I owed him an apology to his face. If I was rich, I would offer to pay the cost of the Santas and the damage they were causing. They were ruining his grand opening and it had all been my idea.
I had expected the Santa concierge to be cute and refreshing. It wasn’t.
Maybe with better training or a more selective hiring process, it could have worked. Unfortunately, I tried to do too much with no time. I bit off more than I could chew. More was not more. More was the equivalent of a bomb. Just thinking about the conversation I’d overheard between Chase and his friend made my heart squeeze.
I had gone and done it. I had fallen for my ex. It was stupid and destined to lead to heartache for me all over again. I still had a fissure from the first time he broke my heart. I knew sleeping with him was a mistake. I blamed the moment. It had been a mood. He was too handsome and I was still striving for that closure I really never got.
That closure cost more than I was prepared to pay. I hoped he would forgive me one day. I hoped the letter I left on his desk properly expressed how sorry I was. I didn’t want him to think I purposely destroyed his grand opening. I was not a spiteful person.
I opened the door to my office, thankful to see no one was up and about quite yet. I quickly walked to the desk and opened the drawer. The thumb drive was mine. It contained all of my ideas as well as pictures of my work. I would need it to prove to my next job I was worthy of hiring. I was hoping no one ever found out I had anything to do with the resort.
I slipped it into my pocket and took another look around. Parker, my assistant, would make good use of the space. She would get promoted and have her own assistant one day. I was happy one good thing came from this.
My back was to the door when I felt a draft. I spun around, praying it wasn’t Chase.
It was Parker. “There you are,” she exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked around the office. “What are you doing in here so early?”
I cleared my throat. “I was, uh, grabbing something.”
I was a coward. I couldn’t tell her to her face I was running away. She wouldn’t understand. She would try and convince me to stay.
“We have a situation,” she said.
I rolled my eyes. “I know. The Santa concierge service is imploding.”
“Yes, but not like last night. I don’t know what happened, but now they’ve flipped the switch and are all competing with each other. They all want to be the best Santa concierge.”
I shook my head. “What? What are you talking about?”
She sighed, running a hand over her wild hair. “One Santa scheduled his guests to have a family massage session at ten. Another Santa wanted his family to have that time slot. They got into a screaming match. Then, there was an argument about which guest got the best bottle of champagne. I overheard the bartender trying to explain there was a full case and plenty to go around, but they were still fighting over it.”
I groaned, hanging my head and wondering what I did to deserve such bad behavior. “Why?”
“I just told you. They saw the evaluation forms and they are all scrambling to be the best now that you guys offered a bonus to the top performing Santas.”
“What? I didn’t do that. Who did that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. What do we do?”
I wanted to tell her it wasn’t my problem. I quit. I was officially throwing in the towel. Unfortunately, there was something inside me that refused to let me walk away from a problem I created. It wasn’t fair to her, Chase, or the rest of the staff. It was my bed and it was time I got down and dirty in it.
“Get all of the Santas together in the ballroom. I don’t care what they are doing. Tell them to have their asses in there. If they refuse, you can fire them.”
Her eyes widened. “I can?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t know if she could or not but it sounded good.
“Oh, someone is in trouble,” she sang.
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Okay, I’ll make sure no one brings their phones. I