Page 31 of I Saw You First

And today’s the day we’re going to promote Abbey.

Aurora claims she doesn’t need another assistant team captain, but the truth is, she’s stressed and floundering, and even with Cesar picking up her slack, she needs someone else. Abbey is that person.

After he dismisses the morning meeting, Jeremy motions for me to follow him into the Dugout.

“You’re sure about this, right?” he asks. “You don’t think she’s looking for a newspaper job, and she’ll bail on us as soon as something better comes along?”

I shake my head. I think she loves her job and would welcome more responsibility. And I need her in this role.

“I’m sure,” I say. “Didn’t she tell you that herself in her interview? She said she wouldn’t look for a job in journalism.”

He nods. “More or less, yes.”

“This is the right move,” I say. It has to be.

“You know there’s a lot on the line with this decision, for both of us. I want to keep my job, and you need to fix this department if you want to move up to AGM.”

“I’m aware.” Fix the department—get my act together—and finally impress my dad.

“And you know it took a lot of work to get the district office to change our org chart, right,” Jeremy continues, “to add this position?”

Now he’s messing with me. His wife works in the organizational development department at the corporate office and helped move the request through so quickly, it made my head spin. “Did it, though?”

He laughs. “Yeah, not really. You still owe me one. I’ll call her up, then.” He picks up the phone and pages Abbey to the Dugout.

While we wait, Jeremy sits down at one of the computers. He henpecks at the keyboard with his index finger, writing an email that’s sure to be riddled with typos and missing punctuation and signed off with his trademark Akme it happen! Jeermey. How he got to be the GM of Woodlake with those typing skills is beyond me.

I like Jeremy. He’s shorter than me and pale with ruddy cheeks, fuzzy brown hair, friendly, chocolatey eyes, and lots of laugh lines. He’s an ’80s metal guy with a lot of tattoos. The comedy and tragedy masks from Mötley Crüe’s Theatre of Pain album spread across the inside of one forearm with lyrics from “Home Sweet Home.” On the other arm is a portrait of Slash from Guns N’ Roses. Jeremy’s worked for Hometown since he was a freshman in college, and everyone he’s ever met loves him, including Dad. I don’t know how he does it, and I wish I had a fraction of whatever it is that makes him so damn likeable. Whenever Dad shows up here, the entire place goes on high alert except for Jeremy. Nothing seems to rattle him. He’s a great GM. I almost feel bad about someday taking the job from him, but then again, he’ll be moving up, too.

Abbey opens the door and sticks her head in. “Um, hi, Jeremy? You wanted to see me?”

He stops henpecking and spins his chair around. “Abs! Terrific! Yes! Have a seat! I’ll be one sec!”

I cross my arms and nod at her, and she gives me her trademark sunshine smile, broad and effortless. She seems to have gotten over that awkward moment at La Cuchara, and I’m relieved. I can’t screw this up. I need her on my team.

I move a stack of reports from the only other chair in the room, set them on the desk, and motion for her to sit down. When the chair squeaks, she huffs out a nervous laugh.

“Abbey. Abbey Rhodes,” Jeremy says, grabbing a pen from the desk and clicking it repeatedly. “I’ll get right to it. We’re impressed with how you’ve jumped in feet first and learned this retail gig. You’re a natural. We all think so.”

“We?” she echoes.

He waves a hand. “Me, Wil, Aurora, the district media people. Everyone’s impressed.”

“Thank you,” she says with only the slightest hesitation. Her eyes flicker in my direction and then back to Jeremy.

“I know you’ve only been with the Hometown Team for a few short months⁠—”

“Weeks,” she interjects. “A few short weeks. I started in September.”

“Right, right. You’ve been here a few short weeks. But I’m sure you’ve seen how things can change overnight. People quit, they get promoted, they transfer to a new store, they go to corporate.”

He pauses and looks at me like he needs backup. “Yes, this is true,” I say.

“My point is,” Jeremy continues, “we’ve decided to add a second assistant team captain for the media department, and considering how well you fit with the team, how well you work with Cesar and Aurora—no small feat with that one, ha ha—we’d like to promote you.”

“Oh!” she says in surprise and then turns to look at me directly. “So, is this an interview?”

Jeremy wrinkles his nose. “An interview for what?”