Jack rounded the corner of the Bennington’s doll aisle just as a woman walked out—with two blue-haired Miss Molly dolls under her arm. Hope. Elation. Success. Victory was in sight! And only a week before Christmas too. He had been seriously pushing it.

He quickened his pace, only to stop and curse under his breath. There wasn’t another blue-haired doll to be found. That woman must have taken the last two. Scowling, he searched through the department for an associate, but as usual, there wasn’t a hideous vest in sight: just a sea of frantic shoppers. He contemplated chasing the woman down and offering to pay double for one of the dolls, but that seemed unlikely to work.

Besides, he couldn’t find her anywhere, and not for lack of trying. Annoyed, he marched back to the aisle and grabbed a purple-haired doll instead. They seemed to be friends in the commercial, her and ol’ blue. If he couldn’t make the blue work, maybe purple would be close enough. He still had a week left to shop, and damn it, he was going to make this happen.

He did one last loop around the department—not because he wanted to purchase other toys, but because he wanted to see if Elise was around. Last time they’d seen one another they had decorated trees, and he had left the department store positively buzzing, grinning from ear to ear like a fool in love. However, he realized his mistake as he was pulling out of the parking lot: he hadn’t asked for her number. Jack had hoped to do it right this time, but she was nowhere to be found. Disappointment compounded with his annoyance, and he trudged through the store, straight for the thirty cash tills, without so much as a hint of a smile.

That is, until he found her. Elise wasn’t in the toy section because she had been stuck behind a register. Poor thing looked absolutely miserable. Jack, meanwhile, felt a rush of giddiness course through him as he got in her line.

Ten minutes later, Jack almost regretted the move. Elise seemed to have a whole slew of customers buying enough crap to fill a bus, and each transaction moved painfully slow. The elderly gentleman in front of him, complete with whiskers sticking out his ears and nose, had started grumbling about two minutes ago, a string of endless cursing that made Jack press his lips together as he tried not to laugh.

Another five minutes crawled by before the older gentleman dumped his basket of socks on the counter.

“It’s about damn time,” he snapped as Elise started scanning his items. Jack, meanwhile, was sort of half listening as he tried to figure out which chocolate bar from the shelves next to the register would best boost his waning blood sugar for the ride home. “I’ve been in this line for over an hour!”

“Sorry,” was Elise’s response, which only seemed to rile him up more.

“You’d better be. I didn’t come here just so I could stand in a line. I’ve got things to do, you know. Places to be. Though I suppose you wouldn’t understand that… I bet you’re rushing home to sit on your phone all night, huh?”

Jack shot the man a look, then rolled his eyes. Working behind a register must have been soul-crushing if you had to deal with jerks like him all day. Elise had the right idea in ignoring him. Once she had all his socks bagged, he threw—literally threw—a handful of coupons at her. Jack’s hand tightened to a fist as he watched her scramble to pick them all up, then squint as she read the fine print.

“Today,” the man growled. “Sometime today.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but these coupons have expired.”

Well. That did it. “What did you just say?!”

She looked up, heavy bags under her eyes, and tried to hand the slips of paper back. “The coupons have—”

“Listen here, you little bitch. I cut those out this morning—”

“Hey,” Jack barked, slamming his Miss Molly box onto the counter. The older man spared him a brief, bewildered glance, one Jack held and wouldn’t let go of. “There’s no need for that kind of language.”

“Piss off, you—”

“These are all expired,” he continued, rifling through the few coupons that were still sitting on the counter. “Like… a month expired. Stop yelling at her for just trying to do her job. She’s a person, not a bitch.”

He spat the last word for emphasis. The man sputtered up at him, then turned on Elise again and demanded to speak to a manger—immediately.

“Look, pal, either pay for your stuff or get out of the line,” Jack said firmly. “We’ve all got places to be, just like you.”

There were a few tentative yeah and get going, man from the line behind him. With a beet-red face, the man dug out his credit card, once again throwing it at Elise, and shuffled down to the end of the checkout area. When he finished the transaction, he snatched his bag out of Elise’s hand and glared.

“You ought to be fired for allowing him to speak to me like that,” he sneered. “I’ll be speaking to your manager!”

“Okay, okay, get out,” Jack said, situating himself between them so Elise wouldn’t have to look at the asshole anymore. When her eyes met his, they were watery, and he offered what he hoped was a kind smile. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she said back, her voice quiet yet quivering, her emotions seeming barely in check. She started scanning his things and loading them into a bag, her hands shaking harder than her words.

“Long day?”

“Yeah.” She frowned slightly and peered into the bag. “Purple?”

“Last resort,” he insisted as she punched something onto her keyboard. “Still chasing the white whale.”

“I’m sure you’ll harpoon it soon.” She then told him his total, which he paid on credit. Although he just wanted to pull her aside and hug her for as long as she needed, until she stopped shaking, this wasn’t the time or place to console her. While he had chased off one asshole in her line, there could be six more huffing and tapping their toes toward the back, and he didn’t want to invoke their wrath by making them wait longer—because they would take it out on Elise.

“Hey…” Jack fished his chocolate bar out of the plastic shopping bag, then leaned across the counter and slid it into the gaping pocket of her horrendous Christmas vest. “Hope your day gets better soon.”

She said nothing, just stared down at the chocolate bar poking out of her pocket, so Jack took that as his cue to leave. As he approached the sliding doors some ten feet from the register, he caught Elise watching him in the reflection, expression unreadable.