I glanced down at my watch in between kids, and was beyond excited that I only had a few more hours to go until I was out of this hell on earth…at least for the night. As much as I enjoyed making these kids happy, it was driving me to drink far more often than I should. Knowing how much trouble I could get into with my drinking, I had been keeping it to a minimum as of late. All I had to do was keep my nose clean until my father saw that I could be responsible, and then hopefully I could get my old job back.
The rest of my shift flew by and I was extremely grateful. I don’t think I could listen to one more kid tell me what they want for Christmas as they throw a fit and act like a brat. Was it just me, or were kids just spoiled rotten these days? Back when I was younger, if I were to have thrown a fit my mom would’ve smacked me upside the back of the head, and then marched my ass right out of the store. Either that or my extremely caring father would’ve pulled his belt off right there, and gave me a good lashing. Either way, I made sure to never throw a fit as a child and I turned out just fine…kind of.
I grabbed all my belongings out of my locker, and let out a loud sigh as I turned to walk out of the locker room. It felt amazing to not have a forty-pound weight strapped to the front of me, and an itchy beard that made me rethink ever growing facial hair. I caught sight of a shadowy figure pass by me and out the side door as I made my way out the other side door. I was pretty certain as to who it was that just left, but something in my gut told me to make sure it was her, number one, but also to make sure she was okay.
I walked through the door that just clicked into place, and searched the almost empty parking lot for her. I wasn’t sure what kind of car she drove, so it took longer than I thought it would to find her. When I finally caught sight of her, she was pulling a bike out of the back of a small SUV. My brows pulled together in confusion as I watched her zip up her thick winter jacket, and tuck her pants into her boots. I was trying to fathom how anybody would be willing to ride their bike in this weather when she obviously had a perfectly good car.
I was about to yell out to her, but something stopped me. I don’t know if it was the fact that she clearly hated me ninety percent of the time, or if it was the fact that I could tell that she was far more independent than any other person I had ever met, but I really didn’t feel like pissing her off again today. So I chose to follow her instead. A little stalkerish, I know, but I really just wanted to make sure that she got home safely.
A few blocks into her ride home, I started to wonder just how far she lived from work. Judging by how casually she was riding her bike, she was used to the winters here, and that’s what got me wondering about her. I shook my head in disapproval as she started to slow down. I wasn’t sure what I should do when we reached her house, but I knew if she were to just see a car following her, then she would most likely freak out. So I decided to walk over and say something to her.
She finally came to a complete stop after two more blocks, and I was exhausted for her. The digital thermometer on the dash of my car said it was only twenty-six degrees outside, and I couldn’t help but shiver. I was used to cold weather, but the winters in Minnesota were far worse than anything I dealt with in New York. I watched her intently as she parked her bike out front of a small duplex that looked nice enough from the outside. The neighborhood was very nice, and the structure itself didn’t look worn down or dilapidated at all. She locked her chain around her bike, and then around the bike rack, then took a look around at her surroundings.
Her gaze stopped on my car, and I almost didn’t get out and go over to her, but knowing my luck she would call the cops on me if I didn’t. I slowly emerged from the car, closing the door quietly behind me. When she saw that it was me, I could see disappointment wash over her. By the look on her face I could tell that she wanted to lay into me right then and there, but I held my hands up in mock surrender as I walked closer to her.
“Look, I just wanted to make sure you got home okay. That’s all.”
“I don’t need you checking up on me. I’m a big girl, you know.” She folded her arms across her puffed out chest and big ass jacket, and I almost broke out in laughter at how ridiculous she looked.
“I know! I know! Can’t you ever just say thank you? I didn’t have to make sure you got home okay. I could’ve been a real asshole and just went about my own business. What is your deal?” Now I was just frustrated, and taking it out on her, but she really needed to learn how to lighten up.
“I didn’t ask for you to-“
“Just say thank you!” I shouted.
“Thank you.” She muttered in an annoyed tone.
I turned around to start heading back to my car, when her voice broke through the deafening silence, causing me to jump in my own skin. I quickly turned around as my name came out of her mouth one more time. But when I turned around, I didn’t say a word, I just simply stood there looking in her general direction.
“I’m sorry that I’m this way, but you wouldn’t understand. Thank you though, I mean it.”
I could hear the slightest bit of sincerity in her voice, but it was far past that now. “You’re welcome.” I shouted over my shoulder as I made my way over to my car. As I opened the door to get inside, I felt a cold dainty hand clutch onto my elbow. When I turned I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Noel standing in front of me.
“I really am sorry. I don’t mean to come off all bitchy and cold, I swear. It has just been a really long few months, and I’m just trying to get my bearings at the store. I am sorry though, and I want you to know that I’ll try harder to not be so mean…maybe.” She smiled as a small laugh escaped her throat.
I liked her smile. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and for the first time, I actually saw her true beauty and not just what’s on the outside. I could see her walls starting to crumble, and it made me want to open up to her as well, but I just couldn’t. Not with who my father was. Now I had no idea how to navigate the situation with her and I, but lord knows I was willing to figure it out.
“So, friends?” I asked, hopeful.
“Friends.” She held out her hand, and I took it without hesitation. Her skin was warm and soft against mine, causing my body to react in unexpected ways.
“I’ll let you get to it. I’m glad you made it home okay. I do have one question though.”
“What’s that?” She whispered.
“Who the hell rides their bike to and from work when it’s twenty-five frickin’ degrees outside? Are you nuts?” I laughed.
“Oh that.” She laughed in return. “Well…my car is a piece of crap, so I keep my bike in the back just in case it decides to not start, like it did tonight.”
“Well next time, could you please ask me or anyone for that matter, for a ride? I would prefer you didn’t freeze to death, especially now that we are friends.” I gave her my best sly grin, but she just wasn’t havin’ it.
“Do the girls really fall for all of that?” She pointed at my face with a wide grin plastered on her face, and I was shocked. This was the most I had seen her smile all day.
“Usually.” I joked. “Hey, I just wanted to say I’m sorry again, you know, for the whole nose thing.” I kicked at the snow beneath my feet in embarrassment. “It was an honest mistake.”
“All is forgiven, but I appreciate the apology either way, Hayden.”
“So…is your last name really Christmas?”
“Oh how did I know that was going to come up?” She stood there for a long minute, and I wondered if she was even going to answer the question. “Yes, it is. My full name is Noel Joy Christmas.”
Before she could even finish her last name, I was busting a gut, and unable to catch my breath.
“Oh come on, it’s not that funny.”
“The only way it could be more funny is if your name was Kris Kringle.” I continued to laugh hysterically. “I’m sorry.” I joked between sobs. “I would’ve changed my name years ago.”
“Trust me, I tried.” She muttered with
an angry look on her face, and I instantly stopped my uncontrollable laughter.
“I’m sorry. I promise, that’ll be the last and only time I laugh at your name. Well Ms. Christmas, thank you for chatting with me out in the freezing cold. It was nice.”
“It was.” She responded. “We should hang out again sometime.”
Her proposition rendered me speechless, and I almost didn’t believe that those words had come out of her mouth. “Yeah…yeah…uh, that would be awesome.” And for the first time since I had arrived in this god-forsaken place, I didn’t lie. “I guess I’ll see you at work tomorrow. Have a good rest of your night.” I got in my car, and rolled my window down as I watched her start to walk away. “Night, small fry.” I stuck my tongue out at her as I rolled on by and headed home.
The day had most definitely turned around, and my night ended far more pleasant than I thought possible. I was almost back to my apartment when I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to go “hang out” with Rebecca. I pulled my phone from my front pocket and checked the time. Shit, it was 10:45, and I already had fifteen text messages waiting from her. I guess I could check her off the list.
Seven
Noel
I was running around my house frantic as I searched for the perfect thing to wear tonight after work. This whole “date” with Officer Gorgeous was really starting to stress me out, and I didn’t like it. This wasn’t me. I didn’t stress about boys or stupid stuff like that, I stressed about family, and my job. I sat back on my bed as I let my head fall into my hands in exasperation. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could put on this little act. It was exhausting pretending to be someone I wasn’t.
I grew up in this town, and spent every second of every day since trying to get the hell out of it. After I graduated high school, I actually did make it out. I left this worthless town behind and headed to San Diego, unfortunately that didn’t last long. My momma always knew when good things were about to happen to me, and instead of hoping for the best for her darling little girl and only child, she made sure to ruin everything in one fell swoop. So instead of going on to live out my dreams, I was forced back here to live out her nightmare.
I glanced around at my tiny living space and thanked my lucky stars for what I had, given the circumstances. “It could be worse.” I whispered to myself before gathering up my things and heading out to work. When I got out to the sidewalk to start unlocking my bike, I noticed a bundled up gorgeous man, who just so happened to be Santa himself. And he was holding two giant cups of coffee from my favorite coffee place down the street.
“Two cups of coffee, huh? You sure you need all that caffeine?” I joked as I nonchalantly walked in his direction.
He took a slow sip out of his cup, hiding a mischievous grin behind it. “I actually do.”
I was now standing directly in front of him, and I literally couldn’t believe how much hotter he looked in the early morning sunlight. It was so unfair. “Well then, enjoy your coffee, and I’ll be seeing you at work.” I gave him a flirtatious smile as I turned and started walking back towards my bike, swinging my hips to further draw his attention to my backside. When I reached my bike, I bent over slowly and began unlocking my bike lock.
“You know, my mother always taught me to share.”
I wanted to turn around and do nothing but stare into his captivatingly gorgeous eyes, but I wasn’t about to give in that fast. So I blew him off. “That’s okay. I’m on my way out anyway, maybe I’ll just stop and grab my own. I wouldn’t want you to have to share with…a girl.” I laughed.
“You’re not playing correctly, Ms. Christmas. You’re supposed to come running over in excitement, and steal the coffee right out of my hands. Someone needs to teach you the rules of the game.”
His playfulness had the exact effect on me that I wished it would, and I was finding it hard not to walk away before I was about to be late for my second day of work. “I don’t play games, Hayden.” The bike lock finally released, and I began twisting it back up into a circle before shoving it into my backpack that was already filled to the brim with makeup, shoes, extra clothes, and who knows what else. Just as I turned my old as sin mountain bike around to start making my way to work, his hand shot out in front of me, stopping me in my tracks and preventing my bike from moving.
“I would never dream of playing games with you, Ms. Christmas. Here,” He held out the extra cup of coffee in his hand, and I could immediately smell the mouth-watering aroma billowing up out of the small drinking hole. “This one is for you.”
“Did you just come by to bring me a cup of coffee, Hayden?” I took a sip of the dark smooth nectar of the God’s, and let out a small pleasurable moan. “So good.” I whispered.
“In all honesty, I was hoping you would let me give you a ride to work this morning. I checked the weather when I woke up, and I wouldn’t want you to be late on your second day because of inclement weather.”
It really was sweet of him to even think about me at all this morning. I couldn’t tell if this guy was for real, and really just cared about my well being, or worried about getting into my pants. Either way, it was freakin’ freezing this morning, and I wasn’t about to turn down a free, warm ride, especially from a guy that was most definitely aesthetically pleasing to the eye as he was.
“Well?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings, so yes. You can give me a ride to work.” A glimmer of hope shot across his expression, and it made me smile a wide toothy grin. I locked my bike back up, and held tightly onto my coffee cup as we made our way over to his running car.
When he opened the door, warm inviting air engulfed my shivering body, and I wasted no time jumping into the passenger seat. He closed the door behind me, and as he was running around the front of the car, I caught sight of my mother walking towards us. Why? Why does this crap always happen to me? Why couldn’t my mother just be normal? I sat their silently praying that he would hurry his ass up so we could go without her even seeing us. A few seconds later, he was in the driver’s seat, and I was pretending to reach down in my bag for something so that my mother wouldn’t notice me.
“You got everything?”
I nodded my head frantically, and he finally took off down the road without any further questioning. When we were far enough down the street, I quickly sat up and looked in the rear view mirror to see where she was. Sure enough, she was walking up my front steps. I could only imagine what she wanted now.
“The bruising looks better.” His voice caught me off guard, but I turned and smiled in his direction regardless.
“What bruising?”
He gave me a quizzical look. “The one right there.” He pointed at my nose, and under my eyes.
“Oh, those bruises. Yeah, I tried to cover them the best I could with makeup this morning. Don’t want to go scaring all the kiddos.” I let out a half-hearted laugh, hoping he wouldn’t catch on to my mood change, but I wasn’t that lucky.
“Are you okay? You seem a little weird since we got in the car. Did I say or do something wrong?”
“No, no…no, it wasn’t you. It’s nothing…really.”
“Oh-kay. So, what’s your story?”
My head quickly shot in his direction, and I could feel my face flush red with anxiety. Nobody knew my story, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to tell a complete stranger. “Who says I have a story?”
“Everybody has a story. I’m just curious about yours.”
“Not much to mine. I lost my dad when I was seven. I lived with my mom up until about six months ago, and I work at the lovely high-class store Darrington’s. That’s my story.” I clammed up quickly, letting my attention fall back to the world outside that was passing us by.
“Don’t you want to know mine?” He was joking, I could tell by the tone in his voice, but I could tell that part of him really wanted me to ask. So I gave in.
“What’s yours?”
“Not much to mine either, I suppose. Parent
s are still married. I’m an only child. I obviously did not grow up here. I grew up in New York. Worked in the city up until about a month ago when my dad moved me out here, and now I’m stuck here until I can learn to “grow up”, his words…not mine. Other than that, I’m twenty-five, my hobbies are working out, watching movies, drinking, and sex.”
My eyes shot straight to his as he mentioned his last hobby, and I could tell by the evil grin plastered on his smug face that he was only half joking. “Wow, that’s a lot of information.”
“Really? My dentist knows more about me than that. That was just the condensed version. Maybe we could dive in further over dinner sometime?”
I was so wrapped up in my own worries and thoughts that I hadn’t even realized that he had just asked me out on a date. I turned in my seat to face him, but it was too late. He was already pulling into a parking space, and exiting his car, and he didn’t look too pleased.
“Hey, I would really like that.” I replied as I gathered up my stuff.
“Really?” He sounded shocked that I would even consider it, but truth be told, I was kind of crushing on him.
“Yeah, really.” I teased. “I’ll see you out there.” I started to walk inside, but turned to shout at him. “Thanks for the ride.” This was definitely going to make for a different kind of work environment…but I liked it.
Eight
Hayden
I couldn’t figure out why she was being so standoffish about her past, but given what little I did know about her, I could only assume it was because she was hiding something. Now I was going to make it my life’s mission to find out what exactly she was hiding from me, and why.
As I made my way into the locker room, I was secretly hoping that she would be working my station with me, but you never know where these flighty elves will end up. I took a long pull from the water bottle full of vodka in my locker, finished turning myself into a jolly old fat man, and turned to head out to the floor. As much as I wanted to hate this place just as I had the day before, I was actually finding it quite enjoyable.
The Secret About Christmas Page 3
