Miranda and Elliot both had school right up to the twenty-third, and between work, school, holiday baking, gift wrapping, and fielding text threads from Adrian in which he harassed her about bringing the cute neighbor, Miranda didn’t have a free moment to seek out said cute neighbor.

Every evening, when she got home from picking Elliot up at his robotics club meeting, the lights greeted her, but Justin’s house was dark. She’d never thought to ask what he did for work. 

Christmas Eve was spent ru...