18. The Third Day Before Christmas
The Third Day Before Christmas
Scene II
[The Santa Court. There’s a big line.]
Viola, dressed in Santa attire, walks up to her throne, still adjusting her belly.
The line in front of the Santa throne is longer than I’ve ever seen. Despite the line, there isn’t a Santa sitting on the throne at all. The whole station is just sitting, waiting.
“What’s going on?” I ask Olivia as she lifts the velvet rope in the back to let me sneak under. I wave to the kids waiting in line, and they literally cheer for me.
“We had Curio here this morning, but almost no one wanted their picture with him.”
“What? Why?” I ask, half-distracted by some of the kiddos waving to me. I get a slight pang in my chest. I can’t believe I only have another three days of this. Somehow, I’ve wound up loving this job more than any other I’ve ever had.
This has been maybe one of the happiest times of my life, and it’s all coming to an end.
Olivia smiles. “Because of you, silly. Everyone was willing to wait to get their picture taken with, and I quote, ‘the nice Santa’.”
Behind the fake spectacles that Duke gave me on day one, my eyes mist up. I should’ve been doing this (working with kids, not impersonating a Santa) for so long. If I wasn’t already fired up about Mal before, I’d be mad at him all over. How dare he rob me of my dream to grow his own?
Olivia adjusts the camera as I settle into the throne. She’s stalling, giving me an extra moment to mentally prepare. “By the way, how did things go with Mal this morning?”
I had texted her earlier to let her know I was going to be late.
I exhale slowly, trying to release every last memory of him. “It was… brutal. And good.”
Olivia quirks an eyebrow, making a show of pulling off the camera lens and wiping it down. “How so?”
“It was brutal in the sense that he was trying to convince me to let him keep our apartment—the apartment that I paid for, furnished, and cleaned. Also, I found out he’s living with someone new—”
“No!” Olivia shouts. Then, she winces. “North Pole magic dust on the lens,” she explains to the crowd.
“Yep. Living with someone new while also trying to convince me that we still might happen, so I should let him keep living in the apartment. With absolutely no financial compensation my way.”
Olivia shakes her head, mouthing ‘that mother fucker’ to me. “And the good part of it all? Because that all sounds like… reindeer dung to me.”
I think of how everything felt at the apartment. It was like the rose-coloured glasses were finally off. Mal wasn’t charming or special or out of my league; he was just a piece of shit parasite who should’ve been stomped on long ago. “It offered perspective,” I finally answer.
“I’m glad,” Olivia says, smiling. “Me and the guys were a little worried you’d lose yourself to him again.”
“You told the guys?” I groan.
“Of course! We bonded last night over … hot chocolate .” She glances at the crowd that’s desperately trying to overhear our conversation. “You should’ve come out.”
I shrug, wishing I could have. “Bring up the first good little boy or girl,” I call, oddly relishing the sound of my Santa voice. Sure, I have to drink about a gallon of honeyed tea after work, but every ‘ho, ho, ho’ brings so much joy. Worth it.
Olivia goes to move towards the line. She pauses. “You don’t mind if I text the guys a quick update while you’re with the kiddos? They told me to let them know if they had some hiney to kick after work tonight.”
I laugh my big Santa bowl-full-of-jelly laugh. “Go ahead. I have no secrets now.”
God, how I wish that were true.
Hours later, the line has finally dwindled. I pushed off taking my lunch break because so many of the kiddos, voluntarily, stayed in the line. They could’ve wandered around to the different stations—eaten chocolate, made a toy, but they chose to stay and wait in. For me.
So, I stayed, too. I stayed until all the kids had their turn and my legs went numb. I know the line will come back with the second wave of visitors in the afternoon, but for now I can relax.
“That was pretty crazy,” I say to Olivia as I walk over to her, stretching my legs after sitting for so long.
“The line or that one kid who wanted an RC car that shot fire?”
I lower my voice. “Did you hear how he said he loved watching things burn?”
“Don’t worry. His mom told me that they’ve hidden all the matches in their house.”
We look at each other for a moment. Even though it’s not funny, we burst out laughing.
Sometimes, all you can do is laugh. Olivia reaches up to touch my arm.
There isn’t the same question in her touch.
Since she now knows I like men, we’ve settled more firmly into friendship.
It’s perhaps the best gift that I could’ve gotten.
If only it could last.
“As soon as Duke’s back from his break, I’m going to go for lunch.” One of three lunch breaks left here before the end of season.
“I think he’s back now. He just texted me back about you visiting your ex.” She leans in. “He was more than a little upset that you visited him this morning.” Her voice is full of invitation to implore.
I shouldn’t ask.
No, I really shouldn’t ask.
There is literally nothing good that can come from me asking. I don’t need to hear about his interest in me visiting my ex. I don’t need to know if he was angry about it. Or jealous. Or so enraged that he was ripping off his shirt screaming my name…
“What’d he say?” I ask finally.
Olivia flashes me a grin, biting her lower lip with obvious over-enjoyment of this.
“Hmm… what did he say? I’m having trouble remembering…”
Despite myself, I’m smiling, too. “Fine. I don’t care anyways.”
“No?” she asks, tapping her index finger on her chin pensively. “Then, I can stop trying to remember the exact words that he used when he insinuated that he was going to go over there and carry you back here?”
Oh my god. I need those exact words. I want to put them on a shirt. No, a pillowcase. I want to put them on a pillowcase and sleep on whatever it is that he said. I want his words to invade my dreams so that, forevermore, I’ll dream of him whisking me away from Mal.
“Olivia,” I grit out, “I need you to tell me exactly what Duke said.”
I swipe at her phone, but she moves it away from me too quickly. She yelps a little and hustles away. “Well, there’s Duke now, coming back from his break. Why don’t you ask him? It looks like he only has eyes for you anyways.”
I whirl around to look. Sure enough, Duke, in full Santa gear, is strolling back from the Santa loft. He pauses every now and then to speak with a kid or to wave to someone, but his eyes are locked onto mine.
Except, that’s not what keeps my attention. Normally, the sight of Duke eager to get to me would have me transfixed. If it weren’t for the person just behind him, looking like a colony of fire ants crawled up his ass, I wouldn’t be able to take my eyes off Duke.
“You scared to go ask him? I know you said you just got out of a relationship, but if you want my advice, you don’t let someone like Duke—”
“That’s not it,” I breathe.
“What?”
I nod my head towards the two men who are walking over here. “That’s my ex. The guy walking behind Duke.”
Olivia gasps. “Let me guess, you never stopped sharing a location with him, did you?”
I gulp. That helpful location sharing that Mal insisted we use, despite never actually sharing his with me. And then I told him I was on my way to my new job. If only I had learned to stop giving and giving to Mal.
Duke strolls on, unaware that Mal is behind him trying to catch up. I know it’s not the moment, but I love how Duke’s long legs cover the ground easily, while Mal, who never shut up about how tall he is, half-jogs to catch up.
He catches up with him just as Duke reaches the velvet rope of my station.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Olivia mutters beside me, pulling at my arm to drag me back to the middle of the Santa Court.
I can’t help it, though. My life is unraveling. This is it—the moment I knew would come, the moment everything good in my life goes implodes—and I can’t look away.
“Hey,” Duke says. Both his hands hold onto the velvet rope, and he leans on it precariously. “I was wondering—”
He’s cut off as Mal grabs his shoulder and tugs him back a little to face him. I cringe. I had forgotten how terribly Mal treated service workers. Although, I do like how Mal takes a step back when Duke squares towards him, showcasing his full, towering height.
“Can I help you?” Duke asks, not bothering to infuse even a tiny bit of Santa jolliness into his voice.
Mal falters. “Oh, yeah man. I was just wondering if you could point me towards Viola.”
Duke frowns. “Viola?”
Mal scoffs but stops midway when he catches sight of Duke’s physique. “Yeah. Viola Pearson.”
Duke’s eyes flicker to me, who he still thinks of as Sebastian. Olivia’s arms are around me as she’s vaguely trying to pull me away from this scene. Duke angles his body to stand in the middle of Mal’s sightline to me. Clearly, he must read some of the emotion on my face.
“Viola? Sebastian’s sister?”
Behind my bushy Santa beard, my face burns with impending embarrassment.
“I guess…” Mal answers. “Look. I need to talk to her about something.”
Duke takes a small step towards him, doing something to flex his chest and shoulders so that his muscles bulge underneath the bulk of his costume. Olivia peels herself off me and slips under the velvet rope to stand beside Duke.
“This is the asshole ex,” she says, not bothering to look at Mal.
“Listen, I don’t know what you were told, but it’s not like that. I just need to talk to—”
“To what?” Olivia says, getting into his face, poking her finger into his chest, in a way that makes me swell with pride. “To try to spin the fact that you have someone new living in your apartment after just breaking up?”
Murder storms in Duke’s eyes. “You’re a piece of shit, you know that, right?”
Mal takes a step back from the angry Santa and elf. “It wasn’t like that…”