Winter Wonderland

eight: on the spot

❆ ❆ ❆

As my fifth day working at Cleveland's Second-Best Winter Wonderland comes to an end, I am beyond ready for the weekend. I'm beyond tired after spending eight hours a day on my feet, a jolly grin painted on my lips even when it doesn't belong there: my cheeks ache and my feet are burning and I'm not sure I can face another minute of Christmas music after hearing the same playlist on repeat since before nine.

Five minutes until the end of my shift. Five minutes until I'm free of this place, when I can finally peel off this damn outfit and meet Storie outside and we can go and grab a drink. My stomach rumbles at the thought. Maybe we'll get something to eat, too.

Kaylani appears out of nowhere as I'm rearranging a jumbled shelf of Christmas lights. Nobody has any damn respect for this place: they come in and mess up the displays and put stuff back where it doesn't belong, and they let their kids run wild like mini psychopaths all over the place, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

"Hey," she says, leaning her elbows on a disgraced shelf and resting her chin in her hands.

"Hi." I glance at her then back at the display, trying not to drop any of the five boxes of lights in my arms. Kaylani darts out a hand to catch one that topples.

"So, tonight's the night?"

All week, she's been bugging me for details about Storie. When the place is quiet – which is most of the time before schools start to let out – she tracks me down and asks questions, needling me for answers about ... well, everything, really. If she's not begging me to tell her what's so complicated about my history, then she's teasing me for the rare genuine smile that comes when I get a text from Storie.

"Yes," I say. "Tonight's the night that I officially complete my first week here." I give her an innocent smile and stack the lights, and take back the one she took from me.

"And it's date night, right?"

I sneak a glance at my watch. Five fifty-seven. Three more minutes of this, and I'm done. Storie's probably already here, waiting out in the parking lot. She probably left early to account for the weather – which is gross, a wet and snowy December – and she's been out there for seven minutes already, to make sure she got here on time. Because Storie has her life together.

In the time that I've been falling apart, she has picked herself up and stitched herself together.

"Come on, Liam," Kaylani says with a groan. "I need a gossip fix. This job is draining the life and smiles out of me. I can't take it much longer without a juicy injection of someone else's fun." She pouts, which looks strange when I'm more used to her blunt expression and rolling eyes. "Just a yes or no. Are you going on a date with your complicated girl?"

"She's not complicated," I say. Storie has never been complicated to me. I know she wouldn't agree, and I know her mind confuses her, but in my eyes she is clear as day. Especially now, more than ever. "And now it's six. I'll see you on Monday."

Shelf sufficiently stacked, I duck past her to the office to sign myself out and as soon as I'm off the clock, I change out of this stupid elf outfit. I'm halfway through tugging on my jeans when Kaylani bursts into the staff room and I nearly fall over.

"God, please, Kaylani, can you give it a break?" I mutter, exasperated. This job is exhausting enough without her hounding me all day. I know she means well and maybe this is some weird way of befriending me, but I don't have the energy for it. "Look, we dated, ok? And I messed it up, but now I have a second chance and I'm not going to mess it up this time because I'm crazy about her. Please can you stop quizzing me?"