Love Is Magic

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Benjamin stared at the package on his doorstep.

It was small and square and wrapped in cheery red Christmassy wrapping paper, complete with a bow and everything.

So not just a package. A gift.

And seeing as how there was no tag that Benjamin could see, it was a surprise—perhaps even an anonymous—gift.

But Benjamin didn’t get surprise, anonymous gifts. If anything, it was the opposite. He generally received expected, fully personal vitriol.

He was an accountant. He specialized in tax filings, and his emails were more full of angry messages, asking why he hadn’t finagled a million dollars in tax refunds than anything resembling well-wishes or gifts.

Plus, Benjamin’s parents were long gone, and his old, fading friendships consisted of people who were busy with their own families this time of year.

And he’d been dumped by his ex-boyfriend almost a year ago exactly, so…

no gifts, to say the least. No holiday magic for him at all.

Christmas this year would be dull and painfully ordinary, just like every other day of Benjamin’s year.

Except, if that was the case, what was on his doorstep now?

It was an ugly doorstep too, his apartment building’s carpet a hideous orange-brown mishmash color and the door itself in need of repainting.

The welcome mat the gift was sitting on so prettily was the most generic kind, a simple brown woven thing that said, in the plainest terms possible, Welcome, without a pun or clever message or anything.

Benjamin was pretty sure it had been there when he moved in, and he’d never changed it to anything more exciting.

That wasn’t the point. The point was, maybe if he’d received more surprise gifts in his life, Benjamin wouldn’t still be standing here, apartment keys in hand, staring down helplessly at the thing.

The door across the hall opened up, and Benjamin turned to see his closest neighbor. “Evening, Mrs. Peters,” he greeted.

Mrs. Peters squinted at him, then down at his gift. She frowned severely, already moving toward the stairs. “Pick up your trash, Benjamin. This isn’t a garbage dump.”

“It’s a gift,” Benjamin called after her. It should have been obvious—his gift didn’t look like trash. It was lovely. “A gift for me.”

But Mrs. Peters wasn’t paying any attention to him, already going down the stairs at an alarmingly speedy pace given her age, especially considering she wasn’t wearing the glasses she so desperately needed.

Which, come to think of it, was probably why she had thought his beautifully wrapped gift was trash.

Benjamin might have offered to help her, but the few times he’d tried, he’d received muttered curses and a mean pinch to his wrist.

So Benjamin turned back to his package.

He gathered his courage and stooped down to pick it up, weighing it in his hands. It was light—very light—and small enough to fit into a briefcase.

Benjamin didn’t put it in his briefcase though. He didn’t want to hide his package away. He wanted to look at it.

What could it be? Maybe some sort of glass ornament? That might explain its weight. And that would mean it was delicate and very breakable.

What if Mrs. Peters had come out before his return and kicked it in her meanness?

Benjamin held the package protectively to his chest and hurried to unlock his door, eager to unwrap it, now that it was in his hands.

He dropped his briefcase carelessly in his entryway and rushed to take a seat on his couch, placing the gift on the coffee table directly in front of him.

He began to carefully—so carefully—unstick the tape on each side, preserving the paper, which was bright red with a snowflake print.

Benjamin slid the paper off, shiny white bow still affixed, to find a small cardboard box, the kind with a removable lid.

Benjamin held his breath as he took the lid off.

And then he released it in a rush, blinking at what he found.

He blinked. Blinked again.

But the vision in front of him didn’t change. Because yes, Benjamin was looking at a pair of lacy women’s underwear. Panties, he’d have to call them. Bright red—they matched the color of the wrapping paper exactly, in fact—and very, very small.

A thong? Who the hell would be giving Benjamin a red lacy thong?

A thump from above had Benjamin jumping in place on the sofa. A wayward elbow knocked the box’s lid to the floor.

And just like that, he figured it out.

Benjamin might not know who the package was from, but he knew where it had been meant to go. Who it had been meant for.

They’d placed it in front of the wrong apartment, was all. It wasn’t a gift for Benjamin, the accountant in 3B. It was meant for the resident of 4B, a floor above him. It was meant for… him.

Just for a moment, Benjamin considered dumping the gift into the garbage. It wasn’t his proudest moment, that thought, but there it was. A slip of the hand, a trash day gone by, and Benjamin could pretend he’d never even seen it at all.

But that was too cowardly, even for him. The panties were a gift, however crass. They’d been wrapped and everything. And it was Christmas, after all—they really should go to their rightful owner.

Even if their rightful owner was a cocky, depraved jackass Benjamin had hoped to never see again.