Page 14 of Temporary Santa's Knotty Workshop
I laughed. “Well, they can do that after they treat me like a prince and feed me hot chocolate.”
We all laughed at that. At least when things were going smoothly, we all got along. Not that we were all the bestest of friends, but lately it seemed like things were pretty good.
We went back to our work, and I’d made pretty good progress on the purple tentacles when the door opened and Campbell walked in. I knew it was him before I even looked up. It was like the atmosphere in the room had changed.
“How’s everyone doing?” He came over to where we were inspecting our wares.
For us, this was normal work, but it had to be shocking for Campbell to be looking at us all just hanging out with the dildos.It was one thing when it had been just the two of us, and it became this hybrid weirdness of flirting and working, but this? This was different. It wasn’t the two of us, it was a whole group, and we weren’t flirting, it was all business.
“Oh, it’s good to see you, Campbell.” Chester made sure to hold up his dildo with one hand and stroke it inappropriately with the other. “I was just wondering when I’d see you again.”
To his credit, Campbell ignored his dildo demonstration. “Probably the next time I do a walk-through.” And then he walked right around Chester.
That small gesture shouldn’t have made me as happy as it did.
“Willy, tonight we have a meeting, right?” Campell asked.
We did not.
“Yes, Boss, we do at… at six.” I was winging it. I had no idea what he was getting at, but something told me to play along.
“Excellent. Why don’t I pick you up on my way back over here? Snowdrop needs some exercise.”
“Sounds good, sir.”
He made some small talk with everyone there, and then away he went. The entire time, Chester’s eyes were glued to me, and they were not filled with holiday cheer.
“Why is he picking you up for a meeting? He can just meet you here.” He wasn’t pretending to hide his jealousy.
“Why? What do you think?” I rolled my eyes. “Because he knows I love Snowdrop, and he’s only here for a few months. So Snowdrop has to go somewhere when he leaves.” Obviously, Snowdrop could go with him, but I was still in the winging-it stage of this entire situation.
Shockingly, it was enough of a plausible excuse for Chester to get back to work, and for me to get lost in my head—and in my tentacle dildos.
What was Campbell planning? Because it sure wasn’t work.
Chapter 8
Campbell
One of my favorite things about living up here, at least temporarily, was taking Snowdrop for her morning walks and heading up to the bakery. Living alone in the middle of nowhere meant that if I was going to have baked goods, I needed to make them. And not only was I a mediocre baker, but once I baked something, that was what I ate all week. No variety whatsoever.
But here, with a bakery within walking distance, I could have a cupcake one day, a cookie the next, a brownie after that, and on and on. The possibilities were endless, especially when it cameto the cookies. This place knew how to do a cookie. There were varieties I’d never even heard of, and I’d yet to find one I didn’t love.
Today, when I was waiting in line at the bakery for a slice of their triple-layer confetti cake, there were a lot more people than normal ahead of me. I didn’t mind. I wasn’t in a rush.
Nick had left me a pretty cushy job, which was really no job at all, not until it came time for delivering. And when that time came, well, it was going to be a major job. I was confident enough that I could handle it. But as we got closer and closer, that confidence waned slightly.
At first, I thought more people had woken up craving sweets or maybe they had a special cookie of the day that was well-loved or something like that. But I soon realized that the cause of the slowdown was a Christmas movie they had all seen the night before. It was directed by an elf in the human world, an elf incognito, obviously, and it sounded like Christmas threw up all over the television screen.
It was romance and sticky sweetness. Romance that went on and on and on about the date the two went on. And then something surprising happened… I started wanting to go on one of those too. Not just a random date with a random person—no. I saw it clear as day. I wanted to go out with Willy.
Sure, we worked together, but this wasn’t my real job. There was no true power dynamic that could make it ewww. And really, we were adults, so that shouldn’t matter anyway.
We hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot as far as a possible romance went. The first time I met him, I was playing with dildos in his boss’s office. Then he caught me breaking into the factory, where I chatted him up about cum-flavored lube, and ending with a blow job.
No, romance hadn’t been part of any of that.
If I was going to do this, I had to play my cards right. The odds were too great that he was going to hear my invitation and think I was being overly flirtatious again… or teasing, a reputation I had built around myself in the short time I’d been here. Past Campbell had really messed up my chances of dating the sexy elf.
