Polly touches Marissa’s shoulder. “Marissa?”
Marissa pulls herself away from the reverie. “Yes, what is it?”
“I was just saying a few gift certificates came in for your school benefit.”
“Great. Put them in the back room along with the rest of the auction items. I need to get them to…”
Her voice trails off before she completes the final word in her sentence: Natalie. Marissa frowns, watching as Polly picks up the gift certificates. Polly is asking if Marissa wants her to order more tissue paper inserts for the shopping bags, since they’re down to a few hundred sheets. Marissa nods, but it’s a different question, one that was asked by Natalie earlier this morning, that Marissa is focused on:
Oh, can’t that eager young assistant of yours mind the shop?
As far as Marissa knows, Natalie has been to Coco exactly once, and it was more than a year ago. She was in the neighborhood, Natalie had explained as she’d greeted Marissa with a kiss on the cheek that left a smudge of coral lipstick. Natalie wandered through the store, taking it all in with an appraising eye, and left without purchasing a thing.
At the time, Marissa’s assistant was a woman in her midfifties, a mother of twins who’d decided to return to the workforce after her children left for college.
Natalie would never refer to her as young. She must have been talking about Marissa’s current assistant.
But how does Natalie know such specific details about Polly?
Marissa’s breath catches as she recalls Polly’s roommate asking if she, Marissa, was Polly’s boss at the real estate company.
Natalie is a real estate agent.
Could Polly have temped at the same company where Natalie works? Do they actually know each other?
The skin on Marissa’s arms prickles as she watches Polly open the store’s laptop, using the password Marissa provided her, and begin updating the spreadsheet containing customers’ contact information.
Polly seems to feel Marissa’s gaze and looks up. “Oh, I forgot to tell you Janice Henderson called yesterday and asked me to let her know when we get in more size-eight swimsuits. I was just making a note of it.”
“Great.” Marissa casually walks into the back room, but keeps Polly in her peripheral vision.
Polly has access to most of Coco’s business information. She knows every inch of the shop; she has even slept here. She has slept in Marissa’s home, too!
Marissa’s heart is pounding. She forces herself to draw in a few even, slow breaths as she thinks back to the circumstances of Polly’s hiring. Polly had wandered into the shop a month or so ago, all fresh-faced and sweet-seeming. It was a slow Monday morning, and Polly had knowledgeably discussed a few items Marissa sold, favorably comparing Coco’s handblown glass vases to the brand carried by Anthropologie. As Marissa was ringing up the picture frame Polly selected, Polly had said almost wistfully, “It would be a dream to work in a place like this. You don’t happen to need any help, do you?”
A few days later, Polly showed up for her first day at Coco. Marissa had verified the first job on Polly’s résumé, a nanny position, but the manager at Anthropologie didn’t return Marissa’s call, so she let it go.
“Marissa?” Marissa flinches at the sound of Polly’s voice.
Polly pokes her head into the back room, and Marissa studies her carefully. Polly is wearing her hair pulled back into a twist today—a style Marissa occasionally favors—and has on an ivory sweater sold by Coco, which Marissa gifted to Polly because a customer got a lipstick stain on the inside collar while trying it on.
“Oh, there you are,” Polly continues. “I was just wondering if there’s anything special you need me to do now, or…”
“You can rearrange the shelves by the standing mirror.” Marissa conjures this up to keep Polly tucked away in a far corner of the shop. “The Sundry T-shirts are selling well, so make sure they can be easily seen.”
Polly nods, and as she heads off to tackle the task, Marissa’s composure returns. It strains credulity to think that Natalie would send Polly to work at the shop and keep tabs on Marissa. What would be the purpose? If Natalie has her sights set on Matthew, there are far less complex ways to try to entice him.
Still, something about Polly is fishy. Marissa has arranged to interview on Monday morning the best candidate from the résumés she has received. She’ll tell Polly to run a few made-up errands to get her out of the way.
If the applicant is as promising as she seems, Marissa will give Polly her official notice on Monday afternoon. Maybe Marissa will do it right after her meeting at the coffee shop, so that Monday will feel like a day of clearing away the tainted, stressful pieces of her life, and beginning anew.