Page 3 of Christmas Kisses
Jensynn laughed, "Yeah. I get that a lot."
The guy held out his hand, "Name's Bryant Dentyn. I'm the guy in charge and am here to help you with anything. We have two Santa's normally, so one Santa can take a break, but we haven't been able to find another one. So, I apologize. If you can do it for longer than a regular shift would be, I can pay you better."
Jensynn nodded, "That's fine. I can handle whatever you throw at me."
Bryant let out a relieved sigh, "Thank god. Anyway, you have four elves at each time slot, two to help with the kids and pictures and two to sell the pictures and keep the line moving. Got it?"
He nodded again, "Yep."
Bryant smiled, "Good. Okay. We don't really have any rules. Try not to make too many kids cry and keep the interactions down to two minutes if you can, and this will go by fast. You have two breaks for each shift and I will get you any food you want. Okay?"
Jensynn nodded again and Bryant handed him the suit. Jensynn fought to roll his eyes at the padding he was going to have to wear, along with the long, scratchy white beard and wig.
Bryant showed him where he would change and could just sit when he had his breaks.
It was a quaint little room; there was a couch, a bathroom and it had a door. It was all he needed.
He changed into the suit and saw it was too small in the legs, so he used a tiny bit of his magic to make it fit correctly and when he looked in the mirror and saw the big white beard he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.
The beard was left over from Nicholas's great grandfather’s time as Santa Claus and it had gone away in the years that had followed, but the people still got it wrong.
Nick had short hair and a close cropped beard and Jensynn wanted to laugh at how ridiculous the whole thing was.
In fact, while Nick wore the suit, he had a six pack. Not a fat belly and was very trim and in shape.
Jensynn pulled out the phone and took a picture of himself and sent it to the only contact he had saved. Nick.
Jensynn:Thanks for the job asshole. I'm gonna play the fat Santa up just to spite you.
Nick: Looks good on you
Jensynn: Asshole
Nick: Good luck finding your mate.
Jensynn: Oh, I will
Then he putthe phone away and went back out to start his shift.
He was ledto the big chair and sat down. The little kids standing in line started yelling and screaming and he waved and gave a big ‘Ho, Ho, Ho.’
Even though Nick never said that once in his life.
One of the girl 'elves' tried to make eyes at him, but he shut her down fast.
She walked away with a huff and he knew that being an actual elf didn't help. Humans found them attractive but he wouldn't act on anything. He didn't want to.
He watched as the elves at the bottom of the long red carpet lifted the rope and a line of children and their parents walked up.
The first kid was a little boy and he was around six years of age. He climbed up on his lap, and Jensynn gave him a smile, and talked to the boy finding all about what he wanted for Christmas.
He made certain that Nick knew as it was one of his abilities to hear it.
And as the line of children slowly dwindled as he talked to each and every child, he finally noticed someone watching him.
He was just finishing his goodbyes to the last child when he felt the eyes on him.
He looked around surreptitiously and spotted her. A woman with dark brown hair that was curled around her shoulders.
