Happy Tuesday! Today’s #TeaserTuesday is an excerpt from my December 2019 short story, Evan Versus the Sharlotka, available initially as part of the Dreamspinner Press 2019 Advent Anthology, and individual purchase December 1st.
Are you ready for this year’s Holiday Romance?
Evan Versus the Sharlotka by Chrissy Munder
Rumpled tech support Evan Carmichael has a crush on pristine programming supervisor Gavriil Cottan. The whole company knows it. Except Gavriil. As a closet romantic, Evan dreams of declaring his feelings with a grand gesture, something out of the movies he loves.
The company holiday potluck luncheon gives Evan a perfect opportunity. He finds out Gavriil’s favorite dessert and is determined to make an apple sharlotka just like Gavriil’s mother used to make. The only problem is, Evan is a disaster in the kitchen. Can he master the mystery of the sharlotka and the intricacies of the springform pan in time to both woo and wow Gavriil?
Treat yourself for the holidays! Special November pre-order pricing available for the entire Advent Anthology.
Evan Versus the Sharlotka by Chrissy Munder – Excerpt:
“You’re on desserts, Carmichael.”
Evan Carmichael blinked up from his screen and over the top of his office cubicle. There, in all her professional glory, stood Melinda Owens, the CEO’s personal assistant, Human Resources go-to, and current head of the events committee.
Based on his ability to view her from the neck up, she was wearing what she called her “power heels,” a gleaming pair of black stilettos that added a good four inches to her height and allowed her to stare down at him. At only 10:00 a.m. on a Monday morning. This couldn’t be good.
“What?” he asked, mentally running down his last week in search of a reason for her attention. Nothing stood out other than the usual tech support calls, and he had fixed the copy machine in the mailroom so they didn’t have to call for service, but nothing else came to mind.
He pushed the pads of his headphones off his ears, wincing when they caught in his mess of dark tangles, and totally regretting how he let Jason, his cube neighbor, talk him into taping the light-up reindeer antlers to his headset.
“Desserts,” she barked, smoothing a nonexistent strand back into her own elegant twist. “For the holiday potluck this Friday.” She plucked a piece of paper from her clipboard and dropped it onto his desk, where it miraculously landed faceup. “Didn’t you read the email?”
Evan scritched his fingers through his beard, buying time before he glanced at the office memorandum, bordered with miniature snowflakes to signify a wintery theme rather than anything that might indicate an insensitive leaning toward one religious denomination or another.
Yeah, he’d seen the memo and then wiped both it and the luncheon from his mental database. He wasn’t a Scrooge, but nobody liked the forced work get-togethers, and there were only so many variations of deli pasta salad he was willing to try.
He scrunched down in his chair as if that could hide him from her take-no-prisoners glare, which now fixed on his headset as if noticing the furry brown antlers for the first time. Great.
“I’m not—I mean, I don’t….” Evan blew out a gust of air, his stomach churning as he met Melinda’s narrowed gaze. How hard was it to tell her he hadn’t planned on going? All he had to do was open his mouth.
He picked up a pencil to give his hands something to do, then immediately dropped it on the floor, covering it with his foot when he saw the decorative Santa eraser. Hopefully she hadn’t noticed. No way could he sit through another one of her sensitivity trainings.
“I wasn’t planning on going. Someone needs to man the support desk. Clients to help, computers to save.” Evan offered a fake chuckle, inwardly wishing for a merciful and quick death at his painfully awkward joke.
Melinda tapped a lacquered nail on the partition, each strike a hypnotizing accent to her words. “Are you really telling me you aren’t going to join in the office event of the month? One specifically set up by my boss, the CEO of this company, to boost employee morale and will absolutely factor in this year’s bonuses? One that the attendance, or lack thereof, will reflect directly on me?”
Well, when she put it like that, what was he supposed to do? Evan gave his refusal a final, futile try. “It would be safer for everyone. I’m a terrible cook.”
“Look at you!” she scoffed. “You can’t tell me you don’t know how to buy a box or five of donuts. Don’t wuss out on me, Carmichael. And lose those antlers. The last thing I need is someone filing a complaint.”
Evan ducked his head, the headband flashing red, white, and green lights with the movement reflected on his computer screen as Melinda strode off to her next victim. She didn’t have to go there. He knew what he looked like.
There was a reason he chose Chewbacca from Star Wars as his usual Halloween costume. Evan got it. At his height and weight, he was a big guy. Hulking, even. Clothes that fit were hard to find without paying extra for tailoring, and his mother had constantly bemoaned his ability to defeat her most determined efforts at the ironing board.
But she also instilled in him the faith he’d meet someone who would not only appreciate all the potential for extreme cuddling he offered on the outside, but then see past his large frame to his even bigger heart. Her cheerful support empowered him to ignore the Melindas of the world.
“Harsh, man.” Jason’s opinion wafted over their shared partition. “You should file a complaint with HR. Didn’t they make us watch a video last month on body-shaming?”
Evan pinched the bridge of his nose. “She is HR, Jason.” He tilted his head to one side, then the other, his neck cracking as he rested his hands on his headset, ready to slide it back in place. “What are you on the hook for?”
“A vegetable side dish,” Jason complained. “I don’t even know.”
The blatant despair in Jason’s voice helped Evan feel a little better. “Good luck.”
“Yeah” came the glum reply. “You too.”
Evan Versus the Sharlotka by Chrissy Munder – Available for Package Pre-Order from Dreamspinner Press.
