HARRY POV
"I can't believe you're making me do this right now," I muttered to Grace, loosely holding her throat as she leaned back into my chest. "I mean, seriously."
She tilted her head back to laugh at me. "This is what happens when you miss five Christmas seasons, Harry. You're the only one to blame here."
I gave Nora a look as if she might understand why that was unfair, but she was so overstimulated by the madness around us that she didn't even notice. This morning I woke up, made a phone call to Louis to give him the okay to kill a guy, made a drug deal in Orange County, and somehow ended up at the fucking mall to take a picture with Santa Claus all before 5 PM.
There were screaming children everywhere, one of which stepped on my shoe and successfully avoided being kicked in the ass when he ran back to his mother, the Christmas music was giving me a migraine as it echoed through the whole building, and I just needed a cigarette. Or maybe a whole pack.
"You know I'm literally the only drug dealer in the existence of time to ever do this, don't you?" I whispered in Grace's ear. "It's ridiculous."
"First time for everything, boss," she straightened out the collar on my black knit jumper where Nora had been tugging on it earlier. "You look really handsome."
I blinked down at her until her smile grew again, and only then did I feel myself begin to reciprocate. Seeing those dimples in her cheeks was the only thing that could possibly make this worth my time, and I guess she was right. This was my first Christmas with Nora, so if that meant I needed to stand next to some conveniently fat man with white hair and a fake beard, then fine.
"Okay Nora, come here," Grace held her hand out for Nora to go and follow her toward Santa, but she stayed by my leg with her hand clutching my fingers.
"She doesn't want to," I said, and if looks could kill...
"Get over yourself, Harry, seriously," she muttered as she snatched Nora up to hold against her chest.
"What the fuck did I do?" I asked, and it slipped my mind that there was an army of children around me until a woman asked me to watch my language. I couldn't even bring myself to look back and apologize to her, not with the mood I was in. Besides, I wasn't sorry.
I stood there and watched Grace sit Nora in this perverts lap, and all I could do was walk forward when she quite literally snapped her fingers at me and pointed to the ground by her side, like I was a dog.
"What's your name?" Santa asked.
"Nora," she replied, still clearly unsure about the whole thing, rightfully so.
"What would you like for Christmas, Nora?"
"Um..." she looked up at me and Grace with flushed cheeks.
"Hurry up already!" The kid behind us whined, and that was the little push off the cliff that I needed.
"Why don't you shut your little mouth and let her talk, yeah?" I said, to which Grace gasped and muttered an apology on my behalf before she turned me around again.
"Nice," she scoffed. "Nora, weren't you telling me that you wanted a little car to drive? A pink one?"
Nora nodded with a small smile like she just remembered. "I want that, please."
"A little pink car," Santa gave her a curt nod. "You just need to promise me that you're going to be a good girl. Will you be a good girl?"
"Are you serious right now?" I whispered to Grace as she blindly swatted at my chest. "I'm gonna fucking vomit."
