Oh, Saint Nick

Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh. O’er the fields we go, laughing all the way.

I, and everyone walking in and out of the cafe today, had to endure a Christmas album on repeat for the last four hours. Evelyn had insisted that we play Christmas songs throughout the month. Yet, she was the only one who had not gotten sick of the music, instead she still insisted on singing along happily to every song like it was the first time she heard it.

This particular rendition of Jingle Bells was loud and out of time to the actual song. However, I certainly wasn’t going to say anything while she danced and sung loudly, tightening up her own shoes.

“I really don’t hate Christmas songs but, if you don’t buy another album that we can play in here, I will destroy the CD. I don’t care how much Evelyn will hate me.” Logan glared at me from behind the counter.

“Okay, okay, calm down. I’ll buy one and drop it in before we head home today. Christmas really does bring out the bad in all of us.” Logan grimaced and turned to serve a customer. Nell headed over from a table with dirty coffee cups in her hand; she was still humming along to the songs happily. Though she had only started work an hour ago.

“He’s all talk, he couldn’t really hurt Evie’s feelings.” Nell stage whispered to me. Logan glared at us while making the customers coffee.

“Ready!” Evelyn announced from in front of Nell and I. She stood up fro the chair and stomped each foot on the ground once whether to test the shoes or emphasise that she was ready to go shopping, I wasn’t sure.

“And you just look absolutely gorgeous.” Nell cooed down at her, Evelyn preened in response. I couldn’t help but love that Evelyn was still receiving all the affection she deserved, that there were people in her life that loved her, other then me.

“Got your money?” I questioned Evelyn, who frowned and shook her head at me. “Well how are we supposed to buy presents if you have no money?” I asked her mockingly. She widened her eyes before narrowing them at me.

“You’re the adult. You pay for pwesents.” She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot on the ground. Grinning I pressed a kiss to her forehead and agreed with her.

“I’ll come back when we’re finished to grab the rest of my stuff.” I told the others before ushering Evelyn towards the door of the coffee shop. The throngs of people I could already see outside were practically frightening when having a small five year old with you.

“Harry!” I followed Evelyn’s gaze, surprised, as Harry stepped in through the coffee shops doors. His hair still had a light pattering of snow through it, his scarf wound snugly around his neck, dark black trench coat pulled tightly around his body. He was the walking definition of how cold it was outside.

“Hey munchkin.” Harry bent down to pull Evelyn into a hug; I could just imagine how warm she must feel in contrast to his cold skin.

“You ‘ave snow in your hair.” She giggled; Harry bent his head forward and allowed her to brush the slowly melting snow from his head. Harry stood up and easily balanced Evelyn on his hips when I walked over. I marveled at the confidence he had in picking up my niece after meeting us only two days ago.

“You look cold.” I noted to him. He smirked.

“It’s winter outside.” I laughed at his unexpected sarcasm.

“Just outside then?” I teased back lightly. “Did you want a coffee or something, Logan can get you what you want.” Harry frowned slightly when I gestured over to Logan who was watching us in astonishment from behind the counter.

“Em! You left your phone.” Nell rushed from out the back wielding my iPhone around like a weapon. I widened my eyes at her lack of care, the amount of times she had cracked the screen of her own phone made me worry for the safety of mine. I yanked it from her hand when she reached my side and became distracted with Harry.

“Harry, you’re back!” She seemed delighted and nudged me with her hip, not so subtly. “I’m Nell.”

“Hello.” Harry smiled, reaching over to shake her hand. Evelyn offered her own to Nell’s afterwards making her play along. “Are you leaving already?” Harry frowned at me afterwards, his eyes seeming to take in the bag on my shoulders and the fact that we were on our way to the door.

“Yep. I’m finished for the day.” I told him happily, ignoring the faces Evelyn decided to pull at me from Harry’s arms. Harry looked disappointed.

“You have to go shopping though.” Nell cut in. “Harry should join you, give you help with looking after Evie.” I shook my head quickly; Harry had helped me enough lately.

“Don’t be silly. I’m not going to torture him and I’m sure you have much more exciting things to do then look after my niece.”

“I don’t.” Harry replied instantly, a smile brightening up his features once more. He switched Evelyn to his other arm; it barely strained him. “If you don’t mind?” I could do without Nell’s sharp elbow in my side but I nodded at Harry anyway.

“Course not.” I agreed. “Did you still want a coffee?” I gestured towards Logan who was concentrating on us so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if he received the ability of super hearing.

“Just a hot chocolate actually.” Harry replied while Evelyn started tugging on his curls again. Before I could reprimand her, Harry began pulling her hair as well. Sighing I just shook my head and slipped behind the counter to make Harry’s hot chocolate. I could feel Logan’s eyes on my while I moved around.

“What is going on?” Logan hissed at me, sliding up beside me, his eyes strained on Harry and Evelyn who had pulled Nell into their hair tugging game; Nell’s hair being the curliest. “How on Earth do you know Harry Styles?”

“He’s my babysitter.” I told Logan seriously. He gaped at me, his eyes narrowing. “He came in like two days ago and looked after Evelyn then yesterday he found out where we lived and look after Evelyn while I was here.” I finished Harry’s hot chocolate and placed the lid over top of the take away cup. I laughed outright at Logan’s face, his eyebrows drawn tightly together.

“Ask Nell.” I patted his cheek and slipped out from behind the counter again, handing the hot chocolate to Harry.

“I can pay.” He moved to place Evelyn down but I waved it off.

“You’ve practically babysat for me for two days straight, my shout.” Evelyn seemed happy with staying in Harry’s arms for longer and held onto his neck with tight fingers.

“Well you three have fun.” Nell clapped and ventured off to help Logan with the counter. I would actually be worried about leaving those two in charge of the shop together if Dee wasn’t outback.

“Ready to go?” Harry gestured towards the door. I hesitated before nodding and leading the way to the door, holding it open for Harry and Evelyn after me.

“So where to first?” Harry asked curiously as Evelyn fidgeted in his arm, looking around wildly at the people and stores around us. I debated whether I could trust her to walk with us.

“You can probably put her down.” I told Harry slowly, watching as Evelyn’s face lit up and she wiggled in Harry’s grip trying to get to the ground. “You have to stay near one of us though, no wandering off.” I warned her. She nodded solemnly and reached up to grab Harry’s hand. He smiled down at her fondly. Apparently young children could easily influenced Harry Styles. It was too adorable to actually be real and probably something that should be kept a secret from his fans, too much blackmailing possible.

“Are you buying me pwesents t’day Aunty Emmy?” Evelyn asked eagerly from behind me as her and Harry followed behind at an easier pace so Evelyn could still admire everything. I looked back at her and shook my head.

“I can’t buy presents when you’re with, then it wouldn’t be a surprise.” She giggled and pushed herself against Harry when I poked her stomach teasingly.

“Which sweater do you think Nicky would like more?” I asked her, leading her towards a wrack of Christmas sweaters that looked absolutely horrible. Evelyn’s eyes widened and she considered each one before finally pointing to the bright green one with a reindeer’s head on the front. It’s nose a fluffy pom-pom stuck to the shirt. Harry quirked an eyebrow when I grabbed Nicky’s size. I shrugged and headed to the counter with it.

“You should have seen the horrible dress she brought me for my birthday. My Grandma wouldn’t even wear it. This is revenge.” I smiled at the lady behind the counter and handed over the money before accepting the bag. Harry reached for it but I slapped his hands away and walked out with it myself.

“I can carry a bag Harry. You just focus on her, since you are my glorified babysitter.” I grinned at him wickedly. He rolled his eyes but grabbed Evelyn’s hand to pull her out of the store after me.

Evelyn only lasted a half hour before she was whining about her feet hurting and Harry caved to pick her up. She smiled smugly at everyone we walked past while sitting in his arms.

“We can switch if you want.” I gestured between the few bags I was carrying and Evelyn.

“Nah, I’m good.” Harry shook his head and bounced Evelyn in his arms, setting her into excited clapping. She got excited about things way too easily.

“I have to pee!” Evelyn announced not long later while I was choosing a few different rolls of Christmas wrapping paper. I glanced, embarrassed, at the few people standing around us but most either didn’t care or cooed at Evelyn like she was an angel.

“You can take her and I’ll grab these for you.” We fumbled slightly, trying to rearrange the bags and Evelyn before I grabbed money for Harry to pay, he tried to refuse but I wouldn’t let him.

“Don’t be stupid, you’re not buying me anything. Now take the damn money.” I glared insistently. He sighed and took it. Smiling triumphantly I headed out of the story with a complaining Evelyn and towards the closest toilet.

Evelyn refused to let me help her undo her small jeans and pull them down. She sat on the toilet by herself and kicked her feet around while peeing. I raised my eyebrow at her long consistent stream. I had told her not to wait until the last minute to go to the toilet but she never listened if she was having fun.

On the way back to the store, we spotted Harry waiting out front. I noticed the photographers not that far away taking photos. The shoppers around them jostled them often. Other then a few looks and stalker teenage girls no one really seemed in the mood to bother Harry. I guess Christmas shopping really did make people go crazy and become focused only on shopping. It was almost hilarious watching the serious expressions of everyone’s face.

“Santa.” I glanced down in alarm as Evelyn pulled her hand out of my grasp and took off through the crowds of people. Cursing I quickly took off after her, catching flashes of her red beanie through the crowds as she easily wormed through people. It was harder for me to follow, jostling everyone out of the way to reach her.

She stopped not far ahead and tugged insistently on a short elderly man’s hand. I finally reached her and scooped her into my arms.

“Don’t you dare do that again Evelyn May Scott.” I tried to control my breathing while glaring at her. She pouted and her lower lip trembled. I tried to not roll my eyes at her while she tried to make me forgive her. She pulled this on everyone and almost always succeeded especially on her father, Ethan. Erin and I never fell for it though; Erin had said it was because she had learnt it from us and that was why we were immune.

“You are in so much trouble when we get home.” I warned her. “I told you to stay with me or Harry at all times. You know better.” Harry at this point reached us, carrying all the shopping bags with him; he looked concerned but thankfully stayed quiet. I didn’t need him being nice and doting on her while I was trying to show her what she did was wrong.

“I’m really sorry about disrupting you sir. She thought she saw Santa.” I stood up and turned to the old man Evelyn had run up to.

“It’s okay Emmalyn, I certainly don’t mind.” I widened my eyes at the man before me. It was the same Santa Evelyn took a photo with the other day and who came into the coffee shop yesterday. “Ah I see you’ve finally met Master Styles here.”

“You two know each other?” I asked incredulous.

“Um, no?” Harry replied hesitantly, eyeing the man. “I don’t think so. Though you are kind of familiar.” Harry mumbled and I instantly felt like an idiot. Of course a perfect stranger would know Harry’s name, anyone who had access to social media or a twelve-year-old girl knew who he was.

Santa’s eyes sparkled as he glanced between the three of us. I noticed he was once again decked out in cheerful Christmas colours. His large wooly red coat placed over a green sweater. I wandered if his fashion choice was like this all year round of if he actually did have a whole other wardrobe just for the month of December.

“Look at you three.” He exclaimed, startling me out of my thoughts. “You look like a beautiful, happy family.” Making a distressed noise I quickly shook my head and grabbed Evelyn at the same time Harry went for her as she tried to step towards the man. At least Harry saw the man as weird as I did, I wasn’t just being paranoid.

“We’re not a family.” I corrected quickly. The man turned to frown at me so violently that I felt like I needed to apologise. I bit my tongue before I could.

“Now young lady, you should know better than anyone else that it’s best to be surrounded by family at Christmas times, all your loved ones being around you is what makes the holidays matter.” He said sternly, I almost expected him to shake his finger at me. “Perhaps you should call your parents, you are overdue.” My eyes widened when I realised he was right. Instinctively, I pulled Evelyn closer against me and took a step back.

“Right, okay, sure. We’ll just be finishing our shopping now. Uh have a good day.” I threw a meaningful look at Harry before turning around and rushing Evelyn as far away from Creepy Santa as possible. She kept trying to turn around and wave back at him, Harry, thankfully, blocked her view of him and his view of her.

“Who was that?” Harry questioned curiously. I shrugged helplessly in return.

“I don’t know.” I whined. “He plays Santa here and Evelyn got a photo with him on Sunday and then I saw him yesterday because he came into the coffee shop and then now today. And the creepiest part was that he knew our names before we told him, I think.” I pulled Evelyn tightly against me, ignoring her unhappy noises from being smothered.

“So Santa’s been stalking you?” Harry asked, alarmed. I shrugged and bit my lip. I didn’t want to call it stalking; I mean we had only run into him at the Shopping Centre.

“I wouldn’t call it stalking.” I said hesitantly, glancing around to make sure he wasn’t still watching us. I couldn’t see him through the crowd of people around us. The paparazzi had gotten closer however. I angled myself so they couldn’t get a good photo of Evelyn. Harry seemed to realise what I was doing and shuffled us until only he was facing them.

“The man knows your name and has run into you three times in the past three days. I would consider that stalking.” Harry insisted. I smirked at him and shook my head.

“At least he doesn’t know where I live.” I emphasised making Harry turn a light shade of pink. I laughed and bent down to pick Evelyn up, she was more subdued now that she knew she was in trouble. “Come on stalker boy. I have a few more shops I want to check out. Unless you don’t want to shop with us anymore though, I mean you probably have other places to be.” Harry just shook his head and gestured for me to lead the way, my bags all still in his hands. I couldn’t believe how willing he was to spend his time with us.

I didn’t want to be rude and ask but I was also too curious to focus on anything else by this point.

“Harry?” I said slowly, not paying attention to the store we were wandering through. Harry stopped to look at a glass elephant on a shelf. I maneuvered Evelyn’s hands away from the shelf before continuing. “Why on Earth are you spending time with us?” I decided to be blunt. Harry looked up amused while I shrugged. I wanted to know the truth. I watched as Harry glanced around the shop like he was slowly gathering his thoughts.

“Don’t be offended or anything because I definitely don’t mean this in a bad way but well you’re normal. I like hanging out with the both of you because your life is so much more normal then mine. And trust me that’s a good thing.” I gaped at Harry for a moment, really trying not to take offence at his words.

“Normal?” I asked, my voice rising higher at the end of the word. Harry winced, realizing I was offended. “What about my life is normal? I’m a twenty-year-old Australian girl stuck here in Britain looking after my five-year-old niece because her parents died. What about that is normal?” I hissed at him. Harry quickly stepped forward like he was afraid I would walk away from him. I couldn’t, he still had all my bags.

“I didn’t mean that was normal. God I definitely didn’t mean that.” Harry rushed out his words. It was probably the fastest I had seen him talk in the last three days. “I just meant that working here, going shopping, living in a town, looking after Evelyn it’s so much a part of your life. Routine. And enjoyment being a valid reason for you to go to a place. You’re living.” I was completely lost.

“If I’m living what are you doing?” I asked curiously.

“Fake, mostly. I go to big events to get photographed and bring publicity. My life is run on a schedule that is different every day. Don’t get me wrong; I love what I’m doing. Its just some days I feel like I just exist and that’s all. But since I’ve been back here I’ve felt happier, that I’m just going out and spending time doing what I want. No other reasons behind it other than wanting to.” Harry was so completely earnest that I didn’t know how to reply. “Is that okay?” He asked hesitantly. I nodded slowly before realizing that we just had a heart to heart in the middle of a busy gift store.

“Yeah, course.” I nodded at him. I could feel the impatience radiating through Evelyn while she just watched us talk sullenly. “We should probably get out of everyone’s way.” I gestured back to the entrance of the story and Harry glanced around, shocked, like he too had forgotten where we were.

“I should probably head home.” Harry said, glancing down at the watch on his wrist. I tried not to frown and feel disappointed at ruining the fun we were having today.

“Yeah of course we should probably head home soon too. Here I can take the bags.” I moved to place Evelyn down but Harry just shook his head.

“I can put them in your car if you want?” Harry offered instead, smiling at me shyly.

“Would we be able to duck back into the coffee shop first. I need to drop that CD off?” Harry agreed and we set off back to the other side of the Shopping Centre to the coffee shop. We were mostly silent but it wasn’t awkward or anything other than comfortable really. If Harry just wanted to hang out with Evelyn and I because we were routine for him then I didn’t have a problem with it. I had fun with Harry and so did Evelyn and I highly doubted running into each other so often was going to continue happening.

“Hey guys!” Nell greeted us, leaning on top of the counter. I smacked her arm so she would stand up properly before handing Logan the other CD. He jumped half a foot in the air before sprinting over to the CD player to change the song.

“Michael Buble’s Christmas Album?” Nell questioned with a smile. I shrugged and grinned back. No one could be judged for loving Michael Buble.

“We’re heading home, so I’ll see you tomorrow. Tell Dee I said bye.” I waved to them both. Evelyn only gave them a short wave before resting her head on my shoulder. She had grown tired from today and I was looking forward to making her nap when we got home. After I still grounded her from running off.

“You’re family must love having you home this long for Christmas?” I asked Harry, trying to start a conversation. He nodded and I watched as a small smile spread across his features.

“Yeah, it’s been great to have the whole month off this time to just be with them. It’s felt more like Christmas this year then any other since everything happened.” Harry said lightly while I opened up the boot of my car so he could throw the bags inside.

“Well thanks for today.” I smiled and let Harry take Evelyn to press a kiss to her forehead and hug her tightly. She barely hugged back her eyes already drooping.

“She falls asleep fast.” Harry commented, amused.

“You have no idea.” I replied. “Yesterday she was down for a nap in minutes. Getting her to sleep is probably the easiest part about looking after her.” I opened the back seat door and Harry situated Evelyn into the car seat and buckled her up before pressing one more kiss to her cheek. She yawned in his face in response. He laughed and climbed back out, shutting the door.

“So, I’ll see you around?” I asked Harry curiously, my hand lingering on my own open door.

“Definitely.” Harry nodded, his hand already fishing in his pocked for his own keys. “Maybe even tomorrow.” He winked at me before disappearing behind the cars next to us. I rolled my eyes and climbed into the car, turning the music down the moment it started do I didn’t wake the drowsy kid in the back.

I had to do two trips to the car and apartment when we got home. Tucking Evelyn into her bed once I get her upstairs before hurrying downstairs to get all the bags from today. I debated whether or not to begin wrapping presents when I remembered what Santa had said to day. About a call being overdue.

Knowing that neither of my parents would care about the time difference, especially since I was the only daughter they had left, I let myself call the familiar number and dropped down onto the couch. My body relaxed further when my Mother’s familiar voice came through the phone.

“Hey Mum. I miss you.”