Snow Job by Delphine Dryden

of tension along her shoulders that nearly always signaled the onset of a headache. Shifting her head subtly from side to side in an attempt to ease the strain, she smiled at Andrew in what she hoped was a winning way. “I mean, things may change after the Christmas holidays. Who knows? Maybe Karl wil have a change of heart. Mainly, I think we just need to stop worrying about it right now. Nothing is going to happen between now and January.”

    Andrew was pacing his office in the pattern he often fol owed—from the near corner of the desk to the corner of the room by the ficus tree, pause at the window to take in the view of the Victorian block across the street, reverse and walk between the chair and credenza to the bookcase, then back again to the near corner of the desk and repeat.
    Elyce realized that Andrew was talking again and tried to focus on his words, rather than on the way his pants revealed the trim lines of his hips and buttocks. Had he taken up bicycling, she wondered.
    “Don’t you think?”
    “Um, what? I’m sorry, I lost you. I’m a little worn out, I worked late yesterday and I haven’t had lunch yet.”
    “I said he may take advantage of the lul over the holidays to put some construction in motion, when he knows people are likely to be out of town and nothing’s going to court.”
    “Andrew, I get what you’re saying. But the Nashes al go out of town over Christmas too, you know. Karl wil be in Colorado from this Friday on through the New Year.” Elyce met Andrew’s suddenly curious gaze with a bland lack of expression on her face.
    At least she hoped it was a lack of expression, and not some tel tale look that gave away her plan to spend the same period of time in Colorado, sharing a room and presumably a bed with the subject of their current discussion. “Besides, have you ever tried to get construction people to do something over the holidays?
    That just isn’t happening. I mean, Karl may have money, but he isn’t made of it. And his family certainly didn’t get rich in that business by throwing away money on things like that.”
    Andrew shrugged, his even features handsome in the shaft of sun that streaked through the mul ioned sidelight to il uminate his face as he looked back out the window. Elyce noticed for the first time that his eyes were the same shade of brown as Astro’s. “I stil wouldn’t put it past him, but I suppose you would know.”
    “January wil be more than soon enough to revisit it.
    And besides, you need to start thinking about your own holiday planning and get your mind off work. How about your Christmas shopping, have you gotten any further?
    There’s only a week left.”
    “I know, I know,” he admitted, hands spread wide in a gesture of friendly defeat. “I’m almost done. Gift certificates count, right?”
    “Gift certificates are a last resort,” insisted Elyce, not for the first time. “Maybe that’s what we should do on Friday instead of dinner. Finish your Christmas shopping.”
    Andrew grinned. “I stil have to get a present for my mother. Do you real y want to spend the whole date talking about my mother? And what do you mean m y Christmas shopping? Don’t you stil have shopping left to do?” He was already relaxing, and Elyce relaxed too, sensing he had truly dropped the topic of Karl’s development for the time being.

    “Nope. I’m done. I finish it by Thanksgiving most years.
    It’s sort of a rule I have.”
    He shook his head in disbelief. “How do you know what to get? I can never figure out what to buy for people. I end up getting something stupid at the last minute or, wel , gift cards. I buy a lot of gift cards.”
    “Wel ,” she replied, considering, “there are different schools of thought. Buy something you’d like for yourself, is one way to go. Although that real y only works if you and the recipient have pretty similar tastes or it’s something with universal appeal. Buy the person something they wouldn’t buy