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“I can tell it’s run you ragged, though,” Frankie had said. After they’d cleaned up everything together, she’d suggested Lilac make an early night of it while she went back to her crafts table. Lilac had logged on to Facebook and had found herself messaging both Brielle and Gavin. She’d told Brielle nothing but the good parts of the experience so far, of course, and Brielle had just chimed in with “that’s great” and “wow” and “so happy for you.” She’d had almost nothing to say about her own day back at work—not that Lilac had expected her to when working the cleaning job she’d had every summer for the past six years. Then Gavin had logged on and had had such a bad day at work, Lilac had gone quiet. Gavin almost never complained about anything. He almost always found the good in everyone. If thisGabrielwho was his boss had inspired this much time complaining, he must have really, truly deserved it. Lilac had let him vent, had done her best to finally be the shoulder he could “cry” on since he’d asked it so infrequently of her, and she’d waited before she’d told him anything negative about her day, though she had been careful to phrase it all as merely a mild inconvenience. She was made of sterner stuff. She just had to keeppretending.
But surely it wasn’t any more than any other harried young woman out of her depth in the big bad business world had experienced. She remembered her mom and both grandmas telling her horror stories of the short periods they’d worked jobs—Nana Abigail at her husband’s own company. Even being the boss’ girlfriend, and then wife, hadn’t stopped the assholes from makingcomments.
In fact, Nana Abigail had always grinned when she’d talked about it, like she’d found the whole thing delightful, especially when she’d still elicited whistles visiting her husband at work well into her forties. Lilac shuddered and instinctively glanced down at her huge rack, finally free of her bra under a sweatshirt to air out for a bit until it was time for bed. Brielle had never understood why she’d had to wear a bra to bed as well, but Brielle had a modest B or C cup. She couldn’t begin to imagine the strain these inconveniences caused Lilac. If she had Nana Abigail to thank for inheriting this mess, she wished she could turn around and say “no thank you.” Besides the strain, there were the leers, the eyes that always drifted down. And she probably had nothing but more backaches to look forward to thanks tothem.
Yes, Nana. It’s so flattering to be valued for your boobs.One of these days, Lilac might have seriously considered reduction surgery. But she was too chicken to justyet.
It was late by the time Lilac had logged off—Brielle had logged off ages ago—after she and Gavin had shared complaints about their bosses. Earl for being a grating sleaze and Gavin’s boss, Gabriel, for being a total stickler for the rules. After letting it all out, Lilac had slept like a log that firstnight.
Only to repeat it all the next day. And the next. Well, not quiteallof it, thankfully. She’d steered clear of any hallway catastrophes, but she’d always felt one wrong move away from disaster. She’d been hugged by her little friend, Landon, more than once when she’d stopped by Tildy’s Tots—Tanya had even said he’d kept asking for her—and she’d asked where his sister was, but she’d gone back to school. She hadn’t asked about his brother, although every time she saw Silly Sandgrouse around Tent Tildy, she wondered… The comical creature did seem to recognize her, waving at her broadly with his wing, butallthe mascots waved at her. That’s what they did. Child or adult, Tildy and her friends welcomed you with openarms.
Still… She’d been too flustered to appreciate what he’d done for her in the moment—in fact, she was pretty sure that at the time, she’d mostly just been annoyed that he’d shined a spotlight on it—but the more she thought about it, the more she appreciated what Nolan had said to Earl. He looked sixteen, she swore, but he had to be at least eighteen since he worked during the school day, but regardless, he was certainly too young to betotallyto her tastes, though she had to admit she’d found herself considering that he was good-looking more than once since she’d met him out of the suit. Whatever his exact age, she couldn’t believe someone so young had had the balls to do that to the resort manager. But it had worked. Earl seemed to keep a wary, if still brittle, distance from her in the days since, though there was a time or two he’d hovered uncomfortably close behind her and reached a hand around her shoulder to show her something on her monitor or on atable.
But that was just how men were, according to people like her Nana Abigail. Especially men from an oldergeneration.
Not the silver foxes in her head, though. Lilac imagined the man of her dreams—a lifelong bachelor, tired of traveling the world alone perhaps—coming in one day to sweep her off her feet. His eyes would stay glued to her hers, his hand would stay appropriately coy on the small of her back whenever they danced or he escorted her inside, he’d ask her to share her experiences living in Spain… And he’d never tell her how beautiful she was until she was certain he valued her as a personfirst.
But she knew she was deluding herself. Men like that didn’t exist. And how many men that age weren’t fathers or at least ex-husbands? If they weren’t, they weren’t the type to suddenly seek commitment, either. She didn’t know if she was prepared to take all that on—and she didn’t like being teased for her tastes. So to anyone but Gavin, the idea of dating someone her dad’s age was a big, fatno. It was easy to deny her “Electra complex” as Gavin sometimes called it—which, ew, no, it wasnotabout her own daddy—when her options seemed limited to someone like Earl. Even if he weren’t married, she shuddered to think aboutit.
So far, Lilac wasn’t sure there was such a thing as a decent boss out there. Both Earl and Gabriel, the surprisingly-young Chicago marketing firm CEO, had served as fodder for countless texts throughout the week with Gavin—though Lilac continued to fluff her side of things off as an annoyance rather than anobstacle.
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” said Earl on Friday, clapping his hands together as he entered their shared office and startling Lilac. He clearly seemed to be waiting for her to respond, so she swiveled in her chair to face him, fighting her own lips to force a smile on herface.
That seemed enough to satisfy him. “You’re walking over to Queen Animaliao’s castle today—or you can take the shuttle out front of the resort if you want.” He held up the keycard hanging from a lanyard around his neck and slipped it off, handing it to her. “Since your card is still being issued, use this to get in through the employees’ entrance and go talk to Gyu-ri—she’s in charge of the place. Tell her I sent you and I need the specs on the last few years of the Tent Tildy/Queen Animaliao’s ball crossoverevent.”
Lilac’s heart thudded as she gripped the keycard in her hand. There was no way she was going to slide his sweat-soaked lanyard over her own head and she had no pockets in her dress pants and blouse to speak of. “There was a crossover event?” she said, letting her Tildy fangirl self fly. She’d never visited the park during such an eventbefore.
Earl seemed to have noticed her genuine excitement bubbling to the surface because the grin he gave her was strong enough to ooze invisible slime. “We stopped a couple of years back. It required too much staff to be on duty, with people needed here to run the place and our own Tildy Scouts needed there to turn the Ballroom into a campsite.” Clasping his hands together, he leaned one elbow on a filing cabinet. “But we’ve been talking about trying it again this fall. And you might be just the organized, productive assistant manager I need to get it alldone.”
Despite the just barely tangible ick factor of the messenger, Lilac felt something like pride shoot through her entire body. If she were being honest with herself, despite the rose-colored vision she’d painted for Gavin and Brielle when she’d continued to check in with them, she’d felt more like an assistant than an “assistant manager,” and she supposed in some ways, she’d expected that, especially this early on. But wasn’t the job supposed to entailsomeresponsibilities? This was her bigshot.
Queen Animaliao’s ball had always been her favorite part of Tildy World. True, Tildy was always her favorite, but Queen Animaliao herself had been so beautiful, so poised, so regal. Unlike those other beloved women characters across the way, she was aqueen, not aprincess. And now, for the first time since she’d started here, Lilac would be able to set foot in that magicalplace.
“Okay,” said Lilac. She smiled broadly. “Thank you. I’m excited to look intothis!”
“Good. Good to see some initiative. Just don’t dawdle,” said Earl, crossing the room and leaning over her to snatch his empty, brown-stained mug off his table. His tie caressed her cheek and his armpit wrapped around the back of herhead.
Lilac’s insides went cold as she scooched out ofreach.
Earl laughed at her as he straightened up and cradled the mug against his shirt pocket. “I need you here,” he said, as Lilac scrambled to get up and push her chair under the table so she could be on her way. “But I sure as hell love watching you go,” he added, just as she turned thecorner.
Lilac could havegagged.
* * *
Since Lilac’s shoes,though gorgeous, were not the best shoes for walking, she hopped on a resort shuttle headed toward the castle. Sure, there were a few extra stops along the way, but despite what Earl had said, despite what she knew the professional businessperson would do in her situation, she was in no rush to getback.
The Tildy Scout driver was hilarious, and although she swore she caught his eye more often than anyone else in the go-cart, she had no concrete evidence he was doing anything more than taking a look. She supposed she could live with that, especially since he was charming enough, if not more than “cute.” When she arrived at the castle, with the footmen and women there to offer the go-cart passengers “assistance” disembarking their vehicle, Lilac felt, for just a moment, like a princess or visiting queen about to dance the day away. She stared slack-jawed at the grand entryway, which was smaller than she remembered, even if she’d been here as a tourist just last summer, and found herself swaying just a bit in place to the classical-style music echoing out from theBallroom.
“Lilac!” squealed a high-pitchedvoice.
She turned around just in time to be preschooler-body-slammed by Landon, who wrapped his arms around her thighs and buried his face against herlegs.
“Landon?” she asked, unsure why she was running into him here and not at TentTildy.
As if to answer her question, Tanya came jogging over from a group of small children lined up across the room against the wall. “Landon!” she said. “What did I say? Everyone has to get in line or no one is going in to theball.”
“I don’t want to go to the dumb ball,” mumbled Landon from Lilac’slegs.
