Page 10 of So Wicked

“Excuse me!?”

“You asked for my manager,” Lillian said sweetly. “I refused to get him.”

“You can’t… Hello? Hello!?”

Gayle leaned over the counter and shouted for help. Lillian let her scream for several minutes, earning disgusted looks from the other customers at PriceLo. The other employees were more than happy to ignore the banshee while she endeavored to make the universe aware of the horrific travesty she was enduring at the hands of this brat who didn’t realize that the entire universe revolved around Garnetta.

“Hell…”

Ginger stopped and stared at Lillian with something akin to horror. She’d finally realized that Lillian was the only person there who would pay attention to her. And above Lillian’s sweet smile were hard eyes that gave Georgina a real reason to fear her, though it was certain she had no idea what that reason was.

Lillian decided now was the time to twist the knife. “Ma’am. Unless you have a receipt, I will not refund your items. Period. You can leave them here if you don’t want them, but you’ll receive zero dollars and zero cents for them.”

“That’s—”

“I don’t give a shit what it is.”

Geraldina flinched again. “You can’t talk to me like that!” The plaintive wine of a woman-child.

“Yes, I can. I did. And you can Google our customer service number if you want to tell someone else who doesn’t give a shit all about it. But you will not receive a refund without a receipt.”

Under ordinary circumstances, Lillian was sure that Gigi would harass her for the next forty-five minutes just out of spite. But there were those hard eyes that Genevieve didn’t quite realize were the eyes of a killer.

So, instead, Genetta turned around slowly and waddled out of the store. Lillian caught sight of her amazed face in the security camera screen above the exit. No doubt, she couldn't believe that her feet were carrying her out of the store.

And she’d left her cart.

Lillian took a deep breath, and when she saw the time, she released it in a little squeak of joy. Her shift was over.

She clocked out and carefully replaced her uniform, changing into the baggy sweatpants and oversized hoodie that would ensure no one who saw her would be able to describe her well. She really should kill Gloria for being such a bitch, but she couldn’t let herself lose control like that. That’s what had gottenher into trouble the first time. She called her supervisor over. “Hey, Larry, the Gilda I was just talking to left her cart behind.”

Larry, a heavyset balding man of around forty, frowned. “The what?”

“The customer. Gepetto, or whatever.”

Mike blinked. “Oh. You mean the Karen?”

“Huh. Could have sworn her name started with a G.”

“It might, but the term for a woman being bitchy to businesses is Karen. Unless it’s a guy. Then it’s Darren.”

Lillian didn’t really care and had completely lost interest in this conversation, but she needed this job, and being cordial with your boss was pretty necessary if you wanted to keep your job. At least Mike wasn’t handsy with her.

"Well, she was a bitch, whatever her name was. She's lucky I didn't ram a pistol up her ass and pull the trigger."

Mike laughed, and Lillian joined her. He would never know that she meant that comment seriously. “Well, you’re lucky. You get to go home and forget about this crap for the next nine hours.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fun.”

He laughed again, then clapped a hand on her shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”

Okay, well, he wasn'tsexuallyhandsy. Just one of those annoying people who thought he was friends with everyone.

But she needed this job, so she smiled and said, “See you tomorrow, Mike.”

She drove home, smiling pleasantly just in case anyone looked into her windows. Two people cut her off, and she entertained herself by imagining them bleeding out slowly while begging her for mercy. It really was a shame that society expected her to put up with assholes.

Overall, despite Karen and the traffic, Lillian was in a good attitude. Frank was going to be on TV again today. That always made it a good day.

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