Nineteen

Steve

Today had been even more crazy, and after once again putting a cake on Garrett’s car on the way to work, I hadn’t stopped since I’d arrived. “Tinsel, get out there, it’s getting out of control,” Terry had said when he stuck his head into the employee area.

“On it, give me five minutes,” I said and hurried to put on my uniform, which I now didn’t really mind wearing. After putting my clothes away and drinking a quick cup of coffee for strength and hoping for a little more patience, I walked out to where the line formed. It was, of course, even longer than it had been the day before.

Just as I passed one family that looked like they had around twenty kids, one of them stepped in front of me and threw up. I swear there were sprinkles in the multicolored vomit that was now a few inches from my elf shoes. He looked up at me and his lip trembled as his mother rushed over. “I’m so sorry, he’s nervous and we had special pancakes this morning,” she said with a grimace when she got a good look at what he’d thrown up.

“Will Santa be mad?” he asked as his eyes filled with tears.

“No, buddy, this sort of thing happens all the time. That’s what we elves are for. Now you stay in line, and I’ll get this cleaned up and make sure you’re ready to see him when it’s your turn.” I mean the kid was little and probably less than four years old and was about to meet the big guy, so of course he was nervous. His whole family were dressed in red and green, and the other kids all moved away from him and covered their noses. I rushed off and found a janitor to clean up the vomit then dashed into the bathroom to get some wet paper towels to clean him up and hurried back out to them. He was leaning against his mom when I knelt down and wiped off his face and hands. “There you go, good as new.”

“Thank you, Mr. Elf,” he said with a toothless grin.

“The name is Tinsel,” I said with a tip of my elf hat, making him giggle.

“Tinsel!” Terry yelled from the front of the line.

“Have fun, I’ll see you when you get your picture taken,” I said before hurrying off to see what else had happened.

“I’ve never been so thankful to see an elf in my life,” Terry said, and listed off all the things that had gone wrong already and what I’d be doing for the day. “The line is out of control, as you can see there are very large groups here today and the younger elves are having a hard time keeping them in order. People keep jumping the line, kids are crying, parents are about ready to fight it out, and we need some serious control here.” He crossed his arms tucking his clipboard under one arm and huffed out a deep breath. “Please, work your magic and get them under control.”

I nodded and walked over to where the line was near Santa, only it didn’t look like a line, it looked like a gathering. People were all over the place and I couldn’t tell who was next or who was even in line. I cleared my throat before cupping my mouth with my hands. “Listen up, everyone, you need to form a line and stay in place, or you’ll be going to the back of the line, and as you can see, it’s a long line. Now I don’t want to do that to anyone, but we need you to be good boys and girls, or Santa may decide he needs to return to the North Pole early.” An audible gasp echoed through the nearby crowd as the kids looked up at their parents with wide eyes and the whole group formed a perfect line to wait in. Santa looked at me with a big grin and crinkly eyes, and maybe a little bit of relief.

After that, things went fairly smooth, there was one more vomiting incident that made me worried it wasn’t all about nerves, more the chance of too much sugar, but I shoved that thought down deep and focused on the fact I’d be off the next two days after tonight. As soon as the last family had their photo taken, I was rushing to the employee room to change.

One of the other elves was there gathering up her things to leave. “Hey, Tinsel, have a nice Thanksgiving,” she said, and I struggled to remember her name.

“Thanks, Cocoa, you too,” I said calling her by her elf’s name and making her laugh. She shoved her elf costume into her bag and put her finger over her lips. I nodded my head, not really sure what I was agreeing to.

“Don’t worry, I’m bringing it back, I just thought my boyfriend would like a little role playing.”

“Agh, omg I did not need to know that.”

She shrugged and slung her bag over her shoulder. “Just being honest. See you in a few days.”

I shuddered at the thought of some kind of Christmas roleplay but then I remembered how much Garrett loved Christmas and wondered if that might be something he’d be into, because if it was, I was willing to try. I considered taking my uniform with me tonight, but I knew we were both going to be busy. Plus, we’d only spent one night together, maybe I should save that for another time. I grinned at myself and the thought of surprising Garrett, and laughed at how shocked I’d been when Cocoa mentioned it. Now I felt like I should thank her the next time I saw her. Well maybe not.

While I was on my way out the door, I called Garrett and was surprised he immediately answered. “Hey, I thought you’d still be working.”

“You have perfect timing. I just finished. Want to meet me at my house?” he asked, and I could hear he was outside probably walking to his car too.

“That’s perfect. I’ll be there in a few minutes; did you need me to pick anything up on the way?”

“Nope, we’re going shopping. We can get anything we need then,” he said, and I shoved the part of me down that dreaded going shopping the night before Thanksgiving and told myself Garrett would make it fun just like he did with everything. Then I remembered I still needed to get everything for the nachos.

“Oh, that’s right. I completely forgot to get everything for tomorrow so that’s a great idea,” I said and kept the derision out of my voice.

“You sound excited,” he said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, the idea of the holiday rush—”

“Don’t worry, we won’t be there long. Make a list and we’ll be in and out before you know it.”

“I’ll do that, and I hope you’re right,” I said, making him laugh again. “See you soon.” I hung up and waited for the feeling of dread to wash over me, but all I felt was excitement at seeing Garrett, because I was finding anytime with Garrett was fun, and I really hoped that included shopping before Thanksgiving.