“I know, you’ll have me fired. The thing is, Jo doesn’t fire anyone. And she sure as hell isn’t starting with me. There hasn’t been a delivery since last week. Which you clearly know because you’re messing with me to make yourself feel better about your crappy decisions last night. So I’m getting Eli, and you can go find your chill now.”

Daniella let out that screech. “I have plenty of chill.”

“Sure you do.” Imogen winked in what could only be described as a taunting manner.

“Get out of my sight. And go get me Eli.” Daniella ought to have learned by now that trying to control Imogen would never work, but still, she felt a need to throw the force of her anger that way. “You better sweep in the bathroom when you get back because your new haircut is still all over the bathroom floor. Oh, and this counts for three minutes of your five.”

Daniella felt good about that, until Imogen fired her parting shot.

“Like hell it does. I’m counting from when I find Eli.” The break room door slammed behind Imogen.

And Daniella was left alone, wondering whether the bookstore was going under or if its owner was accidentally sabotaging the entire operation.

5

Lonely as a Cloud

9:27 A.M.

Imogen

There were times when Imogen wanted to punch the simpering smile off Daniella Korres’s face.

To be honest, it was most of the time. That was why she’d left the break room. She didn’t want to actually give in to her violent impulses.

As she moved through the stacks, Imogen walked by Little Miss Perfect, who was helping a customer check out at the register with her signature smile. She had let the customer in half an hour ago—early—because “they really need to get to work,” and Little Miss Perfect had been so understanding about it that there was no way she was actually human. They weren’t even a regular. And they had stayed in the store for half an hour. Nothing about the situation that the customer created had been reasonable. Rinn had been mind-bogglingly understanding about the whole thing.

How could anyone be in that good of a mood all the time? How could anyone’s default mood just be set to happy like that?

Like, Rinn literally arrived to work, straight off the L train, in that kind of a mood. Like the crowds and the frustrations of public transit never got to her. Happy, cheerful, nonplussed. With two hundred thousand followers who wanted to hang on every word she said about her latest read.