He stared at me warily for another moment before stepping aside so I could pass. I walked as quickly as I could toward the back of the spa, where we were meant to clock in with our swipe cards. I rooted through my purse as I walked—it was 7:29, and I couldn’t be marked as late on my second day. I was still looking down when I pushed through the double doors that led to the back hall and smacked into something—someone—and we both went sprawling onto the floor. Something cold and wet landed on my hand.

“What the fuck?” a woman’s voice said. “Are you insane?”

“I’m sorry, I was late. Are you okay? Please, let me help you. I’m Lily, by the way.”

“I’m Brittany and I don’t really give a shit. I’ll have to mix this mask all over again. Do you know how much that stuff costs? If Deidre finds out, she’ll eat me for lunch.”

“I’m really, really sorry.”

“I don’t have time for new girls running around like morons and then apologizing.” I realized that the mask—a lumpy gray mixture—had gotten on my skirt and on the front of my blazer. I tried to wipe it away but ended up smearing it into the fabric. Was I just this person now? The one who screwed up all the time? Brittany dropped a pile of paper towels over the spilled mud.

“I’ll get Luis to clean this up.” She vanished through the double doors and came back with the man who had let me in. Brittany pointed to the spill, and he frowned at her. She pointed back at me. He gave me a mean look before getting on his knees to assess the mess.

“You must be my new girl,” a voice said, from down the hall. I turned and saw a woman in a black dress. She disappeared into a doorway and yelled to me to come into her office. I looked back at the man, Luis, on the floor, mopping up the mud with paper towels.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help?” I asked. He didn’t look up.

I assumed that the woman in the black dress was the manager Deidre had mentioned: Carrie. I hadn’t gotten a good look at her before, but I was surprised to see how different she was from Deidre: petite, with long dark hair streaked with caramel-colored highlights, and blue eyeliner smudged underneath her eyes. When I walked through the doorway, she was eating a glazed donut and guzzling a blended coffee drink, mid-melt into sludge.

“Hi, I’m Lily,” I said.

“Hey,” she said. I extended my hand. She gave me a limp little handshake and turned back to her computer.

“Um, is there anything in particular I should get started on?”