Chris #4
"I guess it's good that you are here then!
" she said as she crouched in front of the box and pulled out ornaments.
"So, I asked the pre-k class if they could make ornaments for me.
Don't they look great?" Lulu's hand hovered over the plastic ornaments filled with fake snow and folded notes and pictures.
I squatted in front of the line and looked at them.
Or I tried. Instead, I was entranced by the peaceful expression on her face.
Pride and joy radiated from her face. Her cheeks were pink with the slight cold breeze as her hair whipped in the wind underneath her beanie.
She pulled her coat tighter to her chest as the wind increased. "What's in the balls?"
"Pictures. Wishes. A bit of everything. I think I saw one that had a little plastic fish in it. Maybe they have a fish at home?" she whispered as she brushed her finger underneath her eyes as she blinked them rapidly. "Anyway! It's up to you to get them on the tree."
I laughed as I grabbed a handful of them and climbed the ladder to hang them. Lulu had a handful herself and was working on the bottom branches. From the other side of the park, Britt screamed, "Lu—I mean Lulu! I'm done!"
"Grab the streamers and start decorating the wooden fence. There are also solar lights to create a path to lead to the pavilion!"
"Got it!"
"You're good at this. Even with simple decorations—"
"Once it's lit up, it will be magical. We also have our Santa, i.e. you! I have a local performer who will be reading Christmas stories to the kids. I'll have hot chocolate and all."
"When will Lou be here?"
"Lou's hanging out somewhere. Don't worry!" she said as she turned away from me.
"Why are you doing so much?"
"I always do stuff for the community like this. But this is a once in a lifetime experience. I want it to be magical. It's Christmas, of course!"
"But what does this town do for you?" I asked as I jumped off the last rung.
Lulu stumbled over a root and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I love this town. I love Christmas, and I want to give back. Don't you have a heart, Mr. Grinch?" Lulu sped up as she walked to her car and pulled out more decorations. "Might save some gas for a day without all of this in there."
"You forgot we packed some of it earlier."
"Whatever." Britt approached her, and they started having a hushed conversation with a few glances at me.
Lulu started rummaging around the car as Britt walked away with her box of lights. "You're pretty hot," she said.
"Not interested," I said as I avoided looking at her but was staring at Lulu's round ass.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I could go to the city and get all sorts of girls that look like you."
"You'd rather fight with Lu-uh-lu?"
"Do you not like her?" I asked as I turned towards her. A puzzled expression was on her face, but I told her the truth: I didn't want her.
"No. I mean, she's weird. She's okay. But I'm better than her ."
"Do you really believe that? She's organized this whole event—"
Britt waved her free hand. "She's not perfect! She did this to drum up business for the B&B. Really, she should let your company take it off her hands!"
Instead of answering her, I glanced back at Lulu. "Maybe it could be saved. But I need to talk to Lou."
Britt giggled before she turned. "She likes it rough by the way. Or that's what I heard in high school!"
Frowning—and ignoring what the implications she said meant—I looked back at Lulu. "Are we done with the tree? One of the firefighters I asked a favor from is gonna put a tree topper on it later."
"Why can't I?"
Lulu's head tilted. "I'm borrowing the topper from his mom. So that's why I don't have it. But we got to go. I think Britt has it from here, we'll be back tomorrow. We have to run to—"
"Don't trust Britt, she doesn't like you much."
Lulu paused as she stared at her ringing phone. She tapped the button and it went silent. "I know she doesn't. Not many people like me that much, but I can still get my way because like I said, I care about the community."
"Who was that?"
"Uh, it was one of the maids. I thought she was off until tomorrow. Give me a few minutes," she whispered as if she was about to be disappointed.
"Well, probably not. Don't worry about her. She'll get the job finished and we can go do what we need to do, but I'm getting a lot more texts now. Something's happening at the B&B."
"What do you mean she'll be fine?"
"Let's walk and talk. We gotta go to the car.
I think I gotta go to the B&B first. This day is turning a bit crazy, I guess.
Britt and I aren't friends. I would say work acquaintances, but it's really volunteer acquaintances.
Plus," I looked around and then lowered my voice.
"I might've fucked the guy she liked when we were in eighth grade.
So she's kind of mad at me about that. But we volunteer for the same organizations growing up and I knew she was free and she would do this for me and help out our community because, you know, I'm sure there's a hidden favor in there somewhere, but it works for us.
She probably doesn't like me but she likes me enough to help. "
I blinked as I grabbed the car door. "You know she doesn't like you?"
Lulu threw her head back and laughed before she sat in her seat.
Once I sat in my seat, she turned to me while she fiddled with her keys.
"No. To be honest, we stopped really hanging out with each other outside of our volunteering things after that because, you know, it went all around school that I did that and she was mad because she was really wanting him to ask her to prom, I guess. "
"She told me what she liked." Lulu froze and turned back to me. Her brows were furrowed as she looked at me intently. Instead of answering her, I shook my head. "Never mind. It's nothing, probably just some little things she tried to tell me."
"I don't understand."
"Britt was flirting with me."
"Oh."
"So why isn't your boss dealing with the B&B?"
"Lou's very busy. Don't worry about him."
"But you know I will have to deal with him. You're right, I am a part of the company that's looking into buying that property."
"Wow. It took you this long to fully admit it even though you were like 'can we come to a compromise.' There is no compromise. Green spaces matter."
"So what's happening at the B&B?"
"I am not entirely sure because there's really a lot of messages and calls. Some from Rich, so I don't really know what's going on right now. But we will figure this out."
The rest of the drive was in silence until we got to the B&B. The parking lot was full of cars, some of which I recognized from my place of work. It worked, but I was conflicted. Why was I trying to help her so much?
Lulu froze as she looked around and parked before running up to the door. I ran after her until we got to the counter. A woman I didn't know was behind the check-in counter, swiping through a tablet.
"Savannah, what's going on?"
"Rich happened to drive by and he saw that there was someone waiting, so Rich called me to check them in.
We have a full house and I know we have another couple supposed to join in the next few hours.
I'm not really sure where we're going to put them at this moment.
" An idea popped into my head, and I leaned across the counter and looked at the maid in question.
"Lulu here was telling me yesterday how there is a separate overflow building. You can move me there and turn my room over and open up another room."
"Oh yeah, that's a great idea. And I think we can move Lulu too. OK, OK, I got this. Let's go."
Lulu froze as she looked up the stairs and around. "Yeah, yeah. I don't have much in that room anyway. You know I mostly spend time in the office or in the outbuilding, so I'll be fine. I am... I'm kind of worried about Christmas now."
"Lulu, let's go to the office. I need to talk to you."
"Savannah," Lulu said before she walked to the office. Yet through all this, I didn't know where Lou, their boss, was.
Lulu
As I stepped into my office, I walked to the large framed map of the county that included the B&B and the national forest. "Thanks for coming in.
I know you had a day off. But I'm kind of worried about Christmas dinner now.
I don't have a chef or anything and I know it's a B&B, but it's Christmas too. I don't know. This is a lot."
"I see you heard about the zoning meeting coming up,” Savannah whispered as she gently touched my shoulder. I wiggled her off and stepped away from her.
Keeping my eyes locked on the lush forests and trails I loved. "Chris is part of the company that is looking into buying the land. I wish that somehow I can show him that this town is worth it.”
"So why are you hanging out with him?"
Turning away from the map, I walked to my desk and started to futz around with items on it.
"I keep thinking that maybe I can, like, change his heart.
Maybe he'll see what a good place this community is and, you know, stuff.
But I just keep rambling on about green spaces.
It's not enough. I think I'm gonna lose the B&B. Plus also he thinks I'm Lulu the maid that does everything and that Lou, our man boss, is nowhere to be found. Which probably isn’t good either!”
Savannah’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Her arms waved around the room. "He thinks that Lou is a man? He looks around this building and says 'yes, a man totally owns this place'?" After she finished talking, she covered her mouth and started giggling. “This is insane.”
Her laughter was infectious and I couldn’t help giggling as I plopped into my office chair.
"Yeah. I'm shocked he didn't notice that you said Lou earlier.
But maybe he's a little dumb. I don't know.
I don't feel like I'm doing a good job at any of this.
I'm just really overwhelmed and this is all so damn ridiculous.