Page 2 of Temporary Santa's Knotty Workshop
Was I getting a raise? No. They said they were going to ask a favor. And really, I didn’t need a raise, but a nice bonus and few extra days off wouldn’t hurt.
“What do you need?” I asked. “I’m more than happy to help.”
“Well, we’d like to go on vacation,” Percy said.
I’d been pestering them to take some time away together for what felt like ages. They had a great life here, but one thing that had to be rough on them was that they were never “off” of work. They could plan a whole entire day of family fun, and one issue at the factory and Nick was back to work. It was the way of things when you were Santa.
“That’s a wonderful idea! I can start planning that for January. That’s our slow time. Are you thinking beach resort or more of a family-friendly type of place? Maybe somewhere in the mountains?” I’d never planned a vacation, but I was addicted to the travel shows. I was sure I could come up with something amazing.
“Not January, Willy.” Percy looked at his mate, who nodded in reply. “We want to go on vacation now.”
My eyes widened. “Before Christmas?”
“Through Christmas,” Nick said, and I nearly fell out of my chair.
I gasped. “You can’t do that. Who will deliver the presents?”
Nick cleared his throat. “Apparently, it is a requirement of all Santas to have a certain number of vacation days. And you have to take them. No one ever told me this.”
“And unfortunately, Nick has not been complying with the policy. So he needs to take twelve weeks off before the end of the year,” Percy added.
I did the math in my head. It was not pretty.
“Twelve weeks puts us AT the end of the year!” The very end. Meaning Christmas would have already happened.
“It does. We leave tomorrow.” Percy sounded thrilled by what was happening, and I could see why. Twelve weeks with his family and no work responsibilities, but still… tomorrow?
My jaw hit the floor. “Tomorrow?” Well, spank my ass and call me a dirty boy. We were fucked. Well and truly fucked.
“But we need a Santa. We need—”
Nick raised a hand. “I’ve called in a favor with my brother. He’s going to fill in, but he’ll need help, and that’s where you come in.”
I knew Nick had a brother but hadn’t met him. What could he possibly know about this side of Christmas present fun? Not much.
So many scenarios ran through my mind. Without Nick here to keep everyone in line, there would be chaos. “Surely they will give you an exception. Just this one time. You can take three months off at the beginning of the year. They have to know that you can’t take time off during Christmas.”
“The decision has been finalized. It’s out of our hands. This came from up top.” Nick sounded as unpleased about it as I did. He’d never been one who liked being told what to do with his factory. I’d seen elves on the receiving end of his ire when they decided to butt in and demand he change something. It was not pretty.
I didn’t know where the candy canes up top was or who ran it, but I’d like to have a conversation with them. I took a deepbreath. We could do this. This wouldn’t be a big deal. It would be like taking one of our monster dildos up the ass without lube, but we could do it.
“Does your brother have any experience being Santa?” I asked.
“No. We actually haven’t even spoken to him yet.”
Never mind the fact that he had just told me his brother had agreed to do it. “Oh, goodness, but he would do an okay job, right?”
“Of course,” Nick said, although for the first time in perhaps my entire career here, I did not believe his words. I wasn’t sure he believed them either.
His entire plan was based on his brother, who had no Santa experience, not only having the time available to come, but then agreeing to drop everything to do so. That was a whole lot that had to fall into place for this to have half a chance of working.
“So you’ll do it, you’ll help?” Percy looked at me with his eyes wide open, his puppy-dog face slapped on. It wasn’t as if I’d have been able to turn him down. He was my ride-or-die.
I didn’t think I had a choice. “Of course, sir. I’m the right elf for the job.”
My voice sounded more sure than I actually was. I was great at the parts of this division I worked in, but helping train someone to do Nick’s job? I wasn’t sure I even understood all it entailed.This was going to be a true test of faking it until you made it, only in this scenario, it wasn’t me who was on the line—it was Christmas.
Chapter 2
