“And now I don’t have anything to do to keep everyone out of my head.” She hung the ladder on a hook in the back, closed her eyes, and exhaled. “It can only get better, right?”
Even if that were true, it didn’t help her now. Now she just had to find a way to get through it. She turned to face the store and all its empty aisles, cleaned and straightened to perfection.
“There certainly isn’t anything left to do here.” Her gaze stopped on the front doors. “And I won’t be making one damn sale today.” A wave of anxious misery snaked through her, and she pressed a hand to her forehead as thoughts of failure, of losing the store, of going bankrupt swam in her head. “What now, Faith? What the hell are you going to do now?”
This was when those lightning strikes of anger usually came. The ones that prompted her to yell at her father for leaving her. After which she always melted into tears.
But she was just too exhausted for that kind of emotional dump. And this place was too empty, too hollow to stay in tonight alone.
She took a few deep breaths to ease the sting of tears and did the only thing she could do. The only thing she knew how to do. The only thing that had worked for her in the past. She pulled on her jacket, collected all the notes relating to her last-ditch effort to save the store, grabbed a pencil, a notepad, the laptop, and headed into the freezing night.
While her store had been empty, Holly itself was alive with tourists and locals spilling out of the festival and strolled along the flashy streets.
In contrast, Faith traversed the adorable block in a mere ninety seconds and ducked into the warmth of Yuletide Spirits. The pub was as packed as she’d expected. Every seat at the bar was taken. Most of the tables were occupied. Quite a few people were milling among friends.
Faith caught sight of an empty one-person table in the corner, then sidestepped toward the bar and waved at Kelly.
“Hey, girl,” Kelly said. “What’s up?”
“Is it okay if I take the one-top in the corner for about an hour? I needed to get out of the store.”
Someone yelled for service at the other end of the bar, and Kelly shot the man a glare that would have taken him off at the knees if he weren’t already plastered.
When Kelly turned back to Faith, she said, “As long as you don’t do that”—she tipped her head toward the offender—“you can have the table all night.”
“Thanks.” Faith pulled a twenty-dollar bill from her pocket and laid it on the bar. “Give me whatever drink has the most alcohol and cover it with enough sugar that I won’t even know its there.”
Kelly pulled a glass from a shelf, set it on a rubber mat, and started mixing the drink. “That kind of day for you too, huh?”
“I need to find complete and total detachment. Fast.”
“This will do it.” Kelly lifted the finished drink, saluting Faith. “Here’s to a quick end to Christmas Eve.”
Faith pushed the twenty forward, sad a day she’d always loved now caused her so much pain. Even sadder that she’d thought she’d found someone special to share it with only to be heartbroken.
She wove through the crowd, claimed her table, and did her best to lose herself in the combination of luscious alcohol and these strange new online business opportunities.
The alcohol shaved off an edge of stress, the crowd helped her shake the loneliness, and the ideas Grant had sketched out based on Taylor’s experience were, well, pretty amazing. Simple, yet powerful. And he’d tiered the startup, adding in ways Faith could learn how to produce the most effective videos, write the most interesting blogs, find the best sponsorships, set up the most profitable affiliate links…
“Shit,” she murmured, looking over his smooth, slanted, male handwriting. “This is so…doable.”
Turning to Taylor’s pages, Faith looked at the different numbers again to see where her friend’s profits came from. Compared that to Grant’s plan. And, hell, even if Faith consistently made ten percent of what Taylor did, it would help make ends meet. Thirty percent and she’d be secure, with the extra cash she needed to expand the business in ways that would bring in more sales, more contracts, more customers. Fifty percent and she’d be floating. She’d already made a couple thousand dollars in affiliate income on her single Christmas Fantasia Light Show video already.
Excitement sparked hope. Hope lifted her mood. Maybe she’d get out from under this black cloud after all.
At least financially. Personally…that was another story.
“I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Between the time the male voice touched her ears and the time she looked into the man’s eyes, Faith realized it was Grant. Her stomach fluttered into her throat, but a protective barrier closed around her heart.
“What—?” They’d been broadcasting the Christmas tree lighting live from DC just a few hours ago. He should be at some party with all those important people she’d seen in the crowd. Or at his place doing Bridgette. Faith glanced over him. “Is that…a tux?”
“Yeah. Long story. Can we talk? Maybe back at the store where it’s quiet?”
Her gut clenched around a tug of war between her heart and her gut. Stand up for yourself, Faith. No one else will do it for you.
“No. I came here to get away from the store. And I don’t want any more stories.”