Author's note:

So since it's a book about Christmas and the Holidays, and these special times are all about sharing with the people close to your heart (plus, today it's Thanksgiving in the US), I wanna say a big thank you to all my readers, my friends, my little rays of sunshine. ❤🌞😘

This story is kinda a way to thank you all, and that's why this one isn't rated mature, so all my little readers can read it (contrary to some of my steamier story 😈, I promise to keep my dirty mind in check because I wanna be on Santa's nice list 😇, though I still promise there's gonna be hot guys 🔥😏). I hope that with this story, I will bring you a little happiness, coziness, and love like you do every day with your love and support. ❤

Also, I will dedicate each chapter to one of my little rays of sunshine because this book is really for you all and I wanna shine light on you, but I wanna tell you that even if I can't mention all of you (sideways glance especially to my silent readers 😉), this whole book is dedicated to all of you ❤, my little rays of sunshine. Finally, there will also be hints and references inspired by you (you may remember that I've asked you some questions here and there...).

Now, I'll stop talking, and let you enjoy the story! Happy Holidays, my little rays of sunshine! 😘🎄

"I would have missed the journey of my life if we hadn't made this pact, I wouldn't have spent the best holidays ever, I wouldn't have got to know you and all your little annoying habits..." A smile stretches the angular face of the tall brown-haired man, and it is glowing until his clear eyes, outshining all the lights around, although all the red, green and golden lights around are dazzling. It is as bright as in broad daylight, even with the starry sky above. Yet the ornamented Christmas trees, tinsel, and miniatures of Santa and his reindeers are only highlighting the depth of the man's gaze.

"And I wouldn't have fallen madly in love with you, Holly Martins." The foggy clouds leaving his lips unevenly are giving away his breathless state, but he continues with his confession without even waiting for a reply, "Yes, it was just pretend in the beginning, but it became so much more... The kiss, the walk, the dance, the dinner... everything, yes it was planned and fake, but what I felt wasn't. It was real. It still is... I love you. I know–"

"I love you too, Nick." This time the beautiful Santa's elf with a blond bob cuts him off.

Nick doesn't seem to care about the ridiculous costume of the woman, and they both stare at each other for a moment that means more than any word. Snowflakes interrupt their blissful smiles and shining gazes for a second before they come back to each other, this time leaning closer.

"Oh no! Not a Christmas romance again?!" A bored voice interrupts the magical moment.

I turn to my best friend Amy, her wide brown eyes flicking between me and my computer screen.

I don't even bother answering her. We've already had this discussion a thousand times, and all my arguments have been useless for her cold heart. Besides, I have more important things to do, already focusing my attention back on the screen in front of me. 

But I let out a heartbreaking whimper when I only see a freeze-frame of the beautiful couple kissing behind a roll of minuscule names flashing up on the screen.

"Because of you, I just missed the best part!"

Amy just rolls her eyes, not minding my distress as she leans on the side of my white plastic desk and sips peacefully her cup of coffee. "They kiss and they live happily ever after." She shrugs. "It's always the same."

"Yeah, and that's the best part!" I turn back to my keyboard, checking the time to see if I can rewind before the end of the lunch break.

"Oh my god! You're incorrigible!" My best friend instantly spots my sneaky attempt. "Please tell me you're not gonna watch it again!" She looks at me like I'm a desperate case, but I'm just a hopeless romantic.

"No, of course not. I'm a serious employee." I straighten up on my wobbly office chair, glancing around the wide white room with a dozen desks exactly like mine scattered everywhere around a large aisle leading to bigger offices and meeting rooms behind dark gray doors.

Though my desk is unique and the most beautifully decorated. With my mini Christmas tree in a red flowerpot dotted with little white hearts that I've found at a charity Christmas market, the little sled of which I've replaced the reindeer with a traditional Yule goat, the little copper Hanukkah candelabrum, the pleated Christmas hearts hung around the upper part of my desk, and let's not forget the several starry lights illuminating everything with a magical Christmas lighting, I've managed to bring the Christmas spirit from all around the world at my work. After all, it's my specialty: the decorations, and especially the mix of various cultures. My desk and my work are just like me, a result of these mixes, though I'm not as beautiful, and certainly not luminescent.

My white skin, raven straight hair, and almond-shaped blue eyes are making me look like an unusual mix of Snow-White and Mulan with the freckles of Merida, and actually, that's kinda what I am, since my mom is half Scottish, half Mexican, and my dad is a mix of Korean, Danish, and Chinese.

I focus back on my friend's lifted eyebrow. "I only wanted to rewind the end..." But seeing the numbers 1.57 p.m. on the corner of the screen, and with my best friend standing there and the slow streaming, it is impossible. "I guess I'll re-watch it tonight." I shrug, but I immediately regret my words upon Amy's excessive gasp.

"On a Friday night?!"

I glance from left to right. "Yes, we're one week away from Christmas. There's no better time for it!" Though from the look in her eyes, I know where we are going.

"You could also live your life and get real kisses instead of waiting for the 'best part' in your romantic movies."

I'm about to reply with my usual arguments when there is another interruption.

"Talking about Penelope's non-existent love life?" Kyle, the intern, sits on the other side of my desk, leaving me encircled.

"How was your date?" I ask, not so subtly changing the subject of my love life, but this is the best way to avoid the firing squad.

"Meh... He was hot but no personality." He grimaces, and I hand him a chocolate from my Christmas box in my secret drawer that immediately changes his frown into a big grin.

"You always say that. Maybe you should change your criteria," I suggest.

Kyle is an intern at the newspaper here, and I've seen him go from one date to the other almost every week for the five months he's been working there. He is tall and strong, with platinum blond hair and blue eyes, always perfectly stylish, in short, the perfect Nordic gay fantasy. Though he has above all a lot of personality, style, and a caustic wit that has earned him to enter easily the exclusive club we're forming with Amy and me. But apparently, it seems as hard for gay pals as it is for us straight girls to find a proper man with looks and brain.

"Though I swear I check brain before dic–"

"I was talking about ditching those dating apps!" I stop him before he can give us too many unnecessary details about his criteria. "If everyone keeps using them, I swear one day, they'll control our lives! But love can be found where and when we don't expect it." I look back at my computer screen where the picture of the romantic couple is still displaying.

"Look who is giving advice!" Amy lifts one eyebrow. "Don't change the subject! We were talking about you and your lack of social life. You should follow Kyle's example. At least, he's going out and giving a chance to the guys!"

"And it doesn't seem to work – sorry, Kyle." I turn to him to offer him a mix between a wince and a smile before coming back to Amy with a serious expression. "I prefer waiting for the right one. I know that love always finds its way."

"We're not in some romantic movie!" she groans. "Things like that don't happen in real life." She points to the screen where flying bubbles are now appearing above the lovely couple, as my computer seems to be as impatient to rest as I am.

"Look who is talking..." I mock her. "Isn't that the girl who has run into her high school sweetheart at a Christmas party after years of not seeing him, and who is now head over heels for almost four years?" I ask, with a knowing smile.

Amy rolls her eyes, but she can't hide the smile tugging on her orangey lips – you know, the kind of foolish smile that people in love always wear, the same as the two people on my computer screen.

"And let's not forget fiancé!" Kyle pipes up, and I nod, glad that he's taking my side for once.

Christopher has indeed proposed to Amy a few months ago, putting one more perfect picture in their Christmas-movie-like love story. I mean, the first love she has left behind to fulfill her big college dreams and that she sees again years later with the same spark instantly lighting up until they turn it into a warm fire at their own home with wedding rings and snow, I can't count how many movies like this I've watched and re-watched.

"Stop this! Chris and I are together because we were both going out and we've given each other a chance. We could have met any other way. What makes it work are our similarities and how we complete each other, and it hasn't been easy every day with snow, music, and only 'best parts'," she adds, her eyes growing bigger like every time she tries to lecture someone, and she will definitely be a great mom one day.

"I've never said the contrary." I keep my big grin. "But... still, love has found its way. You've found your right one, and mine will find me too."

As if to prove my point, a door opens just at this moment, and my grin widens, or maybe it disappears in a big O – I'm too distracted to really pay attention to the whereabouts of my mouth. I'm staring at the tall tenebrous Adonis walking out of this door, and it's like nothing else around exists but him, his navy suit fitting perfectly his lean form and his determined gait in my direction. 

"Hi, Aden," I say just as he passes near my desk, my voice sounding more breathless than I've expected because of that specific uneven pace of my heart recognizing the right one.

"Oh, hi, sorry, I didn't see you." Aden turns to us, his distracted gaze sliding on each one of us and offering us a perfect glimpse of its cinnamon shades.

Yes, his eyes are the exact same color as cinnamon: a warm brown with amber reflections wrapping around your heart like a cozy cinnamon latte on a cold winter night, and I'm sure his lips taste the same... I can't know, but his tenebrous and warm presence has let me conclude this in all my fantasies – this, and the fact that he always has cinnamon gums.

"I was lost in my thought." I'm brought out of my own thoughts by his smooth tenor voice.

"A problem?" Amy asks, more reactive than I am with my dazed brain around Aden.

"Um, no... yes, not really..." Aden's eyebrows furrow making the cinnamon in his eyes take a slightly roasted shade. "Alfred just told me I've been chosen to do the Christmas section this year."

"The Christmas section?! That's amazing!" I exclaim, my brain reconnecting with these words. "I've always dreamed to write it!"

The Christmas section is like a tradition in the newspaper. Every year, a journalist from any section is chosen to write every day for the five days before Christmas a part related to the holidays of course, and on the 25th, it even gets the front page.

"Yeah, I'm honored..." Aden lightly smiles, yet it quickly turns into a wince.

"But?" Kyle asks impatiently.

"But I don't know anything about the holidays. In my family, we don't celebrate Christmas, Hannuka, or anything. So I don't know how I'll write full articles about it every day."

"You don't even have holidays memories when you were little?" I suggest, trying to focus and not let my mind wander, imagining him as a cute young kid with chubby rosy cheeks and the same cinnamon eyes.

"Not really... It's always been an ordinary day for us. My parents were working a lot, so most of the day, it was just my sister, I, and some way too old babysitter who slept more than they watched over us. We would just get some gifts, but that's all." He shrugs, and my heart cracks as the images of the little kid without a lovely, and of course, often annoying, family around appear in my mind.

"No Christmas tree? No cookies for Santa?" I ask with a little voice, though Aden doesn't seem bothered by the lack of all of this.

"No, we never believed in Santa."

"Man, you're in some deep shit because the boss seems to really like the holidays. I mean have you seen his Santa tie?" Kyle shivers at the memory of the red and green fabric, and even I, who love Christmas, I gotta admit this is too much.

"I guess I'll have a lot of Google researches to do! And do you know if there is a Christmas for the Dummies?" Aden lifts his eyebrows playfully, though it's clear he's only half-kidding.

"I think I have something even better..." Amy smirks deviously, turning to me. "Penelope, right here! She's a pro at decoration and everything holiday-related!"

My smile widens instantly, though I hope not as devilishly as Amy's, while Aden's warm gaze follows her hand pointing at me and my unique desk. My heart picks up its pace as I watch him and each little item that could make him realize I'm perfect for this – for helping him, I mean.

Although my heart stops when he leans closer to admire them, and I realize that another Christmas detail is still displaying on my computer screen, so I immediately move in front of it, Kyle's chuckle letting me know my sneaky attempt hasn't gone unnoticed by my dear friends.

"Oh, yes, Penelope is definitely perfect for this!" Kyle grins, throwing a sideways glance to my computer that luckily, Aden doesn't notice. Sometimes he can be so oblivious, but for once, it doesn't bother me. "She'll write you the best article ever!"

"Oh, no, that wouldn't be writing. I wouldn't use her like that, that would be unethical. But I'd love to get some lessons on Christmas!" Aden smiles, his brown eyes attentively focusing on me to wait for my approval.

Have I mentioned that he is not only perfect physically? He's serious, honest, kind, hard-working, intelligent, and I could go on forever.

"Of course, I'll gladly be your teacher."

"Really?! Thank you! You save me." Aden has a way to look at you and make you feel so special, and right now, his thankful gaze is directed toward me, rushing the heat to my cheeks.

"Oh, it's nothing..."

"Maybe for you, but for me, it's everything."

Okay, now I'm burning, or more exactly melting in a cinnamon latte.

"When can you help me? I'm free pretty much all week since the office is closing for the holidays and we have less work."

"Uh... I'm going back home to my family on Sunday. But we can meet tonight? I have nothing to do..." I glance at my computer screen.

Maybe Amy is right. I can get a 'best part' in real life... I don't need to look to guess her victorious proud grin, but it surely falls off as quickly as mine when Aden winces.

"Um, not tonight, I have a full-on article to finish for tomorrow about the stock exchange and all the forecasts."

"Tomorrow morning? We're working anyway, so we can manage something during the break, and if we haven't finished we can meet at lunch?" I suggest, not losing my smile and my hope so easily.

"Yes, perfect! Thank you again." He pulls out his phone to type, certainly adding it to his schedule. 

What can I say? He's organized. That's another one of his qualities, and of our things in common. Although I know I don't need to write this meeting because I won't forget.

"Now, I better get going because I've got lots of work," Aden adds, letting out a sigh, and when I think of all the economics stuff he has to analyze, I don't know how he can do it. But it's his specialty, like mine is decoration and lifestyle.

"Wait! Here's your first Christmas tradition lesson." I stop him before he can walk away, pulling out my Christmas box of chocolate again.

"Ooh, I think I'm gonna like these lessons!" He smirks before leaning closer to choose a chocolate from my box.

"White chocolate praline, my favorite," I whisper as he picks the little white square sprinkled with slivered nuts.

"With the hazelnut inside, they're the best." His eyes sparkle, and there, as our gazes meet, I feel this special magic, the same as the couple on the screen, forgetting everything outside and getting lost with the leap of my heart.

Sadly, it also gets interrupted before the thought of any 'best part' can occur as Aden moves away and puts the sweet between his appetizing lips.

"Mhm, delicious! Thank you for the chocolate, but mostly for the help. You're a great friend." He offers me a smile before walking away in the silence of my heart dropping.

"I almost believed it!" Amy puts an arm around my shoulders, comforting me as I just stare at the empty aisle.

There is no way he hasn't felt it! I mean, this special tingling in the air when our gazes have crossed so close. My heart is still trying to come back to its normal rate. How can he be so oblivious?

"He will never see me as something else than a 'great friend'." I slouch down on my chair, putting away my Christmas box, as even the sweetness of chocolate can't sweeten the sourness inside my chest.

"Hey, Penny! There's plenty of fishes in the ocean. So tonight, we're going out and you're gonna go do some fishing!" Amy exclaims, putting a chocolate in her mouth while keeping her excited grin.

Why do people who are in relationships always need to try and make their single friends settle down? Do they miss the joy and twists of 'fishing' and drowning?

"I don't want any other fish! I want my Nemo!" I whine, throwing another glance at my computer screen and already planning my night with lots of chocolates.

"Your Nemo is a desperate case!" Amy shakes her head. "I think you've pretty much tried everything. Now you can find much better fishes."

"I don't know... maybe there's something I've done wrong... or something about me?"

"Apart from jumping on him or kidnapping him, there's not much more you can do." Kyle shrugs, making those suggestions sound a little too conceivable. "On this, I gotta agree with Amy: your Nemo is a desperate case. I mean, if I was straight and I had a hella hot chick like you all over me, I wouldn't be studying stock market graphics in my office!"

I don't know how to take this, but I think it's kinda a compliment coming from Kyle.

"I swear I've even wondered if he wasn't gay, but he seems even more indifferent to my charms than yours!" Kyle adds with a disapproving pinch of his lips.

"He's just built a strong armor because of a past break-up," I defend, as it adds to one of our many similarities.

"Yeah, we know, we hear this story since he's started working here, but it's been years! So that just confirms what I've just said: he's a desperate case." Amy lifts an eyebrow, unimpressed like for all my other arguments.

"He just needs someone to reach through his armor and show him how to love again." I find back some determination through my own words. I'm not one to give up that easily after all!

"Oh, come on! We're not in some Christmas romance!" Amy groans.

"No, but I wish..." I turn back to my screen where the couple is still frozen in a romantic kiss.

In these movies, people are blind to love too, but it just takes a Christmas holiday to open their eyes and their hearts...

I freeze on that thought – no, actually, my mind lights up like a Christmas tree you switch on the 24th.

"Maybe I can get my Christmas romance too..." A smile stretches my lips slowly as I turn back to my friends.

"Ooh, I like that smile!" Kyle comments, a grin also forming on his lips.

"Oh, no, it's always bad news," Amy whispers to him, but I ignore them both.

I will get my Nemo, and I will taste those cinnamon lips.

Sooo... What do you think of Penelope? And Aden? 😉 And also Amy and Kyle? They're so funny, aren't they?

Do you have an idea about what she's planning? I think you do! lol But do you think she'll get her Nemo? 😏

Tell me what you think of this first chapter! And don't forget to vote if you liked it ⭐!

Also, don't forget to add the story to your reading lists/library to get notifs when I update the new chapters because I'm gonna update this story more often than my others... We're following Penelope's Christmas romance until Christmas, after all! 😉🎄

PS: Did you catch the hint at my other story LOVE BUG that I've put in this chapter? 😉