes. ‘Love. You might want to hang around long enough to try it some time. You know, Alana’s friend is single and—’

‘I’m not interested. Now back to this proposal, are you insane? Did Mum drop you on your head as a baby? Have you forgotten everything that happened?’ He hated dragging up the past, but a reminder of his own ridicule might knock some sense into his brother.

‘Alana isn’t her . If she doesn’t want to marry me, she’ll say no.’ Jeffrey started pacing again and the wild look was back in his eyes. ‘ Shit , what if she says no?’

If Dean had ever worried that he was missing out on something by refusing to commit to a relationship, he didn’t now. Over the two years Jeffrey had been dating Alana, his balls had shrunk to pips and now it finally looked like they’d disintegrated.

‘Then why bother asking?’

The look Jeffrey threw his way made him feel like an arse, but he wasn’t about to apologise. Not when his brother was being an idiot.

‘I knew you’d be a knob about this. I don’t know why I bothered coming to you first.’

‘Because you knew I’d tell you what a complete tool you’re being and talk some sense into you,’ Dean said, getting tired of this fight already.

‘Fuck you, Dean. Seriously.’ Jeffrey headed for the door and threw it open. He didn’t walk through it, not until he said, ‘While you’re out tonight with a woman you’ll have forgotten the name of next week, I’ll be home with someone I love and want to spend the rest of my life with. Whether you’re terrified of having that again or just going for the world record title of sluttiest man alive, one day you’re going to realize life’s passed you by in a blur of anonymous sex. I don’t want that for you.’

Jeffrey slammed the door, so he could have the last word, as usual. Dean clenched his teeth. What the hell did his brother know anyway? One serious girlfriend and he was now a relationship guru?

Yeah, right.

Dean closed his laptop, grabbed his keys and headed for the door. He was perfectly happy passing through life on his own terms – it had nothing to do with fear – and tonight he was going to do exactly that.

***

The party tonight had a guest list but he wasn’t worried, instead he strolled right up to the bouncer manning the door to the hottest bar in Soho and used the name he’d planted there earlier.

Having their own IT company who supplied the booking software to most of London’s hotels, restaurants and bars did more than just make them money. Jeffrey had come up with the idea of using it to get into all these swanky events a few years ago when they were just getting off the ground and what had turned into a few cheap nights out ended as a great way to score those anonymous flings his brother had recently started to frown upon.

But he really wasn’t in the mood for thinking about his brother at all, so he headed straight for the bar to take advantage of the flowing champagne. When he wound his way through the tightly packed crowd he changed his mind and ordered a scotch. Bubbly just wasn’t going to cut it tonight.

He’d missed the wine and dine portion of the evening thanks to Jeffrey and his stupid arsed ideas. On the plus side, every woman there was already half-inebriated. As he downed the scotch in one go, he welcomed the burn before taking an interested glance round the crowd.

Most of the women looked like they were from the cast of TOWIE, with boobs spilling over low necklines, unnaturally long lashes and wearing more make-up than you’d find at the Mac counter at Selfridges.