“I am not a curmudgeon…but I will accept Grinch. I just think it’s all a little overrated.”

Finn had slowly inched his way closer to me in our conversation and with the armrest between us lifted, it felt like he was right on top of me. I was trying, and failing, to ignore the way his arm brushed against mine, sending shockwaves up and through my chest.

“Maybe you just haven’t had someone show you all the best things about Christmas.” His husky voice trailed through my ears and straight to my chest.

Or I just had someone show me all the worst things.

“Maybe. Or maybe you just follow all the other little elf sheep blindly.”

He straightened his back quickly, as if an idea popped into his mind. “You should let me be your boyfriend.”

“What?” I don’t always make the best decisions, but I knew good and well that was not the right route to go.

“I mean your fake boyfriend. I can come to family stuff to keep them off your back, take them skiing where I work, and show you Christmas is certainly not overrated. Win-win.”

I laughed at the idea. I hadn’t brought a boyfriend home in years, and I was not going to let the first one be fake. The plan was simply to tell my family that my boyfriend moved to Russia to test different soils there and he would never be back due to radiation. “What’s your win?” I asked him.

He squinted his eyes like he was searching for one. “I can show off my favorite town, and it gives me something to do since I don’t have any plans for the holidays.” His shrug was nonchalant, as if this was a regular occurrence for him.

I didn’t even consider it. No way. It was comical: meeting a stranger on a plane and then taking him home to my parents and siblings, who have enough ammunition on me already.

“Absolutely not. You are a stranger. I don't even know your middle name.”

“It’s Danger.”

I let out a loud laugh and quickly forced myself to be quiet again, on account of the other passengers who slept under the dim yellow lights of the plane.

“Well, I am certainly not going to now.” I grabbed the eye mask back from him, ready to shut down any more drunken ideas he would come up with, but he slapped it out of my hands.

“Did you just—”

“Listen. I am going to give you the best Christmas you have ever had, and in two weeks, you’re going to fall to your knees and apologize for how wrong you are.”