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“It’s a sneaky thing to do,” Stina said, stalking toward me.
Her heels smacked the cement. I stood my ground and maintained eye contact.
“Especially at Christmastime,” Stina continued. “I’m sure they’re doubling down on surveillance, so let’s make sure we do our best. I’d hate for Ever After Sweets to search for different custodial management because someone on my staff has been dishonest.”
She hadn’t directed her words at anyone in particular. She hadn’t even been looking at me as she’d finished them. But from the way Pris sniggered, from the way her mother pursed her lips at her, I got the feeling the threat was targeted in my direction.
What else did Stina possibly think she could do to me? I was about to find out I wouldn’t like the answer to that much at all.
FIFTEEN
ella
I pushed the large,wheeled garbage can along the hallway on the third floor, stopping to wipe the glass display near the elevator with the employee names and their room numbers. Earbuds in place, I drowned out my worries with a podcast on fashion design.
The featured speaker that morning discussed streamlining a formal gown to be a cross between a full, flowing princess skirt and a more contemporary bodice. From there, the conversation drifted into more of the marketing side of things.
Having designs noticed by magazines. Getting a photo op on the front cover.
I stopped for a moment to tap in a few notes to catalog the tips being given. Once the fingertips were removed from the glass display case, I rotated.
The podcaster paused long enough for sounds of asqueaky-wheeled mop bucket to trail from down the hall. Charlotte gave me a small wave.
She’d always been the nicer of my stepsisters, sharing clothes with me, talking to me without derision—you know, beingnice. Where Pris’s hair was long, Charlotte’s was a short bob with bangs.
She had similar brown eyes and thin lips like her sister’s, but her eyes didn’t unleash the same vindictive, I-want-to-burn-the-world-down blaze that Pris’s did.
I peeked at the clock over the stairs. It was nearing on nine and would soon be quitting time. Time to return cleaning tools to their coordinating closets on every floor and close up things for the day.
I’d hand in my keys, get home, and take a few minutes to scratch out the new design dominating my thoughts.
It would be the perfect gown to wear to the ball.
My thoughts hadn’t stopped straying in that direction—inHawk’sdirection—all morning. With every new recollection, the urgency to get home and get designing my dress rat-a-tatted like an entire drumline.
Charlotte wheeled in closer. “I heard you’re going to the dance.”
For a minute, I wondered if she was going to mention my upcoming date with Hawk as Pris had done, but Charlotte wasn’t anywhere near as petty as her sister was.
I smiled at her. “Yeah, I am.”
“Did you see this?” She offered her phone in my direction.
I wondered what she was doinghere. She’d been assigned to the seventh floor. There was a possibility that Stina had reassigned her.
“Check this out,” she went on. “These gowns are going for amazing prices.”
I was impressed by the designs. Gold ball gowns, indigo, strapless dresses, black and sequined getups that only reached to the thigh.
Each display was paired with a little yellowsaletag. The prices were actually decent.
“Where is this?” I asked.
“Circle of Elegance. Downtown,” Charlotte said.
“They’re stunning,” I said.
I rested my cloth against its place on the garbage cart when my pulse kicked dirt like a runaway horse. Hawk Danielson turned the corner.
