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I shook my head. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Lots of coffee, and I sleep on my days off. In bed by 9 most nights.”
“I don’t think it really works like that,” I said skeptically.
“It does when you work here. Come on, the sooner we get started, the sooner we can be done.”
Bryce unlocked the closet door and pulled on the string for the lightbulb in the middle of the ceiling.
My eyes widened. I’m not sure what I had been expecting, but the industrial shelves stacked haphazardly with unboxed supplies, unlabeled totes, and random household goods was not it.
I looked back at Bryce with raised eyebrows. He winced. “Sorry. This room kind of gets neglected. Our equipment closet is super organized…but this one? We tend to just shove stuff in and forget about it until we have to open it again.”
He attempted to prop the door open with the doorstop attached to the door, but it kept sliding on the smooth floor until the door was only cracked open, essentially shutting out the rest of the station.
I sighed. “Let’s just find what we can and then hit the road.” I didn’t exactly have high hopes. “What kind of decorations did they use last year?”
Bryce shrugged. “How should I know?”
“You were there, right?”
“And your point?”
I rolled my eyes. “Such a man. Fine. I’m picturing some sort of decoration on the front of the auctioneer podium. A banner across the back of the stage, and some basic streamers and stuff everywhere else.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“You are exactly zero help, you know that?”
He didn’t look apologetic when he apologized.
“Can you grab down a few of those boxes? I’ll just take a quick look and see if anything sticks out.”
Bryce easily slid a gray tote from the top shelf, his shirt straining against his torso. I quickly flipped my eyes away from his abs and scanned the lower shelves for anything useful.
I found crumpled tissue paper flowers under a tangle of colorful plastic tablecloths. Probably something used in a previous year, but not worth the hassle of reusing.
“Do you have a trash bag?” I asked, looking around the shelves.
“Uh, yeah. Sure. What for?”
“I’m just going to clear out some of this stuff that is broken or torn. Might as well clean up a bit while we’re here.” I started to gather the trash in my hands.
Bryce stepped out and came back a moment later with a large black trash bag.
For a few minutes, we sorted through shelves, tossing anything that was obviously no good and setting aside things we could use for the auction.
I wiped my forearm across my hairline. It was stuffy and warm in the small closet. My eyes had adjusted to the dim light from the single bulb hanging from the ceiling, but it felt a bit like a hiding place. It reminded me of the blanket forts we’d made as kids in the living room.
“Check this out,” I said. I pulled the head of an Easter Bunny costume from a tote. The huge eyes of the costume stared back at me. Bryce stepped close, and I felt his arm brush my shoulder and he looked over.
“Hah. I remember that. Chief used to wear it. I’m pretty sure he said the costume got ruined and had to be trashed.”
I pulled out a large fuzzy onesie with a laugh. “You mean this costume?”
“Nice… This will come in handy, for sure.” Bryce looked thoughtful. “I sense the stakes of a bet in its future.”
I turned to face him fully, moving the bunny back and forth in front of his face to envision him in it. “I think you could pull it off,” I said with a teasing tone.
