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His emails were always time-stamped at odd hours. 4:30 AM. 9:20 PM. 1:23 AM. I wondered if he ever slept.
All of his subsequent tasks proved easier to accomplish than the first one he’d issued.
Making friends didn’t come naturally to me, but I could be outgoing in my job. Talking to strangers while dressed up in my Fairytale Kingdom uniform never seemed all that hard. Outside of work, though, I’d slink right back into my shell. I’d never thought of myself as a loner, but before college, I always had Avery. After school and on weekends, life always seemed to revolve around her. I’d never had time to notice my lack of friends.
Now, it was at the forefront of my mind every day when I’d walk into the dorm cafeteria and realize I had no one to sit with. I had noticed another girl sitting by herself, her head bent low over a book every time I passed her by. I fantasized about waltzing up to her and introducing myself, but I never did. The idea of it nearly made me sick.
I told Derek about her in an email once. He encouraged me to talk to her; in fact, he said, “If she likes to read that much, she’d make a great friend.”
I didn’t work up the courage until a week later. Hopped up on an extra cup of caffeine, tired of spending lunch holed up in my dorm room alone, and aware that I was only a few days away from my second meeting with Derek (and wanting to make him proud), I gathered my food from the buffet line and walked directly toward the booth where the girl sat reading.
“Hi. Is this seat taken?”
Her head jerked up in surprise. Her black hair, trimmed short at the base of her chin, was set off by her fair skin. She had long front bangs straight from the ’60s and startling blue eyes—blue eyes that were staring up at me in shock.
Abort.
Run!
Like a trapped animal, I searched around me for an exit. Though the cafeteria doors were yards away, a row of windows were near enough for me to dive through at my own peril.
Then she finally spoke.
“Oh, um, no, it’s not taken.” She dragged her backpack off the table and set it down on the seat beside her. “Go for it.”
I sat down. She closed her book. There was silence so loud I started to sweat. I knew I needed to conjure up small talk, but the part of my brain capable of that function was currently screaming at me to stop being weird.
“Were you reading ahead for class?” I finally asked, nodding toward her textbook.
She seemed hesitant to admit she was.
“I have been too. Honestly, with the semester in full swing, I’m so nervous about getting behind. I’ve tried to stay on top of our assignments.”
She nodded, unveiling a small smile. “Where are you stationed in the park?”
“Elena’s Castle.”
Her brows perked up. “Really? That sounds cool. I wanted to work in the Costuming Department, but I got placed in València over near the Enchanted Forest instead. I’ve had a few shifts where I shadowed the chef or maître d', but most of the time, I’m just bussing tables.”
“No way! That’s still awesome. I’ve never even been inside.”
She smiled, viewing her position with new enthusiasm now that I had deemed it cool. “Sometimes at the end of my shifts, they let me take home leftover food.”
My jaw dropped. The restaurant was Michelin-starred. Reservations were based on a lottery system. There were news stories all the time of celebrities getting turned away.
We stayed there talking through the remainder of lunch. Small talk gave way to frenzied chatter, each of us talking over the other in a rush to get out all the words we’d been swallowing the last few weeks.
In the middle of that chaos, I found out Carrie wasn’t living in the dorms.
“They were booked up by the time I sent in my housing request. I’m staying with a family friend about twenty minutes from the park.”
I nearly leapt across the table with excitement. “I don’t have a roommate! They never showed up, and to be honest, I’m not even sure administration realizes I’m living by myself.”
“Really?”
I nodded, wheels spinning.
Neither one of us thought it was weird to suggest rooming together within thirty minutes of meeting. In fact, we were both on board. We left the cafeteria side by side and marched to the admin office together. My first task from Derek was officially complete.For my second meeting with Derek, I wore an emerald green wrap dress similar to the one I’d seen Heather wear the month before. It was brand new and courtesy of the Knightley Company. An electronic gift card had hit my inbox three weeks prior, sent from Heather to make up for the coffee incident. $200 to Nordstrom. I’d stretched every penny of it so it would cover a new dress, a fitted blazer off the clearance rack, and a pair of comfortable yet stylish flats that actually fit. I’d purchased the same pair for Carrie. When I surprised her with them later back in our dorm, her jaw dropped.
