At the car, as they were saying their goodbyes, Max said something to her mom in French. Dani recognized Joyeux Noël in her mom’s reply, but soon the two of them were conversing rapidly and animatedly—Max was such a flirt—and were beyond Dani’s limited French.

After the car departed, Max turned to her and said, “Negroni? Three negronis?”

“What were you and my mom talking about?”

“How much I hate Christmas.”

“You hate Christmas? What are you doing at The Nutcracker, then?”

He shrugged and said, “I’m a walking contradiction. So, negronis? Diet Coke? I admit I’m not really in the mood for a negroni myself this evening.”

“Me either. I was thinking it would be nice to walk a bit.”

“What’s our destination?” He held out his arm.

She didn’t take it. “I so rarely get to Manhattan, and unlike you, I actually like Christmas. I’m in the mood to stroll aimlessly and take in the holiday stuff.” She gestured at the big Lincoln Center Christmas tree, aware that she sounded like a dork, but what did it matter? It wasn’t like she cared what the Depraved Not-Duke thought of her.

“Let us stroll aimlessly, then.” She thought he might offer his arm again, but he did not.

“This is going to sound silly, but I feel like I sort of missed Christmas last year.”

“You mentioned that last night.”

She should probably be embarrassed by the amount of rambling—not to mention drinking—she’d done. But again, this dude was an Eldovian baron playboy. He wasn’t real. Well, he was. Obviously. He was right next to her with his cool good looks and his gray wool “fancy man” coat, but he wasn’t in the sense that he had any impact on her life.

“So you missed Christmas last year?” he prompted.

“Well, I didn’t miss it. I went to my parents’ house. We did presents and dinner and sugary cereal the next morning and all that. And I remember thinking how nice it was not to have to split the holiday with Vince’s family.” She had added #5 to her list at that point, in fact: Be away from my family for the holidays. “It was the run-up to Christmas that I missed last year. Decorations, carols, that kind of stuff. You know what I mean?”

“If you had ever spent Christmas in Eldovia, you would know just how much I am acquainted with the Christmas run-up.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard about this from Leo. There’s a cocoa festival, right?” And a ball, at which Leo and Marie had made their dramatic declarations of love. She could sort of see where Max’s anti-Christmas stance came from. “I’m sure it’s overkill. I guess my point is that last year, I looked up and—bam!—it was Christmas.”

“Why was that? Working too much?”

“In part.”