Two Love

Chapter 18

It was Riley's second week of being an elf at Santa's Grotto in Hudland city centre. She didn't even need to fake her smile today – thoughts of Meredith supplied her a smile wide enough to challenge the Cheshire cat. The two girls often had shifts together, and today was one of those delightful days.

As soon as she saw her crush, Riley's heart melted like a snowman in the sun. Meredith Bell was radiant. Her golden blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail with a red ribbon. Her lightly freckled cheeks had a dimple in when she smiled – which was often. Joy was in her nature.

"Heya, Merry," said Riley, coming over to help Meredith with the tinsel. She guessed that some naughty children had gone and taken it off the tree again.

"Hi, Riley! How's your holiday going?"

"It's going great, thanks. I have endless time to play the drums and listen to heavy metal."

"That sounds like a Riley kind of paradise," said Meredith, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. This drew Riley's gaze to a golden Rudolph earring with a red jewel for his renowned red nose. "I prefer more upbeat music, like Sigala."

Riley rolled her eyes, grabbing a stool to help her reach the higher parts of the tree. "I bet you're the kind of girl who listens to 'All I Want for Christmas is You' a million times a day and sings along every damn time."

That made Meredith's cheeks go red like the breast of a robin. "You've got me sussed. Although a million times is a conservative estimate."

"Oh God, I hope you don't support the Conservatives," said Riley to herself in hushed horror. She'd met several stuffy Tories at uni who held ideas that she found intolerable.

"Nah, I'm a lib dem," said Meredith, placing the tinsel at the top of the tree with a triumphant smile. A Christmassy bell jingled – someone had come into the grotto. "Ooh, looks like we have customers!"

"Great."

"I know, it's great, right?" said Merry, clapping her hands together like an excited child. Despite her own disinclination towards her work (dressed as an elf, of all things), Riley couldn't help but smile. Merry could light her up better than any Christmas tree.

*

By the end of the shift, even Meredith was yawning. Eight solid hours of dealing with ebullient children took a lot of effort and energy. Now it was 5pm, the elves had the difficult job of asking the remaining families to leave. A few children were wailing, saying 'It's not fair!' and hugging Santa so tightly that his fat tummy looked flat. Meredith pacified the children by giving each of them a candy cane and promising them that Santa would be around for many more weeks.

"Bye, Santa! We love you!" said a little girl with ginger hair, who was being carried away by her mother. The other children were being pulled along by their father, one holding each hand.

When the door shut, it went from riot to quiet. Riley breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wow. You don't realise how loud kids are until they've pissed off."

Meredith laughed lightly. "Yes, that's true. Now I've got to go home to another place filled with little kids."

Riley didn't envy her crush at all in this. She knew that she had three little brothers and a little sister – all primary school age – and immeasurable love for each one of them.

As the elves walked towards the carpark, the sky was already a dark shade of blue, lit up only by a small sprinkling of stars. Stars that Riley had wished upon when she was younger and believed in magic. Maybe Meredith was restoring her belief in magic – whenever she was with her, she felt a wonderful joy that was better than being drunk at uni parties.