Kris

“Jesse…”

“I wouldn’t ask, but there’s literally nobody else. I just found out she’s down with norovirus, and there’s no way she can come. Even if she stopped throwing up, she’d expose all of those kids.”

“I don’t even like Christmas,” said Beca.

“I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas, and I feel like I missed out. Hanukkah was cool and all, but not really the same.”

“Well, my holiday memories generally involved a lot of family drama, especially after my parents’ divorce.”

“This is an event for kids. Can’t you just throw on a Mrs. Claus costume for a couple of hours and put smiles on the faces of underprivileged children?”

“Stacie and I had plans for tonight.”

“So, invite her to come along. She can be an elf.”

“Stacie is almost as tall as you are, Jesse.”

“Okay, then she can still help out. I’m sure we’ll find something, and we could use as many hands as we can.”

“Let me text her.”

Beca texted Stacie, who agreed to come along, especially after reading that Beca was going to dress as Mrs. Claus. Beca suggested Stacie wear the costume instead, and all Stacie sent back was a laughing emoji.

Beca sighed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, Stacie’s on board, probably so she can take embarrassing pictures.”

“Excellent,” said Jesse. “I’ll text you the address.”

About an hour later, Beca found herself in the women’s bathroom at a nearby department store holding up a Mrs. Claus costume that was definitely going to be too big. She sighed as she held it up in front of her, hoping someone had safety pins or that she’d be sitting down the whole time. The dress was way too long and was going to drag on the floor.

Before Beca had managed to try to get the costume on, an adorable redhead entered the bathroom, holding up an elf costume.

“Hi!” She said upon seeing Beca. “I’m Chloe. Jesse said your name was Beca. Is that right?”

Beca froze for a moment. Chloe was so beautiful she’d forgotten her own name for a second or two.

Clearing her throat, she replied, “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Awes,” she said.

“Awes?” Beca asked.

“Awesome. I started shortening words back in college, and I guess I didn’t get out of the habit.”

Beca nodded.

To Beca’s surprise, Chloe immediately began stripping in the middle of the bathroom rather than going into a stall.

Beca glanced at the stalls and realized she was going to have to do the same thing; she didn’t want any part of her costume, or worse, her own clothes, landing in the toilet. The stalls were very small. She tried not to stare at the beautiful woman in front of her in her underwear and started stripping.

However, Chloe seemed to notice her staring.

“Yeah, I’m pretty confident about…all this,” she said.

“You should be,” Beca mumbled back, her cheeks flaming.

Once she got into her costume, she discovered it was worse than she thought. It felt like it was a foot too long, but it probably really was only half of that. Thankfully, it had an elastic waist, so at least the skirt wasn’t going to fall.

“I guess the original Mrs. Claus was taller,” Beca said sheepishly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how to sew. I don’t even own a sewing needle or thread, much less a sewing machine.”

“It will be fine,” Chloe reassured her. “I have some safety pins. My grandmother taught me how to sew, and she taught me how to hem. I don’t have my machine, but I think I can strategically place some pins so it looks like it was hemmed.”

“Okay, I guess. I don’t exactly have a choice. I mean, I do, but I promised Jesse. He kind of suckered me into it.”

“He said it was ‘for the children,’” Chloe said, doing air quotes.

“Exactly.”

“That’s him.”

“He got me with the puppy dog eyes.”

Chloe winked. “Good to know those work.”

Beca groaned internally. Chloe was adorable, and the wink already had her hooked.

She followed Chloe out of the bathroom and into the store’s stockroom. It was cramped, but it was better than doing all of this in the bathroom. Chloe pulled a pack of safety pins from her purse and asked Beca to stand still. She folded the bottom of the dress and asked Beca to look down and see if she was okay with the length. It was a couple of inches above the floor, so Beca agreed. In a few minutes, the dress was off the floor. She looked down at the dress and saw that Chloe had been true to her word. She could barely see where the dress had been pinned. She reasoned that everyone would likely be looking at Santa, rather than the bottom of Mrs. Claus’s skirt, anyway.

Stacie walked in at that moment and practically doubled over with laughter.

Beca folded her arms. “Stacie, that’s not helping. You know, this costume is probably the right length for you if we take the pins out of the bottom of the dress.”

“Yeah, but you can’t convince me to wear it.”

Beca opened her mouth to say something and then shut it. She’d been friends with Stacie long enough to know that she was right. Stacie had never been one to do anything she didn’t want to do, and it was nearly impossible to change her mind.

“Fine. So, what are you doing?”

“Jesse has me in charge of keeping the kids occupied after their turn to see Santa is over.”

Beca looked and saw Stacie had put on an ugly Christmas sweater and had a festive headband in her hand, figuring she’d put it on when things started.

“Okay, it’s picture time!” Stacie declared, holding up her phone and already beginning to snap pictures.

Chloe soon put her arm around Beca and posed.

“Shouldn’t you be taking pictures of Jesse as well?” Beca asked.

“Already did,” said Stacie. She showed Beca the photo gallery on her phone. Beca had to admit Jesse looked surprisingly at home in the Santa suit.

Beca sat next to Jesse in her Mrs. Claus costume. She tried her best to smile, but the costume was itchy and uncomfortable. She wasn’t comfortable in large crowds, and she wondered how and when to make Jesse pay for this. She figured she’d start with insisting he bring her some coffee first thing Monday morning.

Jesse did an excellent job playing Santa. He had the “Ho Ho Ho” laugh down, and he took the time to listen to the children as they told him what they wanted. Beca’s job was to walk the child to the elf, and she’d direct them to the correct toy bin. Chloe helped each child select a toy and gave them a candy cane if they wanted one. To keep the magic of Santa alive, Santa and Mrs. Claus made a point to tell the children that they could choose an early gift for being on the “Extra Nice List.” Parents were then allowed to choose an unwrapped toy or two to take home to give to their child on Christmas, while Stacie kept the children occupied with Christmas specials, snacks, and crafts in another area of the store.

One quiet, shy girl caught Beca’s attention. She’d spoken so quietly when Jesse asked her what she wanted that Beca had to strain to hear her. Jesse asked her to repeat herself, but even he didn’t seem to be able to understand her. When Beca caught the little girl’s eye, she thought she’d try to take over.

“Hi, sweetie. What’s your name? I need to help Santa make sure you’re on the ‘Extra Nice List.’”

“It’s Amelia,” she mumbled.

“Amelia, right?” Beca asked.

The little girl nodded.

“I see you’re on the list!” Jesse exclaimed. The girl gave a small smile, but she looked directly at Beca.

“That’s wonderful,” said Beca. “What would you like for Christmas?”

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. Mommy said you might not make it to our house this year.”

“Why is that?” Beca asked.

“Because my daddy left us, and she said Santa might think we live with him.”

Beca’s heart broke in two. She remembered how sad she’d been when her father left, but she’d still received Christmas presents. The girl’s poor mother must have been dirt poor.

“Well, now we know that’s not true,” said Beca. She glanced at the crowd and caught the eye of a young woman who appeared to be signaling the girl to stop, looking embarrassed.

“I’ll help Santa make sure he knows where you are on Christmas Eve,” Chloe added.

Jesse said, “You get to choose a gift early because you’re on the list. What would you like?”

“A Labubu doll,” she said. “And, some Legos and a Barbie doll. But, Mommy said that’s too many gifts.”

Beca looked again at the young woman and tried to express with her eyes that things were okay.

“It’s not too many for someone like you on the ‘Extra Nice List.’”

“Let’s go look at the bin. I have some dolls over here,” said Chloe, leading the girl to the bin of dolls. It warmed Beca’s heart to see the girl’s face light up.

“Excuse me,” she said to Jesse.

She walked over to the young woman and pulled her aside. “You’re Amelia’s mom, aren't you?”

The woman nodded and looked at her feet. “I’m Stephanie. Just a few months ago, her father left me with nothing. He had an affair and left me so he could raise a baby with the other woman. I stayed home with Amelia before that, so I have no money. We had to move in with my parents because the house was in his name only.”

“My dad left when I was young, too,” said Beca. “My mom worked, so we got to stay in the house. But it really sucked. My dad moved across the country with his affair partner. We still talk, but it’s never been the same.”

“Amelia’s father doesn’t even talk to her anymore.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Anyway, we are letting parents take a few brand new toys home to put under the tree for later. I’m sure Amelia will be okay with the other children for a few minutes. Why don’t I show you what we have?”

Stephanie followed Beca to the unwrapped toy area, and Beca encouraged her to take a few toys for Amelia. She smiled when she saw her choose a Lego set Beca would have loved as a child. She chose President Barbie, and she said she’d chosen a career Barbie with big dreams.

Beca headed back to the main event and took a seat with Jesse, explaining that she’d had to take a little break to use the “little girls’ room,” making a lot of the young children giggle, several of whom reminded Mrs. Claus that she was a grown-up.

Beca really hit her stride as Mrs. Claus after that. She listened and engaged more with the children after that, instead of mostly sitting back and letting Jesse and Chloe do it.

As the event wrapped up, she saw Stephanie and Amelia leaving the children’s area. They stopped her on the way to the back of the store.

“Mrs. Claus! Mrs. Claus!” Amelia called, taking Beca by surprise, as the child had barely spoken above a whisper earlier.

“Yes, Amelia?”

Amelia turned to her mom. “She remembered my name!”

“Of course I did.”

She thrust a craft made mostly from green construction paper at Beca. “I made this for you.”

Beca swallowed hard when she looked. The girl had made a Christmas tree, and she’d carefully written “Thank you Mrs. Claus” on it. She’d drawn a picture of herself holding Mrs. Claus’s hand on the back.

“Miss Stacie helped me with the spelling. I wanted to do my very best.”

Beca cleared her throat before responding, trying to avoid openly crying and possibly frightening the girl.

“You did an excellent job,” she said. “May I take this back to the North Pole?”

Amelia nodded vigorously. “Yes!”

“I’m going to put it in the workshop. I am going to be so busy with the elves when I get back that this will remind me to keep doing my best.”

Chloe appeared behind her. “Especially this elf!” She winked at Beca.

Chloe, again, stripped in front of Beca.

“Thanks for your help with my costume,” Beca said.

“It was no problem,” said Chloe. “You were so sweet with that little girl.”

“Amelia?”

“Yes.”

Beca sighed. “I saw myself in her. My dad left when I was a little girl. I never had to worry about getting presents, but I missed him terribly at first. He tried to keep in contact at first, but he was on the other side of the country, so it was tough. I was also really angry and shut him out. And I never did accept Sheila the Stepmonster.”

“Stepmonster?”

Beca shrugged. “She tried to replace my mom when I’d go to my dad’s. She even tried to convince me to move in with them. I wasn’t having it, and I’m pretty sure I remember hearing some rather heated exchanges when my mom was on the phone with my dad. I made amends with my dad when I begrudgingly started college. He taught at Barden, so my tuition was free. He’s still with Sheila, and I’m polite to her, but I’m much happier when she isn’t around when I spend time with my dad.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

The two looked at each other for a few beats.

“So…” Chloe trailed off.

“So….?”

“I…this is probably too forward.” Chloe took a breath before continuing. “I hope my gaydar is correct. I’m bi, so maybe it’s not great.”

Beca smirked as she realized what was happening. She let Chloe stammer for a moment before gesturing to her to continue.

“Would you like to go get drinks after this? Or, maybe a coffee tomorrow if you’re not busy? Wait, are you with Stacie?”

Beca chuckled. “I’m not with Stacie. We’ve been friends for years. We met at Barden, actually. I do have plans with her tonight, but I’d love to get that cup of coffee with you tomorrow.”

“Awes.”

“Yeah, awes.”

They exited the store bathroom and headed to the stockroom to return their costumes. They found Jesse looking at them and grinning. He held up something green and motioned for them to come over to him.

“Okay, you two. I have a mistletoe here that I’m not using, so…”