He shook his head. “Don’t be so gullible. Those cosmetic conglomerates are gaslighting you to think it’s their multi-hyphen ingredients that are helping your skin instead of good old-fashioned emollients and sun protection.” He waved his hands over the gift sets on the counter. “This is all overpriced, useless crap.”
Ruby exhaled. Gaslighting?Crap?The worst part of his rant was that his voice sounded so posh and snooty now. Yeah, he’d definitely grown up in a better part of the city.
The guy had gone too far. Ruby didn’t take his comment as an insult to the store or to the good people at Lancôme, either. He was insultingher. Ruby was a skin care girlie, and she’d met people like this guy before. People who thought anything that women value—makeup, fine skin care, even adjectives before colors—was worthless. This one was particularly bad, using terms likeemollientsas if he knew what they meant. He was probably parroting some dudebro he saw on YouTube. Men like this really thought women had little value. Maybe he was the right type to wear a fedora after all. She again felt bad for the little girl whose gift she had just wrapped.
He wasn’t going to ask for her phone number, and if he did, Ruby wouldn’t give it to him. He’d insulted her, the store, and the whole freaking holiday season. Time to get him out. Ruby kept smiling, though, because years of retail had not only given her supple, dewy soft skin, thanks to employee discounts, but also thick skin. “You said your mother taught you never to leave a person struggling. Did she also teach you that if you can’t say anything nice you shouldn’t say anything at all?”
“Oh, come on,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Even a ChristmasCheer Lady like you must admit that the markup on creams and lotions this time of year is ridiculous.” He held up a box from a new line from Paris that was enriched with the essence of juniper berries. “You’re paying a fortune for gimmicks and scents. It’s a rip-off. All you should use is—”
Ruby finally lost her smile. “Don’tshouldon me, mister,” she said, maintaining her calm and pleasant tone of voice despite wanting to spray him with the worst-smelling men’s cologne in the store before kicking that fine ass out. “You’ve come into my place of work, where I’m trying to earn a living, and insulted things I love. Christmas, luxury gift wrap, and skin care. You even managed to insult the concept of adjectives. I know this season isn’t for everyone, but it’s bringing a hell of a lot of people joy… something a grump like you could honestly use. Now I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I think we can consider any debts repaid and can forget we’ve ever been acquainted. I look forward to hopefully never seeing that grumpy face of yours again.”
The man stared at her for a few moments, gaze shifting from her red lips to her holiday earrings. She couldn’t believe she thought he was into her. He clearly hated everything he saw.
“Apologies,” he said. “Thank you for the gift wrap.” He turned and walked out of the store with his deep eggplant and rose-gold wrapped gifts (with natural cream ribbon) without saying goodbye.
“Good riddance,” Ruby said once he was out of sight in the Winter Market. She hoped the Christmas music playing out there was giving him hives.
“Sooo… who was that?” Jenisha asked as she walked toward Ruby. Her tone made it clear that she hadn’t heard Ruby telling him off. Or hadn’t heard him insult everything she loved.
“That was the most infuriating man I’ve ever met.” She didn’t even get the chance to smell the Le Labo on him.
Jenisha nodded. “Cute, though. How do you know him?”
Ruby shook her head. “I don’t know him. He helped carry my Christmas tree, and I stupidly told him I would wrap a gift for him as payment. He’s a complete ass.”
“Oh!” Jenisha said. “He carried a tree! Thank you for that mental image.”
The door opened then. It was Gwendolyn, the store’s assistant manager. And the expression on her face made it clear she wasn’t in a good mood. Gwendolyn (never Gwen, always Gwendolyn), walked around with the air of someone who didn’t need to be working at all—and spoke to Ruby like Ruby was miles below her, despite Ruby being her literal manager. Ruby was accustomed to working with these kinds of divas—stores like Reid’s attracted a lot of Ladies Who Lunch types who could no longer afford the lifestyle and had to work for a living. Ruby was not going to miss Gwendolyn at all when she left the city in a month.
“Jenisha, Alana Schwartz will be coming in at two for some bespoke gift baskets. Candles and coordinating scents should be pulled beforehand to make her experience streamlined. Ms. Schwartz will be having a half-caf oat latte; put the order in at Sophie’s now, and pick it up at five minutes before two.”
Ruby raised one brow. Seriously? Sending another sales associate to get her customer’s coffee? “Gwendolyn, Jenisha hasto stay here for walk-ins, as I also have an appointment at two. And you know it’s your responsibility to prepare for your own customers.”
Gwendolyn exhaled, probably counting to ten under her breath about the fact that the Brown daughter of a seamstress was her superior. She opened the drawer behind the counter. “I cannot find a lint roller. The medical clinic near the day spa is renovating—I was caught in an absolute cloud of dust on my way here. How could the Winter Market allow a business to renovate now? It’s a nuisance.”
Oh. Was that where the surly tree guy was doing his drywall work? There was a small strip of professional offices on the street leading to the Winter Market. They were technically not part of the Distillery District, so it was doubtful the Winter Market organizers could stop the construction.
“I got the best dirt on that place from my friend who works at the spa,” Jenisha said. She was completely unfazed by Gwendolyn trying to use her as her personal assistant. “So, the office was under construction a few months ago, but construction stopped suddenly. Apparently, the doctor who owns it left her husband out of the blue, and he froze their accounts so she couldn’t pay the contractors to finish the job. The husband was caught completely unaware—rumor is that she’s having an affair with a much younger man.”
“Ugh.” Ruby cringed. That was horrible. “But now she’s finishing the construction?”
“Yeah, my friend says the boy-toy has been there every day finishing the work. She has kids, too.” Jenisha shook her head.
“It’s a terrible time to split up a family like that,” Gwendolynsaid. “At Christmas!”
Ruby frowned. That reminded her of Nadim’s friend. Could it be the same doctor? “Do you know the doctor’s name?”
“Dr. Hashim or Hakim or something like that.”
Ruby exhaled. Sounded like Jasmine Hakim. But Reena said she was a complete sweetheart—would she cheat on her husband with a younger man?
Oh! Was she having an affair with the tree-carrying grump? The younger man who was finishing construction at her practice? Did Ruby just wrap gifts for Jasmine and her twins from heraffair partner?
This complicated things. But Ruby remembered Nadim saying it was thehusbandwho was the asshole in the breakup. The whole situation sounded messy. Normally, Ruby preferred to stay far away from that kind of drama, but she still wanted to get to know Jasmine to eventually get an introduction to her sister and father in the UK. “I think she’s a friend of a friend,” Ruby said. “I should introduce myself.”
This cheating or heartbroken physician could be the ticket to making Ruby and her mother’s dreams come true. Ruby was more determined than ever to take hold of the connection and make it work for her. Even if it meant more contact with the grumpy tree-carrying guy.
RUBY DID SOME GOOGLINGon the Hakim family hotels during her break. The landing page for the corporation was sleek and modern, and after looking around a bit, she saw that the CEO was a handsome man in his sixties who was unfortunately named Hakim M. Hakim. What had his parents been thinking? The Hakim Hotel Group (because apparently Hakim M. Hakim wanted one more Hakim on his business card) owned several hotels, all in England: two in suburban London, and one each in Birmingham and Bristol. Plus, a new boutique hotel in London called the Raj, and the country inn near Manchester.
