Page 3 of Wrap Me Up

Dylan and Snow are already here, standing at the front of the room chatting with Tinsel. Rows of chairs line the space and there’s a table up front with two giant bowls full of slips of paper.

Tinsel glances around the room, but his smile dies a little when he notices me. Immediately, he looks away and goes back to his conversation.

I really really messed up at New Year’s. I should have swallowed my fear and asked him on a date. Instead, I took the coward’s way out and basically told him to have a good life while I wallowed at home for my stupidity. I even ignored his texts.

Because why would anyone as wonderful as Tinsel want someone as boring as me?

Chapter 3

Tinsel

“Of course he’s here,” I grumble. My palms go sweaty when I see Noel. I wipe them on my shorts and hope no one notices.

Both of my friends find the damn elf that’s taken up too much of my mental space. Of course, I should be over him by now. But maybe I still want to hold out hope. This is the North Pole and miracles do happen. Maybe something happened to him and now everything is fine and we can go back to being friends again. Really, that’s what I miss the most. Losing a friend and not understanding what caused it is the worst.

Dylan just smirks at me like he has something up his sleeve. Snow snorts and ushers me to the seats with everyone else. I take the long way around and grab a spot in back to keep away from Noel. Maybe I’ll draw his name though, then at Christmas he’ll have to acknowledge me in front of everyone.

Snow and Dylan have an excellent turnout. Elves fill every seat in the party hall, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. Once people really got to know Snow and Dylan, they stopped being mean. For the most part. There are some instances elves forget themselves and fall back into old ways, but with a redirect they usually apologize and everything goes back to being pleasant again. The blending of Christmas scents makes my head spin. Gingerbread and sugar cookies and candy and fudge, and all good smells fill the room, making my stomach grumble.

“Good morning,” Dylan says.

Everyone offers back a welcome.

I’m proud of Dylan for taking the lead. He used to be so shy, but I think Snow has helped pull him out of his shell. Not to mention that once we both started wearing harnesses, our sef-esteem sky rocketed, at least mine did. I introduced them to him and a harness with a pair of jeans became somewhat of a uniform for him. It was rare to see Dylan with more clothes on before he and Snow started manipulating the weather barrier. Now that it’s warm all year round, he’s taken to wearing shorts occasionally. I tease him about stealing my uniform.

“As you’re aware, this new program is designed to help blend the Naughty and Nice Workshops together in friendship like it used to be. Everyone that signed up has their name in a bowl. So grab a name and remember to take a snack for the road. I made the cookies fresh this morning.”

Dylan has the best cookies in the North Pole, thanks to his gran’s recipe. My mouth waters. I have a batch of cookie dough in my freezer that Dylan gave me a few weeks back, but I haven’t had time to make it. So this is much, much better.

Snow steps up. He’s in one of his signature Christmas sweaters. This one is covered in cute little presents. “Just form a line starting here.” He points to the end of the table. “And we’ll get started.”

I want to go last, so I wait for everyone to follow directions. I refuse to watch as Noel’s face lights up when he draws his name. Jealousy rolls through my stomach and I bite back a sneer. Who the heck put that smile on his face?

It’s a somewhat slow process. Everyone wants to chat with Snow or Dylan as they walk through, which means I’m still winding through the damn line thirty minutes later. Had I known it’d take so long, I would have asked Dylan to grab me a name. I’m sure he would have if I had asked. Probably.

I run through the list of things I need to do for the week as I stand in line. There’s so much to do between now and shipping cut off for orders. I have a handful of elves that work beneath me in the leather shop, but every year I wonder if we’ll get the orders done in time. This year’s count is three hundred and sixteen orders to get done between now and December twelfth. Which means the six of us get roughly fifty-three orders to do. Which is absolutely doable, just time consuming. Only other elves will believe the amount of time and care we put into each order.

Snow offered to help with packing and shipping, since he already knows what he’s doing. He helped Dylan with more than testing his toys last year by working in Dylan’s mail room, too. I haven’t decided if I’m taking him up on his offer or not, but I’d probably be a fool not to.

Finally, I’m the last one in line, and give my friends a grin before dropping my hand into the bowl to grab the last name from the Nice Workshop. Moment of truth. Who will it be?

“I’m so excited.” Snow bounces on his toes, making his floppy dark hair flip flop across his forehead. Dylan takes his hand and pulls him to his side to kiss his temple.

“Don’t leave us hanging,” Dylan says.

I hold my breath as I unfold the thick paper. “Flying reindeer, are you kidding me?”

Snow tries to keep from laughing when I show them the slip of paper.

“Did you two do anything magical to the paper?”

Dylan’s eyes go wide. “Never. We don’t cheat.” And dang it, I believe him.

Snow bursts out laughing and slams his hand over his mouth. “Nope, really was luck of the draw, but how funny?”

“I’ll show you funny,” I mumble, but my heart gives an excited pitter pat. Maybe Noel and I can repair our broken friendship.

Chapter 4

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