Sparks

Chapter 1

Willow released her stranglehold on the strap of her overstuffed purse, planted both hands on her hips, and rolled her shoulders back.

Several pedestrians slipped past and eyed her as if she were on drugs.

What? Had they never heard of the Wonder Woman pose? It was supposed to boost confidence—or so her sister said. But as Willow stared up at the sleek glass-and-steel high-rise building that housed Kudos Entertainment Inc., she had to admit it wasn’t working.

Come on! New city, new job, new me. It’ll be great! This was her chance to finally outrun the reputation she’d earned back home, and she was determined not to mess it up.

Right on cue, the infamous Portland drizzle started as she crossed the street.

She smoothed her pencil skirt, adjusted her blazer, and pulled open the glass doors at Kudos’s main entrance.

The echo of her sensible flats on the polished travertine floor sounded way too loud as she crossed the lobby.

A crimson couch stretched along one white marble wall, flanked by ferns in large stone troughs. Somewhere in the background, a gurgling fountain drowned out the sound of the rain on the high glass roof.

A young woman with neatly pinned-up, auburn hair looked up from behind the reception desk.

Willow forced a friendly smile. “Good morning. I’m Willow Greene, the new operations coordinator.”

“Good morning and welcome to Kudos.” The receptionist tapped a few keys, then opened a drawer and pulled out an ID badge on a red-and-blue lanyard. “Here’s your temporary badge. HR will take your photo and set you up with a permanent one later today.”

She held it out to Willow, who took it, careful not to let their fingers brush. “Thank you.”

“Your desk is on the—”

Approaching footsteps cut her off. A woman in her sixties walked toward them from the bank of elevators, her orthopedic shoes squeaking on the floor.

“Ah, perfect timing. You must be my replacement. I’m Barbara Peisner, but please call me Barb.

” Her silver bob swayed as she came to a stop in front of Willow and held out her hand with a warm smile.

Willow discreetly brushed her fingers over a metal brochure stand holding glossy pamphlets that showed off the company’s latest toy products.

It was an ingrained habit by now—one that she hoped no one would notice.

She shook Barb’s hand and returned her smile.

“Nice to meet you. Thanks so much for coming down to get me.”

Barb chuckled. “Now that they’ve finally hired my replacement, I didn’t want to risk losing you in the maze of offices. My husband already booked us a cruise for January, and it’s nonrefundable.”

“Please tell him he has nothing to worry about. The trip is safe. I look forward to working here.” Willow nodded at the receptionist before following her new colleague to the elevator.

Barb gestured for Willow to enter first, then pushed the button for the thirteenth floor.

Thirteen. Good thing Willow wasn’t superstitious. At least not much. She resisted the urge to bob up and down on the balls of her feet as the elevator began to climb.

“I hope you had a hearty breakfast. You’re going to need it,” Barb said with an apologetic smile. “We usually put new hires through a longer orientation, but the months before Christmas are our busiest season, and I’ll retire at the end of November, so we’ll have to throw you into the deep end.”

Willow struggled not to gulp audibly. It wasn’t the workload that scared her, though.

Her frown must have slipped through her professional poker face because Barb patted her arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll be around for the next two months to show you the ropes.”

That was exactly what had Willow so worried. Barb would keep a close eye on her. If Willow’s string of tech disasters started again, Barb would notice.

“Don’t let Celeste, our operations manager, intimidate you,” Barb continued. “She’s intense, but not unreasonable. She just values efficiency. If you work hard, you’ll be fine.”

“No problem.” Willow’s work ethic wasn’t what had gotten her fired from her last job. “I’m a quick study and pretty good at adapting. Just point me where you need me, and I’ll do my best.”

The elevator dinged, and the doors swished open on the thirteenth floor.

Willow touched the cool metal as she followed her out.

“This is us—the operations department.” Barb swept her hand toward a frosted glass door with a card reader and stepped aside. “Go ahead and use your badge.”

Willow tightened her grip on the ID card and tapped it against the door’s sensor. Please work, please work, please work.

The piece of technology chose to establish the kind of relationship they would have by flashing a mocking red light.

Not now. She tried again.

Nothing. The door refused to open.

The lines on Barb’s forehead deepened. “They gave you one of those temporary badges, right? Maybe it hasn’t been activated in the system yet. May I?”

Willow handed over her badge and took a discreet step back.

Barb tapped it firmly against the reader.

The light flashed green, and the door unlocked with a soft beep.

“There we go,” Barb said with a satisfied nod. “It’s activated after all.”

Willow inched forward again. “Sorry. Looks like my hands aren’t as steady as I thought. I probably didn’t tap it right.” She gave Barb a tremulous smile.

Barb laughed. “Don’t worry. First-day jitters get the best of all of us. I accidentally locked myself in the supply closet my first week here. Thought I’d have to live off printer paper and mints until someone rescued me.” She handed the badge back and swept her arm in invitation. “Come on in.”

As she followed Barb in, Willow shot the card reader a quick glare before putting on her game face.

The operations department seemed to take up most of the thirteenth floor.

Even this early in the morning, the spacious open-plan area was already buzzing with activity. The sounds of low voices, the clacking of keyboards, and the soft creak of a desk chair drifted over from a cluster of cubicles.

Floor-to-ceiling windows lined the outer wall, giving Willow a glimpse of a tree-lined street, the MAX tracks curving past lower office buildings, and the blurred green of a small park through the rain-streaked glass.

Another wall held a row of whiteboards displaying shipment timelines and inventory graphs.

Someone had taped a pink sticky note next to the word back order and scribbled Waiting for a miracle on it.

The office smelled faintly of dry-erase markers and freshly brewed coffee.

Several employees peeked over their low cubicle dividers to catch a glimpse of the newbie and offer her friendly smiles.

Barb introduced them, and Willow tried her best to keep up with all the new names and faces.

Just when Willow thought she had finally met everyone, a woman in her mid-forties emerged from a larger cubicle in the center of the room, with a frosted glass panel instead of a gray divider. The chatter in the office seemed to dim as she headed directly for Willow.

She carried herself with calm authority, her posture ramrod straight.

Her dark hair was swept into an immaculate low bun, not a strand out of place.

No wrinkle dared to form on her crisp white blouse or her tailored navy-blue slacks.

A faint line was edged between her elegant brows, as if her mind was always in motion, assessing and optimizing everything.

“You must be Willow. Celeste Covey—operations manager. Welcome to Kudos Entertainment.” Her voice was clipped but not cold.

Willow would have guessed the woman to be her direct supervisor, even before she had introduced herself.

She had expected to meet her during her job interview, but Celeste had been tied up in meetings that day.

“Thank you. I’m looking forward to being part of the team.

” She quickly brushed her fingers against the metal handle of a filing cabinet before shaking Celeste’s hand.

“Excellent.” Celeste gave a curt nod in Barb’s direction.

“Barbara will show you the ropes. I know you two will have a lot of ground to cover, but I believe you’ll find our systems straightforward and our team highly capable.

If anything comes up or if you have questions Barbara can’t answer, my door is always open.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.” A corner of her mouth lifted almost imperceptibly as she gestured at her doorless cubicle.

The unexpected hint of humor eased Willow’s tension. “I’ll knock if I need anything. Thank you.”

“Good.” With that, Celeste returned to her sleek, clutter-free desk.

Barb didn’t give her the time to watch Celeste leave. She lightly gripped Willow’s elbow and showed her where to find the essentials: the copier, the supply closet, and, most importantly, the coffee. Finally, Barb ended the tour at her own desk, near the back of the bullpen.

Unlike Celeste’s neat setup, Barb’s workstation was full of personality. It held family photos, a huge mug with the words Best Operations Coordinator Ever on it, one of Kudos’s small robot toys, and a rotating calendar that still read September even though it was the first of October.

“Your desk is right here.” Barb pointed at the workspace next to her own, separated only by a low partition.

The bare desk held not one but two monitors.

Willow wasn’t yet sure if the extra device was a good or a bad thing.

The computer tower sat on the floor, which she knew was a big no-no since it made the machine more vulnerable to accidental kicks, spills, dust, and static electricity from the carpet.

But she bit her lip and didn’t say anything.

If the system malfunctioned, at least they might blame the tower’s placement, not her.

Barb pulled out the desk chair for her. “Let’s get you logged in. I’ll walk you through SAP, Teams, Asana, and all the other fun tools. Just tell me whenever your head feels like it’s going to explode and you need a break.”

Willow nodded. She already knew her biggest challenge wouldn’t be mastering the software. It would be making it through the day without sparks, smoke, or flashing error messages.

~ ~ ~

Willow glanced at the big clock above the filing cabinet. Yes! Just five more minutes and she would have made it through her first day at Kudos without the slightest hitch.

Barb had left half an hour ago for a doctor’s appointment, leaving Willow to play around in the Sandbox, Kudos’s test environment that was supposed to familiarize newbies with their demand-planning software.

It was kind of fun to enter fictional demand spikes for the new Sparkle Pups line just to see how the system would reallocate inventory.

She typed 2,500 units into the input field and prayed she wasn’t accidentally rerouting an actual shipment to Siberia or something.

To be on the safe side, she typed in: Test scenario only—please ignore!

The keyboard made clicking sounds, but the letters took forever to show up on the screen. Then they stopped appearing altogether.

“Oh, come on. Don’t do this to me,” Willow muttered, gently shaking the keyboard. “Just a few more minutes.”

She typed a row of x’s, tapping lightly, then harder.

Nothing.

She pressed backspace.

Still no response from the stubborn piece of equipment.

Willow switched the dongle of her wireless keyboard to a different USB port and held her breath as she typed a few letters.

The keystrokes didn’t register.

Not about to give up, Willow slid open the drawer next to her. As soon as Barb had left, she had filled it with an assortment of spare batteries she had carried in her purse.

But replacing the batteries didn’t help either.

Maybe she could log out of the Sandbox, restart her computer, and solve the problem without anyone noticing. She didn’t want to ask for help and risk getting the same kind of reputation she’d had at her old company.

“Problem?” a clipped voice asked before Willow could even touch the mouse.

Willow jumped and swiveled her head around.

Celeste Covey stood next to her desk, holding a folder. She ran a sharp, assessing look over Willow.

For a moment, Willow considered pretending all was fine, but her new boss didn’t seem to miss much. If she caught Willow in a lie on her first day, their working relationship wouldn’t be off to a good start.

“Just my keyboard.” Willow tried to keep her voice light. “Apparently, it couldn’t handle all the excitement and stopped working.”

“Submit a ticket to IT,” Celeste replied. “They usually send someone up right away.”

“That’s not necessary,” Willow said quickly. “I’m pretty good at fixing—”

Celeste lifted her folder, cutting her off. “Nonsense. Trying to fix a technical problem yourself when we have a perfectly capable IT department is an inefficient use of resources.”

Barb had warned her that their manager hated inefficiency, so Willow had to try a different tactic. “I’d love to submit a ticket, but…well…no keyboard.” She waved her hand at the useless device.

“The on-screen keyboard should still work,” Celeste replied without missing a beat. “Use that to fill out the help desk form.”

Damn. Her old boss had been clueless when it came to technology, but she wouldn’t be able to fool this one. Willow nodded and forced a small smile. “Good idea. I’ll do that.”

Celeste tucked the folder under her arm and headed back to her desk, but Willow had a feeling she’d keep an eye on her.

Now she had no other choice. She had to do the one thing that she’d hoped to avoid as long as possible: make the acquaintance of Kudos’s IT support.