Page 65 of I Saw You First

“Nice to see you all,” I lie.

Mr. Wilshire reaches out to shake my hand and pumps it hard three times. The bells on my reindeer headband jingle. I’m a college graduate greeting the president, CEO, and founder of one of the country’s fastest growing big box electronics retailers, and I’ve got reindeer antlers on my head and battery-operated earrings shaped like Christmas bulbs that light up and blink different colors. And last week, Lavender added “Chief Elf” to my name tag.

“Pleasure to meet you, Abbey,” Mr. Wilshire says.

I almost roll my eyes. He doesn’t remember me from the eval, but at least he didn’t call me Aurora.

“Abbey Rhodes.” Felix claps me on the shoulder. “Love the antlers. And what a start. You should be proud.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for all your hard work to get ready for this day.” Felix puts his arm around me. Nope. No way. I step out of his hold and make a point of rearranging the papers on my clipboard. He doesn’t seem to notice that this has made me uncomfortable, but by the way Wil’s eyes narrow, I suspect that he has.

“If we’re not careful,” Felix continues, “some other store is going to snap this one up.”

“She’s not going anywhere, right, Wil?” Jeremy says. He laughs uncomfortably.

“Not if I can help it,” Wil says in a flat tone. Jeremy laughs again. Ha fucking ha.

I don’t know what this is about, but it doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe they should pay me what I’m worth if they want me to stay. And to think that mere hours ago, I was blinking back tears at how much I love my team and this job. Plus! I have fans to help! This is a waste of time.

Then it dawns on me. The answer to all my money woes. If I can’t get a job in my field, I need another promotion. I’m showing them how successful I can be as a TC, so the next logical move is assistant manager.

I’m going to do everything I can to get promoted, and if I can’t do that here at Woodlake, I’ll find another store. So far, the promotion process at Hometown Electronics has been smooth sailing; getting promoted to AM will be a walk in the ballpark.

SEVENTEEN

“A LONG DECEMBER” BY COUNTING CROWS, 1996

WIL

A week before Christmas, Sam hands me the truck manifest: pages and pages of media product that we both need and don’t have room to store—a complicated situation.

“Gonna be at least ten pallets,” he says.

“Where the hell are we going to put it all?”

“Well, your first problem is: Who’s going to work it?”

Everyone’s maxed out on overtime hours, and the product just keeps coming. “It’ll have to be Rhodes.”

“You can’t do that to her,” Sam says. “She’s already here six days a week. Six long days.”

“Who else is going to do it?”

“Approve more overtime for Kevin or Lavender. Abbey’s not going to make it to Christmas if you keep working her like this.”

“I’ll do it,” I hear from behind me. “I can totally do it.”

Abbey looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss Christmas special. I trail my eyes from the giant, glittery red bow on her headband to the sparkly candy cane earrings, red cable-knit sweater, red-and-white-striped skirt, and finally, her bare legs, where my eyes stay a beat too long before I glance at her red high tops and then snap my eyes back up to her face.

“See something you like?” she asks under her breath, but she knows I heard. Then, when I don’t respond, she says, “Jeremy said we could enhance our uniforms for the holidays, remember?”

“Enhance, Rhodes. Not completely overhaul. I don’t see any part of your uniform in this getup. You look like Cindy Lou Who.”

“And you’re acting like the Grinch,” she volleys back. “The fans love this getup.”

I don’t want the fans to love her getup. I don’t want anyone else to look at those legs.