Five
I Saw Marian Kissing Santa Claus
1:01 p.m.
25 December
Hugh can’t believe it. Neither can the many people still queued up, waiting to say thank you to the man in the red suit. Marian skipped the line, thanks to Krista, and has settled herself quite happily onto Santa’s lap. Any reservations she might have had are obviously a thing of the past. She’s now flirting shamelessly with the white-bearded man, her head tilted to one side as she bats her eyelashes with the mien of a flirt half her age. And the old letch is eating it up!
“I told you I’d make her happy.”
Krista appears in front of him, his eight hundred dollar bills clasped in her hand. They’re a bit wrinkled as if she’d crumpled and thrown them in her backpack after accepting them, but she thrusts the money at him with her
