Santa Baby - A Mistletoe North Pole Story

Chapter 8

The door to Rudy's Diner opened on a gust of freezing wind. What could be seen of the street outside was shrouded in a white fog.  The fog had moved in five days ago and didn't seem to want to leave. It made the diner isolated even from the town that was Mistletoe, Alaska. And Mistletoe was already isolated from the rest of the world, setting so far north of the Arctic Circle.

As she wiped down the bar in the back of the room, Jamie paused to turn and see who had just come in. A short, round figure stood just inside the diner. A surge of disappointment filled her. It had been a week since Chris had walked her home and turned her world on its ear. Oh, he'd called her once and sent a few text messages, but in the last few days she hadn't heard from him at all. Stop it; she chided herself, Stop acting like you're in high school again! She watched as Kandy breezed through the kitchen doors, ready to greet the newcomer.

"Welcome to Rudy's Diner!" Kandy greeted as the figure peeled back the layers of outerwear. Once the hood of the parka was thrown back, it was obvious that the customer was male. He removed the green and red scarf covering the lower half of his face and grinned from one pointy ear to the other pointy ear. Jamie's forehead wrinkled in thought, Pointy ears? The short guy had pointy ears!

"Alabaster Snowball!" Kandy called out, reaching the short guy and hauling him into a hug. "We haven't seen you ages, Al." Alabaster, with his head at the same level as Kandy's ample breasts, found his face buried between them. Whatever he was trying to say came out as series of squeaks. Jamie snickered at the sight, Hazard of being that short I guess, she thought, I'd better go rescue the poor guy. But Kandy had already let the poor guy go. His face was red, and he was gasping for air.

"Ms... Ms...Kandy..." he gasped, panting. "I'm looking...looking for...Master Rudy?" he whizzed out at last, a touch of an English accent coloring his voice. Kandy frowned a bit at that.

"Rudy?" she questioned, it wasn't often Chris summoned Rudy like this. As Alabaster nod, she turned and headed back to the kitchen. Once she was through the swinging doors, he seemed to have caught his breath.

Jamie walked toward Alabaster, stopping just in front of him. She was shorter than Kandy but still taller than the man. She glanced at his pointy ears. Or is he an Elf? She thought, smiling at her overactive imagination.

"Can I get you something?" she asked, "Water? Coffee? Oxygen?" He laughed at that, his eyes twinkling. Jamie was caught by those eyes. "His eyes twinkle!"

"Yes, Miss Winters, they often do." He answered.

"Wait...Wait-"Jamie stammered "Did I say that out loud?" She felt her face turning pink. "Oh my God!" she rushed to apologize. "I'm so sorry-" He interrupted her with a deep chuckle.

"Don't worry about it Miss Winters." He reassured her. "Twinkling eyes are a good thing, yes?"

Kandy came back into the room, a grumbling Rudy in tow. He hadn't been his usual chipper self this past week. Now that she thought about it, things had been slow at the diner all week. None of the regular characters had been in at all. Maybe that's why Rudy's been a bit...surly...of late, she thought.

"Al," Rudy greeted the smaller man. "Am I needed?" He must have already known the answer to that as he was removing his apron even as he asked. He handed it off to a worried looking Kandy, he added "Trouble at the Pole?"

"Master Kringle has indeed sent me to fetch you." Alabaster nodded as he answered. "There have been some-" he paused, looking at the two women standing there, "intrusions of late." Kandy looked between Rudy and the Elf before settling on Rudy's troubled face. He was frowning, his eyes narrowing. She caught Alabaster's hesitation in answering Rudy's question in front of her and Jamie.

"Jamie, why don't we go to the back and check the..." Kandy looked at Jamie but drew a blank for a moment, "paper goods." Not giving Jamie a chance to respond, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed Rudy on the lips. "Go on big guy. You and Al do what you have to do." She hooked one arm though Jamie's and pulled her toward the swinging doors in the back of the diner. Rudy turned, watching his mate's sweet ass sway as she walked away, God I love her ass; he mused, a leering smile gracing his mouth. Once Kandy and Jamie had disappeared into the back room, he turned back to Alabaster, now frowning.

"What's going on Al?" he asked, seeing the worried look on the small, round Elf's face. Alabaster Snowball was Chris's right-hand man, or in this case, Elf. And if he was here in person to collect him, Rudy knew things weren't good at the Pole. He knew Al would fill him in as they went, he walked toward the front door, stopping to lift his thick parka off one of the pegs in the coat rack. Pulling it on and zipping it up, he pulled his gloves out of one pocket and a black watch cap out of the other.

"In the last few weeks, there have been some annoying events occurring Master Rudy." Alabaster scurried after Rudy as he headed out the door and into the cold, foggy street. "At first it was just small things, tools misplaced, schedule changes, that type of thing." Al almost to ran to keep up with Rudy's long-legged stride. They head north, away from the diner.

"It's just Rudy, Al." Rudy corrected absently. "And now? Something bigger has happened?" It was ingrained in Alabaster's makeup that everyone above his station should be addressed in a formal manner. It drove everyone crazy, but in all the years that Rudy had known him, Al never wavered in how he addressed them.

"Oh yes, Master Rudy!" Alabaster exclaimed, "But that will be for Master Kringle to impart to you." As they walked into the icy fog, their forms faded from view.