“Okay, it’s already happening, so we can amplify it, rather than add an entirely new event to the calendar. What if we made it a carnival, with a bunch of booths from local places. Invited everyone from Advent, have some live music. A real closing night for our Christmas season. We could livestream it on my Instagram and use photos and video from it for promo.” She deflated a little, sitting back in her chair. “Is it too last-minute to get people to come, though?”
Noelle shook her head. “Oh, you’ve never lived in a small town where there’s nothing to do. If you have a party, everyone will come. Especially if it’s in honor of Cass. People want to celebrate her. It’s a great idea.”
Hannah already had a pen in her teeth. “It’s really smart. It could work.”
Noelle turned to Miriam. “Youshould decorate the tree.”
“What?!” Miriam squeaked. “That’s way too important a job to give to me. I’ve never even decorated a normal-sized tree.”
“Miri, you’re the artist.” Noelle crouched down in front of her and took her hands. “You’re the one with the vision to pull off an over-the-top fiasco of a tree worthy of Cass Carrigan. If this is going to work, we need your art at the center of it.”
“Noelle’s right, Miri,” Hannah said. “This one has to be you.”
Miriam nodded a little, and then again decisively.
“Alright, let’s put on a fucking banger of a carnival,” Hannah said. “We’re going to get the Rosensteins on board. And”—she pointed at Miriam, and then at Noelle with her pen—“if they don’t, we give the bank the plan anyway, because Carrigan’s All Year is happening, and nothing is going to stop us.”
Noelle whooped and pounded a fist in the air. Miriam launched herself into Noelle’s arms, kissing her soundly on the cheek. She smelled like coffee and pastries, and Noelle’s mouth watered.
“Let’s plan a tree lighting, woman,” Noelle grumbled, setting Miriam aside before she did something untoward in Hannah’s office.
Chapter 14
Miriam
Hannah and Noelle were trying, with mixed results, to treat Miriam like an equal partner. Noelle was doing a pretty good job, mostly because planning the tree lighting didn’t interrupt her work so she had no territory to protect. Hannah, however, kept ending up in a tug-of-war with Miriam when Hannah felt she was overstepping, which seemed to Miriam was happening every time she so much as refilled a napkin container.
Which is what she was doing, in the empty dining room after breakfast, when Hannah started walking behind her and fixing her work.
“Really?” Miriam asked. “The napkins? You’re going to micromanage the napkins?”
“They have to be done exactly this way, or the dispenser jams, and then it’s more work to fix it,” Hannah sniped, waving the aging napkin dispenser.
Miriam could not figure out what Hannah’s problem was. All of a sudden, Hannah was on high alert, and Miriam couldn’t figure out what had changed.
“Why don’t you teach me how to do it? Or buy new napkin dispensers that don’t jam?” Miriam asked, her hands on her hips. “Oh right, because then you wouldn’t be the only person who could do it right.”
“The napkins aren’t your job. They’re my job. Like the welcome baskets for the guests who arrived yesterday, and the tour information you gave, and the pamphlet display you decided to rearrange without asking me.” Hannah waved the napkin dispenser toward the front hall, where the display was, before setting it down with too much force.
Miriam was so frustrated she wanted to scream. “I was trying to help! The display looks way better now, and the guests asked me for information about the tours. What was I supposed to say?! You’ll have to wait until Hannah is free and ask her, because she’s the only person designated to Google things at Carrigan’s?”
Hannah hadaskedher to stay here. She’d left her entire life to move here, and now she felt like she was in the way.
“Shh! The guests can hear you,” Hannah hissed. “And I don’t want you to help! I want you to do your job and let me do mine!”
“I don’t know why we’re yelling about this!” Miriam angry-whispered back. “I also don’t know what my job is, so I can’t do it!”
“Can I make a suggestion?” Noelle asked, coming up behind them. “We should create a specific role for Miriam, with clearly drawn parameters, so she has room to do her job, and Hannah, you can focus on being the best in the world at the part of Carrigan’s that’s yours.”
“We probably should have a role for Miriam. We definitely should.” Hannah nodded, knotting her hair on top of her head like she was ready to Take Charge. As if she hadn’t already been Taking Charge of everything Miriam tried to do all week. “That would make things much clearer. What are you envisioning, Noelle? Artist-in-Residence?”
Miriam stared at Hannah. Was she fucking kidding? “I’m sorry, Artist-in-Residence? Because I didn’t just create an entire business plan for us out of thin air? Thanks for this work, Miri, go put glitter glue on old stuff now?”
“You love to put glitter glue on old stuff!” Hannah protested.
“That’s not the point!” Miriam said, her voice rising. “I came up with Carrigan’s All Year and you won’t even let me format social media blasts without redoing all my work!”
“Oh, what,” Hannah said, dismissively, “do you want to be in charge of the entire project? The Christmasland Calendar manager?”