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“Oh. Phew,” Tracy panted. “What the heck, guys. You can’t scare me like this.”

“Do you mind if I…?” Jayce conferred with Maye.

“Yes, please, go ahead,” she said.

“We are in a bit of a bind,” Jayce explained. “This show we’ve been working on looks like it’s getting a short run this holiday season, but we need to record some episodes really fast.”

“Really?” Tracy turned to Maye. “That’s so exciting!”

“I know,” Maye said. “And guess what? It’s going to premiere at the big Christmas convention in December!”

“We’re going to Christmas Con??” Tracy sat up in her chair.

Maye nodded excitedly.

“We’re going to Christmas Con! Woo!” Tracy shouted.

“Can we stay on track, please?” Jayce interrupted. “We are on an extremely tight deadline. So we need a venue that can accommodate our recording and that is already, or can be quickly decorated for the holidays. Know of anything like that?”

“Tracy, are you okay?” Maye noticed her eyes welling up.

“It’s just…” Tracy sniffled. “Hearing all this Christmas talk before it’s even Halloween…it just speaks right to my soul, you know?”

“A place, Tracy?” Jayce repeated.

“Right…right…” She took a deep breath. “What kind of place? Will it be a live show or just a small, quiet studio-type place?”

“I think a studio would be better so we can control the environment,” Jayce said.

“I think we should do it in front of an audience because the energy will add a unique dynamic,” Chris said.

All eyes turned to Maye.

“Here’s your chance to try on the producer’s hat, Maye,” Jayce said.

Part of her wanted to stick it to Jayce for not letting her actually be a producer—not that it meant that much to her, but it was the principle of the thing—and part of her wanted to give Chris the win, but mostly she just thought Chris was right. “I vote for the live show.”

Tay approached with a plate of spiced gingerbread donut holes. “When are you planning this for? Because I am putting together a weekend of holiday movie screenings at the community theater in November,” Tay said.

“That’s too far away, Jayce said. “We need to record as soon as possible.”

“You know,” Tracy said, popping a donut hole into her mouth. “The first TV Christmas movie airs next week. And it just happens to star yours truly…”

“Already??” Maye whined.

Tracy, Jayce, and Chris looked at her.

“Know your audience, Maye,” Tracy said. “Anyway, it’s the movie we were in, Maye! What if we were able to get the theater for the new movie premiere and Maye and Chris could do an episode about it? We could show some other movies leading up to the premiere, and you could do episodes about those, too?”

“Like a season kickoff marathon?” Chris suggested.

All eyes turned to Maye again as if they were waiting for her to say something critical.

“What? I’m not gonna say anything,” she said, downing a donut.

“Okay,” Jayce said. “We have a loose plan. We need to program the screenings, secure audio and video tech, get a promotion plan together…what else?”

“See if the theater is available?” Tay added.