by Nella Tyler
“Sorry, Dad,” I answered, “I couldn’t find you or mom either and needed to get some air.”
“Of course,” he replied, “Can I have a word with you, though?” my father returned his attention to Dexter, “I apologize for stealing her away.”
“Not at all,” Dexter answered with a broad grin. “We were only catching up.”
I beamed and hugged him before returning to my father.
“It was great to see you,” I offered and followed my father inside.
Dexter
The rest of the weekend went by without incident, and I was happy.
When I woke up on Sunday morning, after a long night of shaking hands and pretending to be the model employee and owner’s son, I was pleased to see that Garrett had found somewhere else to lay his head for the time being. I was certain he’d be back eventually, but for the moment, I was pleased to spend the day entirely alone.
After last weekend, I was pleased to have some uneventful downtime.
Monday was boring and predictable, but Tuesday, I received the call that I was waiting for.
“Yes, Mr. Wilson, I completely understand,” I replied, trying to hide the extent of my excitement.
After all, I didn’t want to play my hand too quickly. Business is all about poise, and if I let on how eager I was to get this deal, he might have second thoughts.
“That’s good to hear, and thank you for being so patient with me. I know that you want to close this deal and to be honest with you, so do I, but I also want to be sure I’m making the right decision.”
“Absolutely, Sir!” I exclaimed, “I am certain that the presentation will assuage all of your doubts and if you have any questions, I will be there to answer them personally.”
“It is great to be able to work directly with you. There are so few companies that are truly father and son anymore, so I am interested in your dynamic as well as what you have to offer.”
“We are truly one of a kind,” I assured, although my meaning varied slightly from what I allowed him to take away from the comment.
“That’s great! I look forward to our meeting,” he insisted before ending the phone conversation.
Upon hanging up the phone, I felt a surge of excitement shoot through me. I grinned as I stared down at his name disappearing from my darkening cell phone screen.
Each time we had a conversation, I felt as though Mr. Wilson was warming to me more.
Of course, that was exactly what I wanted, but it was nice to feel that connection fortifying.
I was sure that he trusted me and for as much as I skated around the idea that my father and I were best buds with the intention of winning Mr. Wilson’s favor, I did feel that we could help his company.
After pretending that my father gave a rat’s ass about me and my wellbeing, I was partial to want to talk to him in person, to tell him what I was sure was good news.
I knew it wasn’t the signed, sealed, and delivered check that he wanted so badly, he could nearly taste it, but it was a major leap in the right direction.
Therefore, I wanted to make sure that he knew, so I walked to my father’s office and found the door opened, but the phone receiver pressed to his ear.
He seemed deeply involved in a conversation, so I waited patiently for my chance to speak.
At first, the excitement I felt fueled the ease I found in waiting there for him to be done with his conversation, but eventually, the awkwardness of me standing there started to weigh on me.
My father continued as though I wasn’t even there and after a while, I felt a prickle of embarrassment supersede the feeling of excitement.
By the time my father addressed me, all I wanted to do was get out of that office as quick as possible.
“Excuse me,” he finally said to the phone and whispered, “What is it, Dexter?”
As he acknowledged my presence, he put his hand over the receiver and the earpiece against his shoulder as though he only had a moment to talk, which completely discouraged me.
“I only wanted to tell you that I am taking the day off tomorrow, nothing important,” I answered, trying to sound nonchalant and unmoved by the obvious lack of interest in my presence.
My father nodded once before returning to his phone call.
I hastily turned and walked away, saying goodbye as I normally did but getting in my car as efficiently as possible.
I spied my gym back in the backseat as I took a moment to enjoy being alone and remembered that I was supposed to meet Garrett at the gym.
“Shit!” I muttered, simply wanting to go home and lie down, but knowing that I would never hear the end of it if I decided to ditch him.
So, I drove to the gym, begrudgingly changed, and met him at the weight station.
“There you are!” Garrett exclaimed as I wordlessly took up my allotted weights.
“Yeah, yeah, I didn’t forget,” I grumbled.
“Nice to see you too,” he narrowed his eyes, “What’s got your goat?”
“Nothing, everything…I don’t know.”
“That sounds like a personal problem,” he teased, “Hey, did you see Mazie on Saturday night?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did.”
“Oh?” His eyebrows rose with suggestion, but I cut him off.
“I said I saw her, but that’s it. We talked, and she went off with her father.”
“Did you ask to see her again?” Garrett urged.
“No! I haven’t seen the girl in two years.”
“Which is why it’s a perfect time to reconnect…or, is she married?”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to remember if I saw a ring on her finger.
“I’m not sure,” I answered finally, “I didn’t ask, and she didn’t say.”
“Huh…then, it might not matter. You should ask her out.”
“Nah,” I answered, though I’d been thinking about a what to approach that subject ever since I saw her, “Besides, even if I wanted to, I can’t get in touch with her. We didn’t get that far, and she didn’t offer.”
“Ask Laura,” he answered with a slight raise of his shoulders, as if the answer was blatant.
“She can’t stand me.”
“You’re not asking for her number.”
I thought about it but only realized I didn’t want to have this conversation any longer.
“Besides, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t because of your dumb ass!”
“What do you mean?”
“I signed up for that Santa thing, and I’d hate to lie to her about my availability to avoid having to tell her that you got me arrested because you think with your dick and not your head.”
Garrett shook his head.
“I sure as hell didn’t make you hit anyone.”
“I had to back your ass up, so you might as well have.”
“Hey, I was doing fine on my own,” he retorted.
“That doesn’t mean that I was going to watch you…what kind of friend would I be?”
“No friend of mine.”
“See, that settles it. I’ve known you too long. If you start a fight, I have to fight, and the same goes for me…but I’m not as stupid as you are.”
Garrett barked a laugh.
“Sure, buddy…I might think with my dick but at least, nine times out of ten, thinking that way gets it some action.”
“I have plenty of action,” I spat defensively.
Garrett rolled his eyes.
“Whatever you say, my friend.”
“What? I do!” I insisted.
“Sure, but do me a favor, when you’re working on the chain-gang down at Santa’s Village, try to pick up a MILF or two; I’m sure you could find a few who put a sweet Santa sugar-daddy on their Christmas list.”
Not sure how to respond to that, I simply stopped and stared at him before shaking my head and returning to my reps.
Mazie
I woke up to the rapping of paws walking across my sheets, but I didn’t open my eyes
until I felt a padded paw swat at my arm and a small meow call from my right side.
I grinned as I returned to conscious thought, turning over and hugging Mittens close to me.
“Good morning, Mittens,” I greeted her as the cat wriggled out of my grasp and leaped off the bed.
Obviously, she was more interested in breakfast than allowing me to have a moment to snuggle with her.
Oh well, I thought as I slid out of bed, easing into my slippers and putting on my robe.
The cat’s lack of socialization wasn’t going to bother me today. I was too excited!
Today was the day we got to take the kids to see Santa!
I wasn’t sure why I was so enthusiastic about this field trip, but as I went through my normal routine, I found that I only grew more ecstatic as the time wore on.
I knew the kids were going to be excited and that made even more enthralled. I loved to be able to do things that gave the kids good memories.
Of course, I would like to think that there were good memories and an endearing amount of life lessons playing out in the classroom, but today was special.
Whether the kids grew up loving school or not, whether they achieved their dreams or not, this was one of the rare occasions I could abandon all academia and simply allow the children to have fun. There was no lesson attached. There was nothing that I expected them to take away from this experience except for a good time which hopefully would be shared with their friends.
Perhaps I was being a little bit idealistic, but when I went to school, opportunities to leave the classroom were few and far between, much less to do something like this.
The closest we ever got to doing something that was holiday-based in my school was going to see the Nutcracker.
I was a fan of the theater and enjoyed it immensely, but a lot of the other kids didn’t remember it quite so fondly.
Some of them even fell asleep and missed half of it, but even with my positive experience, I would have still loved to take nearly an entire school day to go see Santa!
I arrived at my classroom early, and thus, I had the opportunity to decorate it the way I wanted. I took everything that we had learned from the different cultures and tried to incorporate as much as I could into the decorating. I wanted to maintain creativity while still reinforcing what we had learned in a fun, positive manner.
The kids were ecstatic from the moment they walked in, and their wonder was compounded by the explosion of holiday décor that illuminated the spirit of the room.
It took them a little longer than normal to settle down, but I understood and didn’t want to do anything to tone down their level of excitement.
After all, the only thing I planned to do before the trip was to take attendance. I knew that regardless of how cooperative the kids were, there wasn’t enough time or attention span left to do anything else.
Therefore, after I finally narrowed down who was here and who wasn’t, I allowed the kids to have a little free time before we were loaded onto the bus.
After driving to the mall, with the bus driver blaring Christmas carols that many of the kids sang along to, the whole mass of students and teachers practically ran to see Santa.
Thankfully, there weren’t many people in the mall this early and so the only people in line to see Santa were the kids on the trip.
I ended up standing next to Sharon, who seemed far more concerned with the fact that this was the last day before winter break than she was about helping the kids enjoy their field trip. Yet, I was used to that from her, so most of what she said went in one ear and out the other. It was easier that way.
“Only three more hours!” Sharon expressed, grinning from ear to ear when I turned toward her.
“Yeah, I know. It’s great. The kids are excited too,” I answered.
“I know, they were practically swinging from the rafters this morning,” she huffed and rolled her eyes, “Thank God for this field trip. I’m not sure what I would’ve done with them all day.”
“Mine were good,” I admitted, “I knew there was no use in trying to do anything today, so I took attendance and let them do their own thing until it was time to get on the bus.”
“See, you’re smart. I tried to control the madness instead of simply going with it,” she laughed, “I swear, if that bus had come five minutes sooner, I might’ve been eaten alive.”
“Ewww! That’s gross!” one of the kids called from behind us.
“It’s only a figure of speech,” Sharon answered, but the kid’s that heard the conversations still wrinkled their nose and made grossed out noises in disgust.
Sharon returned her attention to me.
“So, do you have any romance blossoming this Christmas?”
“Sharon, this right here is the highlight of my Christmas,” I chuckled and spoke in a lower tone, “This and spending time with the family, which also does not provide any romantic options.”
“Hey! Maybe that’s what you should ask Santa for!” Sharon insisted, loud enough to pique the interest of the kids around us.
I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. In fact, I should’ve been waiting for this.
After all, my coworkers, Sharon especially, and even Mrs. Neilson, had been hard at work trying to fix me up with someone for months now. It started when I let it slip at a faculty dinner early in the year that I hadn’t had a serious relationship in over two years, and they ran with it.
I didn’t understand why my love life was of such concern to them but by now, it was more of a running joke than a serious inquisition.
Still, I found my jaw dropping and my eyes widening as the kids started to ask about what Sharon meant.
“I think that Ms. Lawson should as Santa for a boyfriend this Christmas,” she announced and I felt my knees grow week. I wished I could’ve melted into the floor but instead, I heard the cheers and excited howls of encouragement from the kids and even a few more of the teachers.
“I’m not going to do that!” I exclaimed.
“Come on, Ms. Lawson!” Susie spoke up, tugging on my shirt, “You told me that Santa knows everything, but it wouldn’t hurt to help him out a little. Don’t be afraid.”
“Susie…I’m not afraid,” I replied as far too much started to happen. I felt myself becoming overwhelmed.
“Yeah, Ms. Lawson, Susie has a point. Go sit on his lap and tell him what you want! It’ll be fun!” a voice that I assumed was Sharon’s waded through the white noise of encouragement and teasing.
Suddenly, I felt dizzy, and before I knew it, I was being shuffled to the front of the line. Behind me, hordes of children were calling after me, cheering me on and growing enthused by the fun the teachers were having at my expense.
Eventually, I found myself next to an elf who looked to be younger than I was, wearing a huge grin on her face.
“Right this way, Ms. Lawson, right?” the elf exclaimed cheerfully.
“Um…don’t you want the kids to go first? I’d hate for them to run out of time.”
“Santa’s got plenty of time for all of the children, Ms. Lawson,” the elf answered, and I wondered if she was extremely good at her job or if she was getting a great amount of joy from helping to make me do this.
Either way, it didn’t matter that much because I knew as I neared Santa, there was nothing I could do besides make a run for it and look like a bigger fool.
So, I took a deep breath and gave in, trying to have fun without being too mortified.
It almost worked too.
Instead of feeling claustrophobic, I tried to focus on the idea that I was doing this for fun, for the kids. It was silly and fun, that’s what being a kid around the holidays was all about.
I mean, it isn’t like Santa will know me, I thought as I sat down on the big guy’s lap and glanced back at my class and coworkers. Some of them were taking photos, so I raised my hand and gave the two-thumbs-up sign and rolled my eyes playfully before getting a whiff of a familiar scent.
I stopped and won
dered how obvious it was that my face completely dropped, along with my heart. Before I even turned around to look Santa in the eye, I had a terrible feeling I knew exactly who he was and I wasn’t going to ever live this down.
I turned around, hoping this was a nightmare, and sure enough, I saw Dexter’s sparkling blue eyes staring directly into mine.
“Oh…my,” I blurted, my eyes widening.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” he cried out, diverting his eyes from me, “Merry Christmas, Mazie! What would you like for Christmas?”
“I…Uh…Dex?” I shuddered, thankfully keeping my voice low.
“Say it so we can hear you!” a small voice called from the crowd.
“What do you want for Christmas?” Dex repeated, trying his best to stay in character and so, I figured that for his sake and mine, I should play along.
So, I averted my eyes and giggled, trying to release some of the tension that had built up.
“I would like to ask you for a boyfriend for Christmas,” I exclaimed, trying not to laugh or cry too much so that I could be done with it. When I didn’t hear anything more from the peanut gallery except expressions of shock and laughter as both teacher and child confirmed I said it, I added, “Thank you, Santa!”
Embarrassed, I jumped off his lap as quickly as I could and scurried through Santa’s Village to wait for the rest of my class.
I refused to look at Dexter the rest of the time we were there, and as soon as we were able to, I headed back to my classroom.
The rest of the day went by in an embarrassed blur.
Thankfully, the kids were picked up by their parents the moment we got off the bus, so I could return to my classroom alone. I shut the door and hoped no one would come after me.
I needed some time to recover before I had to face anyone that I knew, either personally or professionally.
Until I came to terms with what had happened today, I couldn’t show my face to my family or to my coworkers.
For once, I was happy that it was the start of winter break. Yet, considering that meant I had to spend time with my family, and likely Dexter’s family, if not old Santa himself, it was like being thrown out of the pan and into the flames.