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Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Manager's Desk Dream
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2025-06-30 08:30:53The store was unusually clean by 8 a.m., and that could only mean one thing.
Something—or someone—was coming.Callie arrived at BuyMore on a cold Thursday morning and immediately noticed two things: the floor had been buffed to a shine, and Brenda was drinking actual coffee instead of the usual breakroom sludge.That’s how she knew something was up.“What’s going on?” Callie asked, setting her bag down at the front register and eyeing the pristine floor with suspicion.Brenda took a dramatic sip of her latte and gestured toward the bulletin board. “Corporate’s coming.”Callie blinked. “Corporate? As in—”“The board,” Brenda interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “Rumor is, it’s an unannounced check-in. Some kind of regional sweep.”Callie’s stomach flipped. Not the bad kind of flip. Not dread. Something else. Something that had been quietly brewing for months. Hope.Hope that maybe—just maybe—this was her sho
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The Secret Billionaire in Aisle 9 Chapter Thirty-One: Gum, Gossip, and Unspoken Things
Brenda did not believe in workplace romance.Not because she was against it in theory, but because she had been working retail for twenty-three years and had seen more love triangles crash and burn than seasonal Christmas displays.She also didn’t believe in flirting.At least, not on purpose.But lately, Marcus had been… weird.Not bad weird. Just different.Less sarcastic. More attentive. He’d started showing up ten minutes early, helping her unload the morning shipment without being asked. He complimented her playlist selections in the breakroom. He even stopped chewing gum during team meetings—which was basically an act of sainthood coming from him.And then there were the comments.Casual. Quick. Almost too easy to dismiss.Like yesterday, when she wore her vintage denim jacket with the rhinestone collar, and he’d walked past her and muttered, “Brenda, if style was a felony, you’d be serving life.”
The Secret Billionaire in Aisle 9 Chapter Thirty: Waffle Irons and Other Weaknesses
Callie hadn’t expected things to feel different after the audit—but they did.It wasn’t just the lifted tension in the store. The whole team walked lighter now. Naomi actually whistled while restocking the seasonal aisle. Marcus replaced his ironic apron with a plain black one. Even Brenda smiled, twice, which felt suspicious.But the biggest shift?Eli.Ever since the surprise HQ visit, something had subtly changed between them. He still cracked jokes, still pretended not to understand basic barcode functions, but his attention was more focused now. His teasing had softened at the edges. And when she caught him watching her, there was something else there—something quiet and intent.Maybe it was the way he’d spoken up for her during the team meeting.Maybe it was the way he’d waited for her in the office afterward, name tag in hand.Or maybe—it was the way her heart had fluttered when he told her, I believe in you.
The Secret Billionaire in Aisle 9 Chapter Twenty-Nine: Under The Microscope
The first sign that something was off came with a phone call at 8:37 a.m.Brenda answered, listened for a moment, then turned to Callie with wide eyes.“They’re on their way,” she said. “From headquarters.”Callie blinked. “Who’s they?”Brenda handed her the phone, already buzzing again. “Big. Corporate. People. No one’s saying names. Just that they’ll be here in twenty minutes.”Callie’s stomach dropped.She was still halfway through inventory logging. The electronics display hadn’t been adjusted since last week. And worst of all, Marcus was wearing his novelty apron that read I Put the “Pro” in “Problematic.”“Okay,” she breathed. “Let’s move.”Within minutes, the entire team was mobilized.Naomi redid the impulse-buy layout. Marcus reluctantly changed aprons. Brenda disinfected every surface she could find like a woman possessed. Even the music overhead—usually a strange loop of outdated boyband hits
The Secret Billionaire in Aisle 9 Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Wait
The next morning, Callie woke up with the same buzzing energy that had carried her through the day before—but it had soured overnight into anxious anticipation. The kind that wrapped around her stomach like an over-tight belt and made her coffee taste like cardboard.She stared at her phone screen while brushing her teeth, willing a notification to appear.Nothing.By the time she got to BuyMore, the usual rhythms had returned. The floor was back to its semi-scuffed self, Brenda was sipping sludge again, and someone had managed to spill powdered creamer all over the breakroom counter like a sugar bomb had gone off.“Back to the beautiful chaos,” Naomi said as she walked by with an armful of hanging signs. “You hear anything?”Callie shook her head. “Not yet.”“Well, fingers crossed. If they don’t promote you, I’m quitting and starting a commune.”Callie raised an eyebrow. “A commune?”“Yeah. No hierarchy. Just v
The Secret Billionaire in Aisle 9 Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Manager's Desk Dream
The store was unusually clean by 8 a.m., and that could only mean one thing.Something—or someone—was coming.Callie arrived at BuyMore on a cold Thursday morning and immediately noticed two things: the floor had been buffed to a shine, and Brenda was drinking actual coffee instead of the usual breakroom sludge.That’s how she knew something was up.“What’s going on?” Callie asked, setting her bag down at the front register and eyeing the pristine floor with suspicion.Brenda took a dramatic sip of her latte and gestured toward the bulletin board. “Corporate’s coming.”Callie blinked. “Corporate? As in—”“The board,” Brenda interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “Rumor is, it’s an unannounced check-in. Some kind of regional sweep.”Callie’s stomach flipped. Not the bad kind of flip. Not dread. Something else. Something that had been quietly brewing for months. Hope.Hope that maybe—just maybe—this was her sho
The Secret Billionaire in Aisle 9 Chapter Twenty-Six: The Push and Pull Game
A week passed in a blur of mismatched inventory, shipping delays, and the slow creep of Christmas music playing on loop. BuyMore had officially made the jump from Halloween chaos to holiday prep madness, and with it came longer shifts, overworked temp hires, and enough glitter to permanently mark the floor of aisle six.Brenda had kept her head down.She joked when needed, smiled when expected, and dodged Marcus whenever possible—not obviously, not dramatically, just... enough.Enough to keep things from getting too quiet between them.Enough to keep the edges of something unsaid from bleeding into their daily routines.And it had worked.Sort of.Until Friday night.The kind of shift that stretches long and thin, where the last customer walks out ten minutes after closing and the cleanup feels like it’ll never end. One of the seasonal associates had knocked over a display of discounted humidifiers. Another forg
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