"How the hell…" he muttered, bunching the wrapping paper around the small square box.
"You gotta fold it, Jackson." Gale watched him intently. "Here, let me - "
"No, no, I got this." he waved her off, taking the roll of tape and sticking the paper together in one continuous strand of adhesive. "There!"
"It looks terrible."
"I know."
Jackson snuck over to Cruz's trailer where she was getting ready to leave and revved his engine. She looked over at him and rolled her eyes, a suspicious smile crossing her face. He looked so smug, what could he possibly be up to?
"Hey Cruz!" he had a sly glint in his eyes.
"What do you want, Storm?" she asked, her tone accusatory.
'Chill, I just wanted to wish you happy holidays. Trying to get with the Christmas spirit and all that junk." he pushed the wrinkled paper wad at her and swiftly drove away.
Cruz stares at what appeared to be a gift of sorts. Could she trust it? She looked over at McQueen, who'd watched the whole thing, just to see him shrug. What's the worst that could happen?
Cruz pulled the paper off of it and opened the box, steeling herself for any sort of rude surprise. Nothing leaped out at her or made any sort of loud noise, so she looked closer.
It was a coffee mug with the inscription "#1 Competitor" on the side in scripted gold ink. Favorite competitor? Of course not. Most despised competitor? Maybe, but it wasn't explicit. Cruz felt a sense of pride mingling with humor as she took it and placed it on a shelf in her trailer. All this time and Jackson was still salty about having equal competition, enough to fork out his own money to get her a backhanded gift. She was going to use it every day.