It's Not Yule, It's Me
()
About this ebook
Which goes a long way toward explaining why he’s a whimpering mess when he meets Ben the barista one Christmas morning at his neighborhood coffee house. It doesn’t completely excuse his using Ben’s T-shirt as a handkerchief -- while Ben’s still in it -- but Ben’s nothing if not a good sport.
Ben’s such a bright spot that after a while Shannon wonders if maybe his Christmas Curse hasn’t been lifted. And what better place to test this theory than at Ben’s family festivities? It’s not like Christmas is actually cursed. Is it?
Michael P. Thomas
Michael P. Thomas is a former flight attendant whose mid-life career change to 911 operator has shown him that the widespread fear of sharing and receiving love is a real emergency. He writes to spread love and encourage others to do likewise. And a little bit to scare the gay-haters. For more information, visit facebook.com/GoReadMichaelPThomas.
Read more from Michael P. Thomas
It's Not Yule, It's Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDude Mama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChad vs. the Holiday Hoopla Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSin to Get Saved Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Brake for Christmas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSnowed In: Suhaib and Elijah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSanta's Secret Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Again? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSay Cheese Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIsle Be Home for Christmas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeat Wave: Colorado Springs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLong Haul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHot Shots Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sugar Shack Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gift of the Gay Guy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to It's Not Yule, It's Me
Related ebooks
Snowflake Kisses: K-pop Romance, #3 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Make My Dreams Come True Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMurder, Vice, and Pumpkin Spice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once Upon a Billionaire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinding Bryan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5New: Quick & Dirty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNot Just For Christmas: Appleford, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRebel Without a Claus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne is a Promise (His Angel Series - Book One): His Angel Series, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOf Autumn Leaves and New Beginnings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScarlet's Naughty Christmas: Bubble Bath Romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoving the Ladies' Man: A Sweet Romantic Comedy: California Dreamin' Sweet Romcom Series, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Not to Disappear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ultimate Pi Day Party: Baldwin Village, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Christmas Surprise - His Forever Series Prequel: HIS FOREVER Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGolden Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stocking Stuffer: A Bad Boy Christmas Romance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Again, Again Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Santa Emergency Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLosing a Piece of Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Couple’s Secret Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwelve Days of Christmas - His Side of the Story: Twelve Days, #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl in the Sunflower Dress Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Timeslip Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Olympus Awakening: Night's Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock My World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReturn to Snowy Creek Inn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Introduction: Undying Love, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThrowing Shade: A Romantic Holiday Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Breath: Every Life Series, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Contemporary Romance For You
Confess: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Icebreaker: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ugly Love: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hopeless Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before We Were Strangers: A Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Simple Wild: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Starts with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The True Love Experiment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Your Perfects: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe Someday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5November 9: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Cinderella: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slammed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Point of Retreat: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beautiful Disaster: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beautiful Bastard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Without Merit: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ruin Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spanish Love Deception: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scandalized Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Italian Summer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe Not: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something Borrowed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twice in a Blue Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Perfect: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Losing Hope: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for It's Not Yule, It's Me
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
It's Not Yule, It's Me - Michael P. Thomas
Epilogue
Chapter 1: Ben
December 25, 2007
No Elvis.
I’ve got no problem working Christmas morning at Bean City, but that’s my rule: no Elvis Christmas music. I’ll listen to Mariah Carey or Artie Shaw or Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers all day long, but if Elvis comes mooing over those speakers, I’m going home.
I’ve got no beef with Elvis in general, you understand. I know all the words to Blue Hawaii,
and if you get enough Fireball in me, I’ll back you up on "Kentucky Rain" at karaoke ‘til you’d think maybe America really does Got Talent. But I spent a summer painting names on ornaments at one of those 365 Days of Christmas! stores in a touristy mountain town. We only had one CD of Holiday Classics
that played on a constant ten-hours-a-day loop, and I’m not lying to you, Blue Christmas
was on it twice. By the Fourth of July, I was having nightmares that I’d been buried alive in Elvis’ coffin and he wouldn’t stop singing that song. Maybe if I sing it louder, someone will come and rescue you,
his ghost proposed on a near-nightly basis. But no one ever did.
So I rescued myself by declaring a unilateral moratorium on that song, and since Jackie, my boss at Bean City, has three little kids who still believe in Santa, she doesn’t care what I refuse to listen to as long as someone who isn’t her can get the joint open by six. My family doesn’t even get home from Midnight Mass until one-thirty in the morning; most years when it’s time for me to go to work at five A.M. we’re still around the dinner table. So for me it’s not a question of getting up early, but rather of staying up until noon, which I wouldn’t be that into if I worked at a dairy farm, but I can get my head around it here, where it’s all the espresso you can drink. Which I’m sure Jackie would be happy to give me as my Christmas present if she knew she was doing it. She’s a sport like that.
I still want to get into teaching when I finish school—at thirty-three, I’m what Metro State calls a non-traditional
student, but I shall finish—but I gotta say, this coffee-slinging gig’s alright. As long as we show up reasonably on time and don’t cuss anybody out, Jackie kinda lets us do our thing. I can have dreads to my waist, I can be plastered in tats, I can pierce whatever I want and wear a kilt to work, just please wipe out the sink before you go home. Not that I do any of that—I mean, I guess my hair’s kinda long, and I might have one tattoo, never you mind where—but I appreciate the Live Free! atmosphere, and my ink-splattered, dreadlocked co-worker Seth, who wears one every day, definitely has the legs to rock a kilt.
And it doesn’t exactly look like the Hajj around here on Christmas morning. Seeming to believe that the modern coffeehouse economy would crumble without them, one or two small-black-coffee guys still lurk with their laptops; one or two young couples cuddle up on the couch in the corner and let their hot chocolate go cold before they go their separate holiday ways; the occasional frazzled middle-aged mom, halfway to her in-laws’ in Aurora, will leave her minivan running right out front and scurry in for a double shot of Somebody Help Me Before I Strangle One Of These Kids, but these are always to go. No, working Christmas works for me—I’m churched for the year, I’m fed like a tick, I’ve drunk half a bottle of Calvados with my cousins and watched the kids gleefully rip through a houseful of presents. Now all I have to do is earn my little eleven dollars an hour playing souvenir stuffed moose shuffleboard until Seth rolls in at eleven-thirty and tells me to go home, then eat again and sleep ‘til my mom comes and bangs down the door in two days just to make sure I didn’t die. My life is not especially complicated.
Seth was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago, but I’m not fussed about it. I’ll text him if it ticks over an hour—one afternoon he made kind of a big deal out of making sure I had a guy named Lennox’s number. "If you go more than two days without seeing me, call this dude, not the cops, Benny, you gotta promise me."—but around here, the less you squeal, the less you get squealed on, and we all have our days. Besides, it means another shot of espresso, and the chance to lean against the counter and drool over the dude