Shortcake worked the closing shift on Monday. She came in early with Puncake for a special visit with Santa before her shift started. It was Puncake's birthday! And Shortcake forced him to spend his lunch break visiting Santa.Santa asked Shortcake what she wanted for Christmas, and she said he should ask Puncake first. So Santa asked Puncake. And he said "a long and happy life with Shortcake." Because he's sweet like that. Which led nicely into Shortcake going off on a spiel including two Spider-Man references and a half-baked speech that went better in her head, but ultimately led to her proposing with Spider-Man rings.
No, Shortcake and Puncake are not officially engaged. But they do have matching plastic Spider-Man rings. So Puncake better not leave her for someone else.
Puncake said yes!
A Santa selfie
It took 4 people to take this selfie. Jangles held the phone, while Puncake and Shortcake showed off their rings.
And then Puncake went back to work, and Shortcake went to talk to Cider and get the gossip from the weekend.
And Shortcake had an extra Spider-Man ring, so she asked Cider if he wanted it, and he said yes.
He then said he didn't know what that meant for his and Shortcake's relationship, and Shortcake pointed out she had been his work-wife for years.
If you were wondering how Shortcake felt on Monday, you know, from the illness she'd been fighting since Thankgiving, well. She was better. It felt like there was lichen and moss growing on the back of her throat, or like aliens were colonizing. Puncake swore he knew what she meant, and it was just a cold symptom. Shortcake didn't quite believe him because she had never, never had this symptom before. But Santa said he knew it too. Bah, humbug.
The evening wore on, and Peppercorn came in. Again, Shortcake and Peppercorn are the dream team. They invented the Dream Team Christmas Hug. It wasn't a thing before, but it is now.
It was a slow night - the first Monday after Thanksgiving always is. There were gobs of vet elves on the night shift. Fantastic vet elves. And they're all tall elves which makes Shortcake's life easier. Some of them were all five year elves. They went to take a photo together, and a fourth year elf tried to photobomb, so Brownie literally shoved the fourth year elf out of the photo. Hilarious.
Santa had two special visits. A family of four came in to see him, and he asked the big kids what they wanted for Christmas. The mom answered "a date night," and then she started crying. And then the dad nodded and he started crying. And then all the elves got all choked up, and Santa almost started crying.
On the other visit a big family came in to see Santa. The matriarch of the family turned out to be someone that had gotten fired from her job years before. She had gotten caught sleeping on the job, and she worked security. Her unemployment was denied because she was fired with cause. Santa apologized that he couldn't have done more to help her, and she said "Don't be sorry. It made my life better."
As the night went on, Shortcake started running out of patience. The last family finally came into the village, and an elf excitedly said "Santa's been waiting for you!" to which Shortcake muttered "and waiting and waiting."
Then as Shortcake was cleaning up to close for the night, Santa said something that Shortcake didn't hear. So he said her illness was affecting her hearing. To which Shortcake replied, "No, I learned how to tune you out." Then she thought better of it and said "I'm sorry, I'm snarky when I'm sick." And Peppercorn chimed in "for the last 34 years."
Everyone had a good laugh over that.
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