Santa Loves Curvy Girls

3. Belle

3

BELLE

M y favorite thing about the holidays (after the lighting of the tree) was the baking.

The house smelled great and stayed warm all day long after I made a big batch of Christmas cookies.

“Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,” I sang under my breath, “right down Santa Claus Lane.”

I finished frosting the very last cookie, the music still blasting from the Bluetooth speaker in the kitchen. It had been a gift from my little brother, Dylan, last year. He was an eighth grader and pretty sweet when he wasn’t being a complete doofus with his friends.

Standing back and looking at my work, I nodded. My grandma’s sugar cookie recipe never failed me. Two dozen almost perfect cookies lay on the counter, an assortment of Christmas trees, presents, and even a Mr. and Mrs. Claus. This was my best batch yet.

Yeti came up to me, her little bark letting me know she wanted a treat too.

I kneeled down and scratched the fluffy white fur behind her ears. “No, girl, these cookies aren’t for you.”

She barked again, indignant, her black little nose in the air.

“Fine,” I replied. Yeti knew I lacked the self-discipline to tell her no to a treat.

I stood back up and reached for a treat in the cabinet.

Now she did her happy bark.

“Oh, now you love me,” I teased. After some more pets and letting her eat her treat, I packed up the cookies and headed to the mall.

Today was the first day that this year’s Santa Claus would be at the mall. It was a very big deal. There were always elves, a beautiful winter backdrop, and a long line of overly excited kids waiting to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

I knew for a fact that some of those kids were also on the naughty list this year, but that was not my business as the official cookie maker of the operation.

My job was to bring the cookies and the holiday spirit, then I’d settle in at Cocoa Corner with some hot chocolate and a few of my favorite baking blogs.

When I walked into the mall, chaos was already underway.

I walked up to my mom, who had a clipboard in hand. She was the general manager at the mall that surrounded the town square, and this was always her craziest time of year. “No,” she said sternly, “the line has to start over here.” She pointed to the masking tape on the floor. “We went over this yesterday, everyone. Let’s get it together.”

This was not a good sign. Santa Claus wasn’t even sitting in his armchair yet, and already there were little kids running around the stage area, yelling and screaming like they were on the playground.

Plus, Mom was already yelling, and I could see her forehead vein.

“Anything I can help with, Mom?” I asked, still holding the cookies.

She turned to me with a look of relief. “Belle, you’re here, thank goodness.” She took the cookies from me and gave them to one of her assistants rushing past.

The assistant gave her a confused look but decided to take the cookies and keep walking.

Mom kept her eyes on me. “I need an elf.”

“Huh?” I’m sure she didn’t even notice my puzzled look. She was already dragging me to the back.

We walked into her office. “Sarah called in sick an hour ago, and we’re already short on elves as it is this year.”

She pulled an elf suit from a rack near the wall and shoved it into my arms. “Here. Be ready to go in five minutes.”

Five minutes?

Before I could say another word, she was gone.

I’d never seen her this stressed out before. Poor Mom. I made a note to make her a special cup of hot chocolate at home later.

But for now, it looked like I was gonna have to step in.

Whether I wanted to or not.

I held up the elf costume, all red and green with tights and a short skirt.

Who made this thing?

The good news was that Sarah and I were about the same size. The bad news was that this costume probably hadn’t been dry-cleaned since Mom had started working here. And that was ages ago.

I sighed.

There were little kids and families out there who came to experience some Christmas magic today.

I didn’t realize I’d be a part of it when I woke up this morning, but that was life as the oldest daughter of the manager of the Garland Mall. Just last year I’d gotten stuck spraying fake snow on all the shop windows. And the year before that, I had to help dispose of reindeer poop from Santa’s petting zoo. (Good thing the live animals weren’t coming back this year. That was a mess.”

After making a quick change in the ladies’ room, I checked myself out in the mirror.

My legs didn’t look half bad in this bright green elf skirt and candy-striped tights. As long as you ignored the way the top tugged around my stomach and arms.

And I could certainly do without the little gold bells on the neckline and the pointy hat.

After dabbing on some lip gloss from Mom’s purse and doing the best I could for my hair, I stepped out, ready for a day of corralling kids, watching for line-cutters, and threatening to report rule-breakers to the naughty list.

“Oh, honey, you look adorable!” Mom said. “You’re my hero for stepping in today.”

Before I could chime in, letting her know she owed me a cup of hot cocoa, she was running off again.

I spotted my cookies under some tinsel at the table next to Santa’s armchair. Then I walked over there to rescue them.

“Who put these here?” I said to myself. I made quick work of organizing the table so it didn’t look such a mess.

A few other elves roamed around. One got the line of kids in order. Another one took a seat at the registration table where a couple of moms were waiting to sign their kids up for pictures with Santa.

Mom called the first kid in the line forward. The show was getting started, and I needed to get out of the way. Santa would be here any—

As I spun and attempted to walk in that direction, I hit something hard.

Hard, yet red and soft.

Before I could fall back, he caught me.

“Whoa there,” he said, his voice deep and strong.

He helped me regain my balance.

Bright blue eyes stared down at me. I couldn’t see the rest of his face behind the thick white beard—and the thick white eyebrows too—but I could tell from the way his eyes crinkled that he was smiling.

I froze, unable to form words all of a sudden.

I’d bumped straight into Santa Claus.