Page 2 of Santa Daddy’s Curvy Little

Christmas didn't feel the same any more after she left. It felt as though she had taken all the joy and wonder with her and left me with nothing but the ghost of Christmas future, cold and lonely. After that, I quit caring about the holidays and only helped out at the daycare, never once bothering to help bring the magic back to life again.

Mother knew about everything, and she did what she could to cheer me up, but my depression took hold, chasing away the happiness that had once filled me. She refused to let me shut down completely, but, by the time Christmas had come once again, she was growing craftier and more determined to get me out of my Ebenezer Scrooge behavior. The first thing she did was ask me to continue to be the mall Santa for the twentieth year in a row.

As much as I tried to reject her as nicely as possible, she refused to take no for an answer and insisted that I play Santa once again. She reminded me of the children and how much they all loved the way I had portrayed Santa over the last two decades since graduating high school. Just when I thought I had her convinced that I was done with Christmas, she brought me the Santa Clause suit and told me to report to the mall at nine on Monday.

That's how the last two weeks of my holidays had been spent: faking the jolliest, nonexistent man in the world while kids sat on my lap and nagged about being on the Nice List and demanding all sorts of random shit from me that I knew their parents would struggle to remember. By the time Friday had rolled around, I was bone tired and beat down, exhausted from the late evening shift after school let out just so I could deal with these spoiled kids. Mother had stopped by with my check and found me passed out drunk on the couch, watching some action movie and left without another word.

In all honesty, I had hoped that she would have found another person to play Santa by now, especially after the tantrum some kid had after I scolded him for yanking on the fake beard, removing it completely from my face and ruining the day for everyone in line. However, despite it all, I was heading right back to the hell hole to continue the torture, and my mood was not improving. Arriving at the mall, I took a deep breath and looked at myself in the rearview mirror.

What was I doing? I had been valedictorian when I graduated high school nearly twenty years ago, and I had everything… So, why was I still here in this tiny little town, dragging my feet at the same depressing dance and routine when I could move on to the city and try to live a normal life free of Mother’s insistence that I continue the worn down traditions of the town?

Someone passed behind me in the rearview mirror, and I turned around to look at them, stopping dead in my tracks when I saw them. It was a woman who looked to be about twenty or so, and she was the most beautiful woman I had seen since Crystal. Her long, reddish brown hair hung like curtains, framing her face as it stuck out from underneath the handmade hat she was wearing, and her pale face was rosy and bright at the cheeks.

She looked like an angel as she made her way across the snow packed parking lot and towards the mall, travelling dangerously close to the patch of spaces that were notorious for ice. Hoping that she would avoid it completely and not risk falling into the bank of unploughed snow, I quickly turned off my vehicle and started towards the door, watching her every movement. She didn’t seem to notice me, which was perfectly fine since I didn’t want her to think that I was stalking her, but she kept getting closer and closer to the most dangerous patch of snow.

Just when I thought she was going to make it without any trouble, she slipped, and her hair flew up into the air as she started to fall into the snowy patch. Thankfully, I was finally close enough to reach out and catch her, saving her from a nasty fall. Thinking fast, I caught her under the arms and lifted her into the air effortlessly in the least graceful maneuver I had ever attempted. Setting her down in the soft snow, out of harm’s way, I froze when she turned to look at me.

Her eyes were dark and stormy, looking like storm clouds as they looked me up and down, assessing my appearance as she processed everything that had just happened. Up close, she looked like a younger version of Crystal, who would have been thirty this last May. I gave her a gentle smile and nodded my head at her, hoping to clear the air between us.

"Sorry if I scared you," I told her as I nodded towards the patch where she had slipped. "There's a dip in that particular spot, making it a disaster waiting to happen when it snows. I didn't want you to fall and hit your head." She looked cross for a moment as she considered my words, and, before long, a smile spread across her face.

"I suppose I should thank you for saving me," she said, her voice soft and jolly like ringing bells on Christmas morning. "Can I buy you a coffee to help you warm up?"

CHAPTER THREE

Lana

I couldn't believe that I had forgotten what the town considered the "parking spot of doom." It was the one parking space in the entire mall parking lot that had a small crater in the middle, causing it to collect melted snow and turn it into the slipperiest spot when the ice formed. I had been gone for too long, and I felt like a stranger in my own hometown, nearly causing me to get hurt in the process.

Of course, I had been completely aware of the man who had been following me ever since I passed his car. Having been in the city for so long, I forgot what it was like to not have to always look over your shoulder when someone followed you too closely, and I had misjudged him immediately, assuming the worst until I realized he saved me from getting hurt. Now that I had been reminded I wasn't in the city anymore, I finally got a good look at the man before me.

He seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't figure out where I knew him from. He looked to be almost in his forties if he wasn't already, and he was tall and muscular, looking like a lumberjack in his flannel coat and hat as he stared down at me. His face was gruff with telltale signs of a thick beard coming in after the messy stubble he had. Up close, his eyes were red and watery, and he looked like he was either suffering from a hangover or a migraine, either one being equally as bad in my opinion.

Realizing my poor manners and bad behavior, I immediately felt guilty for my assumption that he was going to hurt me and decided that, if he had saved me from the "parking spot of doom," he couldn't be all that bad. He probably ran into some tough times and had a hard job or something like that. The least I could do was offer to buy him coffee after he saved me, despite how easily he had lifted my tiny frame into the air.

He looked a bit surprised at my suggestion and even took a step back from me, making me feel like I had just cursed at him or threatened his family rather than offered him a reward for saving me. His watery eyes searched mine for a moment, seeming to wonder if I was serious or was trying to make a fool out of him. Immediately, I felt like I had deserved it, especially after giving him a similar look when he saved me from falling.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," I finally added, starting to feel a bit more guilty. "Moe's Coffee Hut is still inside, right? It's the least I can do after you helped me." He looked confused as he stared at me.

"Moe's shut down two years ago when he retired and left everything to his daughter, Kara," he informed me, sounding suspicious of me as he spoke. "She reopened across town and expanded to include a bakery after completing culinary school." I winced as I realized that I should have known better.

Of course not everything would be the same now that I was back home. The effects of time were funny that way, and I couldn't believe how something like the "parking spot of doom" would still be here even when Moe wasn't. I was starting to wonder how much else had changed since I left when I spotted Franny coming towards us, hurrying to catch up to us.

"Oh, good, you're safe," she said as she puffed clouds of air, trying to catch her breath. "I'm so sorry, Lana. I forgot to warn you about that darn spot. I keep trying to convince the city board to fix that spot, but they keep ignoring my requests. Are you hurt?" Immediately, I turned and smiled at her.

"No, I'm just fine, thanks to him," I said, politely gesturing towards the man who had saved me from falling. Franny stopped and send at the man, a spark of joy shining through her expression as she smiled at him.

"Oh, Roger, you wonderful man," she cooed as if talking to a toddler who was playing superhero. "I'm so proud of you for saving Lana from a nasty fall." The kind expression on his face washed away, quickly replacing itself with a worn out, rather depressed expression.

"It was nothing, Mother," he told her casually, his matter of fact tone sounding as cold as the air around us. "She's so small, all I had to do was pick her up and set her down on safer ground." I winced as I stared at the man, confused by the way he had addressed her.

Mother? No one called Francine James Mother, not even the children she so adored. It was always Mrs. James or, as she insisted I call her, Franny. It took me a moment, but I finally realized who the man was.

"Roger James?" I asked, staring at the barely recognizable face of Francine's son.

He was about ten years younger than my parents, but he had been as prominent in the community as his mother was the last time I was here. I still remembered his handsome, clean shaven face and the way his cheeks would grow red and rosy in the winter, reminding everyone of Jolly Old St. Nikolas himself. He was the town's Santa Clause, and almost every girl had a crush on him back when I was in high school. He was, in his own way, the only other celebrity in town.

The man before me looked nothing like the bright, handsome man who was always portraying Santa Clause in the mall around Christmas time. He looked haggard and washed up, as if he had aged another twenty years in my absence. As much as it shocked me that he had let himself go, I kept the same polite smile on my face as his mother beamed.