“So,” I said around my food.
“So?” he responded, sounding like he needed some more sleep too.
“You excited about the Christmas party next Saturday?”
His eyes widened like he had completely forgotten about its existence, which, knowing sleepy Nick, he totally had. “Oh dude, that’s in, like, uh …”
“Eight days,” I answered quickly. “If you count today.”
“Right, right. Yeah, man, I’m totally excited. I really think this will be the year I finally hook up with Jo.”
I dropped my pastry for a moment and had to scramble to catch it before it hit the ground. “Wait, you want to get in with Jo?” It had taken me two days to learn the name of what seemed to be Ella’s best friend, and while she was cute, I was surprised to hear that Nick was into her.
“Yeah, man. I’ve liked her basically since I met her. She’s just so goddamned adorable and snarky. I don’t know if I wanna pinch those chubby cheeks of hers or bend her over.”
“Whoa,” I said, quickly looking around. “You probably don’t want to say those things in the workplace.”
But he only shrugged and continued munching like what he said was completely normal. “There’s nobody else here. And even if they were, they didn’t know who we were talking about, so I could make up some—”
The door creaked open, and I quickly stomped on his foot. Nick let out a surprised yelp but managed to get his wits together enough to shut the hell up right as Ella walked around to the edge of the table.
“Hey, what were you two talking about?” she asked, her tone light enough for me to hope she hadn’t overheard my friend talking about what he wanted to do to her friend. Although I could easily see myself doing the same to Ella, over a desk or even a couch, her rounded behind growing red with my—
“The Christmas Party next week,” Nick said idly, interrupting my sexy daydream.
“Huh, you guys are really obsessed with that, aren’t you?”
“Well, you know how it is for us lonely souls. We’ll do anything for a chance to pretend we have friends.”
“Oh yes, I’m sure you live the lives of real pariahs.”
“Yup, that’s us. Just a couple of social outcasts.”
She laughed and shook her head, leaving our table to grab something from the fridge. As much as I wanted her to stick around and continue our little verbal exchange, I did so love watching her hips sway. And when she bent over, good lord, it was not right how her ass looked in those tight, black pants.
I managed to avert my eyes by the time she stood, lest I look like some kind of creep. After all, I wasn’t only interested in her for her body, although her body was banging. What I liked about her was her sense of humor and the way her eyes lit up every time she cheekily thought up a new comeback.
“Well, I better get back to work. Don’t be late now. We wouldn’t want the children to riot.”
“Oh no, heaven forbid. Not an army of little knee-biters.”
“Exactly,” she said with a nod. “Especially since I just cleaned up all the displays in the front third of the store.”
“I promise I will keep your shelves safe from the Santa-hungry tykes.”
“Good.” She gave the two of us a little salute and exited, whistling slightly.
“Dude,” Nick said with a chuckle. “Can you wipe the drool off your chin, or do you need me to get you a napkin?”
“What?” I said, hand going to my chin. “I’m not drooling.”
“You practically were.” He shook his head like I was so hilarious. “Wow, you really have it bad for her already. ‘I told you so’ just doesn’t seem like enough anymore.”
“Shut up,” I countered, grabbing his pastry and shoving it into his mouth. “I have to start getting dressed anyway.”
But he was absolutely right. I had it for Ella, and I had it bad for everything about her from her full lips to her short, shiny hair to even the way she smelled. It was like someone had taken the blueprint of a perfect woman out of my brain and had given her the personality to boot.
But, despite my interest, one thing was for certain. I didn’t think it would be appropriate to ask her out or even really come on to her at work, where she might feel pressured to reciprocate a certain way. The holiday party was going to be my make or break it kind of deal, and if she didn’t seem into it, I was going to respect that and settle with the flirtations every now and then.
But by God, I really hoped she was as into me as I was into her.
Chapter 6
Ella
I looked at the door for about the tenth time, not wanting to admit what I was looking for but unable to stop glancing at the entrance every ten seconds.
After all, it wasn’t my fault! I wasn’t the one who had somehow gotten the entire weekend off, leaving me with a totally different knockoff Santa who I couldn’t match wits with on Saturday and Sunday.
I hadn’t realized it wasn’t Drayer walking up to the North Pole. My first suspicion that something was off was when I noticed this new Santa was much shorter, but I didn’t realize he was a new person entirely until I heard him talking to the kid on his knee. I had quickly backpedaled and gone to Jo to see if she had heard anything about Drayer being fired.
That had been a very anxiety-filled fifteen minutes. But thankfully, I found Jo, who always seemed to know the latest gossip, and asked her what was going on.
Apparently, Jimmy had finally gotten enough time to find another Santa so Drayer wasn’t working an illegal number of hours. That was a huge relief, not that I let Jo know it, and I resolved to wait until Monday when I could see my sexy Santa again.
Whoa, that was a little forward there. What was I thinking? Drayer was practically a stranger and a coworker, at that. I needed to clear my head and forget all about this stupid little obsession I had.
I heard the door open, and my head automatically snapped toward it. Sure enough, it was Drayer strolling in, looking rested but like he was still waking up. I watched as he strolled to the locker room before I quickly followed after him.
What was I doing? I berated myself to stop walking and get back to work, and yet my feet kept taking me right toward the locker room. Next thing I knew, I was opening the door and walking in on Drayer in nothing but an undershirt and his sweatpants.
Holy hell, if I thought he was yummy fully clothed, he was that much more so with his arms bared and a glimpse of his cut chest underneath. The guy should come with a warning label at this point.
“Oh, hey, Ella.”
“Hey,” I quickly collected myself and headed to my locker like I knew what the hell I was doing. “I missed you this weekend,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound completely desperate.
He laughed at that, helping me relax a bit. “I missed you too. Didn’t have anyone to banter with. Thought I was gonna go into withdrawal.”
I returned his mirth, and the smile felt so natural, not forced like it often was with customers. As much as I would like to stick around and keep going, I had work to do. Besides, it wasn’t like I actually trusted him, so I might as well keep my distance.
“I guess I better head back to work. I’ll catch you later.”
“Later. Don’t let the price tags bite.”
“I won’t.” I stopped pretending I was trying to fish something out of my bag and headed back out. I wasn’t paying much attention to my face, still basking in the warm glow filling me, when, of course, I ran into Jo.
“Let me guess. You were talking to your man.”
She said it like such a statement of fact, it irked me. “You know better than anybody else that I don’t have a man.”
“Come on, Ella, don’t be that way.” She sighed and slung an arm around me while walking me back to her section. “Why are you getting so defensive? It’s good that you have a crush! It means you’re moving on.”
“I don’t have a crush,” I argued stubbornly.
“Aw, Ellie, honey, sweetie, best friend forever. I
’ve known you for years. Do you really think I wouldn’t be able to tell when you’re flirting with a guy?”
“I’m not flirting!” I felt my normally passive temper flare. I mean, sure, my friend was right, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed being called on it when I was busy trying to shove all my feelings into a glass bottle. “Seriously, my boyfriend of four years was cheating on me, and after I found out and forgave him, he had the nerve to ghost me like I was no one. How can you do that? To someone you were supposed to love? We were together for a fifth of our lives and poof! He just disappeared after ripping my heart into pieces.”
“So, no, Jo. I don’t have a crush. I’m not flirting. I do not have the hots for anyone. I am just pleasantly surprised to see that I am able to make friends with a new coworker who doesn’t seem like a douche.”
Jo removed her arm and put some distance between us. “Fine, fine. Pretend your BFF doesn’t know what’s up. I’ll let you be now. You’re a bit prickly for my tastes.”
I grimaced, realizing I had snapped in a way that Jo didn’t deserve, but she was already walking off to work on shelving things. Oh, boy. I owed her an apology and maybe dinner later.
I went about the rest of my work feeling an exhausting mixture of guilty and angry. I felt bad about how I talked to Jo, but bringing up my ex had put me right back in with all of those emotions again. How could he? I had trusted him. Loved him!
Apparently, he hadn’t felt the same. It was bad enough that he had to find comfort in another woman, putting my health at risk, considering we didn’t use condoms, but instead of apologizing when caught, he had practically blamed it all on me. Then, he couldn’t even do me the decency of breaking up. Instead, he had chosen to vanish, scrubbing himself from my life until there were only the pictures and wounds to remember him by.
All of the memories, all of the sweet kisses and promises of the future, they had all been lies. And if someone I knew more than anyone else in the world could lie like that to me, how could I ever trust a stranger again?
So, no. I was absolutely done with men and relationships and romance. I would continue to better myself and maybe adopt some pets and that would be that.
I strengthened myself in my resolution and got through the first half of my shift. When it was finally time for lunch, I entered the break room in a mood.
But of course, Drayer didn’t know that.
“Hey, Ella,” he called, waving from where he was seated with his lunch bag in front of him. “Come to join us common folk at feeding time?”
I shouldn’t sit by him. I knew that. I should make some excuse about how I had a headache or needed alone time.
But I didn’t do that. Instead, I sat right across from him with my lunch like everything was absolutely peachy, and I wasn’t a betrayed mess. “I wasn’t aware Santa was considered common folk. The next thing you’ll tell me is the Easter Bunny and Jack Frost are regular, everyday lads as well.”
“Nah, that Easter Bunny has a terrible temper. Some people would even say it’s hare-trigger.”
I groaned at the terrible pun and dramatically pantomimed face-planting into my lunch. “I do you the honor of giving you my company, and you repay me in such a way.”
“You’re right. For shame. Allow me to make it up to you at this weekend’s Christmas party.”
I chuckled lightly and took a bite of my sandwich. As much as I would have liked a gyro or other food court fare, it was far too expensive for my savings plan, so I dealt with a cold meal that I’d brought from home.
“You certainly are hung up on that party,” I deflected, neither confirming nor denying I would be there.
“Yeah, well it sounds like a fun time,” he answered back with a wry grin. “Who wouldn’t want a chance to hang out with coworkers off the clock and celebrate the happiest time of the year? Especially when one of your coworkers happens to be one of the prettiest women in New York City.”
I recognized he was flirting, but I frowned. “It’s not the happiest time of the year for everyone.”
He didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, and his eyes flicked everywhere like he was trying to find a distraction to save our banter from the awkward turtle I had turned it into. Suddenly, they landed on something behind me and then widened.
“Aw, shit! I went over lunch.” He jumped to his feet, gathering up his trash while trying to wave hastily to me. “I’ll catch you later, Ella.”
“Later,” I said, watching him go while I tried to sort the feelings inside of me.
Thankfully, no one else approached me, and I got to spend the remaining fifteen minutes or so in my own head. But when I finished, I headed back onto the floor only to hear yelling in the employee hall.
“We’ve got a line almost out the door! You can’t be going five minutes over your lunch when we’ve got such a short time to see everyone!”
“I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t realize my cell phone was so far off from store time.”
Yikes. That was Drayer and Jimmy. I rounded the corner to see the Santa looking contrite while our manager yelled at him with a red face. I was sure we both knew Jimmy was taking his holiday frustration out on the worker, but it wasn’t fair.
Feeling a bit guilty for being partially responsible, I slunk past the two of them. Oh well, it was better if he resented me a little. Maybe then he wouldn’t want to talk with me, and I would lose my penchant for flirting with him.
But even though I knew that would be best for me, I couldn’t help but hope that didn’t happen. For whatever reason, I wanted to keep talking to him. He was the only person who made the Christmas season a little bit brighter, and I wasn’t quite willing to give that up yet.
No matter what my brain told me otherwise.
Chapter 7
Drayer
I listened intently as the last kid in line told me what he wanted for Christmas and then posed as the photographer took as many snaps as the mom wanted. Now that it wasn’t the first week of December, corporate had given the go-ahead to hire a photographer to take professional photos and print them for practically an arm and a leg.
But the parents ate it up. I was amazed at what people were willing to spend for a picture with a stranger, but I didn’t knock it. As long as they had the money, who cared, right?
Yet as soon as the kid was off my lap and being escorted off by his loving parent, I was practically bolting to the break room.
I had spotted Ella heading there about ten minutes after Jimmy had cut off the line so I could get my own break, and it had been torture to see if I would get done in time to see her. Naturally, I wasn’t going to rush any kids from seeing their hero so I could go talk to my crush, but that didn’t stop me from hoping they would be brief in their Christmas lists.
I made it just in time, catching Ella by the door.
“Oh, hey,” I said, trying to play it cool.
She looked startled nonetheless. Ever since my offhanded remark about Christmas, she had been surprisingly dodgy around me. I didn’t know what I had said that set her off, but obviously, she was bothered by something.
“Hey,” she answered cautiously as if she was trying to think very carefully about what she was going to say.
“I was wondering if you’d decided if you’re going to come to the Christmas Party this weekend.”
“You really do have a one-track mind, don’t you?”
“Only when it comes to mysteries. I never was one for an unanswered question.”
“Well, I guess you’ll just have to find out for yourself.”
I laughed, enjoying the saucy look on her face. “I would love to see you there.”
“And I would love the ability to fly. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.” She walked past me, and I couldn’t tell if she was flirting or giving me the shutdown. “But if I did go, it wouldn’t be for you.”
Ow. I was definitely going to go with shutdown. Well, that was disappointing.
A bit dejected, I watched her as she left, won
dering if I would live with my foot permanently lodged in my mouth.
I got a drink and finished up my break, idly flicking through my phone. Now that I had bills covered and had enough money not to worry about Christmas, my only real stress was Ella. Wow, how had I gotten feelings for her so quickly? I had never considered myself a romantic guy, but what I was feeling for the girl was such a strong mix of attraction, lust, and interest that I had to wonder whether there was something special about her. Or maybe I was in relationship withdrawal from relying on only booty calls to get by for the past couple of years.
I suppose there wasn’t anything I could do about it until the Christmas party happened. Then, I could either see how into each other we might be or give my heart the blue balls.
Oh, well. There were worse things in life.
Chapter 8
Ella
I picked up my hair straightener and then set it down, my hand going to my curling iron. But before I could plug that in, I hesitated and went back to the straightener. Dammit, there was no use.
“Hey, Jo!” I called. “Should I go with straight hair or cutesy curls?”
“Definitely curls!” Jo shouted back from her room. I had hauled most of my stuff over to her place so I wouldn’t have to get ready alone and subsequently chicken out, but now I was beginning to regret my decision. “It’s more holiday-themed.”
I should stay home. Going to the party was stupid. It would put me near Drayer in a non-work setting, and honestly, that wasn’t a position I wanted to be in. But I also did want to be in that position. I missed his smile and the low rumble that proceeded all of his laughs whenever I said something he found funny. I missed our back and forth and, although I had been working hard to avoid him all week, I wanted to know what he had to say to me.
“Okay,” I answered back, grabbing the iron and turning it on while I finished doing my eyebrows. Thanks to a scar I got from skateboarding when I was younger, I had a nice gap on my left one that I liked to fill in on special occasions.
My Sexy Santa Page 3
