Bad Work Day - Department Store Christmas
Bad Work Days are short stories that are unrelated to each other and characterize what could constitute a bad day at work. It is usually bad from one point of view, but good in other ways. All things in life have two sides to the same coin, and this story works that way too. This submission is for the Literotica Winter Holidays Erotic Story Contest, so if you like it, please vote for it! Thank you.
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Michael yanked his sleeve up to glance at his watch. It was about fifteen minutes to eight Saturday morning and the department store was going to open soon. He was suited up and ready for an honest day's work. Most people in college worked in Starbucks or something to pad their pockets with spending money or help pay their tuition and Michael was no different. His choice of trade: part-time Santa at the local department store. It was an easy job for the most part. Most times of the day you would find Michael laughing gaily, talking to store-goers, playing with their children, and generally adding to the festivities. The most difficult part had to be the fat suit.
At six-foot-three, he made an impressive Santa. But he wasn't half the weight the real Santa was. Not to worry, he had been told, there would be padding in the suit so children will have the soft tubby Santa they all recognise. The padding, coupled with a full face beard and white curly shoulder length hair, guaranteed that he would feel ten degrees warmer than everyone else. Fortunately, the air-conditioning in the store was sufficient so no kid would need to ask their parent why Santa smelled strange. When Jerry the assistant manager saw his stature, he agreed to let Michael go without the padding in the legs (they had padding for Santa's legs too!) and half the padding around the belly so he wouldn't look like the Marshmallow Man. So here he was, all suited up in the back room, waiting for the morning roll call.
"Looking good, Santa!"
Jessica bounded up, all decked out in her Elf costume and raring to go. She loved her job and had been the elf the previous year too. Her pixie face with large pretty green eyes and lovely dark red curls made her the perfect elf. Her eyes made all the difference, Michael thought; you could lose yourself in those for hours. He quickly blinked and looked away before she caught him staring.
He had thought it was strange when she came up to him in the library one day and started their conversation with "Hi, I noticed that you're very tall. Would you like to be Santa this year?" He had passed her once or twice in the hallways before that, but they had never talked, nor had they classes in common. He had momentarily been taken aback by her abrupt question, but had recovered smoothly. Her partner from the year before had gone to university on the other side of the country, and rather than waiting for the department store to find a random 50-year-old Santa with bad breath, she had decided to find one herself. The previous Santa had been really tall, so they needed to find a decently tall guy to play the role. Think of all the happy children, she had told him. You would make an awesome Santa. Michael had been sold.
If he had known Jessica's outfit beforehand, he would have been sold at the first "Hi". It looked a little childish, with a bright green vest with large tacky buttons and a wavy skirt in a lighter green that had a dull gold trim. It had originally come with a red-and-white candy cane body suit under it, but Jessica had negotiated to leave it out. Jessica was arguably a little too tall for an elf at five-foot-seven, and the length of her skirt seemed to imply that they expected their elves to be closer to five feet. The body suit was originally meant to cover from neck to ankle, and while the arms were the right length, the legs only made it just past her knee. She chose to only bring up that point, not wanting to include that the crotch was digging into her and anyone who noticed would see a very prominent cameltoe. Fortunately, Jerry had agreed that the body suit looked ridiculous, and when she had shown him the rest of the outfit without it, he had wasted no time approving it. The button-up vest was more than modest; its simple V neckline wasn't too low that it would give heart attacks to parents. It was also just long enough to cover her midriff, though if she had to stretch to reach something on the top shelf, her belly button would just peek out from under it. The skirt would have been just above the knee on a shorter elf, but rested in the middle of her thighs, three inches above her knee.
Michael snuck another glance, glad that she was fiddling with something and looking the other way. He briefly wondered if she had a boyfriend, then answered his question himself. Of course someone like her would have a boyfriend. The beautiful ones always did. The jagged hem of the skirt swished beautifully against her pale thighs, drawing his attention. She had to be a runner or perhaps she enjoyed cycling, he mused, following her toned legs from the hemline down to her little booties. He didn't know another word for those boots that curled up at the toes. His mother had called them booties when he was growing up and the name stuck. He only stopped referring to them as such when he reached middle school once he found out that there were other things that were more commonly referred to as booties.
Jessica had a nice booty. He didn't care for the hyper-extended bubble butts that the media seemed to enjoy. They seemed too unrealistic to him. Jessica's hips flared out wonderfully from her tiny waist, and for the first time, he found himself staring at something other than her eyes. His jaw dropped open slowly as he watched her bend over to fiddle with her boot. He took in the way the green cotton skirt clung on to her butt like a second skin, just two feet away from his face, and licked his dry lips. His eyes followed the faint outline of her panties through the fabric of the skirt, subconsciously stroking along that beautiful curve.
It took some effort to tear his eyes away, and he did so just in time. Jessica straightened up and spun around on a heel to face him, coming closer to whisper conspiratorially, "What nonsense do you think Jerry's going to talk about this morning?"
"I don't know... Maybe he'll talk about the price of those plastic smiles from the dollar store."
The previous week, Jerry had started his pep talk with the need to smile at customers. He threatened lamely to buy some goofy post-Halloween props that you could paste over your mouth. They were shaped like mouths forever fixed in a crazy wide smile. He had then laughed as if it were the funniest thing he had heard in his 40 years of life. The rest of the staff had just looked on, exchanging knowing glances between themselves. Jerry was a bit of an odd-ball. He was generally nice and approachable and all, but he reminded Michael of a weasel. Well he wasn't paid to like the guy.
"Ha-ha, maybe he brought one in for himself today!"
Right on cue, Jerry's voice came crackling through the store intercom.
"All associates, Santa's on his sleigh at the information counter! Come get your prezzies..." Michael could only groan and roll his eyes as they headed out the door to the front.
"He's stealing your thunder! You need to march right up to him and tell him - I'm Santa Claus, son, you're getting coal this Christmas!" Jessica joked as she followed him out.
They assembled around the large Christmas tree, embellished with blue and gold trim, the colours of the season. "Come one, come all. It's going to be a marvellous day!" Jerry wasn't very tall, so he took every chance he could to stand on boxes or the sleigh display to talk down to his staff. Even on the sleigh like he was today, Michael was still slightly taller. Jerry deliberately didn't look in his direction. He didn't like to be upstaged.
"It's going to be a busy day today. All those parents who need gifts for their little ones, you know. Let's keep a smile on at all times!" Michael almost choked when he saw Jerry pull out his plastic prop and promptly pasted it on his upper lip. He had got to be kidding. Jessica winked at him; she had guessed it right.
"Don't worry; I didn't buy one for each of you. This is for comic effect!"
Murmurs of contrived laughter ensued. Jerry looked ridiculous with the fake smile. It was an inch wider than his face on both sides and had garish red lips and impossibly white teeth.
"Remember, no matter what the customer asks for, give them a smile and do whatever you can to make their experience a pleasant one. If they're happy, we're happy. Now, let's open the doors and let the people in!" The group scattered back to their posts, whispering between themselves about Jerry's social ineptitude.
Jessica turned at Michael and gave him the sweetest smile he had seen. "How does that look?"
