The next night after coming in from work, Stephanie hurried took a shower and was now standing at her bedroom closet wondering and trying to figure out what to wear for the first ever RangeMan Christmas party. Choosing a nice conservative black pant suit, she grabbed a red sparkly jacket to wear to make the outfit more Holiday'y. Steph did her makeup expertly and placed her hair up in an elegant French twist, spraying on some perfume she slid her feet into her heels and grabbed her coat. Driving over to the RangeMan building, Steph dug out her cell phone and called Lester.

"Hey where are you?" she asked him when he answered his phone

"Having a drink in the conference room" he told her

"I'm about to turn into the garage and I just wanted to remind you that we aren't together" she told him

"Yea I know and I don't like it"

"I know but we agreed" she reminded him

"I know" Lester sighed

"Where's Ram?" she asked and Lester looked over to his beaten friend

"Sitting here" he told her wondering what Steph was gonna say when she saw Ram and finds out he and Tank "talked to him.

"Ok I'm coming up now" she said and disconnected

Lester left the party and walked down the short hallway to the elevator and waited for it to come up to their floor. When it did, he grabbed Stephanie by the wrist and pulled her into the stair well and kissed her.

"Les they can see us you know" she said looking around for the camera

"They're all preoccupied at the moment"

When they came in to the party her eyes immediately locked on Ram and she gasped at the bruises and black eyes he was sporting. Stephanie looked up at Lester with her hand over her mouth shocked but asking the silent question. Reassuring her that this was their way of dealing and that it needed to be done and handled, Lester placed a hand onto her lower back and moved her over to the buffet line. When she grabbed a plate she saw that Tank was over by the desserts sampling a brownie she had made.

"You look very nice" Tank smiled and said to her

"Thanks you look good as well" she told him "Do they taste ok, I'm not a baker" she asked him

"Taste good to me" he said popping the last bite into him mouth causing Steph to smile

"Thank you for letting me make all these desserts and things"

"Don't thank me it was all Lester's idea"

"Oh really?" she asked

"Yep" Tank told her

Stephanie looked over to where Lester was talking to Hal; she caught his eye and smiled at him. He smiled back and then returned to his conversation.

Stephanie was actually having a real good time at the Christmas party. She didn't sit too close to Lester at any time for the fear that they would be discovered. Getting up to get more eggnog, Steph came back in and Ram stood up and came towards her.

"Stop Steph" he said causing her to jump a little as she tried to walk away from him

"What? What is it?" she asked turning around

Ram walked up to her and stood there looking down at her, Lester seeing this didn't like that Ram was being so close to her and watched as Ram took the cup that Stephanie was holding and sat it on a table that was near them.

"Ram what are you doing?" she asked him

"I want to say that I'm sorry for yesterday, I was out of line" he said

"You realize that after being called to the mats? She asked him

"It helped" he said rubbing his sore jaw

Ram smiled at her and then placed his arms around her waist and brought her into him. Lester seeing this tensed up and began to go over to them, Tank knowing what was going to happen stopped Lester and made him just watch what was happening. Ram leaned in and slowly kissed Stephanie. Lester moved again to go to them but again Tank stopped him. After Ram had kissed Steph and was satisfied he moved back and pointed up to the ceiling.

"Mistletoe" he said and Stephs eyes landed on the little green sprig of greenery hanging there. Looking back at Ram she knew that his kiss was more than just the mistletoe, she looked behind him and saw Lester was fuming.

"Ram" Stephanie said going to make him understand that this meant nothing

"Shhhh we'll talk later" he said placing a finger to her lips and then walked away into a crowd of guys. Steph turned and walked out into the main room with Lester following her.

"DAMN HIM" Lester called out in anger causing Stephanie to whirl around when she heard his voice "Looks like he didn't learn"

"He apologized" she told him

"Yes but he kissed you"

"It was the mistletoe and Les he doesn't know that we're together" she said to him

"Steph he knows that I like you all the guys know and he is just doing it to screw with me and anyways if we weren't together it still gives him no right to kiss you, you have told him no and that you are no longer interested in seeing him and he still keeps going"

Stephanie came up to Lester and placed her arms around him and leaned her head on his shoulder. She kissed his neck softly "I love you Lester" she said

"I love you too but I can't stand seeing him or anyone kiss on you and still think they have a chance with you" he said looking back into the party

"He doesn't" she told him "please just play it cook ok?"

"Yea ok but he better leave you alone and not touch you again or I will do something" he said. Stephanie and Lester went back into the room where they resumed being in the party.

A few days later was Christmas Eve and everyone was still alive from Stephanie's attempt at baking. Lester was in Tanks office begging him to please make something up so that Stephanie would be busy for a while tonight.

"Santos Steph doesn't work on anything of a night she is a nine to fiver" he told him

"I'll do extra paper work if you come up with something to get her here"

"What's this all about?" Tank asked leaning back in his big leather chair

"I have a surprise for her but I need her to be out of her place so that I can set it all up" he told him

"All right" He said getting up and going over to his office door "STEPHANIE" he yelled

"Yea? She asked coming in from her desk

"Stephanie I could really use your help tonight if you're not busy" he told her

"Ummmm" she said looking over at Lester

"I have a stake out with Ranger and Ram" he lied

"Ohh ok, no I don't have any plans. What do you need?" she asked him

"I have a bunch of files and reports that need to be done and I'm so far behind. Ranger is riding my ass saying he needs them done before the close of the year and if I don't start soon it won't get done" he explained

"Ok what time would like for me to come in?" she asked

"Is nine tonight ok?"

"Great" she said. Tank looked over to Lester and he nodded his head

"I thought we were going to be spending Christmas Eve together" She asked Lester when they left Tanks office feeling kinda hurt

"I'm sorry Beautiful, Ranger told me about the stake out just now" he told her

"Oh" she said knowing that this was part of his job but she still was hurt that it canceled their plans

"I'll make it up to you somehow" he said hugging her.

Lester felt bad about all the lies being told to her and how hurt she had looked but then smiled as she walked away. He thought to himself how pretty soon she would be all over him and how happy that she would be when she saw what he really was up too.