Under The Mistletoe

Chapter 2

-ZED-

Hot damn. Wyatt did not warn me that Santa's helper was such a firecracker. She bends to eye level with a cluster of little kids and waves them in close. She conspiratorially whispers with them and their mother's eyes close as she takes a deep breath. The mother's eyes look bloodshot with exhaustion and her hair is a messy bun on top of her head. The three young kids look to either be triplets or very close in age. Addison, as Wyatt informed me was our only reliable employee's name, ushers the children up to the throne.

"Ho, ho, ho! Who do we have here?" I boom and scoop them all into my lap. Two boys and one girl squeal in equal peals of high-pitched laughter.

"Sara."

"Sam."

"Sid."

"I knew that, I was just making sure you knew!" I laugh and wink at them, my packed stomach does its special thing and shakes like a bowl of jelly. The kids clap in excitement. Addison smiles down at us but the moment I catch her gaze, her plump red lips fall, her chin lifts, and she leaves to entertain the next in line.

"I want a jet plane!"

"I want a bulldozer!"

"I want a life-sized dolly!"

"But I want a jet plane, too!"

The triplets flail and my fake belly makes it hard to hold them steady for the picture. Addison snaps three in quick succession, hands out candy canes, and ushers the tired mom and her rambunctious kids from the thrones alter to the ordering desk for the photos where our teen hire takes over. Without breaking stride, Addison is bringing in the next cluster of kids with a bright warm smile and a skip in her step.

I can see why this is still a profitable endeavor. If we don't draw a large enough crowd, we don't sell enough pictures, and we don't make enough to break even. For some unknown reason, this location in our Santa's Stop spots across the Midwest has been the most profitable in several years despite the inability to snag a quality and consistent Santa actor. But I can see now that it's because of Addison.

She soothes the scared children, calms the hyper ones. Eases the minds of the over-protective parents and gives the tired and over-worked ones a break, even if only for a few minutes. She snaps the best photos and handles all of the setup and tear-down of the display each year. Wyatt mentioned she's even solely responsible for the amazing display this location has versus the other spots.

The altar, throne, picture setup, and ordering station are all the same. But that's the only similarity between this location and our others. Quality silk holly garlands line the altar and throne. Thick wood cutouts of all of Santa's reindeer graze in red velvet roped-off pastures surrounding Santa's chair. Garden gnomes repainted to look like elves peek out of the quilt batting fake snow-draped at the reindeer's feet.

Even Addison's uniform is bedazzled with extras. Mistletoe-shaped buttons dot up the back of the red long-sleeve dress. The white trimming is normally a cheap thin fabric but hers is replaced with thick and fluffy fur fabric comparable to my own costume. Her nails are painted red with white tips to match her outfit and her shoes are doctored up with stitched and glued on tweaks to make them look like elves' pointed toe shoes complete with a little white ball on the toe. She even dons a white wig with strips of red tinsel. She's about as extra and over the top as some kind of Hollywood reproduction.

The slam of a nearby store's entry gate startles me and the preteen boy scowling on my lap as Addison snaps a picture. His mother fusses from the sidelines and mumbles something to Addison as she points in our direction. Addison's eyes flash with a heated look like she'd worn earlier in the breakroom but her smile is sweet and her voice is soft. What I can hear of it from where I sit anyway.

"You bangin' that?" the teenager whispers.

"What?"

Addison snaps a few more pictures and I hold the tight smile.

"That sexy little elf. I want her under my tree. Can you put her under my tree in nothing but a bow, Santa?" The kid can't be more than fourteen. His smile is wide and filthy right as the camera flashes. Finally satisfied, his mother flies to the ordering desk and begins arguing the prices. Addison comes over and leads the boy to his mother.

His hand swoops around her waist and she smiles her sweet smile at him. But there's a burning fire in her eyes. I have the feeling that if his mother wasn't around he'd be getting an ear full.

From the small curtained-off area behind Santa's chair, Addison pulls out a sign and hobbles the thick wood to the front of the alter. I rise to help her but she cuts off my assistance with a curt hand. Damn. Either this woman's every bit the firecracker I imagined, or our bad judgment in hiring gave her quite the chip on her shoulder.

Ignoring her little stop gesture, I pull the sign from her struggling grasp and prop it on the red carpet aisle. It's painted with cute reindeer curled up with little Z's floating above their heads. Tiny elves cuddle with the reindeer. The sign says: "Be back tomorrow" in curly hand-painted lettering.

"You painted this? And you did all this?" I wave around at the display.

She blinks in surprise. "Uh, yeah… I did. Not all at once, though. It's evolved over the years."

"It looks great. You've been here five years, right?"

She ropes off the display and heads back to the breakroom. I fall in step beside her. The thick costume has had me sweating this whole time. Thankfully it was only two hours. I'm going to have to get something lighter to get through tomorrow and the next few days until a replacement hire can be found.

Addison's head whips in my direction and her eyes narrow in suspicion. "How did you know that?"

"I know Wyatt." I shrug. Telling her Wyatt and I both own and run the business isn't really necessary. Something tells me the moment she learns I'm her boss, she'll turn on that fake smile and I'll never get to see the real Addison.

Her look is skeptical but she says nothing else. I hold the breakroom door open for her and she heads straight for her locker, leaving me ignored and forgotten. With a sigh, I gather my bag from my own rented locker.

The thick costume has me too uncomfortably sweaty to want to head out just yet. I think this mall has a gym, and if it's a chain I've got a membership to, I can get a quick shower in before leaving. I pretend to pack up just to linger and peek over my shoulder at her.

She's holding up a little handheld mirror and unclipping strands of the tinsel from her wig. She bends down to remove one heel and her skirt lifts, drawing my gaze. The rush of my last-minute placement as mall Santa plus the long line that formed the minute my ass hit the seat distracted me, but now that I have a good chance to look at her, Addison is a firecracker indeed.

The skirt flairs around her hips and ass. The red velvet tapers in along a thin waist and hugs her breasts in the very best way. The image of her in nothing but a bow sprawled out beneath a Christmas tree flashes in my mind. The thick pants of my costume get tight and I send a curse to that filthy teenager for planting that image in my head.

Her gaze flicks up and meets mine. Shit. But she barely registers my existence. I might as well be a stain on the wall for all she could care. She tosses the decorated heels into a black bag and pulls out black combat boots. With one fluid motion, she reaches overhead to her upper back and flicks a few buttons free from the dress. It flutters to pool at her feet and too stunned to look away, I gape at her instead.

But where my perverted mind had hoped for a velvet bow, I notice she's clad in a black tank top and black shorts. Damn. Although the view is still very nice. Trying not to get a claim filed against me for my obvious staring, I turn back to my bag and close the locker. When I make it to the door after Santa's package finally settles down for a long winter's nap, I notice that she's slipped on a thick gray sweater and mouth-wateringly tight low-rise jeans.

"See you tomorrow, Addison."

She grunts in answer as the door shuts.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: So apparently I didn't save my edited version of chapter 1 and ended up posting the non-corrected version full of typos... oops... sorry about that!