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“Frankie,” Mom said, her voice serious. “There is one thing I’d like to ask you to do.”
“Sure, Mom, anything.”
“Please keep the heart of our store alive,” she asked—no, implored. “It will always be dear to us, and I want to know that it will always do what we intended: help people.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek but nodded anyway, hoping the lump in my throat would dissipate. “Of course, Mom,” I told her. “I’ll take care of it, I promise.”
When I left a little later, after threatening Dad about what would happen if he didn’t eat, the weight of my promise pressed down on my chest. Could I do what she asked? With Hayden’s fingers looming over us like a puppet master, I wondered if I was fighting a losing battle.
I hurried to the store the next morning, gratefully ducking into the coolness from the sweltering heat outside.
“Morning guys!” I called, jogging to the back of the store and into the staff room. I was a little late thanks to not one, buttwoaccidents that had traffic in a standstill for over an hour.
I shrugged out of my light sweater and stuffed it inside my locker, before I pinned my badge in place.
Vanessa’s laughter echoed into the room as I walked out, and I found her and Joe leaning on the counter, their heads close together.
“Hey guys,” I greeted them, accepting the coffee that Vanessa offered me. “Thanks, Vee. What’s going on?”
“Dean is wearing his twin tee again,” Vanessa said, pointing at the silhouette hidden behind the frosted glass of a refrigerator door. I squinted my eyes and he stepped back, letting the door shut.
I choked on a laugh and quickly smothered my giggles.
He was indeed wearing a shirt that read “If found, return to Blanca” in large red letters emblazoned on the back. The shirt had been a gag gift from Joe a few years ago for Christmas. Blanca’s matching shirt read “I’m Blanca”, the twin to Dean’s.
It was no secret that Blanca was the level-headed, responsible one of the pair, and Dean just followed his sister. It warmed my heart, seeing this little slice of our family that was so dear to me. It was then that I noticed the brand new banner near the entrance.
“What is that?” I asked Vanessa, and Joe quickly made himself scarce.
Vanessa hummed in question before turning to see what I was looking at. “Oh, that?” She shrugged. “It’s the new nutrition program that Dean and Blanca are gonna be working on.”
“Since when are they working on a nutrition program?”
“It’s the same one we’ve been wanting to implement,” Vanessa explained, eyeing me closely to gauge my reaction. “Hayden expanded the budget and now it's been implemented.”
“No one thought to consult me about expanding the budget?” I scoffed. “That’s so unbelievably obnoxious, that she thought she could just do as she pleases because she has money.”
Vanessa smothered an obvious smile.
“What?” I demanded, suddenly self-conscious.
She shook her head. “Nothing. You just seem to have areallybig crush on our new boss.”
Heat rushed into my cheeks, and flustered and guilty I hissed, “I do not have a crush on the new boss.” Glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one else could overhear I added, “I can’t believe you’d even say something like that.”
“You’re not exactly being inconspicuous, Frankie,” she said pointedly. “Out of everyone I know, you are the one person who is able to get along with just about anyone. What makes Hayden so different?”
“Uh, her insistence on changing my parents’ store?”
“That’s nowhere near enough to earn your ire,” Vanessa quipped. She toyed with the brand new beads in her braided hair, a little butterfly on the end of each braid. “You’re a sweetheart through and through, but Hayden pisses you off so easily. It could only mean one thing, and you and I know what that is.”
“You’re delusional,” I argued, but there was no venom in my words. I was too shaken by her observation, hating myself for being so stupidly transparent. I scrambled to change the subject. “Anyway, she can’t just throw in these changes without talking to me about them. I won’t stand for it.”
I spun on my heel and stormed to the back, snatching my phone and purse out of my locker.
“Where are you going?” Vanessa called after me.
“To give Hayden a piece of my mind.”
