Candy
December 24th - Christmas Eve.
I was feeling nervous as I stood backstage with the other dancers. This would be my last routine and hopefully Cupid would be out there watching. I fiddled with my necklace that I had put back on this morning. I had planned on posting it back to Santa Land addressed to Cupid, but I was glad that I hadn’t.
“Ready girls?” Ginger asked. We all nodded and I was glad that Star was at the other end of the stage to me. The curtain was pulled open as ‘Santa Baby’ by Kylie Minogue started playing. We walked slowly to the front of the stage, bent down to touch our toes on our outstretched leg and we smoothed our hand up our bare leg until we got to the bottom of our dresses. Once we stood we shook our hips from side to side until we moved around the floor so we were lined up differently. Instead of being on the end of the line I was now third in the row and unfortunately standing next to Star. We turned to our left and crouched down and spread our legs before popping our arses out and standing back up.
I could feel eyes on me and as I looked out into the crowd, there he was, standing at his usual place at the bar, drink in hand and smiling up at me. I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading over my face as I continued to dance. The routine had a lot of slut drops, arm movements and strutting about the stage. Once the music had ended the lights were turned back on and we waved thanks to our audience. Before I could leave the stage Cupid was at the bottom of the steps with his hand held out for me. I didn’t hesitate, I slipped my hand into his and an instant calm erupted over my body. I had missed him.
“I missed you,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me.
“I missed you too,” I admitted.
“Come with me.” He pulled on my hand slightly and I followed him down the hallway until he stopped outside of the gingerbread room. Our favourite room. Anytime I smelt ginger, memories of what had happened in this room came to my mind.
He flipped the sign to occupied and pulled me inside.
“I need to explain.”
“There’s no need. Angel told me everything.”
“Everything?” he asked.
“Yep.” I smiled at me.
“Shit. I wanted to be the first person to tell you that I was in love with you.” He held my hands tight.
“I love you too.”
“So let’s walk out of here together and be a proper couple?” He asked.
“Yeah. Let’s remove masks and beards first. I can’t wait a minute longer.”
Just as we were about to show ourselves to each other the door flew open and five or six men came barrelling in. Three of them grabbed hold of Cupid and began dragging him away with a hand over his mouth and two others held me in place.
“No, what are you doing?” I screamed as I tried to get free so I could run after Cupid.
“We can’t allow you to show yourselves to each other.”
“What? Why not? Tonight is the last night and then Santa Land will be closed for a year. I won’t be coming back. We won’t be coming back.”
“I’m sorry.” One of the men held his finger over an ear piece he must have been wearing. “He’s gone. You can go now.”
“NO!” I cried. They let me loose and I ran for the exit. I didn’t care about my coat and Angel was still at my place so I didn’t bring keys. I ran outside to see if Cupid was there, he wasn’t. The street was empty.
Eve
I opened the door to my apartment and walked in crying my eyes out.
“Oh my god, what happened?” Ruby asked as she flew towards me.
“They took him away,” I bawled. “They dragged him out of the room before we could see who each other was. Now I’ll never find him.” I burst into more tears as Ruby encircled her arms around me and led me over to the sofa.
“Hey, it’s going to be ok. We’ll find a way to find him. I promise.”
“What’s that?” I asked pointing to the coffee table. Ruby snatched it up in her hands and shoved it into her hoodie pocket.
“It’s nothing.”
“Was that a pregnancy test? Let me see it?” Ruby dug it out of her pocket and handed it to me.
“Oh my god. Your pregnant.” I screamed in joy. She didn’t look quite so happy. “You not happy about this?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“Who’s the dad?”
“As bad as it sounds, it depends on how far along I am. There’s only been two guys in the last two months.”
“Holy shit, we need to make you an appointment.”
“It’s Christmas day tomorrow, it’s going to have to wait.”
“Do you have an idea of who you think it might be?”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “According to the numbers it’s the first guy, Comet.”
“Shit, now we have to find two guys,” I sighed. “How are we going to find them?”
“We’ll go back to Santa Land in the morning and tell them we’re both pregnant and we owe it to tell the baby daddies.”
“Do you think it will work?”
“Who knows. I’m exhausted. I need to head home.” Ruby climbed to her feet and stretched.
“If we don’t find them, I’ll help you out with this little one.” I rubbed her flat tummy and she gave me a tight smile.
“Love you Eve, Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas. I love you too.” Ruby left me alone and I felt lost. I didn’t know what to do. I slid down the back of the door I locked after I let Ruby out and cried into my hands until I couldn’t cry anymore.
Where are you Cupid?