With Love, from Cold World(53)
They had a narrow window to pull it off. The security guard would need to open the building and disable the alarm, doing a quick walkthrough before locking it back up and leaving it for when Dolores arrived soon after. Asa and Lauren hid behind the front counter, waiting for the series of beeps that indicated the alarm had been turned off before she’d dart outside.
“You should just take the day off,” he said. At least his shift didn’t start until two, so he was planning on going home first and taking a big nap. Lauren only had enough time to go home to shower and change, and then was planning on turning right back around and coming into work.
“You heard Dolores at that meeting. No last-minute vacation requests until after the holidays.”
He frowned. “You can still call out sick. You need sleep.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, then raised her eyebrows at him when the chirp of the alarm sounded from the office area where they’d spent the night. “That’s my cue. I’ll see you later?”
She said it like a question, but of course they would see each other. At work, if nowhere else. He thought again of how much he wanted to see her somewhere else, how decadent it would feel just to sit across from her in a coffee shop.
She started to rise, but he pulled her back down, pressing a quick, hard kiss to her mouth. She blinked at him, a little dazed, and he hoped the expression on his face was the wolfish grin he was going for.
“What happens at Cold World, right?”
She gave him a shaky smile. “Right.”
He stood, his hands in his pockets, to watch her as she sprinted through the doors and out to the parking lot, her red skirt swinging. There was probably no need for her to worry about getting out of there that fast—the security guard was still somewhere back in the offices. Asa’s lips twitched as Lauren started her ignition and peeled out like she was driving the getaway car in a bank heist. He would definitely tease her about that later.
If he was allowed to. He didn’t quite know the rules.
“Sir?” The security guard’s voice came from behind him, firm and authoritative but a little confused. Asa supposed it was one benefit to his distinctive blue hair—the chances were good that the security guard would at least vaguely recognize him as an employee. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”
Asa turned around, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “I can explain,” he said.
* * *
? ? ?
“Okay, okay,” Kiki said later, when he’d finished describing the chew-out he’d gotten from Dolores for the third time. Their boss had been understandably upset that he’d stayed late without permission, that he’d exposed the building to possible security risks, and that he’d bought out their inventory of Cold World blankets. At least he’d also stayed to put the Snow Globe back to rights, feeling sheepish when Dolores mentioned that the problem with the faux snow machine probably had to do with the fact that he’d plugged it into a nonworking outlet, and the next time he did a sanctioned test of the equipment, he should use the outlet below.
Asa had thought about staying long enough to meet up with Lauren in the break room when she got in. He would’ve let her make her plain, boring coffee first, before he tainted the machine with his. He might even have been tempted to tell her she’d been right about the outlet.
But he could tell Dolores wasn’t too upset with him, because she’d summarily kicked him out and told him to get some rest. She’d also switched his first duty to working the gift shop with Kiki, which was a much less strenuous gig than supervising the ice skating rink like he’d been originally assigned.
He’d filled Kiki in on his overnighter in the building, followed by his lectures from both the security guard and Dolores once she’d come in. He’d conveniently excised Lauren from all of it, which made the story about half as long and nowhere near as interesting.
“So what did you do all night?” Kiki asked, leaning against the counter.
Images flashed through his brain. Lauren, laughing at his goofy school picture face. Lauren, with tinsel in her hair. The flushed, wild-eyed look on Lauren’s face when she’d grabbed him by the wrist and urged him to keep going.
He took a deep breath, trying to focus on what he’d been doing. Pens. The novelty pens by the cash register had been rifled through and placed back in all the wrong places, and he’d been going to sort them back into their neat cubbies.
“Just hung around,” he said.
“Don’t quote Home Alone at me, you little shit,” Kiki said. “Why didn’t you tell me you were stuck at Cold World when we talked last night?”
He shrugged. “There was nothing you could’ve done about it. And like I said, I didn’t want to disrupt Dolores’ dinner. It all worked—”
He broke off as Lauren came into the gift shop. He’d seen her a couple of times out in the lobby, heading back and forth from her office to the break room, only a flash of her navy cardigan, the bounce of her dark hair. But now here she was, walking right into the gift shop, heading straight toward him . . .
. . . with Daniel right behind her. What the fuck was he doing there?
Daniel rested his forearms against the counter, giving Kiki a practiced smile while completely ignoring Asa next to him. “We’re on complimentary gift-wrap duty this afternoon,” he said. “I’ve never wrapped a present in my life, so you’ll have to show me the ropes.”