"Don't even think about it," Hartleigh snipped, coming into the room.
"Look here, you crazy b—"
"Let's go out," I said, standing up and grabbing onto Nina. "I need to buy Christmas decorations." I still had Jack's credit card, and I was itching to spend money.
"You have his credit card!" Nina said when I showed her in the elevator.
"It's the closest I'll ever be to a billionaire's kept girlfriend!" I said with a giggle.
The mall was crowded. It was nothing like the dead malls filled with discount stores in my hometown. This was a high-end mall catering to customers with no-limit credit cards and expensive tastes.
Jazz renditions of Christmas carols played over the sound system, and the expansive atrium in the center of the mall was filled with holiday décor. In the middle of the large space stood a giant Christmas tree decorated with oversized glass ornaments and big wrapped boxes underneath. As we walked along toward the cluster of home furnishing and decorating stores, Nina pointed.
"It's Santa and the elves!"
We stopped to watch the kids be placed on Santa's lap. He seemed jolly and happy to be interacting with the children. Nina and I cooed at the kids. Some of them seemed excited to be meeting Santa, and some of them were completely freaked out.
Santa saw us looking and waved. We waved back then headed on our way.
The first store we stopped at had a huge amount of décor to choose from.
"Did Jack give you a budget?" Nina asked as we walked to the display of Christmas decorations that took up most of the back half of the store.
"Nope," I replied, fingering a wreath festooned in gold ribbon. "We shouldn't go crazy, but we do need to buy enough so that the lobby looks decorated." I pulled up a picture of the space on my phone and started choosing items.
"I like these white-painted abstract Christmas trees, but I think we will need a few more in different sizes," I said to Nina as I snapped pictures. I thought I saw her nod out of the corner of my eye.
"Maybe we can ask a sales associate if they have any more," I said as I turned around to look at Nina. Then I screamed.
"Santa!" I said with a nervous laugh. The red-suited man gave a fake chuckle.
"Shopping for Christmas decorations, I see," he said.
"Something like that…" I replied. Had he followed me here? Where was Nina?
"Are you on break?" I asked him. Wasn’t he supposed to be doing pictures?
"Come have a drink with me," he said.
"Uh, I'm busy. I have to decorate for Christmas. You know how it is," I said, starting to back away. Santa reached out and grabbed for me, pulling my hair out of its loose bun. At that moment, Nina came running over with a sales associate, and Santa hurried away.
"Are you okay?" the salesperson asked.
"Sure," I said, patting my hair back into some semblance of order. "I think he's just filled with a bit too much Christmas cheer."
We finished our shopping. Nina and I found several large wreaths, garlands of different styles, and sets of candles.
"I think we should buy three Christmas trees," I said. "The lobby is such a large space. We can intersperse it with these abstracted Christmas trees in white and metal." They were pretty, they had little lights on them, and I was envisioning creating a sort of forest in Frost Tower. The lobby was a somewhat cold space with polished concrete and glass, and I wanted to keep the same restrained, almost industrial nature and complement it instead of trying to hide it.
"You should add some of these," the salesperson said, pointing to large metal letters etched in tiny lights. They spelled out words like JOY and HOPE.
"Perfect," I said.
The sales associated helped us carry our purchases to the garage. I had to call three large SUVs to hold everything.
"Do you think this is too much?" Nina asked.
"I'm thinking this might not be enough," I said as we loaded in the last of the boxes.
