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New Culture, New Year, New Love S. Blaise

    TRENT Rose shivered again as he sat huddled in his chair even though the heating was turned up and he was wearing a thick sweater. He didn’t know what he’d done to piss someone in the company he worked for off, but it must have been pretty bad to be sent to this godawful place. He’d started working for a large, globe-spanning bank straight out of college and had worked his way to an international management position. It meant he got to travel and had seen some amazing places, probably more than others saw in their whole lives. But it seemed that it also had its downside. He’d been in Hong Kong for just over three years, working as a Regional Relationship Manager, when he’d been told that he was to be uprooted again to help oversee a
    “merger with” – by which they meant “takeover of” – another smaller bank. In Edinburgh, Scotland, of all places.
    And so here he was, and had been for a couple of months now. He’d had to leave in early November, so he’d missed the Thanksgiving celebrations usually held by him and the other American expatriates, and of course, they didn’t know about the holiday in Scotland. There had been a celebration at the end of November, Saint Andrew’s Day, but it hadn’t been the same and had only made him feel like more of a foreigner, not being immersed in this new culture yet. He missed the people he’d known in Hong Kong and 2
    New Culture, New Year, New Love S. Blaise

    especially missed the warmth. He was a Florida boy by birth with Hispanic roots, for crying out loud! It was glacial here.
    And it started getting dark at four o’clock. Four in the afternoon! What kind of country got dark that early? The sun didn’t start rising until later, either. There was nothing worse than having to get up and go to work in such freezing darkness. He’d never travelled to such a cold climate before.
    And it seemed to rain constantly, so it was cold, dark, and wet. It had rained in Hong Kong too, but at least the rain there was fairly warm. But if he had survived black rainstorms and typhoon warnings, he could survive this. He could hope only that this placement wouldn’t last too long and he would be moved somewhere else, preferably to a location below the equator.
    He was debating fixing another hot drink, which meant moving from his comfortable chair, when the phone rang. He picked it up, wondering who would call him this late, when he realized it was only 5:40. He muttered curses at the early setting sun again. As if his body clock hadn’t been thrown off enough by the travelling; although by now, he’d learned to adjust fairly quickly.
    “Hello, Trent, how are you doing?” His boss’s rich, genteel Scots voice came through the earpiece.
    “Fine, thank you sir.”
    “Och, I told you, there’s no need to call me sir,”
    Norman Vere said. “Listen, when you had said you’d been 3
    New Culture, New Year, New Love S. Blaise

    alone for Christmas I wondered if you had any plans for Hogmanay?”
    “I’m sorry, Hogma-what?”
    The older man gave a hearty laugh. “Hogmanay, lad.
    New Year’s Eve. Have you not been told about how we celebrate here?”
    “Um, not really no.” He’d heard a few people talking about Hogmanay, but hadn’t realised what it actually was.
    He’d assumed it was some obscure Scottish thing. “And I didn’t exactly have any plans, but –”
    “Wonderful. My wife’s family’s holding a ceilidh on the 31st; you’re welcome to come along.”
    They were holding someone called Kaylee? No, that couldn’t be right. “Well thank you sir, but um, uh....” He didn’t want to seem like an idiot asking what the hell his boss was talking about, but, well, he had no idea what his boss was talking about. His uncertainty seemed to come through anyway.
    “Oh, a ceilidh’s like a sort of party,” Mr. Vere explained. “There’ll be food and drink, traditional Scottish dancing; it’s good