Aisleland Paradise

Chapter 2

Anna checked herself in the mirror, she was going to war today. Polo on, no buttons closed. Leggings up, tight as a second skin. Makeup subtle, but alluring. Hair down and plain but with a hint of wavy curls. They wouldn't know what hit them until it was too late. Today she was going in ready.

She spent the last two days building an unfathomably elaborate Twizzlers display in the lobby, despite the fact that a vendor had already paid for that spot, and at the expense of all her other duties, Anna had meticulously arranged each individual package into the perfect position. There was a year's worth of product at least but she'd overheard Craig, the freaking owner of the company himself, personally tell her store director Dereck that you don't look at cost, only profit. Craig was a numbers guy, and when he looked at the movement of his pet project he was going to see that it was her store, her display, that sold more units than any other three stores combined. But that was just the start.

It had been one week since Todd Schaeffer, owner of Schaeffer's Groceries (the largest family-owned chain of grocery stores in this entire part of the Midwest) was in her store, Titanic Groceries, spying. Anna was certain that he had no idea that she knew who he was and she was absolutely positive that he would be in to spy again today because he had told her as much. And this time she would be ready for him.

And Craig. She was ready for Craig too. She was ready for either of them. Or both. She was ready, that was the important part.

Anna didn't hear the usual greetings as she walked towards the store to begin her shift. Not that she was ignoring anyone, she was just in the zone. Dereck met her at the door.

"Anna. Get the hell inside. Your shift started four minutes ago and Craig fucking Bierderg is waiting for you." Dereck was pissed but Anna couldn't pretend to care this time. As she entered the building she saw Craig pacing the lobby, clearly annoyed, until he saw Anna.

"Did you build this?" he asked, referring to the piles and piles of Twizzlers. She couldn't read the tone of his voice well enough to know what he thought about it.

"Yes."

He didn't react, so she attacked the moment.

"Yesterday we led the company in sales for these. Not regionally, but the entire company. We had more sales than the next two stores combined; we sold almost a full case in just the afternoon alone." They stared at each other for another moment. She was trying hard to not let her swelling anxiety show, she didn't realize that she was holding her breath. She was surprised and confused to discover how much his opinion of her really mattered to her. He had picked her to do this, to implement his vision, and she spent hours working on it. She even stayed a couple hours late and worked off the clock to finish. But until this moment she hadn't known that deep down, she didn't do it for her own benefit, but to get his approval. Wtf. When did that happen? How? Why? What if he didn't like it?

Craig grinned.

"I love it. This is awesome! Can we make it bigger? I want it to touch the ceiling!"

She exhaled. He was touring the lobby like he had just entered the Wonka factory. She had gone out of her way to include not just the standard Twizzlers but the bizarre side flavors as well. Stuff that other managers were too scared to bring in. And Craig noticed.

"You got raspberry! I didn't know that was out yet! And... key lime? Is that even a thing?" It was adorable.

Now safe to take responsibility, Dereck walked up to Craig and said "We worked hard to build this one, I may have cracked the whip on 'em a couple times haha."

"Well it was certainly worth it. Dereck, your store looks awesome."

It was at that moment that Anna decided that she was going to murder Dereck.