KATHY PRODDED in a frantic admonition, leaning across the sales counter so far her butt was almost up in the air. “I can’t believe you didn’t call me last night to tell me about your dinner. I’m your best friend. Your confidante. Your coconspirator of all things naughty. And I have to drag myself out of bed on a cold Saturday morning and brave the crazy shoppers to nag you into filling in the deets?”A little freaked at the idea of verbalizing all the images that’d been playing in Technicolor through her head all day, Pandora rolled her eyes. She was trying her best to ignore Kathy’s chipper curiosity. Especially since the store was filled with holiday shoppers, all with varying degrees of gossip expertise.Trying to act professional, she struggled to wrap gold foil paper around an octagon-shaped box while the customer tapped her foot impatiently in time with “Jingle Bells” playing through the store’s speakers.“Whose idea was it to offer free gift wrapping?” she muttered as the tape stuck to the wrong part of the foil paper, pulling the glittery gold off when she tried to move it.
