“I haven’t thought about it. Flying, I suppose.”
“I don’t think it’s that far from where you are. Why don’t we just go in your limo?”
“That works. It’ll give us time to look over the plans for the other malls.”
The last thing I remember before my alarm went off at seven in the morning was texting with Sawyer. I’d fallen asleep on top of the covers in my clothes and I hadn’t had a single drink. It was earlier than I wanted to be up. I walked over to close the curtains to see the snow coming down still.
Sawyer may not make it here.
I unbuckled my belt, tossed it on a chair and climbed in under the covers. The warmth of the comforter and softness of the pillow overtook me and I didn’t wake again until my pilot and the driver called at nine. I reached for my cell and sent back my response.
“Will we be able to fly later today?”
“Not if this keeps up, but I’ll keep you posted. What time were you thinking?”
“Maybe around four or five o’clock.”
“I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I’ll be here.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey Mitch, I’ll be ready to go to the mall in about thirty minutes.”I texted.
“Okay, I spoke to the agency. I’m all yours.”Mitch texted back.
“Perfect. See you in thirty out front.”
The ride to the mall was probably as miserable as the ride to the hotel the night before, but at least it was light out this time.
“Mitch, if I can’t fly out this afternoon do you think we can use this Hummer to drive to Greenwich? I need to get there for the weekend,” I asked before getting out. “I have to get there.”
“I’ll keep an eye on the weather reports, but I think that’s only about an hour and a half drive,” Mitch said. “Might take longer in bad weather, but we should be able to do it.”
“Alright, check in with me around three.” I climbed out and hurried to the doors.
“Morning, Mr. Hawthorne,” Toby paused. “Great decorations on the trees. They look awesome.”
Chapter 13
Paige
Oh my God! That was a close call.
I stayed in place for a few seconds then crawled to the supply closet to hide. I could hear footsteps getting closer, then further. He’d walked away without finding me. I slowly opened the door to peek out. No one in sight, no sound. I stayed on all fours and slowly crawled out until I felt safe enough to stand. The lights in the mall had been dimmed, which meant Toby had made his last rounds for a few hours. I made a new hot chocolate, grabbed my food, and went back to the workshop.
I wonder what decorations are in those boxes.
I kicked off my elf slippers and slipped on the fuzzy socks I kept in my purse, then sat on the floor in front of the workshop, eating and staring at the boxes. The boxes seemed to be calling to me. I took the last bite of food, tossed the wrappers in the garbage, then did a few laps around the boxes.
It shouldn’t hurt anything if I just take a peek at the decorations.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I’d opened all the boxes and started pulling bulb after bulb out. The more I pulled out the more I saw the basic theme they were going for. Toby had mentioned that the trees were supposed to be getting decorated overnight to be ready for a promotion of some kind.
So, they would probably be really happy to come back in the morning to find the trees all done. I should help out and decorate them. What’s the worst that could happen, they don’t like it and redo it? It’s not like they’ll ever know it was me, anyway.
Conversation had, decisions made, I started off slow and an hour later I’d already decorated two of the trees. I really liked the large red and green softball-size ornaments, but the white ones were beautiful. They were filled with glitter that sparkled in the dim lighting. I was excited to see what they would look like when the lights were on. I stood back looking at the two trees and had to laugh at myself. They were eight-foot trees that were only decorated from the bottom up six feet. I was gonna need to find a chair or stool to finish.
Oh, I know. I can use a chair from the food court.