Chapter 2

Ella

I tried not to sigh as I hung up my backpack in the employee locker room, definitely not ready for another full workweek in retail hell. If someone would have told me I would be spending my twenties in the same minimum wage job folding clothes and appealing to the narcissistic whims of the average “I would like to speak to your Manager” middle-aged woman, I would have smacked them silly.

And yet that’s exactly where I was, and it made me hate the bright decorations and holiday cheer around me that much more.

“And this is the employee locker room. Normally this is where people leave their things or change their shoes, but you’ll have an entire outfit change to do, which we’ll get to shortly. Bathrooms are around the corner. Oh! And if you want to leave something in a locker, it’s your responsibility to buy a lock.”

“Got it.”

I was surprised by the voice I didn’t recognize. I knew everyone who worked in our stores down to the janitors. Turning, I saw it was a pretty stunning man I had never seen there before.

He had brunette hair that hung in carefree waves around his face, like they might have been meant to be curls but were far too chill to twist that tightly. He had dark, dark eyes that seemed to fit his striking face well. And his cheekbones? I almost didn’t want to get into that. They were high and almost sharp enough to cut a girl. I couldn’t stop myself from totally eying him head to toe before I forced myself to turn back to my locker and look away.

Thankfully, or maybe not, they left rather quickly, almost running into my friend and co-worker Jo on their way out.

“Who was that?” I asked her once I was sure the door was closed and they were gone.

“You mean the total cutie pie?” Jo responded, twirling her pink hair around her finger as she affected a high-school popular girl accent.

I just sighed and gave her a look. After three years of working with Jo, I’d long since gotten used to her dramatic quirks, but every now and then, they did get kind of tedious. Luckily, the rest of her personality more than made up for it.

From somewhere in the Midwest I couldn’t quite remember, she was a fun mix of southern hospitality and western know-how. She was quick with a smile, a quip, or taking on any number of accents for the sake of a joke. Before she had started working, colorful hair had been very much against the rules. I didn’t know how she did it, but about a month after she was hired, that policy had changed just like that.

“No, I mean the same manager we’ve been working with for two years. Of course, the young guy.”

“Excuse me, I said cutie pie, not young guy.” She stuck out her tongue and finished putting her stuff away. “But yeah. Apparently, he’s the new store Santa.”

“My god, really?” I couldn’t help laughing. When Santa came to mind, it certainly wasn’t anything like the young, scrumptious, well-built man I had seen.

“Yup. Remember how creepy the last one was and how he would always show up drunk? Well, he threw up on the wrong person’s shoes, and so now he’s out. Of course, that put Jimmy in a bit of a pinch, so when the new guy walked in, he was hired.”

“Huh, that’s definitely an original story.” I shook my head. “I was wondering where Santa was all this weekend. How many kids do you think are going to come clamoring now that they know he’s finally coming back?”

“Honestly, those little kids love Santa almost as much as their mamas. I’m guessing at least twenty-five minimum before lunch.”

“Twenty-five, really?” I asked. “It’s still only the beginning of Christmas. I think fifteen. No! Sixteen. Most of those tykes have to still be in school.”

“Fine. Deal. But what are we betting? We should have something on the line to add a little, ya know, spice.”

I gave her another look. I was sure some of my surliness was due to the season and everything that came with it, but I didn’t feel like humoring her. “Girl, you know I’m flat broke right now, and any money I do have left over after bills is going straight into savings for when I graduate.”

“Ooooh, a whole twenty bucks a month. You must be really building a nest egg for yourself.”

“I’ll have you know that along with birthday money, I have almost a whole grand saved up.”

Jo clapped her hands, and it was only slightly mocking. “Oh, wow! That will cover, like, a month of bills? Let’s hope you never get sick or injured or otherwise unhealthy, considering none of us have vacation time or benefits here!”

“I know, I know,” I sighed and tried to push my thoughts away from finances and back to the fun scoping out of hotties at work. “What if we bet something non-monetary?”

“Well, nothing quite sweetens the pot quite like public humiliation. How about whoever loses has to go and sit on that Santa’s lap in front of all of the store like it’s absolutely normal.”

Perfect. To me, that honestly sounded like a win-win situation, so I held out my hand. “Deal.”

Jo took my hand and gave it a solid shake before clapping in excitement. “Oh, what a great way to start my Monday! Anything to escape the banality of the never-ending workweek.”

“Have you been reading Shakespeare again?”

“You do know there are other classical writers other than Shakespeare, right?”

I waved the question off and finished putting my name tag on before heading out. I didn’t need to listen to one of Jo’s literature rants. After all, I had a sexy Santa to scope out.