Chapter 6: The Ground You Stand On

I put her on speaker and opened my email.

It was there, sent at 6:45 to every department head in the building.

The Bancroft's holiday windows this year will be presented in partnership with Selby Home.

Selby products would go in all twelve windows, with the install starting at 9 a.m. today.

Laurence Bancroft, President, had signed it.

"All twelve," Bex said. "Including Seven. They want to put candles in front of my reindeer."

"Our reindeer."

"Mine. I carved the antlers."

"Where are you?"

"In the workshop with the whole crew. The apprentice is crying. The electrician is calm, which is scarier."

"Don't touch anything," I said. "I'm coming down."

I found Felix in the kitchen in a white shirt, reading the same memo on his phone with his coffee going cold.

He looked up when I came in.

"I can overrule him in an hour," he said. "One call to the board."

"No."

He waited.

"If you fix it, it's your store and I'm your wife who complained," I said. "I want to fix it myself."

He nodded slowly.

"Then I'll carry your coffee."

"You'll carry my coffee and you won't talk."

"I almost never talk."

Evangeline's launch was on the main floor, under the big atrium skylight, at nine sharp.

Cream boxes of candles, linen throws and oatmeal-colored bowls were stacked into a wall.

A ring light stood in front of it all.

A crowd of shoppers and staff stood around it.

She was live. The counter in the corner of her screen said two hundred thousand.

"Hi, loves," she was saying. "I am so honored. The Bancroft's windows are a Chicago legend, and this year they're getting a little Selby glow."

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