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Chapter 1
Paige
“Ho, Ho, Ho, and a Merry Christmas,” Santa called out to two men walking by. “Come tell Santa what you want for Christmas.”
I could hear Santa calling out his Ho, Ho, Ho, which meant that someone was about to want pictures. I was on all fours inside of Santa’s workshop doorway, trying to refill the candy cane bucket. It was a great storage area and a good thing I was small enough to fit inside. Well, at least the doorway. I never really went past that. I peeked around to my right to see that Santa was not calling out to children, but to grown men.
“What are you doing?” I laughed. “Are you that bored?”
“Yes, and they were looking over here, so why not? We still have an hour to go,” Santa Eddie said. “Look, they’re coming back.”
I could see the men coming toward us but then lost sight of them. I hurried to finish filling the bucket and then scrambled backward, still on my hands and knees, right into a pair of legs that quickly became a torso and arms as well.
“Hold up!,” a man yelled.
Please tell me I just knocked over Santa and not a customer.
I put my head down to the floor for a second and took a deep breath, then realized that whoever was now sprawled on the floor behind me was laughing. I looked to my left, through strands of my red wig, to see the giant plastic candy cane was on top of the torso on the floor. It had to be Santa Eddie. Otherwise, this was craziness.
“Eddie, I’m so sorry.”
I tried to roll over into a sitting position, not realizing that the front hook on my elf slipper was caught on the popcorn garland in front of Santa’s workshop, leaving me completely tangled and unable to straighten out my legs or stand.
“Um…not Eddie. The name’s Asher.” Mr. Nice Smile laid himself back on the floor. “I’d been thinking I wanted a candy cane today, but this one’s too big.”
“Oh my God, are you alright?” I gasped. “I can’t believe I did that. It’s these slippers. I couldn’t tell how far I’d backed up because they kept slipping.”
I knew I was rambling, but I’d just injured a customer and was probably going to get fired from the only job I could get. I sat there listening to this guy Asher and his friend lightly laughing until it was full-on tears laughing. It was contagious and, before I knew it, I had joined in. Asher was still laying on his back as the laughing subsided. The other guy stood over Asher with his hand out to pull him up whenI’m Gettin’ Nothin’ for Christmascame on. The hysterical laughing started again. This time I had no idea what we were laughing at. All three of us were swiping at tears running down our faces.
What am I laughing at? I’ve got to get this guy off the floor before someone tells my boss. First, I need to get untangled. Thankfully, this is an empty mall, so no crowd watching.
I looked around again, noticing now how un-ladylike I was sitting on the floor. If it wasn’t for the elf stockings under the little dress, this could have been a much worse situation. I kicked and pulled until I got the garland off of me. I backed up enough to have room to push myself up without falling over the guy on the floor and then straightened out my outfit, repositioned my wig, put my elf hat back on, fixed my elf ears, and stood looking down at him.
“So, would you like a picture with Santa, or do you just want to tell him what you want for Christmas?” I smiled as big as I could, as instructed when I was hired.
“Didn’t you just hear? I’m getting nothing for Christmas,” Asher chuckled.
“Yeah, because he ain’t been nothin’ but bad.” The other guy laughed and pulled Asher to his feet.
I wonder if they’re related. They both have the same gorgeous green eyes.
“Let me apologize for knocking you over. Did the candy cane harm you?” I watched him stand it back up. “I’m so embarrassed. Let me call for someone medical or something.”
“He’s fine, takes more than that to harm this guy,” the taller one said. “Ash, you gonna ask Santa for something?”
“I haven’t asked Santa for what I want since I was pretty young, but my cousin Sawyer here thought we should for old time’s sake,” Asher said. “Let’s get a picture too.”
I looked to Santa with a shrug, then positioned the camera. They stood looking around like they didn’t know what to do. I guess it had been a while for them. I walked around them and pulled out two stools that I normally used for parents to join in the picture and placed them on either side of Santa.
“You can each sit on one of these if you want.” I backed up.
“Nah, let’s go for sitting on Santa’s lap. My mother will love it,” Asher chuckled. “He’s Sawyer.
I’m Asher, but I think I already said that, didn’t I?”
“Happy holidays, Sawyer and Asher. Smile big now.” I clicked the camera a few times. “All done. Just give me a couple of minutes and the pictures will be on the screen.”
I watched them both out of the corner of my eye while I got the pictures ready to view.
