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You've signed up for a Secret Santa this year, be it in a hobby group, school, work, or just in your circle of friends. You've received a name and a small index card's worth of information about their likes and dislikes, so it's time to go shopping for them! Or, maybe you're receiving your own present? Was this a good idea or just extra holiday stress?
Rob hated the holidays.
Well, okay, so he didn’t really hate the holidays, he rather enjoyed the whole idea of having an extra flow of cash during the dreary, otherwise blasé holiday season. In fact, he had already made a killing off of several toys that had been big hits among the children of Destiny City this year. A phone call to a couple stores, a little bit of schmoozing to get the necessary information on stocking times and bam - he was there, snatching up the little robo-chicks or whatever they called Furbys these days and the gaming system that every teenage boy on his Christmas list this year. A few posts on varying Facebook re-sale groups under a different name (couldn’t tarnish the good reputation of his growing business, after all) and he’d already made double back on his spending. All over a few toys that the kiddos would probably lose interest in before Christmas Day was over.
No, Rob enjoyed making money over the holiday season, but when it came time for him to have to actually pull out his wallet and purchase gifts for other people? Definitely not his sort of thing.
Steele had been the one to point out that every other business had some form of Secret Santa event. His partner couldn’t deny that - Rob had been forced down the path of Secret Santas for many years past, in the hodgepodge jobs he’d taken on in high school and pre-law school. The whole idea had been just as stupid then as it was now - struggle to figure out and buy a present for someone you hardly knew, just so they could halfass pretend to enjoy opening the new coffee mug or pen holder they didn’t actually want, much less need. It was some shoddy excuse for people to receive more presents than they normally did - Rob didn’t see a point to it, even if it meant being on the receiving end of something shoddy, himself.
Flipping the card between his fingers, he glanced down at the scribbled name, cursing Waldrop’s point. Robert wasn’t sure if it had been meant as a joke, leaving a secret santa information card on his desk in plain sight - but what if the smarmy b*****d had already gotten him something in return? Then he would feel like a heel for not playing along with the stupid game that he didn’t want to participate in, to begin with!
So there he found himself, staring down the windows of the shops of the Destiny City mall. He’d found himself drawn to the bookstore in particular, eyeing the mugs and bookmarks and boring literature that Steele no doubt deserved as payback for forcing him to come to this dreadful place during holiday season.
A hurried shopper shoved her way past, nearly knocking the young lawyer over and eliciting a grunt from the otherwise grumpy shopper. No, he needed to just grab something - anything - and get the hell out of dodge before he became further swept away in this mayhem and chaos.
Turning to his side, it was then that he saw the perfect gift, sitting idly on display among a half-empty shelf, already picked through from dozens of shoppers before him.
Perfect.
Slender fingers plucked the present, Rob not even bothering to glance over at the price before taking it to the haggard looking cashier at the register.
“And a gift bag, if you have one.” He added, pulling out his wallet from his back pocket. Like hell would he be forced to sit down and wrap the stupid thing, on top of everything else!
