“Ho ho, I’m sure a pretty girl such as yourself isn’t naughty.”
“I’m not. I’m on the Not So NiceList.”
He handed me a tiny candy cane and then whispered, “Just move along. I have a lot ofchildrento see.”
Dazed and most definitely confused, I stepped over to the counter. The older elf had moved over to talk about photo packages and had turned the camera over to a woman with dreadlocks and a blinding smile.
“You’re back, huh?” the elf said.
Hope bloomed in spite of her sour expression.
“Yes. Do you know where the other Santa is?”
“The North Pole. Are you interested in a photo package?”
“No, I need to know how to get off this so called Not So Naughty List,” I said, not caring if she thought I was crazy. People thought I was crazy all the time. I would do whatever it took to stop my recent run of bad luck.
She put down a sheet of sample photos as if discussing packages with me. “Maybe I can tell you if you buy a photo package.”
“Is this some kind of elf extortion?”
She drew back the samples and started to walk away.
“No, no, no. I’ll buy a package. I don’t know what’s going on, but I have to figure out how to undo it.”
“Well, it’s simple, actually. You’re going to have to do three selfless things for that young man you flipped off.”
“Why three?”
“Because I believe you wished three bad things on him. Also, three, as you should’ve learned fromSchoolhouse Rock, is a magic number.”
I groaned.
She gave me a death stare. “Will it be the deluxe package then?”
“No, please. Uh, how about that middle one?” I pointed at a more reasonable one. She clicked a few buttons and rang me up. When she returned with the photos fresh from the printer, she handed me a sleigh bell on a red velvet cord.
“Put this on your wall or some place where it won’t ring by accident. If you can make it ring three times before Christmas Day, then you’ll find yourself back on the Nice List.”
“I took my photos in one hand and the bell in the other. “But what if I can’t?”
She shook her head sadly. “Then you’re in for a whole year of bad luck.”
Once home again,I surveyed the scene. Something selfless for Cole…
Ugh. Why should I have to do something selfless for him just because I flipped him off—he shouldn’t have been looking at my underwear. And heshouldget that stick out of his ass, and heshouldmind his own business, and heshouldget out of my house.
Okay, so technically my underwear was out there for him and everybody else to see, so he wasn’t exactly prying into my business. Now that I thought about it, his expression hadn’t telegraphed disapproval so much as concern. And I’d flipped him off because I was embarrassed. Just the thought of Cole seeing my underwear made me blush.
Nope. No. Not going there. I needed to work on me. I’d identified two things key to being a responsible adult. One, I had to hold down a job even if it was boring or soul sucking. Two, I had to learn how to live without a boyfriend. The six months since I finally left Kevin had been the longest I’d gone in years without one, but I’d had a string of losers, guys who liked the idea of me but not the real me. That had to stop.
As for getting Cole out of the house? It wasn’tmyhouse. Grandma had left it to both Zach and me. Then Zach had moved off to North Carolina. I’d needed place to live, but he’d already been renting the place to Cole. Cozy, huh?
I surveyed the house. I’d left a pair of shoes in the corner. The kitchen table chairs each had one of my sweatshirts hanging from them. I hadn’t done the dishes from the night before. There were stacks of papers and craft projects around the living room as well as several books I’d started but not finished.
Okay, so maybe Cole was right about one thing. It would appear I had some slightly slobbish tendencies. And I hadn’t even considered all of the toiletries I had strewn across the vanity in the bathroom or the laundry I hadn’t taken out of the dryer. Or all of the other craft projects in the basement.
But cleaning up wasn’t reallyselfless.I mean, as much as I hated to clean, I enjoyed a clean house and the smell of Fabuloso as much as the next girl.
