The Holiday Gamble

by Sam E. Kraemer

  When he’d arrived home on Saturday night, Hannah had already settled into her room to do homework, so Cris wasn’t sure if she’d taken his advice when he’d discovered the store that had opened across from Holiday Toys.

  Hannah sighed. “No, because those other girls needed a dress more than me. I can go to the dance next year. It’s fine,” she told him, which surprised Cris.

  “Wait, what happened, Hannah?” Cris asked, as the two of them sat at the table, sharing eggs that Sunday morning, before he left for the store.

  “Nothing happened, Cristian. I went to that store, and I saw a lot of girls there who were more interested in going to the dance than me. I took the bus back home. Let it go,” she told him.

  “Hannah, I’m sorry I can’t afford a new dress, but it looked like…” he began.

  “Leave it alone. I don’t care about a dress, okay? Livy’s not going, so I’m not going,” Hannah declared, as she picked up the laundry basket and took off down the hallway without looking back. Of course, Cris knew something was wrong. He wasn’t stupid.

  Before he could delve any further into what had her so upset, his sister was out the door. Cris looked around to see the apartment was as neat as a pin, and he had Hannah to thank for it, because she did most of the cleaning and laundry.

  Usually, on Sunday evening, the two of them cooked food to get them through the week, but with Cris working at Holiday Toys, they’d been eating mostly sandwiches or frozen dinners, because time was at a premium.

  He vowed he’d bring home takeout that night to share with David, and after David left, he’d run to the all-night grocery that was about a mile away, and did the shopping to make meatballs and pasta to last for a few days. In his opinion, sleep was overrated.

  When he hopped off the bus and headed to the parking lot of Holiday Toys, Cris saw David talking to Lou near the white Impala he drove. Cris was surprised to see the two of them getting along so well, because the previous day, they’d sniped back and forth a bit when there were no kids within earshot, giving Cris the impression they didn’t like each other.

  Watching the two of them having a discussion and smiling, neither noticing him standing at the corner of the building, Cris wondered if maybe David was bisexual. Sexual identities had been unspoken between them, both seeming to know the other was interested, but perhaps Cris had misjudged the entire situation, and was only fooling himself that someone as gorgeous as David could be involved in an actual relationship with him?

  Cris was the settling-down type, while it seemed David wasn’t. Cris watched the blond kiss Lou on the cheek, before he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and steered her to the stairs of the loading dock.

  Cris remembered a guy he’d dated two years ago named Jeremy Long. They went out for several months, and Cris decided he wanted to make a life with Jeremy, the two of them raising Hannah together. Unfortunately, the asshole was only interested in Cris, because he was a damn good mechanic and the guy had a muscle car he liked to show off. After that disaster of a relationship, Cris stopped looking.

  “Great! You’re doing it again, dumbass. The thing with Jeremy felt right in the beginning as well, but look at what happened with him. It’s for the best, anyway. You need to be home with Hannah more after the Christmas rush is over,” Cris scolded himself for thinking he even had a chance with the photographer.

  Cris made a promise to himself to call off the date they’d made, so he had time to talk to Hannah about what had made her change her mind about going to the Winter Formal with Scott Blake. Cris decided if the boy had done something to upset his sister, as her big brother, he wouldn’t hesitate to have a fist-to-face talk with the punk. Nobody was going to show his sister disrespect as long as Cris was alive.

  Cris took a deep breath and walked into the building, heading straight to the rack where his uniform hung. He carried it to the unisex bathroom off the break room, not seeing any sign of David or Lou, so he quickly changed into the suit, before he walked out to find them both sitting at the table with a large pink box filled with pastries.

  “Where did those come from?” Cris asked, not greeting either of his elves. He really had no reason to be mad at either of them, but he couldn’t help the jealousy coursing through his veins when he saw their big smiles as they split a giant bear claw.

  “Kirby said they were delivered this morning by the Dough-Man Bakery on Claymont. It was a call-in order with no note, or so the delivery driver told him. They’re great. Want one?” Lou offered as she opened the large box.

  Cris decided being rude wasn’t the appropriate response to his coworkers, because neither Lou nor David had done anything to him personally. He and David had never discussed exclusivity. Hell, they hadn’t even gone on one date. They’d shared a few kisses and secret smiles, but that was the extent of it, so for Cris to be pouting at catching David flirting with Lou was ridiculous.

  Cris poured himself a cup of coffee and walked over to the table, perusing the box before picking out a chocolate cake donut with white icing. He bit into the sugary goodness and couldn’t help the moan as his eyes closed so he could concentrate on the taste. He opened them when he heard the door to the break room open and close, seeing he and David were alone.

  “I’m looking forward to tonight,” David told him, as he stood from his chair and touched Cris’ t-shirt covered chest.

  Cris took a slight step back. “I, uh, I’ve thought about this, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to start seeing each other. I’m barely able to keep up with the shit in my life as it is, and I really don’t have time to date right now. Besides, Hannah’s going through something, and I need to be there for her. I’m sorry to cancel like this, but I believe it’s for the best. I better finish getting dressed so I can go out and check to see everything’s ready for today,” Cris stated as he tossed half of the uneaten doughnut into the trash, appetite suddenly gone.

  It was smarter to cut ties before he had his heart shredded. He had responsibilities, and couldn’t afford to pursue someone who was only in it for laughs.

  Chapter 6

  Cris arrived at the store at four thirty on Monday evening, still stewing about his sister’s mood. Hannah had been tightlipped about what had happened to make her change her mind about the dance, and she had become mopey as hell on Sunday night while he made them food to last through most of the week.

  Instead of meatballs and spaghetti, Cris made meatloaf and Hannah’s favorite sides, hoping to lighten the mood at home. In return, Hannah had packed him two meatloaf sandwiches for his dinner that evening, along with some snickerdoodles she’d made that afternoon after she got home from school. They were also Cris’ favorites, though Hannah didn’t like them at all. The fact she made them had him wondering what his sister was trying to hide from him.

  Cris wasn’t sure what was really bothering her, because she seemed to be gearing up to mount a giant disinformation campaign to keep him out of her business. It started with the snickerdoodles.

  It was clear something had changed Hannah’s mind about going to the dance, so Cris promised himself he would have a handle on it before it was too late to change her mind. Hannah deserved some holiday fun, even if Cris wasn’t interested in going out to celebrate the season. He had more significant issues to tackle… like her tuition for the second semester.

  Walking to the rack where the Santa suit and elves’ costumes usually hung, Cris could see the red and white uniform was missing. He checked the coat closet and found it had about twenty coats inside, but none of them were a red velour coat with white, faux fur trim. Since the break room was empty, there was no one to ask, so he headed into the store and straight to Kirby’s office to inquire into its whereabouts.

  He was about to knock, when the door flew open, revealing Kirby, whose face was a dark magenta. “I was just about to come looking for you,” Kirby snapped as he pulled Cris into the office and slammed the door.

  “What’s going on? Where’s my Santa suit?�
�� Cris asked as he studied Kirby’s demeanor. All was not well at Holiday Toys.

  “It was replaced with a new one,” Kirby told him as he went to a closet and pulled out a very fancy looking suit covered by a clear garment bag. It wasn’t the same velour and faux fur number Cris had been wearing since he began his career as the Holiday Toys’ Santa three Christmases ago. It was velvet with beautiful silver and red embroidery in the shape of snowflakes all over the coat and pants. The cheap faux fur was replaced with fluffy trim that didn’t resemble cotton balls as had the older one.

  The Santa hat matched the suit, except for a trio of gleaming silver bells attached to the snowball on the tip. The suit looked very expensive and much too classy for a toy store Santa. “This is really nice. Why’d you replace the other one?” Cris asked.

  “I didn’t. It came directly from corporate and was delivered this morning. When I called to talk to the regional manager about it, she informed me that we have a corporate spy, and they reported that the Santa suit was hideous, so it was replaced.

  “The new elf costumes are coming tomorrow. I can’t believe we have a corporate spy in the store. I’m worried that the rumor I heard in October is true. Corporate is looking to close some of its stores because sales are down across the board. I’m afraid we might be one of them,” Kirby told him, with a worried look on his face that Cris couldn’t ignore.

  Cris was sure the rumor couldn’t possibly be true, because the store seemed crowded all the time. Black Friday had been nerve-wracking, and he’d had to stay an extra hour to ensure all of the kids got their pictures taken, because the line was so long.

  As he thought about all of the employees, some of whom he really liked, he was worried about what they’d do if they lost their jobs. It was like one big family at Holiday Toys, and Cris couldn’t imagine not seeing their friendly faces during the holidays when he worked as Santa.

  “Do you know who the spy is? Did your friend give you a hint?” Cris asked.

  Kirby pulled Cris around to see the screen of his desktop computer. “My friend, Liza Doyle, mentioned she’d seen JD Holiday’s daughter roaming the halls with Elliot, her older brother. They were talking about her coming to work here for the Christmas season to observe the situation and ensure everything was fair.”

  “Liza sent me this picture of the girl,” Kirby explained as the picture popped up. It was Lou Ridges, or Evelyn Louise Holiday, as the label read at the bottom of the photo. Cris was speechless. One of his elves was the corporate spy, and it seemed as if David was unknowingly playing into her hands. It instantly angered Cris.

  The young Holiday woman was probably pumping David for information by flirting with the handsome man to gather dirt on the other employees. Cris couldn’t let it continue unchecked. While he and David might not have a future, David was a great photographer and a decent guy. Cris couldn’t help the fact he had a raging hard-on for David when the man obviously couldn’t care less one way or the other.

  Cris could put his personal feelings aside and do something to save David from being duped. He couldn’t allow the man to be blindsided at Christmas by a flirtation that might lead to his downfall.

  Ridge walked into the manse on Monday morning to have brunch with his mother, Elaine. He’d called her on Sunday evening after Cris canceled their date, but she was hosting a White Elephant party with several of her bridge chums and asked him to come to the house the next day. Since Ridge didn’t have to be at work until four thirty, he agreed, hoping to get some advice from his mother regarding Cristian Gamble and the ground it seemed Ridge had unwittingly lost with the man.

  “MOTHER!” Ridge called, knowing how much his mother hated shouting. He heard a laugh and turned to see Patsy standing in the foyer with a dish towel over her shoulder.

  “Come give me a hug, you scamp,” Patsy ordered, her cheeks pink from standing over a pot of something in the kitchen.

  He quickly hugged her and kissed her forehead before he pulled away. “How’s my car?” he asked as he saw her big smile.

  Patsy unwrapped the scarf from his neck and waited for him to unbutton his topcoat. “It’s parked in your father’s garage, is where it is. That car is worth more money than I’ve made in all the years I’ve worked for your family. Your father rented me a nice crossover when I explained I was afraid to drive your fancy car. I’d be a nervous wreck if I got behind the wheel,” she stated as she took his outerwear, before heading toward the coat closet to hang his things.

  “Your mother’s in the solarium overseeing the tree trimming. I’ll be setting up a buffet in the dining room in an hour,” Patsy told him, then bustled off to the kitchen. Patsy O’Brien had been a constant in the Holiday family for at least thirty years. She had no children as far as Ridge knew, so she’d always treated the Holiday family as if they were her own.

  Ridge knew his parents loved her like she was an older sister, and they treated her well. Every year after the holidays, they sent Patsy on a three-week vacation to her choice of destination with a lovely bonus as thanks for her loyalty.

  Ridge loved the woman as much as he’d love an aunt… as long as it wasn’t Todd’s wife, Leslie. She had a huge stick shoved up her ass, so far Ridge believed it couldn’t be dislodged if she swallowed a stick of dynamite. He guessed her spine was so rigid, she couldn’t bend to put on her own shoes.

  Ridge turned to his left, heading to the solarium where he could hear his mother talking to someone. When he walked through the door, he saw his grandmother, Ginny, sitting in a wing-back chair in the corner, with a book, while Elaine Holiday was coaching the florist and his helpers regarding the placement of the Christmas decorations.

  “Hello! It’s good to see two of the prettiest women in Philadelphia,” Ridge greeted as he walked further into the room, having honed his ass-kissing skills to a professional level. He kissed his mother on both cheeks before he walked over to his grandmother and knelt down next to her.

  “Hi, Gram. How are you?” he asked, seeing the woman’s eyes light up. He kissed her on both cheeks as well and pulled up the footstool she wasn’t using while his mother went back to barking orders at the people putting up the tree.

  “I’m freezing is what I am. Why must it be so blasted cold in here? You’d think with all the money your mother spends, she could spare some of it to buy wood for the fireplace,” Ginny Holiday complained, just loud enough for Ridge’s mother to hear her.

  The struggle for power between the two women was the joke in the family. It seemed as if Ginny Holiday made it her mission to make Elaine miserable the entire duration of the visit, from Thanksgiving to just after Christmas.

  As Ginny got older, the barbs became sharper, such that after the senior Holidays returned to Arizona to celebrate the New Year with their friends, Elaine went to a spa in Arizona, not far from where the grandparents lived, to forget the season. It was ironic to Ridge and his siblings, but they never mentioned it to their father.

  “Mother Holiday, you remember, dear, we changed over the fireplace to gas two years ago. Ridge be a lamb and turn on the fireplace,” Elaine called out as she stood in front of the tree, straightening some beads the decorators were draping, apparently not to her standards.

  “I’m not your mother,” Ginny Holiday snapped, and not under her breath, which made Ridge laugh. He walked over to the fireplace and grabbed the remote off the top, pressing the button to ignite the gas before adjusting the flame. About thirty seconds after the fire started, a blower kicked on, sending warm air out into the room.

  “Gram, have you finished your shopping yet? I’m afraid I’ll have to wait until after the New Year to buy you a gift. What would you like?” Ridge asked, touching her creped hand resting on the book on her lap.

  “What do I want for Christmas? I want you to settle down and meet a nice boy, Eldridge. Why, when I was your age, I’d already had your father and Uncle Todd. I want you to be happy, grandson.”

  “I don’t know how long I have left on the ea
rth, and I want to see you, your brother, and your sister settled and happy before I die,” Ginny told him, which wasn’t anything she didn’t say every Christmas.

  “She’ll outlive me,” he heard his mother complain, not under her breath either. Ridge looked at his grandmother and saw her wink at him, which made him grin.

  “GINNY!” he heard his grandfather yelling from the hallway. His mother and his grandmother both hissed, which made him burst out in a raucous laugh.

  “I’ll go get him,” Ridge offered as he stood from the footstool, offering a gentle squeeze of his grandmother’s hand, before he walked across the marble floor and out into the television room, where another set of florists were putting up the second tree.

  “Grandpa, we’re in the solarium. Mom’s supervising the decorating, and Gram is critiquing her supervision,” he joked, and extended his hand to shake his grandfather’s.

  Leo Holiday was one of Philadelphia society’s elites. Everyone Ridge had ever met spoke very highly of his grandfather and his father. Uncle Todd was thrown in as an afterthought, which was how most people viewed him in the first place due to his aloof demeanor.

  It occurred to Ridge as his grandfather hugged him and patted his back, the family might view Ridge to be the next Uncle Todd while Elliot was going to be the spitting image of JD.

  Ridge had heard stories about Todd growing up and how he took five years instead of four to get his bachelor’s degree. He went off to Holland and partied his way across Europe after he graduated before he returned to Philadelphia to take his place at Holiday Toys… in the mailroom as a delivery person to start.

  Being the oldest of the Holiday sons, he had the burden of expectations on his shoulders, and when Todd failed to achieve them, the mantle quickly passed to Ridge’s father, John David.

  Ridge supposed that was when Leo implemented the tough-love approach he’d taken with JD, as had been explained to Ridge on Thanksgiving night, which led to Ridge’s current predicament.