Winter
Winter Snow walked back to her station behind the makeup counter. She worked for one of the only remaining department stores in the Los Angeles area—Bixby’s as a cosmetologist. Working behind the beauty counter at the same department store her grandmother had was something she always dreamed of doing. Her Grandma Glenna was her favorite person on the planet and she loved that she was following in her footsteps. Winter had grown up to stories about how her grandmother had made-up many famous women in Hollywood, back in her day and it all sounded so glamorous that as soon as Winter graduated from high school, she signed up for cosmetology school and got her certificate. Her grandmother still had a few connections at Bixby’s and she got Winter a job at the counter as soon as she graduated. She loved her job, for the most part, although she hadn’t made up any famous people yet since they all seemed to hire their own “glam squads” now. Someday, she hoped that someone famous would recognize her talent and hire her to do their makeup but that was a long shot since she was stuck behind the beauty counter. Most of her clientele were middle-aged women looking for a miracle cream that would help them look like they were in their twenties still. Sure, she sold them the overpriced creams that promised to do the trick but that was only because it was her job. She had to make her sales quota or she’d be fired and that would make her feel as though she let Grandma Glenna down and she couldn’t do that to her.
Winter’s job was the least of her problems. The Christmas season was keeping her busy and honestly, she loved Bixby’s during the holiday season. It was like a Christmas wonderland around the store and going to work every morning was magical. Christmas was her favorite time of year with the decorations, the food, the parties, and her birthday on Christmas Day—even if she was turning thirty this year. No, her biggest struggle was getting through the week that she had to spend home with her parents and two sisters along with their outrageously handsome husbands and adorable brats. She loved her nieces and nephews. Heck, she loved her sisters despite their good fortune of finding hot husbands. But, going home meant facing her inadequacies. She had no husband, no boyfriend, and no adorable kids to take home with her again this year. What she did have was two parents who seemed to take great satisfaction in reminding her of those facts every Christmas. It didn’t help that her only ally, her Grandma Glenna, was taking her dream cruise vacation over Christmas this year and wouldn’t be home to have Winter’s back when things got heated with her parents. By New Year, when she was finally home in her little apartment, she’d always vow that the next year would be different. Winter would make some ridiculous resolution that she’d find love and show up at her parent’s house for the next Christmas holiday with a hot boyfriend in tow. Yet, here it was two weeks before she was supposed to show up at her parent’s house with said new, hot boyfriend by her side and she was sans one guy.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Winter smiled at the deep baritone voice that called from the other side of the counter. She’d know that voice anywhere since it belonged to her best friend, Chris Shepley. He wasn’t just her best friend since, well—birth, he was her first roommate, sharing the nursery at the hospital on Christmas Day, thirty years ago. Their mothers had met while they were both in labor at the local Bay area hospital. Both of their families were from San Francisco and their mom’s liked to remind them both that they were “bunk buddies” when they were both born. She even had the cheesy picture of them both side by side, stuffed into Christmas stockings. It was something the hospital did with babies born over the Christmas holiday and she had to admit, the two of them made quite the cute pair laying in the bassinets, shoved inside of the red stockings with the fake white fur trim. She kept the picture on her bedside table and it was one of her favorite things.
“Hey yourself, handsome,” she said. Chris was impeccably dressed in his three-piece suit, tie perfectly tied and not a single dark hair out of place, as per usual. He was almost too perfect but Winter knew his flaws—every single one of them but she loved him anyway. Chris was the Vice President of Bixby’s and even though he didn’t have to mingle with the common folk, he still liked to hit the sale’s floors and talk to the employees—just one more thing to love about her best friend.
“You ready for our trip home in a couple of weeks?” he asked. Chris already knew what her answer was. She had spilled the details of her dilemma ad nauseam. She and Chris usually drove home together every Christmas since he liked to spend the entire holiday at home with his parents. Why wouldn’t he? Chris was an only child and his mother and father didn’t compare him to anyone. Hell, they all but worshiped their perfect son and she couldn’t blame them. If she was being honest, Winter would admit that she had always had a secret crush on Chris since she could remember. Their families had parties and even went on vacation together most summers. She and Chris were constantly being thrown together but she knew the score—he was bi and usually dated men. Winter couldn’t remember the last time she saw her best friend with a woman and that was fine with her. Seeing him dating men was hard enough—finding him with another woman would feel like a knife to her gut.
“You know the answer to that question, Chris,” she groaned. “The only good thing about our trip home is that we’ve planned on hanging out with everyone to celebrate our thirtieth birthdays on the twenty-sixth. I’m ready to forget the whole boring year and get drunk.” Chris had thrown together a little make-shift party to celebrate both of their birthdays with some friends from high school and she was looking forward to seeing everyone again. It had been a few years since they all hung out together.
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone too. But, you have to be happy about seeing your family, Winter,” he said. Chris sat up at the beauty counter and started checking out the lipsticks. He held up a bright red color that was a customer favorite. “This is the color you should wear,” he insisted, making her giggle. He smirked at her as if challenging her to disagree with him.
“Honestly, I’m more of a soft pink kind of girl,” she said. With her fair skin and blond hair, she always opted for more of the pink and rose wheelhouse than bright red.
“How about you let me buy this for you and you agree to wear it to our birthday dinner?” he asked.
“Chris,” she gasped. “That lipstick cost almost one hundred dollars. I don’t need brand name lipstick,” she said, leaning over the counter to whisper to him so none of her customers would be able to hear her. “Plus, the case kind of reminds me of a butt plug,” she said a little louder. One of the older women at the end of the counter made a “humphing” noise, put down the night cream she was looking at, and quickly walked away. “Shit,” Winter grumbled.
Chris chuckled, “How would you know what a butt plug looks like, Winter?” he whispered back. He was leaning over the counter and he was so close she could feel his warm breath on her face and God, the man smelled good. “Wait,” he whispered, “follow up question—did you just smell me?”
Winter shyly smiled she was never one to back down from any of Chris’s questions and he sure liked to ask the most outrageous ones. “I know what a lot of things look like, Chris,” she whispered. “Butt plugs, anal beads, floggers, and my personal favorite—vibrators.” She knew she was teasing him. Winter could see it in his bright blue eyes that he was turned on and the way his breathing hitched; she knew Chris was thinking about every dirty item she listed. Problem was, he wasn’t thinking about using any of them on her. “And, yes—I did smell you and I love your new cologne.” She leaned further over the makeup counter to kiss his cheek, loving the fact that she seemed to catch him off guard. Her favorite thing to do was to keep Chris on his toes and she was guessing that what she had planned for him next definitely qualified.