“I can ring you up here.”Tom motioned for him to come around to the cash register.He could feel the stares of his co-workers.He wrapped the ornament in tissue paper and placed it in a small paper bag.
“I forgot to mention at lunch, but if you do go to Miami, check out this restaurant called The News Café.It’s got a great view of the ocean.”
“Thanks.I will.”
Hot Mall Santa gave him a five dollar bill, and Tom made the appropriate change.He looked in the bag at his wrapped-up ornament.“Sweet.Have a good night.”Hot Mall Santa waved at Antonio, Kirsten, and Milo.“Great store you got here.”
Tom couldn’t help but notice the hard expression creasing Antonio’s face as he watched Hot Mall Santa leave.
“Damn,” Milo said again.
“We should go.We don’t want to be late,” Antonio said.He maneuvered Milo to the door.“Night.”
They exited in the opposite direction of Hot Mall Santa.
Kirsten’s face stared at Tom, full of shock and awe.“Lunch?”
“We didn’t have lunch together.We just happened to be eating in the same location.”
Kirsten nodded, but something told Tom she didn’t believe him at all.
CHAPTER6
The Décor Store got busier as the week went on.The good thing with busy days was that Tom’s shift went by in a blink.It was the slow periods where he wanted to gouge his eyes out.Tom didn’t see Hot Mall Santa for the next few days.He parked outside the North Wing to get to the store faster.Things were so busy that he ran to the food court for lunch and ate in the break room, where seasonal employees kept interrupting him to ask questions.By the time they figured out how to do their job competently, they’d be gone, so it was kind of a waste.
“I saw your BFF.He’s just as busy,” Kirsten said to him during one break room lunch.“The line is almost to the Old Navy.”
Tom wondered how exhausting it was being Santa.On the one hand, the guy got to sit all day.But he had to talk to kids, which was like its own foreign language.
By Saturday night, Tom needed a drink.He worked a twelve-hour shift because someone “called in sick,” but he didn’t care how tired he was.He needed a drink.Kirsten wasn’t available because she was at a classmate’s party, and it was just as well.Tom wanted to be alone.He didn’t have the energy to handle her energy.
After closing with Antonio, who didn’t ask him anything about Hot Mall Santa, Tom drove to the one gay bar in the area, The Wounded Soldier, which Tom learned through Googling was an expression for an alcoholic drink abandoned by its owner.It also stood for the metaphor of gay Americans who fought and gave their lives for equal rights, according to an old patron who Tom had met one night.The bar, like a troll, sat on a dirt road under a one-lane bridge on the edge of town.The Wounded Soldier had been here for decades, a relic of when gays had to live in the shadows.About five years ago, two wealthy gay men from Chicago who wanted to get away from the busy city life purchased The Wounded Soldier and gave it a complete renovation.Now, it onlylookedold and rundown, as part of its aesthetic.Inside were shiny new booths, a sleek juke box, and an extensive craft beer selection.
Tom ordered a beer and took a seat on a barstool closest to the back.The drink soothed his body after a strenuous week.He was too tired to make conversation, and if he needed anything else, there was always Grindr.A small dance space had been carved out near the jukebox.Some eighties song played.Tom recognized it from the soundtrack at The Décor Store, a song that Tom had heard approximately ten million times.
“Is this seat taken?”
Tom shook his head no without turning around.He spotted bright red pants and black boots from the corner of his eye.
“Hey.”Hot Mall Santa gave him a head nod.His Santa jacket was unbuttoned, and he wore another one of his white tank tops underneath.
“What are you doing here?”Tom asked.
“Grabbing a drink.”Hot Mall Santa flagged down the bartender.“What are you drinking?”
“It’s called a Daisy Cutter.It’s brewed by Half-Acre in Chicago.”
“I’ll take one of those,” he said to the bartender.
Tom was going to ask Hot Mall Santa what he was doing here again, as inDid you know you are at a gay bar?But he put two and two together.Tom hated when people asked him if he was gay.He just wanted them to know.And there was no way a guy makes the trek to The Wounded Soldier just for the beer selection.
Hot Mall Santa’s fake beard was pulled down to his neck.His cheekbones were a study in geometric precision, and his light stubble alone nearly set Tom on fire.“I like it,” he said of the beer.“Good call.”
“Yeah.”Tom couldn’t believe it.Hot Mall Santa was sitting next to him at a gay bar!Hot Gay Mall Santa was more like it.“How’d you find this place?”
“Google.”
“Right.”
