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At first, I’m not sure how to handle this. Neither of us wants to do it, especially not now. But the truth is, I don’t want to do this fake photo-op thing even after vacation. It doesn’t feel right.

“Joy, I know you came all the way out here for this,” I start.

She snorts. “Trust me, I didn’t want to. I was about to spend the week with my cousins and finish my Christmas shopping when the studio called and basically gave me no choice. They said you were on board.”

“No.” I shake my head hard. “They exaggerated. I only agreed to after the holidays, and only because they didn’t give me a choice either. Obviously, they didn’t listen.”

Beside me, Nina shifts her weight like this whole conversation is uncomfortable. The moment I see it, I understand why this doesn’t feel right to me anymore. I don’t want to do anything that hurts Nina, because what we have means something to me now.

“Look, I know refusing the PR team is going to have consequences for both of us,” I tell Joy. “But I can’t do this. I can’t pretend to date you off screen. This is my personal life they’re fucking with, and I’m saying no.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nina react. She tries to hide her small smile and fails. And that tiny smile makes me realize something else. I want more than the couple of weeks we have left. I’ve never been able to just be myself with a woman and have her like me anyway. I don’t want this to end when we all leave in the New Year. She’s the only woman I’ve ever felt like I could stop performing for and still possibly be loved.

Obviously, I’m not ready to tell her that. Who knows if she feels the same, or if she still plans to walk away from all of us when her contract is up. For now, I’ll keep it to myself.

“Honestly? Same,” Joy says. “If we say yes to this, they’ll just keep asking for more. I’m not letting them decide who I date.”

“You’re a good one, Joy.” I glance back at the PR team, who are all still watching us. “So how do we get out of here?”

If we just walk out on them, it’ll be a whole thing, and my publicist will be calling before we hit the parking lot.

“Maybe I can help?” Mack appears from around the corner. “Sorry, I overheard. If you want to slip out, I can distract them.”

I clap him on the shoulder. “You’re a good guy, Mack. I’ll buy you a drink at the gala.”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “Can’t. I’ll be working it.”

“Another time, then. We owe you one. Actually, we owe you more than one. We were kind of assholes when you took Nina out.”

“I’ll hold you to it.” Mack holds out his hand, and I shake it. “And hey, no hard feelings about the coffee shop. I’d have done the same thing if she were mine.”

He tosses Nina a smile, then walks over to the PR team and offers to show them a spot with better lighting. The second their backs are turned, Joy grabs her suitcase from the bell stand, and the three of us make a break for the exit.

We drop Joy at the small airport outside town. She’s already rebooked on the first flight home to her cousins, and she hugs me hard before she goes.

“Merry Christmas, Jarek. Good luck with the studio.”

“You, too.”

Back in the car, Nina turns to me. “What did Mack mean by that? ‘If she were mine’?” She giggles and rolls her eyes. “Very alpha male.”

She’s trying to act like she isn’t thrilled I said no to Joy. She’s a terrible liar.

I shrug. “No idea. But Mack’s a better guy than I thought.”

When we get back to the house, laughter spills out the second I open the front door. Nina heads back to her laptop to finish the work I pulled her away from, and I go see what’s so funny.

“Jarek, come look at this.” Zander can barely get the words out. “Look how bad these are.”

Pascal laughs so hard he almost snorts. I lean over Zander’s shoulder to see his phone. It’s a set of truly awful Christmas pajamas. Cartoon dogs with their mouths wide open like they’re singing, each one in either a wreath or a Santa hat. Across the whole thing, in big letters: “Happy HOWL-idays.”

“Who would actually wear that?” Pascal says, still laughing.

“I don’t know,” I say. “A whole family in matching howling-dog pajamas? That’s a Christmas card right there.”

For a second, we all just stare at the screen. It shouldn’t be nearly this funny.

“We should get them,” Pascal says, to both our surprise.