December 25th, 2019.

The hall of Renner’s mansion was filled with decorations. Red and green—everywhere. In the corner of the room, there was a giant Christmas tree, lit with colorful lights, and had way too many decorations for a person to pinpoint one by one.

Several people were chatting on the grounds of the party, while Ian Renner—the host was still not around.

“Ian, where are you? There are people here, including Christopher, Mason, and everyone else. You’ve got to be here as soon as possible,” Raelynn whispered to the phone as if it was a voicemail.

The morning of the same day was well spent with the staff decorating the place and trying to make the party more beautiful. But when the evening arrived, the guests were ready to walk in, and just an hour away from the start of the event, the man of the night went missing.

“Have you seen Ian? I don’t think it would look great if we start without him,” Niko walked from behind and put his hand around her shoulder.

Raelynn frowned at his words. “Of course, we won’t just celebrate Christmas without him, I mean, we'll have to wait… I think,” she said in an unusual tone and shrugged his hand off.

Minutes passed off to an hour, it was finally time to address the people who had been at the party.

“Raelynn!”

“Rae, honey, do it!”

Two coordinators who were waiting for Ian to come back finally asked the choice from their only option—Raelynn.

Raelynn couldn’t say a single word in reply to them. She took a glance at the people who were at the party.

Mason was there, talking to directors, Christopher, with politicians, and Jeff—who got invited too was in the crowd, talking and discussing with each other about their plans. She couldn’t help but shrug off the nervous gut feeling that kept crawling in her stomach.

“I think it’s the time, Rae…” one of the coordinators reminded her again.

“Fuck, alright. Kill me if I do something stupid, like, immediately pull the trigger, alright?” She said and walked up to the front.

“Hey, everyone. Can I get your attention?”

As soon as she said that, heads turned to look at her side. She flashed a breathtaking smile, and her eyes became smaller, smiling at the crowd.

“Who is she?”

“Does she work under Ian?”

“Is she working here?”

Whispers and talks started to spread in the hall. The fact that there were so many people who didn’t know who Raelynn was explained that the spotlight wasn’t much on her—at least among the people who were present.

“Ah yes, I’m Raelynn Sawyer. I’m sure many of you know me,” she lied even though she heard their questions. “I work as the cinematographer for Renner Studio, but I’m also a director. But it doesn’t matter, I want to welcome every single one of you tonight, to celebrate a joyous Christmas. It’s so great to see all the faces. And Ian should be here at any m-”

“I’m here!”

Ian’s voice echoed through the hall and eyes turned towards him. He walked to the front from the crowd and took the microphone from Raelynn’s hand with a small thank you. She walked behind him, and to the crowd while Ian stood in front of them, with a giant smile.

“The party was wonderful. Thank you, Raelynn. Ah, I see so many places, and I hope that these holidays bring all the happiness to your lives, thank you so much for coming!”

Ian said and everyone clapped, while some raised theirs.

“It was surprisingly short, and here I was trying to address everyone I see out there,” Raelynn said as soon as Ian walked towards her.

“Good thing I saved you then, who’d have thought there’s Raelynn who would go out to the front just to say hello to everyone,” Ian joked.

“Yeah, you’re not funny,” she retorted and immediately realized it was her boss that she was talking to. “I mean, I didn’t mean it like that, I swear. It’s a joke. You are a funny person.”

“Now you’re making fun of me,” Ian sipped on the champagne he just grabbed from the walking waiter.

“You’re not making it easier for her, Ian,” Niko walked out of the blue and shrugged. “Is it true that Mason is going to retire? Like today? Right now?”

Niko asked with wide eyes. Raelynn knew what was about to come, and although she wasn’t a fan of Mason getting a retirement, she was aware of what he had poured into the company and everyone needs a break after some time in their lives.

“I’m afraid it is, Niko. Don’t you dare sob like a… baby in front of everyone?” Raelynn asked back while looking at Niko who already had a pout.

“Sometimes I wonder why I hired kids to my company. Like, Niko, you used to be such a good gentleman until she came along,” Ian said, making Niko chuckle.

“It is true. I was almost invisible until you walked in, and I think Raelynn is the kind of person who’d always bring up that side of yours. Funny, joking, and that little kid inside yours. I can’t blame her though, she’s going to become a wonderful mother-”

“Fuck, Rae!” Niko jumped on his feet when Raelynn stepped on his toes.

“I’m not pregnant,” she said and walked away giving a glare to Niko who was laughing with everything in him.

-

It had been a tough day for Ian. There was a lot of documentary stuff to do with the retirement of Mason, and according to his advice, everything must be done today, if not things would just get messier with Mason planning to go overseas for vacation.

In the meantime, over the week he had with himself, he was able to finish the script of Batman: The Dark Knight.

He had to get copies of the script so that he could hand it over as a holiday present for Raelynn.

And for the rest of the team, the staff themselves have prepared necessary gifts sponsored by one of the major upcoming brands of phones—Live.

“To make things much easier, lively, and effective for the night, Live company was humble enough to sponsor the evening. And again, I hope you all enjoy every part of this…” The announcer was disturbed by someone walking to him and whispering in his ear. “Oh, okay… And, we’ve Ian Renner on stage, ready to give an announcement!”

“Yes, hi everyone, again! The specialty of tonight is something sad for our studio, yet special for the man’s life. Mason Striver, my uncle… My father’s best friend and the successor of Renner Studios would be retiring from the studio as of tonight. In front of all these people, I want to mention how wonderful and lovely a human being you are. You became the fatherly figure to me during these two years, and trusted me with every step I took when related to the studio, although it was something you held on to for so long… Thank you so much, uncle. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me and us, and I’d like to invite you over here so that you can share your best or worse memories with us…”

Ian said with glossy eyes. He hadn’t planned to tear up in front of all the guests. Although he held it back for so long, it finally hit him like a rock, that it was happening.

“Yes,” Mason cleared his throat before standing beside Ian, who had a sad smile plastered on his face. “Ahem… Ian, for the past couple of years, you've shown growth in you and your company… and that is something I couldn’t have ever thought or imagined. And in this special moment, where everyone is looking at me as if I’m going to get the final vacation of life—which is not true-” everyone laughed at his words as in reality, they did look at him with an awfully sad face. “-And I’d have the best retirement that anyone could ever ask for. So, in this moment, I’d like to introduce my replacement,”

As soon as the latter words left his lips, people gasped and then clapped. Ian turned to look at Mason immediately to say ‘this wasn’t what we planned

“And yes, Ian. I know we have not discussed this, but Mr. J. R. Lincoln. He has been an amazing friend to me forever in the time during my career, and I’m sure that he’d be there to fill in with anything you need. Although he is quite the busy man, he accepted and agreed to help you with any work that you had in mind for me.”

Mason said while an old man, wearing a plain white suit with an expensive-looking watch, extended his hand to Ian.

He walked in from the crowd, and Ian took his hand immediately and noticed how odd it is to wear the watch in the right hand.

“...Thank you, everyone! Thank you!”

Mason walked away, while Ian and Lincoln followed him.