Cate
I hurried back to Calypso, shaken. The last time I’d seen Aleksandr Dragomirov, he’d been an asshole, dumping me because I didn’t want to hang around and be his biker babe, or whatever automotive thing he was into at the time.
I’d thought he was into me, but I’d been wrong. He’d cast me aside without a second glance. That had really hurt, because he was the guy I’d wanted for like, ever. We’d finally started dating senior year.
Shaking my head, I pushed the thoughts of Aleksandr aside. That was the past. I’d been surprised to see him, yes. He looked just as good as he’d looked five years ago, absolutely.
But I didn’t need a guy who thought education was a waste, and that I was only as good as I looked on his latest mechanical toy. To hell with that. I tossed my hair and headed for the registers, determined to forget the guy who haunted my dreams for a year afterwards. Too much time and tears wasted on that already.
My future was waiting. Tonight, after I got home, I was sending in the three applications I’d slated for this week, and I was getting out of here. I’d worked too hard to let my past—and a small part of my past—derail me now.
Thankfully, the remaining shoppers weren’t too horrible, and I was able to escape as soon as the store closed, and I turned in my register. Once I’d gotten home, I tossed myself on my bed, thinking.
Damn that Aleksandr. Why did he have to show up now? It didn’t matter. He was the past. I had my entire future ahead of me, and he was nowhere in it. Resolutely, I got up and turned on my laptop, refusing to think of Aleksandr anymore.
When I went to bed that night, I was full of righteous satisfaction. One of these jobs was going to come through for me. I could feel it.
* * *
The next thing I knew, my mom was gently shaking my shoulder. “Cate, honey, you have a phone call.”
“Um… what?”
She sighed. “A call, honey. It’s after ten. You need to get up anyway,” and she turned and walked out of the room.
“Subtle, Mom. Thanks,” I got up, and pulled the phone from the desk. Who was calling on the house phone? No one called me there anymore. “Hello?”
“Hi, Cate, I know it’s weird to call you here, but I didn’t have your cell number. This is Natalia Dragomirov.”
Jesus. Just what I wanted to think about. “Hey, Natalia. How are you? So that was you I saw at the Santa place?”
She laughed. “Every year. It’s the family business. There’s no escape. I know that we haven’t spoken much over the past five years, and I’m sorry. Would you like to get a coffee sometime?”
To say I was surprised was an understatement, but I was pleased. When Aleksandr and I stopped seeing each other, his sister had kept her distance from me. I couldn’t remember why—it might have been me—but I’d liked Natalia. It was through her I really got to know Aleks, and I was sad when we stopped being friends.
To hell with him, I thought again. I wasn’t going to let this happen again. “Sure. I’d like that. What’s your schedule look like?”
“I’m off today. I don’t know if—”
“I’m off, too. You want to have lunch?”
“That would be great.”
I could hear the smile in her voice. The Dragomirovs were completely open about how they felt—you couldn’t help but notice it the first time you met them. It was nice to know that Natalia was still the same, at least in this aspect.
We made plans to eat at a local pub near both of us, and I lay back in bed. It would be nice to have a friend. Most of the girls I’d been friends with—the Spar Islands girls--had not come back to Bristol, either moving away after getting married, or after graduating from college. We’d all been drawn together first by our parents, and then a desperate need to get out of Bristol, and yet, here I was. Nat had been part of the Spar Island girls, just like me.
The Spar Islands were a couple of small land spits off of Bristol, and it started because my parents had a large group of friends with kids of a similar age. They all had boats, so every summer we’d all gone out to the Spar Islands, and had beach parties. Even then, I’d had more fun digging along the shoreline. But all of us girls were friends, and as we’d gotten older, we’d take the boats out ourselves, and hang out and sunbathe. It was one of those days where I’d first seen Aleksandr as more than Nat’s older brother. He’d taken a bunch of us out in his boat, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
I shook my head. Never mind him. We’d started calling ourselves the Spar Island girls by then, and the name had stuck. I was friends with them all still even though most of them were long gone from Bristol. Annalise, who’d offered me a hideout at her place, was one of the Spar Island girls. I missed them, missed having all those girls to hang out with.
At least Natalia was here and welcoming. She was a year younger than I was, and clearly involved in the family business, given that I’d seen her all elfed up last night. Which brought me right back to where I didn’t want to be—thinking about Aleksandr. I am not sure I’d ever seen such an amazingly good-looking man. He had been handsome in high school, but five years had hardened him, made him fill out the promise he’d had back then.
And holy God, did he fill out the promise. He had dark hair, light blue eyes, cheekbones and a nose you could cut with, they were so sharp. His skin was swarthy all year round. Like he spent time all his time outside, but he didn’t. He’d always been busy helping with the Santa business, or building cars and bikes and other mechanical things. He’d seen no need for further education and thought my leaving to go to college to “study the ocean”, as he called it, as foolish and a waste of time.
I’d dated some in college, but no one ever seemed to compare to Aleks. He was larger than life and always had been. It pissed me off because I really wanted to move past all this old stuff. I thought I had.
Clearly, I was wrong.
I threw off the blankets I’d pulled back around me and headed for the shower. Plenty of time to mull over Aleks later after I spent time with his sister.
Clearly, I was a masochist. But I’d committed to lunch, so lunch it was. I got myself together and headed out for the pub we’d agreed on. I’d hurried to get out of the house and found that I arrived early. The hostess seated me and I settled in, hoping that I’d not made a mistake.
Within five minutes, Natalia appeared in the doorway. I waved, and she veered in the direction of the table. I got up as she came close and went in for a hug. A casual hug, but a hug.
“I’m really glad you agreed to get together,” Natalia said, returning my hug.
We sat down, and I said, “I was surprised to hear from you, but it wasn’t a bad surprise.”
“I’m glad to hear that. How have you been?” Natalia asked.
I looked at her. She seemed sincere, with nothing other than genuine interest. So I told her. All about college, and my various internships, my doctorate, and my current job search.
“You had internships every summer? Along with all your post graduate stuff? That sounds challenging and amazing,” Natalia looked off into the distance for a moment.
“I had to,” I said. “It was amazing, but I needed to come out of school with experience. There are not a lot of positions, so you need to get an edge.”
“OK, that part sounds brutal.”
I laughed. “It can be. I love it though.”
“What was your favorite thing?”
“Working with sharks, and jellyfish.”
“Jellyfish? Really? They don’t seem that exciting.”
“They’re not, but they are peaceful. I find them calming.” They were finicky in captivity and took a lot of care and attention. But I found that the payoff was being able to sit with them and get lost in their gentle floating.
“So, what do you want to do next?”
That earned another laugh from me. “Whatever I can. I’ll take anything that I’ve applied for.”
“What have you applied for?”
“Lots of various positions. All over the country.”
“I bet you can’t wait to get out of here,” she said.
I noticed that we weren’t talking about the Aleksandr elephant in the room, and I was profoundly grateful. “It’s nice being with my parents, but I think working in the mall is going to kill me.”
Now it was Natalia’s turn to laugh. “I do it every year. It’s a pain, sometimes, but I love seeing the little kids light up when they see Santa. Not when they scream in terror,” she added. “That happens, too.”
“What do you do when you’re not being an elf?”
“I’m still in school. I don’t have to elf it all year round.”
That made us both laugh, and our conversation turned to other things. It was casual, and safe until we’d finished lunch and were nursing our drinks.
“Are you seeing anyone?” Natalia was stirring her drink and not looking at me.
“I was, but we drifted apart over the summer,” I said.
She nodded. “It’s hard when you have your own life.”
The tone of her voice caught me just as I was about to answer. Lance and I had broken up because he didn’t like the fact that I paid more attention to my career than whatever it was he was doing at the time. “It is,” I agreed. “But at least they weed themselves out. What about you?”
She shook her head. “I’m a lot like you, Cate. I have work, and school. But I’m greally glad you agreed to meet me. This was fun. Between work and school, I don’t get out a lot after Halloween.”
“Let’s do it again,” I said. I meant it. I could also tell she didn’t want to talk about her love life, either. That was interesting.
We left, promising to get together soon. I felt better on the way home than I’d felt since seeing Aleksandr in the mall. I could be friends with someone without him interfering.
That was a good thing. I went home, feeling a lot more settled than I’d felt since I’d seen him. Which is why I sighed and said yes when Barb called to ask me if I could cover for someone tonight. Not like I was doing anything else. I made her promise I didn’t have to close and got ready for my shift.
* * *
Aleksandr
I got up late and wandered into the kitchen. While debating what looked good in the fridge, I called the shop. My garage wasn’t big, but I had a good crew of guys working for me, and I’d built up a healthy base of customers. It hadn’t been easy, but I wanted more than Santa, Inc. And it gave me the excuse to buy and fix up old cars and bikes. Not much better than that.
Well, sex. And women. The right woman. I hadn’t found that yet. She was out there, but where was the question? My mind went back to seeing Cate in the mall last night. I’d thought Cate might be the right one but who meets their right person in high school?
Besides, if she was the right one, she would have stayed. She wouldn’t have left me, left us. I felt a hint of the anger that I’d felt then. But only a hint, and it disappeared. Not that I wanted to admit it, but had Cate not left, I couldn’t say I would have gone out on my own like I did. With Cate gone, it had forced me to take a good look at my future, since I wasn’t going to college. What did I want to do? Being the next Santa wasn’t what I wanted. Natalia was going to take over the Santa business. She was good at it, and neither of my brothers nor I wanted it. My dad hadn’t been happy, but Nat was doing so well, he’d stopped complaining and embraced her as his heir. All the guys who worked for him loved her, and she was basically a rock star.
Cate leaving me had sent life in the direction it was supposed to go in. Which meant she probably wasn’t the one. The thought saddened me.
I shook my head. What the hell was wrong with me? One look at a chick and I fall into mopey land. No time for that. I finished up chatting with my shop manager, and took care of some administrative stuff, then headed for the gym. Nothing like sweating and pushing yourself to clear the head.
That’s exactly what I needed.
* * *
Two hours later, I left the gym, tired and knowing I was going to be sore tomorrow. My head was no clearer now than when I’d come to the gym. But it needed to be, because it was eight hours of kids and moms, and I needed to be on my game. If I wasn’t, Nat would kick me where it was most instructive—according to her, anyway.
As I walked through the mall, I could feel the admiring glances of women I passed. I smiled absently, still mulling over my thoughts of the morning. Not wanting to meet the eyes of anyone, I looked into the store windows, not really focused. They all looked the same, all had the same music and smells, and smiling women—I slowed almost to a stop as I saw a brown-haired woman with hints of red in her hair and a golden tan on her skin coming out with a bunch of clothes on hangers in her arms.
Cate.
She was smiling and talking over her shoulder. Her cheeks had a slight flush, and her lips were full and pink, and I wanted to go in and carry her out and---
What the hell was I thinking? I wasn’t going to do anything with Cate. I wasn’t going to walk past this store again, either. Looking up, I saw that it was called Calypso. Great. Now I knew where to avoid.
Even though everything about her begged for me to go back, go to her and—no. I wasn’t going to do a damn thing. Picking up my pace, I hurried to the Christmas Village display and snuck in the back of the small house that served as the changing room and Santa hideout. I still had thirty minutes before my shift started, and that would give me time to get changed and put my head right.
As I got into the costume, I stepped out of the changing room with the Santa pants on and sat down on the bench to pull on the big boots. Natalia came in through the back door.
“Hey,” she said, dropping her bag and sitting on the bench next to me.
“Hey. What are you up to?” I looked at her. Her color was up, and she looked happy. “I thought you were off today.”
“I am, but Mom asked me to come in. The line got huge, and she got nervous. She’s a little off-kilter without Dad. I said yes because I’m in a good mood. I just had lunch with an old friend. It was nice.”
“Yeah? Who?”
She didn’t answer right away, and when she did, her face was turned from me as she dug into her bag. “Cate Morgan.”
I couldn’t escape her, for God’s sake. “When did you see her?”
“The same time you saw her when she walked by yesterday? I waved to her. I called her parents’ house this morning, and she was there. I asked her to lunch and I’m glad I did.” Nat looked at me then, her face as close to blank as she could get it.
“So it was her. Well, good.” I didn’t know what to say but continued on. I didn’t need any questions from Nat of all people. “What’s she up to?” I hoped I didn’t sound lame, or stalker-like, or interested in any manner at all.
“She’s here while she’s job hunting. She finished school—she got her doctorate—and she’s had all these amazing internships during the summers between school years. I don’t care about fish at all, and she was so enthusiastic, she almost made me want a goldfish!” Nat laughed.
I joined her. She’d been the death of tons of fish over the years. It wasn’t for lack of trying to keep them healthy. But it had gotten to the point where my mom said if there was a game where anyone could win a fish, we were not to play.
“Well, good for her. You ready for today?” I changed the subject like Cate Morgan didn’t mean a thing to me.
Natalia looked at me intently, and then decided, I guess, not to harass me about it. “Yes. I think we’re going to be slammed so get your ho ho on.”
“Maybe I won’t get groped today,” I groused.
“Please. How many dates have you gotten out of it?” Nat shot back.
“One. And it was a first and last date.” Jill, the woman I’d asked out, had been obsessed with her ex, and simultaneously ready to move in with me before we’d even had dessert. I’d gotten the hell out of there and blocked her number.
“Not for lack of choice.”
“I don’t think you and I see viable choice in the same way,” I said, checking out the beard in the mirror. “Let’s do it,” I said.
At this rate, my dad was going to owe me big.
* * *
I kept the smile on my face even though it felt my skin might stretch and fall off. The kids were good today—only a couple of screamers at the sight of Santa—and no one had tried to grab my ass. But this much interaction with the public was wearing on me. I spent most of my day under a car, alone with mechanical things, and only had to deal with people every so often. It wasn’t the constant onslaught of this gig. I didn’t know how my mom, dad, and Nat did it.
They loved it. Which was why Nat was the heir to the empire. My brothers and I had gotten the hell out of Dodge the minute we could. Nat was welcome to the Santa biz.
“Only seven more kids,” Nat said in an undertone to me. “You’re doing great.”
“I need a drink,” I muttered back.
She laughed, putting a big smile on her face. “You’re on. You’ve been kicking ass while Dad’s been sick, so the booze is on me tonight.”
“Great,” I said, and held out my arms to the next kid, a determined little girl, who marched up to me. “What do you want for Christmas this year?” I asked.
She perched against my knee and pulled a list from her pocket. “I made a list, and then I made a list of how good I’ve been. I haven’t tripped my brother once in the past two weeks,” she added, looking up at me, her face earnest.
I shot a glance at her mom, who was laughing and covering her face all at once.
“That’s great that you’re being so restrained,” I said, forgetting I was talking to a kid. “Sometimes brothers are a pain, but it’s our job to be good to our family.”
The little girl’s brow furrowed. “I guess. He’s the worst.”
“OK, let’s see your list along with how you’ve been behaving,” I said quickly, recognizing the look on her face. She wanted to be heard. I got that, but that was on her parents. I’d settle for just hearing the good things she’d done.
The mom smiled at me as her daughter went into an explanation of why she deserved most of her list, and I smiled back. This was my kind of kid.
Six more to go.
* * *
When you watch the clock, it never moves with time. It slows down to a crawl. The last six kids seemed to take forever, but finally, my sister ushered the last child out of our Christmas village. I waited until the family had left and Nat returned.
“You made it. Dad would be proud.”
I smiled. We all enjoyed making our father proud. Even when it meant putting on the beard. “You owe me a whiskey. A double,” I added.
We hustled to get out of the mall, Nat being uncharacteristically quiet. Driving separately, we headed for our favorite bar, Slinky’s. Once inside, Nat sat at a booth opposite the long bar.
“I’ll be glad when Christmas is over,” I said, sitting down across from her.
“You’re such a Scrooge. I love Christmas.”
“Speaking of which, what do you want for Christmas?” I asked with a grin.
“Nothing you can give me,” Nat said. “Oh, wow! Hey!” She rose up out of her seat and waved at someone behind me.
I turned around to see Cate Morgan.
Shit.