I looked down at my phone, hoping he would get the hint and move on. Clara had texted me again. Lily, we NEED to talk. Please.

“I’m sorry but I need to get to work. Excuse me.”

“Where do you work? I could meet you after your shift?”

I turned over my shoulder and told him the name of the spa. What was going on with Clara? News about Peaches?A blowup with Des?

“I’ll try to get some photographs, soon!” he called after me.

“Okay, thanks,” I said, waving as I left.

WHEN I got into the spa, Emily was leaning over the desk, trimming the brown edges from the petals of the orchids with a pair of nail scissors.

“I’m glad you’re here. The visit from corporate was moved to tomorrow afternoon. Apparently Whitney needs to fly out to Tokyo early Monday morning to investigate some sort of snail sludge facial.”

“When will they be here?”

“Three o’clock. Carrie’s been freaking out all day. I think she’s probably just locked herself in her office with a plate of loaded nachos and it’s up to us now.”

“So much for the captain going down with the ship. What do we need to do?”

“I know. Well, they’ll be looking in every fucking corner. And I haven’t seen Luis for like an hour. I’ve tried calling the number we have for him, but no one’s picking up. It’s an answering service for a social work office, and I just keep getting a recording.”

“Has he ever skipped out on a shift before?”

“Not that I know of. But this glass is a wreck, and someone needs to polish the floors. And the Jacuzzi is making that weird noise again. I’m assuming Carrie never called anyone about it, so I have to get maintenance to get down here stat.”

“Are they really going to turn on the Jacuzzi?”

“We have to assume they will. You’ve seen what it’s like here. This company is all about punishment. They’ll dock us points for every strand of hair curled in the shower drain.”

“Points?”

“Each spa gets evaluated and scored on a hundred-point basis twice a year. We haven’t been open long, so this is our first proper evaluation.”

“So …”

“So what?”

“Emily, what do you care?”