CHAPTERONE
“Vegas, baby!”Maisie thrust her bare arms skyward, thrilled to be wearing a tank top in the unseasonably warm December sunshine. She could hardly believe she was here. Back home in Milwaukee, winter was beginning to wrap its fingers around everyone’s throats. It was a joy to breathe in air that didn’t burn her lungs with icy cold.
“What should we do first?” asked Donna, one of Maisie’s coworkers from the marketing department at Taite and Greene Specialty Packaging, Ltd., the leading manufacturer of food containers and display products in the Midwest.
Yeah, thrilling stuff.
For the past eleven months, Maisie had occupied a cubicle smaller than what was legally required for a prison cell while trying to come up with new and exciting ways to make cardboard boxes sexy. But it paid the bills, and for the next three glorious days, she and two of her coworkers were being set loose to staff their company’s vendor booth at the Las Vegas Food Expo. It almost made the other three hundred and sixty-two days of living like caged veal worthwhile.
Almost.
“What is there to do in Vegas, anyway?” As Maisie’s eyes wandered the flashing lights of the Strip, which were glaring even in mid-afternoon, the choices felt as endless as they were overwhelming. “It’s my first time here, and I was so busy prepping for the conference I didn’t do much research on the sights.”
“You and your prepping,” Donna teased. “You should’ve been a librarian.”
“I like to be thorough.” Maisie downplayed her response with a shrug, but when it came to her job, she knew she had to be extra diligent. Marketing assistants were a dime a dozen back home, and Maisie couldn’t afford to give Mr. Taite an excuse to let her go. Especially since she was no longer dating his nephew. “What have you always wanted to do in Vegas?”
Donna grinned. “Get married in a tacky twenty-four-hour wedding chapel by an Elvis impersonator.”
“Ugh.” Maisie grimaced. Even after two months, the wound from discovering Nathan had been cheating on her—withmultiple women—was still a bit raw, and marriage was the last thing on her mind. Like, ever. “I think you’d better save that one for when you come here with Erik.”
“If only.” Donna sighed, staring pointedly at the blank spot on her left ring finger where all her coworkers knew she was hoping a diamond solitaire would magically appear. “Wait! I know. What about that buffet we saw advertised on the billboard near the airport?”
“The hundred-dollar one?” Maisie squeaked.
“Sure. Why not?” Donna’s enthusiasm was growing by the second. “We’ve got per diems, after all.”
“For fifty bucks a day,” Maisie pointed out, positive she’d never spent even that much on a meal in her life. With diligent coupon clipping, fifty dollars in groceries could last more than a week. “That’s supposed to cover three meals.”
“We’re at a food conference,” Donna said with a laugh. “We can fill up on samples tomorrow to make up the difference.”
Filling up on samples was already my plan.
Maisie chewed her lower lip as she tried to devise a graceful way out. She didn’t want to be the party pooper, but that extra one-fifty in meal money was earmarked for her tuition fund. She would survive on granola bars and free coffee from the vendor lounge all week if it meant finally achieving her goal of going back to college in the fall. She was so close. All she needed over the next six months was for a few more things to go right and nothing else to go wrong.
“Maybe I should stick around here and double check that the booth is all set up for tomorrow,” Maisie suggested.
Donna rolled her eyes. “The booth is fine.”
“But—”
“You don’t need to work all the time. It makes the rest of us look bad.” Donna’s expression grew sympathetic. “If money’s an issue, why don’t you put in for that product manager position they’re hiring for? You’d be great at it.”
“I… I did, actually.” The mere mention of it sent Maisie’s pulse skyrocketing even as her spirits took a nosedive. It was exactly the opportunity Maisie had prayed for, especially since it meant a bigger paycheck, but it had been made clear to her on more than one occasion that she’d been beyond lucky to get her foot in the door in the first place. Although, her ex was the one who’d said it, and he only had his job because of his uncle. Maybe his opinion wasn’t so trustworthy, after all. “Do you really think I have a chance at it?”
“Absolutely!” Donna exclaimed without a trace of doubt.
Maisie wanted to believe it, even though she’d spent enough time scouring the requirements on new job postings to know that landing something better was a long shot without a degree. It seemed a silly technicality, given her real-world experience. Another reason to get back to school—so she wasn’t stuck in a dead-end job for the rest of her life.
“Is this about Nate?” Donna put a hand on her hip. “Don’t let that jerk scare you. You may have gotten the initial interview because you were his girlfriend, but you’re the best assistant in our department, and you’ve earned that all on your own. No one’s going to listen to him bad-mouthing you. I mean, what kind of family names a kid Nate Taite, anyway? That tater tot’s a waste of space.”
“I can’t argue with that.” But it wasn’t only her ex’s sour grapes that worried her.
It had been nine years since her father’s death had forced her to drop out of school. If she didn’t have the funds to re-enroll by this fall, she’d lose the ability to graduate under the requirements that had been in place when she’d started. That meant potentially losing credits and having to retake classes. It also meant she’d be required to do an internship, the very idea of which terrified her. The way she pictured it in her head, it’d be like wrangling alligators and lions while simultaneously walking on a tightrope that was literally on fire. But if she made a big splash at the Expo, she’d be sure to get that promotion and a big enough raise to cover tuition.
Please let Donna be right about my chances.
“Look what I got!” Cheryl, the other coworker on the trip, approached Maisie and Donna on the sidewalk, waving what looked like tickets in the air. “The rodeo’s in town, and these here are three front row seats.”