Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #5)

by Alexis Daria

It’s Theo Winters. My upstairs neighbor. And the subject of all my late-night fantasies.

I wouldn’t mind at all if he bit me. Not in a vampire way. In a sex way.

I wanted to climb him like a beanstalk.

Yeah, I’ll just say it: his ass. I stared at his ass. And I couldn’t stop.

I was watching two guys maneuver my overstuffed cream couch up the narrow staircase while trying very hard not to yell Pivot! like Ross in Friends,

You see? ¡Te lo dije!

An ex-boyfriend once called me a “sexy chipmunk” and actually meant it as a compliment.

“Evie, if he doesn’t like you at your worst, he doesn’t deserve you at your best.”

It’s the moment when the girl in the teen rom-com abandons her glasses and ponytail and descends the stairs in all her prom-ready glory. It’s the moment when her high school crush finally sees her for the beautiful twenty-six-year-old actress that she is.

“Oh, no. Did he pass away?” I infuse my voice with an appropriate amount of horror and sympathy, but I mostly want to know whether he died in my apartment. “Nothing like that. He moved to Florida.” Mr. Barnes shudders. “A worse fate I cannot imagine.

“Anyway, I like cleaning. It gives my brain time to work out all the problems I’ve fed it over the course of the day. You know how sometimes you get an epiphany while you’re washing dishes or folding laundry?”

“Wow. That’s so creative. And it takes a ton of skill.” I grin. “That, and the willingness to sit hunched over my drawing tablet like a gargoyle for the majority of the day.”

I know why. It’s because it’s the kind of compliment that says he sees me, not just the image I’m projecting tonight. And it’s more than I bargained on.

Even though it’s warm in here, I want to wrap myself up in

him like a fuzzy blanket and sleep for a week.

“You mean because you’re built like the Abominable Snowman and I’m the size of the Sugar Plum Fairy?”

“Look, I’ve been told in the past that I need to use my words more. I’m still working on it, but believe me when I say you have no fucking idea how long I’ve wanted this.”

He wraps his arms around me in a tight hug and buries his face in my hair. “Thank fuck.”

“Merry Christmas, beautiful.”