“I have a podcast,” Mira said. For all her good intentions, she didn’t sound nearly as confident right now as she knew she soundedonthe podcast. “I discuss romance movies. You know, rom-coms, old screwball comedies, romantic dramas—I cover some TV shows over on the Patreon—”
Why was she telling him that? It wasn’t like he was going to subscribe!
“Anyway, that usually keeps me busy for most of the year,” she said. “But I’m doing this for some extra cash.”
She almost started to tell him about her parents, but that was a lot to dump on a guy who had only wanted to have lunch with her so he could ask her about Christmas Village do’s and don’ts.
Although now that she thought about it, hehadn’tasked her about that so far, so he clearly wasn’t in that big of a hurry to find out.
“That’s awesome,” Wade said. “Have you doneChristmas in Connecticutyet? That’s one of my favorite classic romantic comedies.”
Mira gasped. “That’s one of mine too! I covered it the first Christmas I had the podcast. God, the leads in that have suchgreat chemistry. And remember how Barbara Stanwyck had to switch out the baby?”
“And try to convince everyone that it was totally normal for a baby to change that much after swallowing a watch!”
She’d always loved that scene, and even remembering it made her laugh. “I love it. So funny, andsoromantic. It’s probably my favorite love-at-first-sight movie.”
“What’s the name of your podcast?” Wade said. “I’ll have to listen to your episode on it tonight.”
By now, she sounded more confident and more like herself again. “Silver Screen Romance. But you really don’t have to, I promise. I’m sure you’re busy.”
“Only playing Santa,” Wade said dryly. “I think once I clock out, things will calm down a lot. The store assistants are going to look after the shop, and I don’t have any urgent projects I need to work on for the inventory. Trust me, I have plenty of podcast time. It’ll help me unwind after all this.”
“Well, in that case, I hope it works.”
They finally tucked back into their lunch—each of them grimacing a little bit at each overly salty, overly sweet bite—and Wade did eventually get around to asking her some questions about the Christmas Village.
Mira told him that the elves had a pretty sweet deal there compared to Santa. Sure, they weren’t as beloved, but they also never got mobbed or interrogated.
“And I know I don’t have any facial hair to pull, but even if I did, I’m pretty sure no one would yank on it.” She pointed one chopstick at him for emphasis. “I’m surprised you took that beard off for lunch, by the way. I know it’s a bear to get on and off.”
Wade touched his chin and cheek and winced at the memory of it. “No kidding. I guess getting it on wasn’t too bad, just kindof a hassle with all the glue and making sure it looked right, but getting it off hurt. Am I all red?”
Now that he mentioned it, his tanned skin did look a touch irritated from having a spirit-gummed beard ripped off it a little too quickly. If he kept clawing it out off like that all week, he’d wind up with a hell of a rash.
Mira held her fingers up about half-an-inch apart. “Little bit. Not too bad yet, but you might want to leave it on for lunch in the future so you only have to take it off once a day. And do it slowly when you do.”
Wade made a face, but he nodded. “I mostly wanted it off forthislunch break. I can put up with it later.”
Why forthislunch break? If he was worried the fake beard would make it hard to eat, wouldn’t he be worried about it foreverylunch break for the next week?
Before Mira could ask him about it, a shadow fell across the table. Anominousshadow.
Maybe it was all those weeks in a Galadriel costume talking, but Mira felt like there was something distinctly Sauron-esque about this particular shadow. She wouldn’t be surprised if it came with an all-seeing eye of fire.
“Hi, Mr. Marsh,” she said.
“What is the meaning of this?” Mr. Marsh hissed at them.
Wade said, “The meaning of lunch?” in a bland, innocent tone that immediately told Mira that he knew that would only annoy Marsh more. Good for him. A little bit of edge crept into his voice as he added, “We’re on our break. If we want to eat bad Chinese food, that’s nobody’s business but ours.”
“We picked it for the fortune cookies,” Mira added.
She regretted it instantly. Somewhere along the line—maybe after she became the sad-sack elf mooning around the Christmas Village in the wrong costume—Marsh had obviously realized that she needed this job. She was the only elf over thirty whotook full-time shifts at the Christmas Village: everyone else in her age bracket was a parent doing this part-time for a little extra holiday cash. The job was a plus for them, but it wasn’t a necessity.
She was relying on it ... and she was especially relying on the end-of-year bonus that Honey Brook Mall handed out to people who worked the holiday season from start to finish. That was the only way she could think of to ensure her parents got the care they needed.
Marsh knew that no matter how much of a hassle this job was, she wasn’t going to quit before she had that bonus envelope in her hand. And he didn’t have a problem with taking advantage of that.
