Secret Santa L.S.

One/Two

"Not."

"Fine." The guy huffed. Peace at last, Louis thought when the door closed. While eating his sandwich, he typed out an email to some guy who emailed him about the issue with his desk computer. He told him it wasn't his problem and to email the tech guy, not his boss, "Louis!" Niall cheerily called as he waltzed into his boss' office for the second time that Monday. Angrily, Louis spun around in his chair and didn't even say anything, just glared at the man until he spat whatever he wanted to say out of his mouth, "I entered your name into Secret Santa," Niall saw Louis get up out of his chair to leave, "And there's no backing out because the entries closed just five minutes ago and we have to go pick out a name from the bowl at the end of the day."

"Why? Why would you do that?" Louis groaned in frustration, trying to keep his voice low as he saw other people working behind desks. In the distance he noticed Karen holding the bowl with names in it as she smugly smiled at everyone who walked past her. God she was a bitch.

"Because it's fun, you never know, maybe you'll get a cool gift or even a cool person to buy for?" Niall shrugged, leaning against the door frame of Louis' office. Once again, Louis scoffed and looked around the office, seeing middle aged people all staring at computer screens. He was surprised their eyes didn't turn square, "There is nobody cool that works here, I think we're the youngest people that work here." Louis pointed out.

"Hey, you don't have to be young to be cool, I mean, look at Mick Jagger." Niall wiggled his eyebrows. Rolling his eyes, Louis stepped back into his office and immediately thought about what he could buy someone with a budget of ten pounds. It wasn't a lot, really. A bottle of wine would probably do the trick, depending on the person.

"Mick Jagger's a Rolling Stone he doesn't count."

"Well... what about Brenda? She seems cool?" Niall was talking about the woman at reception who called Louis 'Lewis' and Niall 'Neil' and insists on greeting everyone in the building as they arrive, "No, Niall, no."

"Fine, fine you win," Niall smiled, "See you after work to pick out a name." He cheekily grinned and left Louis' office.

~

It was the end of the day and most of the staff were in the break room, picking out their names for Secret Santa. Louis didn't understand why so many people willingly wanted to sign up for this. It was a disaster every time and he didn't enjoy cheap wine nor did he enjoy the person coming up to him afterwards asking if he liked the wine because there wasn't a gift receipt. Could you even get a gift receipt for wine?

It was Niall's turn to pick, so he put his hand in the bowl, closed his eyes, and picked at random, a slip of paper. Biting his lip, he unfolded it and immediately his face dropped. Louis snickered and pushed Niall to the side, not even looking Karen in the eye as he carelessly picked out a slip of paper. He waited to open it so the person behind him wouldn't see who he got in case he happened to buy a shitty present and whoever saw would know Louis was the one who gave the shitty present.

"Who'd you get?" Louis asked, walking down the hallway with Niall to the lift. After pressing the button, Niall let out a huff and handed Louis his piece of paper, wanting the man to read it for himself. Almost immediately Louis let out a loud laugh just as the lift doors opened.

"Karen," Louis read aloud, "You got Karen Jennings, lucky you."

"You were smart in thinking it was a bad idea," Niall snatched the slip of paper back, grumbling profanities as he did so, "Who'd you get?" He asked. Shrugging, Louis opened the piece of paper as Niall pressed the button to the ground floor. They felt the sudden jolt of the lift before they descended.