Santa Loves Curvy Girls

6. Nick

6

NICK

M y fish, Goldie, nibbled at his food flakes inside his glass bowl. I took a look at the small container. “I don’t know what they put in this stuff, Goldie, but you’re definitely in the running for the world record for longest living goldfish.”

I’d had Goldie around for almost as long as I could remember. He’d been my birthday present the year after Dad had died, which meant Goldie had to be about a hundred years old in fish years by now, but he seemed as in tip-top shape as ever.

Maybe he had some of that Garland magic in him.

I walked into the kitchen, finding Mom sitting at the table with some food. I bent down to give her a hug. She hadn’t asked too much about where I’d been recently. She kept pretty busy herself, and she knew I always picked up odd jobs here and there. I wasn’t the kind to be out getting into trouble.

Little did she know the part-time job I’d landed this year.

“Doing okay, hon?” she asked. She had my favorite meal going on the stove. Her special homemade chili. At this rate, I’d be filling out that Santa suit in all the worst ways.

I rubbed my hands together. “I am now. We still on for movie night tomorrow?”

She smiled and reached up to kiss me on the cheek. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

About once a month, we set aside a little money to go to A Wonderful Film, the movie theater in town. That place had to be a hundred years old, in the best way. They always played Christmas movies and showed classics for a dollar on Tuesdays. We’d go there then to Scrooge’s for a greasy burger and fries afterward.

A lot of guys hated the idea of spending time with their mom like that, but we’d always been close, and she was pretty laid-back too.

I watched her carefully stir the big pot of chili.

When did those lines appear on her forehead? She worked way too hard. I made a mental note to get her a gift card to the spa or something. This Santa gig had to pay good money, right? And she never did anything nice for herself. There were always bills to pay.

Thinking about the perfect present for her, I bundled up, pulled on my snow boots, and grabbed the shovel from the garage. Then I headed outside. It had snowed several inches overnight, which meant there was work to do.

I took a breath of the freezing cold air. Most people hated being out in this weather, but I loved the quiet and the physical work. Not to mention I always enjoyed the view of Garland when it looked just like a winter wonderland.

A while later, I couldn’t even feel the cold anymore. That was shoveling driveways for ya. I’d finished our driveway so Mom could head to work, but I was halfway through with Mr. and Mrs. Bowman’s too. Old Mr. Bowman had taken a fall last winter, and ever since then, I tried to help out wherever I could, especially with yard work and things like that.

It was just the right thing to do. I didn’t have many memories with Dad, but if he’d been around long enough to teach me anything, it was to help where you could.

“Hey, Nick!” It was Chad, one of the guys from the football team. He was on his bike.

I waved at him. I hadn’t seen him since school had let out for winter break. “Hey, man!” I shouted. “What are you up to?”

He came to a stop a few feet away from me. “Headed to the ice-skating rink with some people from school.”

I nodded. “Cool.”

“You should come. We texted the Reindeer group chat,” he said.

“Oh, sorry, I’ve barely looked at my phone all morning.”

“That’s too bad. Mindy and the rest of the cheerleaders are gonna be there.”

“Oh really?” He had the biggest crush on Mindy, the captain.

“Maybe she’ll finally go with me to Mistletoe Hill, you know what I mean?” he cracked.

I kind of smiled, but wished I could get back to my music and snow shoveling.

Chad was alright most of the time, but now that we were high school juniors on the football team, he and a lot of the guys just saw the cheerleaders as another notch on their belt. The more girls you took to Mistletoe Hill, the more the rest of the team looked up to you.

It was not my jam at all, but because I was on the football team like them, they thought I was all over that too.

“Well, I’ll see you later then,” he said.

“See you later,” I said, putting my earbuds back in.

As I kept working, I couldn’t help but think about the one girl who had caught my attention in that way.

It was probably a combination of the elf skirt she wore, her homemade cookies, and her sweet smile. Why had we never really talked before?

It was too bad, now that we were gonna be working together, because I couldn’t even tell her who I really was.

That was what I’d agreed to when I put on the suit. She could never know who I was.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t want to spend time with her. Or wouldn’t.