“Can’t you forget about work today?”
“No,” I said. “Not again.”
I needed my job. I needed every single krona to make my Asia trip happen. But I didn’t mention that. I was afraid Chris would be disappointed, that he would launch a campaign to convince me to drop my travel plans. Or in the worst case, he would want to come along. I definitely wasn’t ready for that conversation.
“But I get off early today,” I said, stroking his arm. “We’ll see each other soon.”
He shook his head.
“I don’t understand what you do to me. I feel lonely as soon as you leave.”
We kissed several times at the door, and then I ran down the stairs and biked off like crazy. Panting, I stumbled into the store five minutes late. Malin looked at me and winked.
“Walk of shame?”
* * *
I’d been at the register for quite a while when Benita finally showed up and relieved me. The lack of sleep over the past few weeks was starting to put me a little out of balance.
“So will you be buying that?” I said to a customer who’d tried on four different blouses in similar colors.
She shot me a hateful look.
In order to get away for a while, I snuck up to the men’s department and unpacked new shirts. I got lost in my thoughts and jumped when I heard a voice behind me.
“Hi, Stella.”
A girl of around twenty-five, with blond curls, was right next to me, wringing her hands.
“Do I know you?”
There was something familiar about her, but I couldn’t place it.
“We don’t know each other,” she said. “But you know Chris.”
In that instant, I knew who she was. The same girl I’d seen in the picture on Facebook.
“What do you want?”
I took a step back.
“My name is Linda,” she said. “I’m sure Chris has mentioned me. Is that why you look so scared?”
My heart was pounding. I looked around, but there was no one in sight.
“I think you should go now.”
“I will. You don’t need to be afraid of me, Stella.”
She was small and thin, extremely pretty, and didn’t show the slightest sign of being unstable or dangerous.
“I just want you to be careful,” she said. “Chris isn’t who you think.”
I stuck out an elbow and crowded my way past her.
“Please, listen to me. Chris is trying to trick you.”
I quickly headed for the stairs, but I could sense her following me. My heart pounded even faster.
“Look in the big cabinet in his room. The room he calls his office,” she said as I swung down the stairs. “The locked drawer, at the top right. You’ll find the key in the bottom left drawer.”
I headed for the registers. I didn’t turn around until I had reached the short line and could feel some degree of safety.
I just stared at Linda’s back. She was heading out the glass doors.
“What’s going on?” Benita asked from behind me. “You look like someone’s been chasing you.”
I tried to calm my breathing.
“Nothing,” I said. “It was nothing.”
I didn’t know what to think.
63
“Seriously?” I say when Shirine arrives with more books. “Those are super thick.”
Crime and Punishment. Six hundred and forty-six pages of nineteenth-century Russia.
“Listen,” I say, paging through it with my thumb. “If I could choose between reading this or having cramps for two weeks straight…”
“You’ll like it.”
“I’ll read it. To escape the stench in here for a while. Because there’s nothing else to do.”
Shirine smiles at me.
“And this one,” she says, resting a finger on the next book.
It’s called Thérèse Raquin, and it’s also from the 1800s, but it’s only 195 pages—hardly longer than an H&M catalog.
“I think I’ll start with this one,” I say.
As I read the foreword and the first chapter, Shirine sits beside me.
The book is pretty blah, tons of descriptions of Paris, and soon my mind begins to wander. I sneak a look at Shirine. It occurs to me that I don’t know much about her.
“How many kids do you have?” I ask.
“Just one,” she says, with a small, surprised smile. “Lovisa.”
“Why?”
She looks puzzled.
“Because it’s a beautiful name. My husband’s aunt was named Lovisa.”