Chapter 16 #3
After four minutes, I stand up, crumple the paper bag and toss it into the trash, then swing open the door and jump in surprise when I see Wil standing on the other side.
“Hey,” he says, and how is he so calm? It’s Black Friday! “I’ve been looking for you.”
I put my hands on my hips. He’s blocking the door. “You saw my schedule. I get a five-minute break at eight-fifteen. It’s eight-nineteen, and I’m on my way back.”
“Settle down. You can have your break. And you should take longer than four minutes, FYI. I want to show you revenue numbers for the first two hours. Your department is blowing it out of the water.”
He holds out his clipboard, and I look at the dot matrix printout. We’re at nearly twenty percent of our revenue goal for the day. “Is that good?”
He nods. “Yeah, it’s good. Really good. We haven’t seen a start like this on Black Friday for years, and it’s mostly thanks to your department.”
“Great! Well, I need to get back out there.”
“Rhodes.” He puts his hand on my arm, and I feel it, that heat, the swizzle, through my body, even my hair. “Wait a second.”
I move toward him like I’m going to push him out of my way, but there’s something about the swizzle that leaches me of any strength or energy.
He lifts his hand and brings it toward my face, like he’s going to stroke my cheek, and I can hardly breathe with anticipation.
And then he does touch me. He swipes at the corner of my mouth with the pad of his thumb, and a rush of sensation crashes over me.
He pulls his hand away, and I look down to see a glob of custard on the tip of his thumb. I look up again, my cheeks burning.
He smiles. “Good?”
I nod, even though I’m not sure what he means.
Was the donut good? Is his touch good? I have no idea.
I regain enough strength and composure to put my hands against his chest—solid and firm, and seriously, when does he have time to work out?
—and move him out of my way. At the end of the hallway, I turn back to see him standing in the doorway, watching me go, the thumb that had seconds ago touched my mouth, the thumb with the custard, between his own lips.
He sucks the custard off, slow, deliberate, dirty.
My eyes move up to his and freeze there, and I stand, frozen, until Kevin barrels around the corner and grabs my arm.
“We have a Beck emergency! I can’t find the overstock boxes!”
I look at Wil one last time. He smiles, a small twitch at one corner of his mouth, barely noticeable.
I notice, and then I follow Kevin to the warehouse.
After I resolve the Beck emergency, I hustle out to the floor to find Jefferson A. Wilshire III standing at the media desk with Jeremy, Felix, and Jefferson A. Wilshire IV.
“Fuck,” Kevin whispers. “What is he doing here?”
My thoughts exactly. I heard that he sometimes stops by stores on Black Friday, but I’m surprised to see him this early. I’m even more surprised when he smiles at me.
“There she is!” Felix says, and I swear I hear Kevin laugh before he beelines it up to the endcap to refill Beck Odelay.
“Nice to see you all,” I lie.
Mr. Wilshire reaches out to shake my hand and pumps it hard three times.
The bells on my reindeer headband jingle.
I’m a college graduate greeting the president, CEO, and founder of one of the country’s fastest growing big box electronics retailers, and I’ve got reindeer antlers on my head and battery-operated earrings shaped like Christmas bulbs that light up and blink different colors.
And last week, Lavender added “Chief Elf” to my name tag.
“Pleasure to meet you, Abbey,” Mr. Wilshire says.
I almost roll my eyes. He doesn’t remember me from the eval, but at least he didn’t call me Aurora.
“Abbey Rhodes.” Felix claps me on the shoulder. “Love the antlers. And what a start. You should be proud.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you for all your hard work to get ready for this day.” Felix puts his arm around me.
Nope. No way. I step out of his hold and make a point of rearranging the papers on my clipboard.
He doesn’t seem to notice that this has made me uncomfortable, but by the way Wil’s eyes narrow, I suspect that he has.
“If we’re not careful,” Felix continues, “some other store is going to snap this one up.”
“She’s not going anywhere, right, Wil?” Jeremy says. He laughs uncomfortably.
“Not if I can help it,” Wil says in a flat tone. Jeremy laughs again. Ha fucking ha.
I don’t know what this is about, but it doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe they should pay me what I’m worth if they want me to stay. And to think that mere hours ago, I was blinking back tears at how much I love my team and this job. Plus! I have fans to help! This is a waste of time.
Then it dawns on me. The answer to all my money woes. If I can’t get a job in my field, I need another promotion. I’m showing them how successful I can be as a TC, so the next logical move is assistant manager.
I’m going to do everything I can to get promoted, and if I can’t do that here at Woodlake, I’ll find another store. So far, the promotion process at Hometown Electronics has been smooth sailing; getting promoted to AM will be a walk in the ballpark.