The Arms Hotel Lobby, Tuesday [12/21]

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

Mary was used to seeing odd things in Fandom, but it still caught her off-guard when a polar bear walked in and handed her a bottle of Coca-Cola. But she quickly recovered and gave the bear a sincere thank you. She was pretty thirsty. Gunther seemed to be taking his time bringing her the coffee she asked for hours ago.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel!
Today's Specials
Mixed Greens and Sausage Soup with Cornmeal Dumplings
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Icing

[Open! The OCD is shoveling snow.]

Comments

[divinesurfchick.livejournal.com]

Aphrodite approached Mary without a coke in her hand. She had two or three in her bag; after all not even the goddess of love was immune from polar bears offering cold beverages, but had noticed the bottle already on the desk.

Besides that, she herself was not a polar bear, no matter what she may have looked like in her white pants with white, furlined parka.

She did, however, approach Mary with a basket in which several smaller wrapped items could be seen.

"Happy Solstice, Mary!"

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

"Happy holidays!" said Mary, smiling. "You look like you're ready to hit the ski slopes. Are you planning on going anywhere?"

[divinesurfchick.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah, but not till the weekend." She rolled her eyes slightly. "Have to be here for Thursday, at least."

She handed over the small basket. "This is for you! I suppose I should say Merry Christmas for you, right?"

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

"I'll celebrate any occasion that lets me forget the cold weather," said Mary, reaching to talk the basket and trying to peek at what was inside. "And that's right, you have an event at the store on Thursday. Something about kissing?"

[divinesurfchick.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, the kissing contest." 'Dite rolled her eyes. "When I hung the mistletoe everyone wanted a kiss, or two, or three, and I decided no, not doing this all day. So, for two hours, everyone gets one kiss, and I'll decide who's the best kisser." She winked. "Or you could just come get a kiss, and give five bucks to charity, and not even be in the contest. All for a good cause."

When Mary looked inside the basket she'd find special candles that smelled like the sea on a summer day, a bottle of bath salts labeled 'Winter', and a body lotion marked as 'Solstice Surprise'. Each bottle carried a smaller label that said, 'Aphrodite's Special Non-Magical Creations'.

There was also chocolate, but that was just from the store and nothing special.

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

"I'll make it a point to stop by. It's always good to donate to charity, especially at this time of year," said Mary, smiling. One little kiss couldn't hurt, right?

[divinesurfchick.livejournal.com]

It certainly couldn't.

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I need prizes for the top three kissers -- well, five, actually, since two will just get consolation type things; twenty dollar gift cards to The Perk. Then there's a fifty dollar gift card to 'Dite's for third place. First place is a weekend at a little inn off island in Baltimore, and I wanted a weekend here to be second place. Friday and Saturday. Can we do that? I'll pay for it, of course."

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

"It can certainly be arranged. I'll have a nice certificate made up so you can give it to the second-place winner on Thursday," said Mary. "And if the winner wants to stay on a quiet weekend, I'll throw in a free upgrade to the presidential suite, or the stripper pole suite if they'd prefer it," she added with a smirk.

[divinesurfchick.livejournal.com]

'Dite nodded, clapping her hands together with joy. "Oh, that's perfect. Thank you, Mary. Just add the price to my next bill, would you? And throw in dinner and breakfast?"

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

"Consider it done," said Mary, grinning. "I'm happy to do whatever makes one of my guests happy."

[divinesurfchick.livejournal.com]

"Thank you! And I hope you do come down for the contest; it would be great to see you there, contest or not." 'Dite smiled. "I hope you have a great Christmas, Mary."

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

"I'll do my best to make it there. And thank you for the the gift!" said Mary, smiling.