| BOOK SIX | THE LONDON CRIME KING | A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE NOVEL |
This book contains adult language and subject matter, including graphic violence, drugs and explicit sex that may be disturbing to some readers.
This series is NOT a typical romance...
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Andy Williams declared that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. People enjoyed festive music and cheesy movies, modelled ostentatious jumpers and overindulged inedible fruit puddings. Homes are enlivened with embellishments aplenty. Families and friends hosted lavish dinner parties and exchanged seasonable gifts.
'Tis the season to be jolly!
Festive stress is more like it.
How is hustle-and-bustle considered fun and joyous?
Stores are jam-packed with hardcore shopaholics, clamorous cash registers are undermanned and queues of immobilised customers are ten miles long. Just the other day, I had to wait in line for fifty-seven minutes to buy a Wüsthof knife set for Benjamin.
The inclement weather is miserable and gloomy. Caliginous skies, steely grey clouds and torrential downpours had a negative effect on my emotions. Heavy rain precipitated discontentment and unhappiness. I could wake up in the best of moods, with a spring in my step and positive vibes to attract good energy, but when I opened the curtains to unveil the dark, merciless world, contemplative melancholia returned tenfold.
Christmas music is annoying and unpleasant. It's a never-ending loop of overplayed cheesiness and foreboding harmonies. Repetitive lyrics and tintinnabulate bells have been omnipresent in every high-street store and shopping centre in a bid to entice serial spendthrifts. I would happily wipe tedious melodies off the face of the earth to have All I Want For Christmas Is You evicted from my head forevermore.
The restaurant is double-booked, overcrowded, relentless and demanding. Employee burnout among employees and managers is inescapable. I am exhausted in the workplace, the job being monotonous and chaotic.
Too much activity had a significant impact on my business performance and reduced productivity. I am ashamed to admit that I hide in the public restroom to avoid customer demand more often than not.
At this rate, with tardiness and fatigue heavily influenced by a lack of passion, I am surprised Laurence hasn't summoned me to his office to throw the rule book at my head. Or, better yet, with deep regret, he terminated my job for poor work performance.
Commuter stress is prevalent in central London this time of year. Just ask anyone travelling from home to work during the winter months. You have to plan transport in advance to dodge congested roads and traffic jams. It's considered a lucky day to nab a seat on the bus or the train. If public transport has reached its full capacity, standing is the only alternative. Sandwiched between bristled people alike is more apt.
I never used to be a bah humbug. I loved Christmas with the best of them. It's a time to dream and create good memories and timeless traditions. But what's a good holiday season without the people you love? Lonesomeness, isolation and melancholy wrapped in a tightly restricted black bow that disintegrated into dust and ash if you touched it.
