Tanner froze as the smell of vomit invaded his nostrils and chunks of food got stuck in his fake beard. His so-called helpers all took a few steps back; the best they could do for him, it seemed, was give him wide-eyed looks of horror.
"Sorry, Santa," the little girl said before she quickly climbed off his lap and ran to her mother, tears now pouring from her eyes.
"It's okay, sweetie. You didn't mean to throw up on Santa," her mother told her.
"Now he won't bring me my pony," she sobbed.
"Of course that's why she's crying," Tanner muttered. "Greedy like every damn one of them. I'm done for the day! Now!"
With that, he stood up and stomped from the ridiculously festive "North Pole" area, walking through the mall with people skirting around him, his stink following wherever he went. He'd been peed on, spit on, punched, snotted on, and now thrown up on. How in the hell did they get anyone to actually take this job? There was no amount of money in the universe that would make being Santa worth it.
All children were simply germ machines out to wreck the lives of unsuspecting adults. Who in their right mind would actually want to have some of the repulsive little brats for their own? And Billy? He was probably a little schemer, too, playing his bereavement for all it was worth.
Tanner entered the break room, and he found Kyla sitting on the bench and rubbing her feet.
"Why in the hell weren't you out there?"
Her shocked look made him realize that, in his anger, he might be behaving slightly over the top. But he was covered in vomit. Didn't that give him a little bit of leeway to act out?
"I'm on break," she said before her nose twitched and then she backed away from him. "What on earth happened?"
"What do you think happened? Anything and everything disgusting a child can do to me has now been done. Thank heavens I only have one more day left of this Santa bullshit!"
"It's not so bad. They're just children, and they adore you," she reminded him.
"Just children? How can you even say that? You've seen their behavior. They are all monsters in disguise. Don't let their small size fool you," he ranted as he stripped down.
When his eyes connected with hers again and he saw the look of appreciation that his na**d torso inspired in her face, his temper cooled. No, they hadn't made love again in the last two days, and yes, she'd managed to avoid him like he had the plague, but she still wanted him. That much was obvious.
There were only two nights left in his sentence, and he planned on making the most of the time. "How about we sneak out of here? I no longer have a usable Santa suit, so they're going to have to bring in the other guy. We can go cuddle up and watch another Christmas movie."
The last thing he wanted to do was watch a movie, but if that got her to snuggle into him, then he would watch a dozen of the things. Their first movie night hadn't been half bad - well, it hadn't until she'd fallen asleep. And he did have to sit through Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.
"I can't just leave work, Tanner," she said, looking down.
"Why are you avoiding me? Do you regret what happened between us?" There. She couldn't get out of answering that.
"No. I decided not to regret it, but it doesn't mean that it's going to happen again," she said, looking back up with a glint of determination in her eyes.
"Why not? We're good together. Why fight it?" Logic was always the answer, wasn't it?
"Just because we're obviously compatible in bed doesn't mean we should continue to jump into it."
"In my book, that's exactly what it means." Women! Were they all incapable of reason?
"Look, it's obvious you're not sticking around long, Tanner, and I'm not usually a one-night-stand sort of girl, so let's not have regrets, but let's not pretend there's something there between us."
He latched on to the one part of her explanation he could. "It won't be a one-night stand if we do it again."
"Are you for real?" she asked, a hint of a smile on her face.
"Oh, baby, I'm all real," he assured her as he stepped closer.
Her nose wrinkled for the second time, and she stood up and backed away. "Why don't you go and shower? Your looks might be appealing, but your smell is killing the mood."
With that lethal shot, she walked out of the room. He almost followed before he realized he was standing there in his boxers and ridiculously thick socks. With a sigh, he grabbed his clothes and made his way to the mall shower.
The sad thing about the shower was that it was better than the one in his apartment. But that was hardly an issue anymore.
Kyla was the issue. She might think she was avoiding him successfully, and she might think she was witty, but she didn't know quite how determined he could be.