Page 32 of I Saw You First

She turns back to him. “For the ATC position.”

Jeremy sighs and looks at the clock on the wall. “No interview needed. We all agree that you’re the best candidate for the position. Do you have questions?”

She frowns and almost sags a little. I thought she’d be excited about this.

“Can you tell me more about the position and the kinds of things I’ll be doing that are different from what I’m already doing?” she asks.

Jeremy laughs awkwardly. “You’ll do, you know, what Cesar does, and back up Aurora, that kind of thing.”

Jeremy has no idea, and I know that he has no idea, and I’m sure that Abbey knows, too.

“That kind of thing?”

“Wil and Aurora can answer any questions you might have about the role,” Jeremy says and looks to me once again for confirmation.

“Yes, right,” I say.

“One more thing.” Jeremy clicks his pen again. “Here at Hometown Electronics, we pride ourselves on recognizing and nurturing teammates with natural abilities and talent. We’ve identified you as someone with a bright future with the company, someone who can most likely move up through the ranks quickly. Say, for example, on a retail management track. You may have heard it called fast-tracked. Is that something you’re interested in?”

Jeremy could give his famous fast-track speech in his sleep.

“Yes, I’d be interested in that,” she says, still frowning. Shouldn’t she be happy about this?

“Excellent. This is the first step, Abs. Congratulations.” Jeremy stops clicking the pen, drops it onto the desk, and stands up. He holds out his hand.

She looks at it in surprise and stands, too. “Thank you.” She shakes his hand. “I have one more question. Does the promotion come with a raise?”

He chuckles again and leans over the desk to write something on a yellow Post-it. “It does.” He hands Abbey the note.

I know what it says, and it’s not pretty. Thirteen cents more an hour than what she’s currently making.

She’s quiet for a moment, then swallows hard and says, “This is great. Thank you. Thanks for your confidence in me.”

Jeremy exhales audibly. “Great,” he echoes. “Congratulations again, Abbey.”

“I’ll walk you back to the department,” I say, and Jeremy turns to the computer. She looks from him to the number on the Post-it note, back and forth a couple of times, her mouth hanging open slightly, but she doesn’t move. “Come on.” I place my hand on her back, like it’s the most natural thing, like we’re a couple and this is what we do.

Wait. I shouldn’t do this. I drop my hand before she can say anything. Did she notice? Of course she noticed. Or maybe she didn’t. Maybe she’s still only aware of the dismal number on the Post-it note.

“You okay?” I ask once we’re safely out of earshot of the Dugout and customer service.

“Define okay,” she spits out. She shakes the note in her hand. “I’m not great at math, but even I can figure out that this will be only slightly more than five dollars a week. Thirteen fucking cents an hour.”

She doesn’t wait for me to respond before she moves off the diamond and cuts back to the warehouse, most likely to talk to Sam. I don’t blame her. That’s where I’d find refuge, too. They’ve become fast friends since she started here.

I don’t intentionally follow her back to the warehouse, but as I walk past the computer department, I notice an empty peg on an endcap—a cable that’s in the ad—so I head back there to bring out product to refill it.

I hear them through the warehouse doors.

“News travels fast,” Abbey’s saying.

“I knew before you did, actually,” Sam says. “Jeremy let it slip this morning.”

I release a puff of air. Of course he did.

“We got a drop of 2Pac,” Sam says. “You need those, right?”

Seriously, that’s it? Now they’re talking about drop shipments?