by Jenny Plumb
Speaking of butt hurt, there was the boss now. He’d told her they would have a quick meeting tonight at closing time and asked her at which store she’d be working. He said he’d meet her here and there he was.
Watching him walk across the store, stopping to greet a stocker, and waving to the cashier who could only manage to tip her head and smile back as she was calling for backup because her line was getting long. Heather felt bad for her and the customers both, as she looked at the line, but she had no clue how to run a register and apparently there were magic numbers you had to enter before it let you try.
Ben had stopped and turned around, at the page, and waited just a minute for the backup to arrive. Heather could see him watching, and then he walked behind the register bank and started punching numbers on the only other register. These small boutique stores usually ran well on one or two registers, but occasionally there came a rush of customers. Ben apparently did have magic numbers, because the next thing she saw was him popping on a Santa hat that he must have had in his pocket and checking people out. He did it easily and with the same charm he used on everyone. The line was down in just a few minutes, but he still stood there and waited. On what? He spoke to the cashier, and Heather heard her page again for the manager.
Still nothing. Heather straightened some scenery on the backdrop and waited. The last of the customers in the store were heading to the register after the cashier called a five minute warning for closing, a few minutes later. Still no manager. Santa had gone home for the night, or to the North Pole to make more toys, after all those requests today. It was time for her to either get ready to head home or wait for the boss. She was waiting.
Ben came out from behind the register and motioned to Heather, who said, “I didn’t know you could run a register.”
“I make a point of doing every job in the store a few times a year,” he said. “Not bragging, but there isn’t any job in here I couldn’t handle.”
“Mrs. Claus?” tumbled out of Heather’s mouth before she could stop it.
“Okay, you got me.” He started to smile, then he frowned and said, “You might as well head home. I’m going to have a meeting with the manager and I don’t know how long it will take,” he said. “We’ll meet tomorrow about supper time, and then I have a request for you.”
“You going to have a Come to Santa meeting with him?” she asked.
“What?” He looked at her oddly.
Sometimes her mouth just ran, didn’t it? “My dad always said, when I was in trouble, to watch it or we’d have a Come to Jesus meeting. I was just thinking, considering my job…” Her voice trailed away as she saw a flash of annoyance in those gray eyes.
“Okay, text me your afternoon schedule for tomorrow and I’ll tell you where we’re meeting,” he said and walked away.
Heather felt a twinge of doubt. Had she done something to upset him? She couldn’t think of anything, except that crack about Santa. Should she learn to be a little more politically correct or should she just learn to shut her mouth? Maybe both?
Well, either way, she was quite certain he’d let her know tomorrow. She overheard him say, “Tim, let’s go to the back room. We’re about to have a Come to Santa meeting.” That made her feel better, and she had to fight down a smile. Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe he was just upset with the manager or he was as tired as she was.
But she had a dinner date tomorrow, halfway, anyway. She had a meeting with the boss. At least he said it was a meeting, she was halfway thinking it was a date. She would wear her best Christmas sweater. Not the one that she used to win the ugly sweater contest a few years ago, a good one. Did she have one? Probably. She used to wear a different sweater every day to the real estate office in the month of December. Were any of them good enough for a date with the boss and sturdy enough to work in all day? Maybe she needed a new sweater? Maybe?
On her way home, she stopped into a high-end shop that she had an empty store card for, and decided to see if there was anything in there that caught her eye.
She had a job, she could afford a new Christmas outfit. It would be her present to herself, she told herself with only a twinge of guilt. It wasn’t like anyone else would get her one after all, trying not to feel sorry for herself.
No reason to feel sorry for herself, she scolded. She was young, single, worked in a fun job that would be great conversation fodder if she attended any parties, and had a fantastic future ahead of her. Plus her boss was hot and she got to hang out with him tomorrow. Life was good. So why were her eyes blinking hard and she was fighting back tears? The season? Ridiculous. Just for that, she was buying new boots too.
An hour later, she left with a new sweater, new pants and way too sexy and gorgeous black boots. Plus a silver snowflake necklace she did not need, but it looked so good with her ice blue sweater, she couldn’t resist. Then there were the comfortable flat-heeled silver glitter boots, lined with fur. Her mom would think they were tacky, but they felt so seasonal and festive. Paired with her black pants, her blue shirt subtly streaked with silver and her silver snowflake necklace, she’d look like Christmas tomorrow and still stand out from all the red and green she worked with.
Shaking her head, she wondered what she’d just done. Well, the upside was there was no interest for ninety days, so she had three months to pay it off. Hopefully, she’d have a job next month with a paycheck so she could.
Hurrying home, she wrinkled her nose at the snow. Oh, sure, tonight it wanted to snow huge big fat flakes that would cling to her dark hair and redden her cheeks for another reason other than mortification. You know, when he wouldn’t see her. Tomorrow she’d probably look like a drowned rat again.
Sometimes life just wasn’t fair. Once again her eyes teared up and she blamed it on the wind and her exhaustion. It had nothing to do with the fact that he wasn’t seeing her tonight. She tried to focus on tomorrow, when she would see him, and all the things she had to do at work tomorrow.
The candy vendor had sent some kind of leftover Halloween candy to one of the stores instead of candy canes and while she’d handled that, she didn’t want it to happen again. Mentally she went down the rest of her list until the cab pulled in front of her apartment.
Throwing her bags down, once inside, she thought about zapping a meal, and then realized that twice this week she’d not sent him a picture of her lunch. Once, because it was a ridiculous thing to have to do, and the second time, since he didn’t comment on the first time, she thought he didn’t really care. It had probably been a toss away thought for him. Besides, she didn’t have time for lunch every day. She had boots to pay for. She had to do a good job.
Stripping out of her clothes, she set the coffee timer for the morning, and then thought she should do laundry, but instead threw herself on the bed and was asleep in less than a minute.
Chapter 4
Waking to Christmas music on her radio alarm. Good thing.
Waking up to her cell phone ringing. Bad thing.
Waking up to her cell phone ringing and realizing she’d overslept and the alarm was still playing. Very bad.
And of course it was her boss.
Oh. Ugh, that didn’t even rate on the scale of bad to worse.
Deciding that bathroom needs trumped answering the phone, she headed to the bathroom and hoped he’d just leave a voicemail. That would be good, then she could be dressed and out of here before he knew she was late. She wasn’t required to check in, after all. She could use a late morning. Maybe?
Even she knew that was a sad excuse. She had a meeting with the candy vendor in half an hour, she realized, and he was twenty minutes away. Plus she hadn’t called any of the stores. She should have been working an hour ago. She might not have to check in with a time clock, but she had things that needed to be done and she’d failed that morning.
The only thing clean in her work wardrobe was her brand new outfit. Ripping off tags, she threw it on, slid into the comfy silver boots and hoped she’d have time later in the day to come
home for the sexy black ones before her date/meeting tonight. Slapping on some makeup in record time, she grabbed the silver snowflake necklace and clipped it on while she ran her fingers through her hair. Telling herself that her curls looked artfully tumbled instead of flat out messy, she pulled on her red Santa hat that the boss man had decided everyone should wear this season – except for the Mrs. Clauses, they got a pass. Maybe one of those Mrs. Clauses would share something out of their deep apron pocket with her today if she promised not to squeal to the boss. She needed something. She already knew it was going to be one of those kinds of days.
Grabbing a handful of power bars, and pouring a cup of the still hot coffee into a travel mug, she blessed whoever invented the timer and her own good smarts for setting it last night, and hurried out the door not ten or fifteen minutes after he’d called.
Candy vendor – that was the first thing on her list. By now, she should have known if all the stores got their required candy canes this morning or more leftover Halloween candy. She’d meant to call every manager before she met with the vendor so she’d know. All the new candy and coloring books were to be resupplied three times a week and today was the next delivery, by six AM. Who knew there was an entire subset of workers who were actually finishing up a job by six AM? She’d thought most people worked the same hours she had since she was eighteen, nine to five with an hour off for lunch. Sure, she knew people were working when she got off and she’d shopped and ordered pizza at midnight, but still. It never really crossed her mind that they worked like that all the time. She needed these people to be in her stores and have their supplies unloaded by six AM. A couple months ago, she didn’t realize too much was even alive, except for the garbage trucks at six AM, much less working and unloading boxes.
She had been very naive, she realized now. She wondered how other people got less naive. Travel. Travel, she thought, was a good way – like the Bahamas with her parents. Travel opened your eyes; but since that wasn’t an option, this job might very well be the best thing that happened to open her mind to a world beyond her experiences.
Unless she lost it because the boss knew she was late. His car was parked in front of the candy vendor’s office. Of course it was. It was that kind of day.
Oh well.
All she could do was bite the bullet and head on in. Well, and hope he wasn’t going to fire her in front of the vendor. Sighing, she realized the candy office front looked like that game she used to play when she was a kid, Candy Land. There were gumdrops, silver fairies, and lollipops and candy canes scattered all over the very small bit of lawn and in the one small window. It made her teeth ache to look at it all. Sugar and sweetness everywhere, but not on Ben’s face, which looked like a thunderstorm when she walked in. He stood by the only desk in the room and asked her dryly, “Your phone turned off?”
“Yes, sir?” she replied faintly, not sure what was the right answer.
“How many of our stores got the wrong candy order this morning?” he barked at her. That was not a question. He obviously knew. Where had that gentle smile and understanding tone gone? Far, far away. This was a Come to Santa meeting if she’d ever heard one.
“I overslept,” she blurted out. Mouth meet filter. Oh, yeah, filter was in the Bahamas with her folks. Stupid filter taking a vacation and expanding its mind.
“I don’t care about your sleep habits,” he said, tersely. “I care that none of my stores have candy canes for the kids who will be there in less than an hour expecting them, that my Santa wrangler didn’t bother to check on them, or get hold of the vendor or make any other arrangements and that my managers were calling me instead of you.”
Heather’s mind raced. Okay, the key was not to let this, or him, shake her. “Where is the vendor?” she asked.
“Apparently, he overslept too, and his drivers were given the wrong items by the receptionist who is new, didn’t know what she was doing and is now in the bathroom bawling and probably writing her resignation letter.”
He took a step forward, but she didn’t notice as she said, mind racing, “Okay. I’ll go see if they actually have our orders or if they were sent elsewhere.” She headed to the back, where she’d had a quick tour once a few weeks ago and saw the warehouse. She went to the area where the things were shipped from to her – their – stores and saw all the brightly marked boxes of candy canes. How had the receptionist missed them? Who knew? You do stupid things when you’re new and nervous. And the drivers might have been playing a prank on her. Haze the new girl. No way to know, just deal.
Grabbing her phone, she noticed a few missed calls and ignored them, pulling up the Uber app and ordering five cars as soon as they could get here. Looking up, she saw Ben glaring at her, so she quickly explained. “Might be a little pricey but, one, the vendor should compensate us, and if I give them all two boxes to deliver, then all the stores should have the right candy in an hour. I’ll be in every one of them as soon as I make sure the receptionist is calmed down and can handle the pass off. If she can’t, or the vendor doesn’t show up, I’ll stay and as soon as the last Uber driver shows up, I’ll ride to the store with him. Then check on the others. There should be enough leftovers at all the stores to get us through the first hour of opening.”
Ben simply turned and walked out the door. Heather didn’t know if she should be relieved or terrified, but double checked her Uber app to make sure the drivers were all booked, then headed to the bathroom to see if she could get the receptionist out of hiding.
While she worked the rest of the morning, there was a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that her date tonight was going to be very interesting.
Ben stalked out of the candy vendor office, trying to keep his mad going. It was hard, but he didn’t want her to see that he had cooled off seeing how quickly and efficiently she’d taken over and handled things. He had plans for her tonight, several of them.
He’d not been able to get her out of his mind since he’d run across her resume a few months ago. Since then he’d alternated ignoring her for days to see if she’d stop dancing in the corner of his brain and dropping into her workplace and talking to her to see if she’d start irritating him. Other women always irritated him after spending a lot of time with them. But he seemed to adore everything about her, from the way she licked her hot chocolate spoon to the way she made mistakes and then just fixed them. He also rather enjoyed the way her brain didn’t engage before her mouth kicked in. She was entertaining and just, dammit, gorgeous.
She interested him. He’d thought about her off and on through the years, after the party he’d found her in. He’d taken his fear and worry about his sister out on her bare bottom and he really wanted to see it again, and do it again – while not worrying about his sister. She’d given him lots of reasons to paddle her butt and he was going to use them all tonight, later tonight, much later tonight. They had a workday to get through, then some other things.
A few hours later, he glanced down at his phone. Though he’d already checked in with his managers during a quick ten AM conference call, he liked that she was giving him an update that all the candy had been delivered, all the Santas were present and accounted for and everything seemed under control.
Good. He was going to let her make sure that everyone made it back from lunch, then go get her. Even though she’d slept late, things were going smoothly overall. They both deserved an afternoon off, although part of hers would be less than pleasant. It would tell him a lot about what he was going to want going forward. He didn’t know why he was thinking of the future, it must be the holiday season creeping into his brain. A stupid sappy movie last night told him that the best present you could give or get at Christmas was love.
Maybe that was true, but he needed to get his family some material things anyway. He clicked onto his favorite website and ordered a few things to be wrapped and delivered. His cleaning lady was at his apartment today and she would accept deliveries. That was a good start.
He
ather stepped out of the store, taking a deep breath of icy cold air. That last family must have gone through the perfume sample aisle and perfumed them all, each and every one. She felt bad for Santa and the elves, but she needed clean air. Well, as clean as the car-congested road in front of her could leave the air. But it was her air. She’d lived in Chicago all her life. She loved it.
Pulling her sleeves down a bit, she knew she wouldn’t be outside long. It was too cold and too windy. But the air felt good and fresh for just a minute.
As she turned to go back in, she heard a voice behind her. “Where was my lunch text?”
Oh shit.
“Coming in half an hour when I eat lunch?” she said, meekly, without turning around.
“Unacceptable. What else do you have to do this afternoon?” His voice was stern again and she shivered and not only because she was cold.
“Whatever my boss says?” This time she turned to him. She’d never seen him in jeans before and her eyes couldn’t help admiring – jeans, black boots, black gloves and a black hoodie? Really? It made him seem younger and so hot her cheeks bloomed with heat again.
“Good answer,” he approved. “Go get your coat and whatever else it is you women carry around all the time,” he commanded. “We have things to do.”
Mind racing, she tried to figure what else she’d messed up today. She couldn’t think of anything beside the great candy fiasco.
The store music played Winter Wonderland as she walked through, successfully dodging the perfume samplers as she ran to the back to get her coat and purse. Wondering what the afternoon would bring, she didn’t dare dawdle. No matter what it brought, she would be with him, and really? What was more important than that?
Her breath caught as she realized what she’d just thought. Her job was more important, her life, her family – many things, yes?
Grabbing her coat, she shrugged into it quickly, and then grabbed her purse and thought about running a brush through her hair, but instead popped a couple mints in her mouth and pulling off her Santa hat, tossed a blue knit hat that matched her sweater on her head. Heading back to the door, she waved at the manager who seemed very attentive, now, to the pages and she grinned. Her boss knew how to handle people. Maybe one day she would be as good at it as he was.