Page 51 of I Saw You First

“Where’ve you been?” Donnie asks as I walk back into the store, buttoning my Hometown jersey over my tank top. “I gotta warn you, Wil was not happy when he found out you were MIA, and then he found Sam in your department and totally lost his shit. What’s going on with you?”

I shake my head, and he looks at me with something like pity. This day can’t get much worse, even if Wil is angry. That interview was the worst. I apologized profusely for my tardiness; Susan nodded silently and pretended to read my resume, asked a few perfunctory questions, and then, finally, after an agonizing twenty minutes, thanked me for my time with a blank expression.

“We’ll be in touch,” she said primly. “You can find your way out?”

Okay, so timeliness is important in radio.

I should have left fifteen minutes earlier.

Stupid girl.

I walk over to customer service, hoping to find Bergren in the Dugout, but no, of course it’s Wil. Because that’s how shitty this shitty day keeps shitting.

He glances up and frowns, then jerks his thumb toward the time clock. He doesn’t say a word as I follow him. He enters his override code, and I plug in my employee number.

“Wil—”

He cuts me off with a sharp glare, so different from that hot look he gave me in the parking lot the other night. This is a glower. Which somehow makes him even more attractive. Why? Why? I need to scrub my brain.

“Follow me,” he hisses. He holds the Dugout door open and then closes it behind us.

“Wil, I can explain⁠—”

He waves his hand in my direction. “Yes, by all means, please explain.”

“I—I…” I can’t think of a way to get out of this. I clamp my mouth shut.

He shakes his head and hands me his clipboard and a pen. I glance down at the page and then back up as my mouth drops open. Team Member Corrective Action.

“You’re writing me up?”

He doesn’t respond, so I scan the neat, careful handwriting in the “Play by Play” section, which seems a bit flippant for an official HR document.

Reason for disciplinary action: Abbey abandoned her 6-2:30 shift at 9:20 a.m. and left the department without coverage during open hours.

“I did not abandon my shift!” I can’t help how high-pitched and desperate I sound, not after the stress of the morning and that terrible interview. Susan didn’t even ask me about my writing experience or—or—or where I see myself in five years. What kind of an interview is that? “How can you say I abandoned my shift when you just moments ago clocked me in? I’m here! And Sam was covering for me!”

He shakes his head. “You left without telling anyone where you were going or when you would be back. And no one approved that coverage.”

“I told Bergren!”

“You lied to Bergren. A family emergency? What’s going on? Did you really have a family emergency?”

I had a hard time lying to Bergren; there’s no way I can bring myself to lie to Wil. Not Wil, not after Ruh-Roh, not after our night at La Cuchara. Not after… whatever it was that happened in the parking lot.

I lower my chin to my chest and stare at my feet, realizing with a jolt that after I changed into my uniform, I neglected to switch back to my tennis shoes. I’m still wearing my black patent leather flats.

He notices, too. “You had an interview, didn’t you?”

“Let me—” My words falter when I see the disappointment in his eyes.

“You told us you were in this for the long haul,” he says quietly.

“I didn’t. Not those exact words.”

He huffs. “Fine, Rhodes, if that’s how you want to play this. However you said it, when we hired you, we were under the impression that you were going to stay, that you weren’t going to leave for a newspaper job. We just promoted you.”

“But—but—this came up, you know, and it wasn’t at a newspaper, and I had to at least see if it would be a good fit. But it’s not going to happen. I can tell you after the experience I’ve had⁠—”