Page 7 of Mary had a Little Harem

"Mary, this is Sam, my oldest friend. Sam, Mary. My... Fiancée," he said, hesitantly, not particularly enjoying how the word sounded.

"Sam, is it? So... Are you... Sam-ta Claus today?" Mary grinned, the pun rolling off her tongue before she could stop herself. Luckily, Sam chuckled at her joke.

Nice, Mary thought, pleased that at least one of the guys seemed to have a sense of humour.

"For you, I'll be Samta Claus. Enchanté," he smiled charmingly.

Mary blushed, surprised when Sam took her hand and pressed a chaste kiss on the back. Now that was a gentleman. Maybe she should just ditch her prince in shining armour, ahem, more like tosser in tin foil, and go out with Sam.

"It's nice to meet you, Mary. I can see why Louis has been hiding you away," he added, glaring accusingly at his best friend.

Louis glanced at Mary, wondering if she'd trade him out for his best friend like almost all the girls did. She was now slapping him playfully and laughing at his every word like it was the funniest thing she ever heard.

A hard ball formed in his stomach as he couldn't exactly blame her. Ladies always gravitated towards Sam. It was just a fact of life. Not that he had an issue with sharing. No, he and Sam were quite okay with that. But most of the time, there wasn’t much sharing involved as soon as they get their claws in his best friend.

Not that it worked. The moment they broke up with him, Sam would ditch them faster than a horse took a dump. Louis always told him that it wasn't necessary, but Sam would just shrug and say: "If she ain't right, she ain't right, man."

Every girl had done it, so it wouldn't be a surprise if Mary preferred his friend over him. To be fair, this wasn't even a proper date. She only said yes because his Nan practically made it impossible for her to say no. And then he showed up in — Louis looked at his red, baggy Santa costume — this. He couldn't blame her for not taking any of this seriously. Hell, he didn't take any of it seriously, until Sam showed up and started making googly eyes at her. If she wound up falling for his best friend, he'd just have to accept that he missed out on her and that it was his own stupid fault.

"Louis, shall we go shoot things?"

Surprised, he snapped out of his thoughts and glanced at Mary. "What?"

She pointed at a stall further up ahead. "They’ve got this contest where you have to shoot leads at a pipe. They seem to have some wicked prizes. Want to go?"

"Yes?" he asked, surprised that Mary seemed to be keen on going somewhere with him instead of inviting Sam along.

"Unless you're a bad shot," she teased, throwing her dark curls over her shoulder. She grinned, noticing how Sam's eyes travelled lustfully over her body. That was what she was talking about. Why didn't Louis react to this?

"Bring it on," Louis smiled, quite happy to feel her link arms with him.

"Bye Sam," she waved, pulling Louis along with her to the stall. He nodded at his best friend and trotted behind Mary, albeit, quite confused. Maybe he hadn't made as bad an impression as he thought he had?

---