Chapter 1

Dom tackled the biggest tree first. Kiko had three set up in Yolks on You, his niche, mostly-egg-themed store, two smaller and one twelve-foot monstrosity. When Dom arrived, the Latino man presented him with more boxes of ornaments than he figured could possibly fit on all of them, even if he really squeezed them on there.

“Why so many ornaments?” asked Dom as he popped open a box to reveal a number of sparkling, egg-shaped decorations, all with price tags. They were all styled similarly in reds, golds, and greens, festive Christmas-time eggs. It figured.

“Because people buy off the tree,” said Kiko, returning to whatever he was doing at the computer behind the counter.

Dom stared at the task ahead of him, thinking he probably should have offered to stay home and clean the bathrooms instead. At least that would be over fast. But no, he wanted to be near Kiko, and this was a change from the ordinary. Normally Kiko had him stocking shelves while he did his paperwork, packaging, and whatever else it was he puttered away on that made the place run.

“People actually buy this shit,” said Dom under his breath, reaching up to hang the first glittering egg on a plastic-needled branch.

“I heard that,” said Kiko over his shoulder.

“Come over here and adjust my attitude, then,” said Dom. He wouldn’t be so bold, but at nearly four in the evening on a Sunday a few weeks before Christmas, Kiko’s store was fairly empty. Outside the sky was so gray and dark that it looked like it was night. Considering the sun went down around five it might as well be, Dom figured. Flakes of snow came down off and on, as if the weather couldn’t decide whether it really wanted to be festive or not.

He could almost hear Kiko smiling at him.

“Get back to work,” he said. “Rewards later. The faster we get everything here taken care of, the faster we can go home.”

Dom grumbled good-naturedly and hung more eggs. Unsurprisingly most of the ornaments were eggs: glittery eggs, delicate, carved-looking eggs, flat 2D eggs, papier m?ché eggs that could be personally painted, eggs in scarves. There were a few ornaments in the shape of geese or other birds, and a few breakfast-style ornaments, such as bacon and eggs in a frying pan.

“How do you want these?” asked Dom. It occurred to him Kiko might want them organized a particular way. He was often very particular about things; it had put a strain on their relationship early on when Kiko wanted his house kept cleaner than Dom was used to, but they had figured it out in the end.

“Just mix them all up,” said Kiko. “However you want.”

Dom stared at the perfectly trimmed hair on the back of Kiko’s head. He was wearing his normal button-up and a festive tie, despite the fact that there couldn’t have been many customers today. Dom generally found his nerdiness attractive, and the lack of concern now was unusual.

“Really?”

“You’ll do it anyway.”

Dom gritted his teeth at that. Kiko seemed to have little faith in his organizational abilities, even after all these months. And true, he couldn’t load the dishwasher quite so full, nor could he seem to fit as many socks in the drawer, but he wasn’t complete shit at everything. He was going to prove Kiko wrong. He stepped back, glanced at the boxes of ornaments. The eggs would all go on the big tree: geese and birds on one of the small trees, breakfast on the other. He would astound Kiko. And he would be able to smugly demand whatever position in bed he wanted later.

Kiko faced away from him as he worked. Dom found his mind blanking out as he repeated the motions and completely filled the large tree with ornaments. He moved boxes by their respective trees, snagging glances at Kiko, who looked busy with the most boring paperwork Dom had ever seen. If this was what owning a business was like, Dom was glad he worked for someone else. At least he got to go home at the end of the week.

He glanced at the time on his phone. After five. He and Kiko should be getting home and figuring out what to eat. Even Kiko’s goose, Mother, seemed irritated in his cage at the back of the store. Dom could hear him pacing around and fidgeting with his feathers. Snow was falling harder outside now, and the light was really starting to disappear from the sky.

“Let’s call it,” he said, and Kiko waved a hand at him.

“Give me twenty, thirty minutes,” said Kiko. “You finished?”

Dom glared at the two smaller trees.