For all the wild stories Brenda Liao had collected in her years working retail—Black Friday brawls, toddler tornadoes, microwave explosions—nothing compared to the bombshell Marcus dropped on her in the breakroom the day before.
  Eli.
  The awkwardly charming, quietly observant, always-helpful Eli...
  Was Elijah Dane Whitaker.
  CEO of BuyMore.
  The man whose name floated above every corporate memo, whose signature was digitally stamped on every bonus payout, whose identity remained a mystery to nearly every employee nationwide.
  And he was here. Stocking printers. Managing returns. Getting tangled in ribbon aisle disasters.
  Brenda didn’t know whether to scream, laugh, or faint.
  But mostly—she was just... confused.
  At first, she’d tried to brush it off.
  People had secrets. She got that.
  Eli hadn’t hurt anyone. He wasn’t misusing power or lording it over anyone. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to blend in, to carry his share—and often more.
  But as her shift dragged on, and she found herself watching him interact with customers, with Callie... the knowledge twisted tighter inside her.
  She’d always been good at reading people. Part of her unofficial HR-in-training instincts. And since Eli first walked into their store, she’d clocked the layers under his easygoing smile.
  Now those layers made more sense.
  The way he always seemed to know exactly how to calm a tense situation. The way he handled inventory mistakes with unshakable calm. The way he deferred to Callie with this quiet deference, as though he wanted her to lead—not because she had to, but because he believed in her.
  But the longer Brenda watched, the more a new emotion crept in.
  Unease.
  She and Callie were close. Not overshare-on-the-weekends close, but enough to know how hard her friend had worked. How much she had sacrificed to prove herself here. Callie didn’t just clock in for a paycheck—she fought for the store. For their team.
  And now? Now she was falling for someone who wasn’t who he said he was.
  Callie didn’t know. Not yet.
  And Brenda? She did.
  That made her feel like she was standing in the middle of a delicate, glass-floored bridge—one wrong move, and everything could shatter beneath her feet.
  That evening, as the team wrapped up the floor and did final checks, Brenda caught Marcus near the breakroom.
  He looked like she felt—guilty, tense, restless.
  “We’re still not telling her?” she asked in a low voice.
  Marcus shook his head. “It’s not our place.”
  “She’s going to find out eventually.”
  “I know.”
  Brenda paused. “I don’t like lying to her.”
  “We’re not lying,” Marcus said carefully. “We’re just... choosing silence. For now.”
  Brenda frowned. “Feels like the same thing.”
  Marcus sighed. “Look. You and I both know how Callie handles betrayal. One whiff of dishonesty and she shuts down. Cold. If she finds out from us, that’s it. Eli doesn’t stand a chance.”
  “And you think he should?”
  Marcus glanced toward the sales floor, where Eli was helping a customer test out a keyboard.
  “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I do.”
  That night, Brenda couldn’t sleep.
  She tried.
  She curled up with her favorite lavender-scented blanket, put on the ocean wave playlist she usually used to drown out her anxiety, and even made herself a mug of sleepytime tea.
  None of it worked.
  Because every time she closed her eyes, she saw Callie’s face.
  Saw how guarded she’d been with Eli lately.
  Saw how they’d started to reconnect after that rough patch—little smiles exchanged during tasks, the occasional shared joke at the registers, quiet conversations near the loading dock when they thought no one was watching.
  They were building something again.
  But it wasn’t built on the whole truth.
  And Brenda hated that.
  The next morning, Callie walked into the breakroom looking bleary-eyed but upbeat.
  “Did you see the numbers from yesterday?” she asked, sliding into the seat beside Brenda. “We beat last Tuesday’s foot traffic by 13%.”
  “Dang. Really?” Brenda blinked. “That’s awesome.”
  Callie grinned. “And three positive customer reviews in a row. All mentioned team friendliness. That’s everyone—Naomi, Marcus, even Eli.”
  Brenda swallowed.
  Eli.
  “Yeah,” she said, trying to sound natural. “We’ve got a solid crew.”
  Callie stirred her coffee. “Eli’s really stepped up lately. I mean, he’s always been helpful, but... I don’t know. It feels different now.”
  Brenda bit her tongue.
  Callie kept going. “He listens. Actually listens. And I’ve noticed he redirects the hard customers away from Naomi when she’s anxious. Did you see what he did with the mobile phone display last week? Saved me from at least four returns.”
  Brenda forced a smile.
  “Sounds like you trust him again.”
  Callie hesitated. “I want to. I’m... trying.”
  Brenda nodded slowly.
  She wanted to scream.
  By lunch, the weight of the secret was digging into her chest.
  She sat in the back office with her salad untouched, watching the screens on the security monitor cycle through camera feeds.
  In one, Eli laughed at something Marcus said.
  In another, Callie walked the floor, checking price tags with her usual precision.
  Two people. Two good people.
  And she was stuck between them.
  She didn’t want to be the one who pulled the trigger. Didn’t want to shatter something that was slowly healing.
  But she also didn’t want to be the bystander who watched it all crash down because she didn’t act.
  Her hand hovered over her phone for ten solid minutes.
  Call Callie. Tell her everything. Be honest. Be a friend.
  But her fingers never tapped the screen.
  Later that afternoon, Brenda found herself working register two while Eli restocked the shelf behind her.
  He was quiet.
  Focused.
  And strangely... gentle. Not in the usual flirty or funny way. But like he was trying to respect her space.
  She caught his glance once—just once—and in it, she saw the same thing Marcus had described the day before:
  Guilt.
  Longing.
  Fear.
  He knew.
  He knew that someone was bound to find out.
  And yet, he still showed up.
  Still put on the uniform. Still greeted every customer like their happiness was his mission.
  He wasn’t hiding in fear.
  He was hoping.
  Hoping, maybe, for forgiveness.
  That evening, Callie pulled Brenda aside in the stockroom.
  “Hey,” she said, closing the door behind her. “Can I ask you something?”
  Brenda froze. “Sure.”
  “Do you think I’m being unfair to Eli?”
  Brenda blinked. “Uh... what do you mean?”
  “I’ve been weird with him lately. And I know it. I feel it. But I keep going in circles. Part of me wants to let go of the suspicion and just... trust him again.”
  “And the other part?”
  Callie looked away. “Still feels like I’m missing a puzzle piece.”
  Brenda’s heart pounded.
  This was it. Her moment. Her opportunity.
  But the words didn’t come.
  Instead, she reached for the truth she could share.
  “I think Eli cares about this store more than he lets on. And I think... he’s trying. Whatever it is that’s holding him back, I don’t think it’s because he wants to hurt anyone.”
  Callie frowned, considering that.
  Brenda hesitated—then added gently, “If he’s carrying something big... maybe he’s scared you won’t look at him the same way when you find out.”
  Callie blinked.
  “That’s a weirdly specific thing to say.”
  Brenda shrugged. “I’ve been watching you two tiptoe around each other for weeks. Can’t help but speculate.”
  Callie sighed. “I just wish I knew what I was walking into.”
  Brenda looked her straight in the eye.
  “So does he.”
  That night, Brenda lay awake again.
  But this time, it wasn’t anxiety keeping her up.
  It was resolve.
  She wasn’t going to tell Callie.
  Not yet.
  Because some truths needed to come from the source.
  And this one?
  This one was on Eli.
  He owed it to Callie.
  He owed it to himself.
  And when that moment came—when the truth finally spilled into the open—Brenda would be there.
  Not to say I told you so.
  But to catch the pieces, help pick them up, and remind her friends that healing didn’t have to stop at the truth.