A Winter Wonderland

by Daniela Reyes

  Jack didn't look as serious. "No, I'm sorry for saying you were bitter. The toy drive is something I do more because one of my friends got me into it. I used to think it was weird, like a waste of a Saturday night. But then-"

  “You grew up?”

  Jack smiled, a soft gesture that gave Holly hope he wasn’t on his never talk to list, if he even had one. “Not even close. I just realized this is important to those kids out there, that this isn’t a waste of their Saturday. Just like a lot of kids look forward to A Winter Wonderland.”

  “That sounds grown up to me.”

  "Hey, I'm eighteen, not forty," Jack said. "I still have my less selfless days."

  "I guess age doesn't matter on that front," Holly said. She knew plenty of people who didn't have a single selfless day, and they were way over forty. "So, are we going to hand out presents?"

  “In a second,” Jack said. His eyes darted around the room.

  Holly followed his gaze around the room. “Someone I should be looking for?”

  “Yeah, Lola.”

  “Lola?”

  "Yes," Jack said, with the coolness of someone who didn't think there was anything wrong with that answer.

  “What?” Holly backed up away from the crowd. “You brought me here so I could see Lola?”

  “No,” Jack said. “Well, yes, but that wasn’t the only reason I brought you here. I want you to see her and try and work out the whole her getting fired incident.”

  “There’s nothing to work out,” Holly said. “She lied and tried to get me fired.”

  "Okay, yes," Jack said. "And I'm not excusing that. It was wrong, and even though she didn't mean to start the whole getting everyone sick incident, I think it was fair she was fired. It could've been a lot worse."

  “So you admit what Lola did was wrong. Then why I am here?”

  "This isn't about working at A Winter Wonderland or who was right or wrong. It's about you knowing Lola didn't do what she did because she doesn't value your friendship-"

  Holly jumped as her phone rang. It was a call from Laurel.

  "Hold on," she said. Jack nodded. Holly walked off back toward the doors they'd used to get in. She stepped outside, still not sure whether she was annoyed or downright furious at Jack for trying to bring here to try and get her to be friends with Lola again. A frozen gust nearly toppled her back. She balanced herself.

  “Hello?”

  She heard a pause from the other end.

  “Can you pick me up?”

  Holly reached for the keys in her pocket. She was glad she'd driven herself here, but she also knew Laurel's reactions to new situations, new people. She could leave, pick her twin up, and spend the rest of the night shut in her room. Or they could both face what they didn't want to, even if for a few hours.

  “I’m kind of at a thing,” Holly said from the other end. “I thought you were looking forward to your date.”

  “Not a date,” Laurel said, her voice shaky. “And what thing?”

  “A thing,” Holly said. “I’ll tell you later, okay? Will you be okay? Was the guy a jerk? I’ll come if I have to-”

  "No," Laurel said. "It wasn't a date, to begin with. I'll be fine. Have fun at your thing."

  "I'll try," Holly said. "If you call me a second time, I'll be right over. Text me the address in case."

  “It’s fine. I’m fine. I just got overwhelmed with all the new people.”

  “Deep breaths,” Holly said. “Recharge and then go mingle.”

  “Thanks,” Laurel said.

  The call ended. Holly took a deep breath and put away her phone. Maybe Laurel would call again, and then she could just leave. The door opened before she could make a run for it.

  Jack walked out, hands in pockets.

  "Everything okay?" His blond hair swept to one side with the wind. He walked to Holly.

  “Yeah, it was my sister.”

  “Laurel or Gloria?”

  “You know their names?”

  “You mentioned them at work.”

  "Yeah," she said. It didn't mean he had to remember. "So, what am I doing here, Jack?"

  “You tell me,” Jack said. “You’re the one who called me for the address of this place. “

  "Because I was curious, okay, about this and about you."

  Jack tilted his head. “About me? I thought you’d summed me up to being Jack Frost.”

  "I had," Holly said. She hated feeling like this like she was afraid to say what was on her mind. "After we talked at work, I got even more curious. And when I'm curious about things, people, I go after them."

  “You’re chasing me?” Jack smiled.

  "I'm not. I mean, I chase down more information, not the person."

  “Terrible wording on your part.”

  Holly breathed in. “I’m not going to make up with Lola, just because you brought me here to see her volunteer.”

  “That’s the thing, she isn’t here volunteering,” Jack said. “She comes here to-”

  The door opened again.

  Both Jack and Holly turned to find Lola standing, cross-armed, marching toward them.

  “What are you two doing here?”

  Chapter 7

  Holly didn't have time to think.

  Lola was a foot away from her in an instant.

  “What are you doing here?” Lola asked again, this time to Jack. “Why did you bring her?”

  Jack sighed. "I thought you two could chat. And believe it or not, I am here to volunteer. Holly's kind of tagging along."

  “Jack-” Holly began.

  He turned to her. "We'll sort this whole you being curious about me bit later. You two should talk. I'll be at the toys for 8-10-year-olds booth for the next two hours."

  Then with that, he dashed for the door, gone before Holly or Lola could say anything.

  The door closed behind him.

  Holly was going to leave without sorting anything with Jack.

  “What did Jack tell you?”

  She turned back to find Lola in front of her.

  "Not much, other than you were going to be here. I thought you were volunteering, but he said you weren't here for that. Then you walked out before he could finish."

  "Jack needs to mind his own business," Lola said. Her eyes were watery, almost instantly.

  “Why are you here?” Holly asked.

  “I asked you first.”

  “Fine. I came here because Jack kept insisting I come, and well, I don’t know. I wanted to know why he wanted me here.”

  “Did you think he liked you?”

  "No-" Holly thought about Laurel's not date, date. This wasn't even close to that. "I was just curious. I didn't know you were a part of this, okay? I can go."

  She started to walk back to her car, but Lola stepped in front of her.

  “Wait.”

  “What?”

  "I'm sorry about trying to get you to take the fall for the whole hot chocolate marshmallow incident." Lola shook her head. "Let's just call it the incident because I'll laugh if I have to repeat marshmallow. And if I laugh, then you'll think I'm not serious."

  "It's okay to laugh," Holly said. She would've have preferred it if Lola laughed or did something other than giving her an apologetic look she was wearing right now. "I know you're sorry. And it wasn't all your fault. It was my job to double-check the expiration dates, but I was so busy moping and getting annoyed at Jack that I forgot."

  "I offered to help so that one's on me. But I'm sorry I freaked out and tried to make you take the blame," Lola said. "I figured you needed the money for a Europe trip in the summer, that you had time to save up more. And I needed it for Christmas. I didn't think they'd fire you."

  “Why not?”

  "Your mom's friends with country club people, everyone at A Winter Wonderland knew it when you got hired. And when I saw you didn't like the job anyway, I figured they were right, your mom probably made you get it."

  “She didn’t.”

  “I know that
now.”

  Holly was over this. “You said you needed the money for presents for your brother. Is that why you’re here?”

  Lola looked down at the ground. “Yeah.”

  Holly knew she didn't have a reason to feel guilty, but a part of her still did. "It's nothing to be ashamed of; kids just want toys. They don't care where they come from."

  Lola shook her head. "He cares so much. He knows that by coming here, he's different. The older he gets, the more embarrassed he is about it."

  “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

  “Easy for you to say. You’ve never had to get your gifts from a toy drive. That’s why I freaked out when the whole situation at work started. If I spent money on my brother for Christmas, then I would need to save my other paycheck to pay for stuff around the house. And if I got fired-”

  “You wouldn’t get the next paycheck.”

  Lola nodded. "It's not an excuse, but it's the reason I did it, not because I wanted you fired."

  “Do you have another job lined up?”

  "I asked around the mall for seasonal positions, but this close to Christmas, they're all filled up. My other part-time job starts back up with school. I'll be fine until then. I just can't buy my brother's presents."

  Holly remembered Lola mentioning she tutored elementary school students during the school year. She didn’t want to ask more about the situation. It wasn’t her business, not to be here or to tell Lola how her brother would be happy to get presents, whether from here or his sister. She wasn’t sure about that either.

  “All is forgiven about the marshmallow incident.”

  Lola cracked a smile. "I don't think I'll ever be able to hear anyone say marshmallow again." She paused. "Thank you for listening to what I had to say."

  "I wouldn't have been here to listen if Jack hadn't insisted. Did you know he volunteered here?"

  Lola nodded. "I met him here one year when his Grandma forced him to volunteer. We talked, and he ended up finding out I needed a part-time for the break. Jack's the one that got me the job at A Winter Wonderland last year, which is why he felt terrible about me getting fired. I guess bringing you here was him trying to feel less guilty."

  “You called him Jack Frost, though,” Holly said.

  Lola shrugged. "I'd rather people at work don't think I'm friends with Jack. The less they know about how I met him, the less they'll know about my family situation. I'm not embarrassed about it. I just don't need anyone feeling sorry for me, you know?"

  “I don’t know your situation,” Holly admitted. “But I know that feeling about not wanting anyone to feel sorry for you. I don’t if that counts for anything.”

  Lola grabbed Holly’s hand and then led her into a hug. “It counts. And even if you did come here because you have a crush on Jack, you being here gives you major friend points.”

  Holly pulled back from the hug. “I don’t like Jack. He’s my boss.”

  "Technically, we don't have a boss at A Winter Wonderland. We sort of just have two levels of snow angels. Too bad you don't like him. He likes you."

  “Does not.”

  "Does too," Lola said. She held up a hand. "And please let me stop you before you say 'does not' again. I've known Jack for a while, and while yeah, he likes his job a little too much, he's never stopped to check on anyone's booth as much as he does for whichever booth you're working. I'll leave it at that."

  Holly crossed her arms. She was freezing. “He… never mind. Are you good here?”

  Lola nodded. "I don't think my brother would want to know one of my coworkers is here, aside from Jack. So, I'm going to sneak back in ahead of you. Then you can go to Jack's booth."

  "I'm actually going to head home," Holly said. She wasn't counting the number of times Jack stopped by her booth, totally not. "But you have my number. Whenever you're free, let's hang out, okay?"

  Lola nodded again. “I’d like that.”

  Then both girls turned and walked in opposite directions.

  Holly rushed to her car, part of her thinking Jack might walk back out and try and get her to stay. He didn't walk out, and he sent a thumbs up in reply to her text that she was heading home. Holly wasted time by stopping to get some coffee and then drinking it in a mall parking lot, waiting to see if Laurel needed to be picked up. Jack didn't text anything else, and Laurel didn't call.

  Holly got home to find her parents putting up more Christmas lights over their fire place.

  “You’re back before Laurel,” her mom said. “Strange.”

  “How’d your toy drive go?” her dad asked.

  “Better than I thought it would,” Holly said.

  Then she headed upstairs, where she tried video calling Gloria, but got a busy message. Where was her sister when she needed to talk? Holly thought about calling her friends back in Florida, the ones she was going to Europe with in the summer, but decided not to. They didn't talk about stuff like this. Her friends were the sort of friends that liked to laugh and have adventures over getting into life advice.

  There was a knock.

  "Come in," Holly said, expecting to see her dad. Instead, Laurel stood in the doorway, with the biggest smile on her face. "Hey."

  Laurel didn't even try to hide the smile. "It was a date after all," she said. "How'd your thing go?"

  “Uh, good, I guess.”

  Laurel nodded. Then she turned again, right as she looked like she would walk off. "I know you've always been closer to Gloria, and we don't talk about stuff like this, but um, you can. I know we have different friends, and you're ready for college and your European adventure. I can still listen."

  “There’s not much to say,” Holly said. Laurel’s smile faded a bit.

  “Good night, then.”

  Holly bit her lip.

  "Wait. Okay. There is. I like Jack, and I think he might like me back too, but I don't know what to do because I spent so much time being annoyed at him that I don't know if I like him-"

  Laurel almost jumped in the room. She closed the door behind her then sat on the other side of Holly’s bed.

  “Please tell me everything,”

  Chapter 8

  Holly stood at her booth, thinking about the long talk she’d had with Laurel last night. They’d stayed up until three in the morning.

  “Tell him how you feel,” Laurel said. “You guys have a week left of working together. Who knows when you’ll see him again.”

  That had been her advice, and Holly didn't know why she couldn't follow it. Gloria would have told her to keep her feelings to herself because mixing work and your private life was never a good thing. And Holly would've gladly taken her older sister's advice. But, Gloria hadn't picked up.

  Holly had Laurel’s words swirling in her mind.

  “Hey, how’s the booth life treating you?”

  Holly jumped at the sound of Jack’s voice. She turned to find him behind her booth, holding his smile with the regular work intensity he usually did.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “You didn’t,” Holly said. “I was just distracted.”

  “With?”

  “Work stuff.”

  “Okay.”

  Neither one of them said anything. And Holly didn’t have many customers to deal with since the Glensford Country Club had sent a memo they wouldn’t be giving out free hot chocolate until they could get a new shipment of supplies. So Jack had all her attention.

  She heard Laurel’s voice in her head. Just tell him. Just tell him.

  “I like you,” Holly said.

  Right as Jack said, “So you and Lola made up?”

  He froze at the end of his question. His smile disappeared. “Wait, what?”

  Holly breathed out like she’d seen Laurel do when she got nervous about things. “I… I like you.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh?”

  “I don’t know what else to say.”

  Holly wanted to run away right now, but she knew that
wouldn't solve anything. "Either say you like me too, or that you don't."

  “I thought you didn’t like me.”

  Jack looked like he was going through a mental catalog of when Holly might've given him a clue that she liked him.

  “I didn’t, until yesterday. Or maybe before. I don’t know, okay? But I like you right now.”

  “What do you like about me?”

  "I'm not going to stand here and list off the reasons I like you." Mostly, because Holly wasn't sure about them herself. "You know what, I'll take the questions as an 'I don't like you back, Holly."

  Her cheeks felt hot. She turned as if to get back to work.

  “Woah, wait a second,” Jack said. He walked right up beside Holly. “I didn’t say that either.”

  "I don't know what you're saying," Holly said.

  "Okay, you kind of blindsided me with the whole liking me thing. I just wanted to know why. I mean, I like you because you're not fake, you tell everyone what you're thinking, even if it does get you in trouble. I can't do that. I mean I try, but I'm-"

  Holly held a hand up. “You like me?” She nodded. “You just said you like me.”

  “Yeah, I guess I did. But are you sure you like me? I mean it feels really out of the blue.”

  Holly rolled her eyes. “You like me. I like you. Let’s ignore everything else for now, okay.”

  “We still have to finish our shifts…”

  “I mean feelings wise, let’s just go with it.” She stopped. “You’re single right?”

  Jack nodded. “I wouldn’t tell you I liked you too, if I wasn’t.”

  “Good,” Holly said. “Then let’s get back to work and figure all this out afterward. Um meet me by the snow angel area?”

  Jack nodded quickly. “Okay, yeah. After shifts end. I’ll meet you there.” His voice shook.

  "Okay," Holly said. Then she motioned for him to get back to work. Not because she had a new customer, but because she really wanted to call Laurel right now.

  “See you then,” Jack said. He backed out of the booth and nearly bumped into another staff member. Holly turned away at that point.

  She dialed her sister, her heart racing.