Page 8 of Temporary Santa's Knotty Workshop
“Chester, you are on shift in the Lube Lagoon soon, you should probably go there.”
Really pissed.
Chester rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Willy, but I really don’t need you to boss me around. I know where I need to be.”
And now there were two pissed off elves. I needed to get back on track really quickly. My brother didn’t ask me to come in here and stir up trouble. And he definitely didn’t call me here to make his mate’s bestie upset.
“It was nice meeting you, Campbell.” Chester gave a little wave as he walked away.
“Why can’t you be more like that elf?” I said. “He wants to hear my ideas. How come you don’t?”
Within two seconds of deciding not to be a troublemaker, there I was, jumping back in. What was it about Willy that had me forgetting the thinking part of interactions?
Willy’s eyes went wide, and he drew in a sharp breath. “I never said I didn’t want to hear your ideas. I said they can wait until next year. Introducing change this late in the season is only going to introduce chaos. We need to stick with the status quo until we get done, and then we can talk about improvements.”
He might have been miffed at me, but he was making a very professional case.
“Every January, we have discussion time amongst all the elves to talk about new things to try. And then we put together a plan for how to implement those changes, and we have metrics of success. We don’t try whatever random idea anyone has. It has to be thought out first, or else you’re going to end up with people getting the wrong toys or toys being made poorly, and no one wants that.”
Well, shit. That definitely sounded reasonable and made a lot of sense.
“That’s very smart. Thank you for explaining it to me. I guess I never realized how much thought had to go into all this,” I said. “That improvement plan and measures of success, that seems really efficient.”
Willy blinked at me. He was silent for a moment.
“I mean it. Really,” I said. “I’ll table my ideas for later and discuss them with you or Nick or Percy at a more appropriate time.”
“Thank you. I mean, it wasn’t my idea. Percy and I worked on it together.”
“You know, when I got here, I only got to see the office. I don’t yet know where I’m staying.” I’d been rushed inside like I was a pop star avoiding the paparazzi and not someone coming to their first day of work. It was weird, but then again, what about this wasn’t?
“Oh. Your brother didn’t mention where you’ll be staying? Nick was always on top of everything. This wasn’t like him at all. “
“Nope. Do you think you could show me—?”
An alarm sounded, and Willy jerked his head toward the wall where the buzzer was going off. He pulled out his phone.
“I can’t right now. I have to—” He gestured toward a room labeled Anal Avenue. We hadn’t been there on the tour, but I didn’t need to know what was happening in there.
“Something I could help with?” I asked.
“No, no, everything’s fine, I promise. I’ll talk to you later. Bye!”
And just like that he was gone.
I went back to my office to check on Snowdrop and figure out where I was staying, but my mind was never very far from Willy. He’d gotten so into my head in the short time since I met him. Behaving around him was going to be difficult. If he so much as hinted that he was ready for a kiss, I was there.
Snowdrop met me at the door. The pup was adorable and sweet. I needed to figure out how to get him some food that wasn’t the roast beef from the sandwich I brought with me.
“Snowdrop, Daddy’s going to leave work early today. We’ll grab you some yums and find our new home. How does that sound?”
She looked up at me and licked my chin.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Now to hunt down the information in that welcome package I got on the helicopter.” It was somewhere in the office, probably under one of the million dildos I’d been looking through.
Ten minutes later, I had it in hand and was on my way to my new temporary home with my adorable new companion with a quick stop at the shop for some kibble along the way. This wasn’t where I expected to be a week ago, but something told me it was exactly where I belonged, and that both excited and terrified me.
Chapter 5
