Something to Celebrate

By Evelyn Benvie

Niko doesn't hate the holidays; that would require too much commitment. He just doesn't care about them anymore. He's a demi, disillusioned mess and he doesn't care about much at all. That is, until an enticing stranger blows into his life this Christmas and catches his attention—and his heart.

Fan is lost and lonely, a winter spirit adrift in a human world that has all but forgotten them. And then they meet Niko, a young man with the ability to see them, and they remember what it means to stay somewhere. To want someone.

Chance brings them together. But is chance enough to build a relationship on?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mischief Corner Books
• Release date: Dec 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386424215

Book preview

Something to Celebrate

Something to Celebrate

Escape from the Holidays

Evelyn Benvie

Edited by

Jude Dunn

Illustrated by

Catherine Dair

Mischief Corner Books, LLC

Copyright

This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this book ONLY. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the authors. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

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Cover Artist: Catherine Dair

Editor: Jude Dunn

First Edition

Something to Celebrate © 2018 Evelyn Benvie

All Rights Reserved.

Published in the United States of America.

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: Something to Celebrate is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are fictionalized. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The story contains explicit sexual content and is intended for adult readers.

Any person depicted in the Licensed Art Material is a model and is being used solely for illustrative purposes.

PUBLISHER

Mischief Corner Books, LLC

Dedication

To Boston and friendship, whenever and however it grows

Contents

Midwinter

December 21

Midwinter

December 22

Midwinter

December 23

Midwinter

December 25

Midwinter

Dear Reader

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About Evelyn Benvie

Also by Evelyn Benvie

About Mischief Corner Books

Midwinter

They were the north winds that blew down off the eastern mountains and shook the snow-laden boughs—or they had been, once.

Now they were just another part of the storm, blowing off the sea and turning the city white.

City.

They remembered cities.

The wind tossed them through the streets. They traced the hollow alleys and touched the gentle hills, got caught in tunnels and piled in drifts in the back of stairways. Snow followed them, or they followed snow.

They snagged on a building, jagged and metal, and were pulled from the storm. An iron grille wrapped around a window, spilling light and sound and people, and they lingered where it had caught them.

They remembered people.

The storm moved on, and they did not.

December 21

It was four days to Christmas, not that Niko cared. He always made a point to keep track, especially as it drew closer. If he was going to neglect his heritage, he could at least do it with purpose.

A particularly enthusiastic rendition of Jingle Bells began blasting from the store’s intercom speakers, and Niko winced. He might not care much about the holidays, but it seemed the rest of Boston cared for little else right now. He let his head fall onto the old-fashioned till and sighed. Only a few more minutes to closing, and then he could go home and listen to his neighbors blasting Christmas music instead.

Oh, the joys of the season.

Niko heard the front doors open over the blare of the chorus and looked up. Though nearing eleven o’clock at night, it wasn’t unusual for Fresh! to still get customers. Niko would never understand how so many people could need kale chips and kombucha this late at night.

The man—woman?—person who had just walked in dressed like their standard sort of patron, the high-end eccentric, but there was something off about them. Something a bit washed-out, off-color, like a photograph with far too many filters applied. Vaguely Asian, with dark hair up in a bun, they wore skinny jeans, fashionable black boots, a V-neck sweater with a lace shirt underneath, and… nothing else. No coat, no hat, no gloves. Niko glanced out the window, where a growing coating of snow promised to make his walk home miserable, then back to the customer.

Well, some people would do anything for fashion.

The stylish icicle stood barely inside the door, squinting and peering around with a dazed expression. Niko had the odd notion that they’d never seen the inside of a shop before, the way they were acting, but he dismissed it as soon as he thought it. How ludicrous.

Maybe they were a local college student, exhausted from exams. Or stoned. Or both. The store certainly attracted that sort, and they looked young enough for it. Niko frowned. Did they look that young? It might have been the way the harsh fluorescent lighting cast their face in shadows, but they seemed far too old for even Boston’s schools.

Niko shook his head. That didn’t make any sense. He’d worked a double shift today, and his mind was obviously beyond logic at this point.

Definitely not a regular, anyway. Niko straightened up from his slouch at the register and affixed a friendly, customer-service smile to his face.

Welcome to Fresh! He made sure to pronounce the exclamation mark the way the owners insisted. Let me know if you need any help, but be aware we’ll be closing soon.

They turned to face him, and Niko’s breath caught in his throat. Damn, but they were pretty. The classic kind of pretty, like you saw in old paintings, with perfect round lips, and high cheekbones, and frosty pale skin.

Why did he only ever meet cute guys, people, whatever, at work, where he was always too tired, too stressed, too awkward. Where he never had anything clever to say.

Because you’re a demi mess and never go anywhere else, a little voice in his head whispered in reply, but he refused to listen to it.

Oh, they replied in a heavily accented voice, after a slightly-too-long pause. I am sorry to hear that. This place has a lovely energy.

And then they smiled dreamily at him and floated away towards the back of the store. Niko stared after them. He didn’t think that was a normal response, but he did get told several times a week that he had a soothing aura or positive chi, so it was hard to say.

He folded himself over the counter and watched the strange customer flitting between the otherwise empty aisles and felt only a little bad about it. They really were beautiful, with the kind of sweetheart face and long-limbed body of a magazine model. He couldn’t begin to guess their gender, though he wondered if maybe that was the point. He’d known someone like that in college.

He hoped