Rolling in the Deep Read Online Free PDF

little. How about something for you? A tiara full of diamonds?”
    “It would go very well with my uniform.” Holly gestures at her work clothes. “How about you?”
    “I’d buy a castle.”
    “A castle?”
    “On an island. In fact, I’d buy the whole island.”
    She shrugs. “Why not?”
    “Exactly. And there will be thousands of tiny monkeys on it. Who will make my coffee in the morning and iron all my clothes.”
    Holly laughs, and I realize what a rare sound that is. I have to admit it makes me feel like a million bucks.
    “You can borrow my monkeys if you want.”
    She laughs again, and it changes her whole demeanor—lightens it somehow. It loosens her.
    Christ, she is beautiful.
    Standing there in a freezing warehouse with a blue uniform vest, next to a stack of toilet paper.
    Beautiful as hell.
    “I don’t need your monkeys,” she says, grinning. “I can buy my own monkeys.”
    “When you win the lottery tonight.”
    “When
we
win.”
    The door behind us creaks open and Timmy stalks in. He’s talking on his cellphone like some kind of Hollywood producer.
    “No, Leon, it can’t wait. We need the shipment right now. Pronto.”
    Holly stifles a snort.
Pronto.
The guy gets his script from some soap opera version of middle management.
    He hangs up the phone and fixes us with what he clearly hopes is an intimidating glare. “What are you two doing back here? Ray, I thought I put you on the register this morning.”
    As much I want to rib the guy for holding so tightly to his tiny fistful of power, I need this job, and I can’t. Which he knows all too well, and don’t think for a second he doesn’t enjoy that.
    “You did, Timmy. My apologies. I was just helping Holly out for a second.”
    Timmy eyes Holly in a way I don’t entirely like. “She can handle herself. Can’t you, Holly?”
    “Sure, yeah. I mean, Ray was just going to help me push the dolly over the…you know, the bump in the doorway.”
    Timmy rolls his eyes and gestures toward the door. “All right, then. Go ahead. And then get back to it, both of you. Holly, I’m shorthanded in gardening supplies. Becky’s out with a cold or something. I’m gonna need you back there as soon as you’re done with this.”
    “Yeah, um, sure. I like gardening.”
    I take the dolly while Holly holds open the door.
    “You like gardening?” Timmy steps back to let us pass. “I’m so pleased.”
    Holly cracks a grin at me as she steps through the door and takes the dolly from my hands.
    I glance back into the stockroom. To our good fortune, Timmy is charging off to harass somebody else. “How about I walk you to the aisle?”
    She hesitates for only a moment. “Okay.”
    The store is quiet, but it’s a Saturday. Customers will flood the floors any minute now, and I’ll be needed at the registers. If I don’t man up and ask Holly what I came here to ask her, the chance will be gone.
    “Listen, Holly.” I clear my throat. “Would you want to, I mean…” I stop, and she glances at me, doing her best to steer the dolly around a display of giant rubber balls. “Here, let me take that.”
    She starts to argue, but then shrugs. “All right. If you don’t mind.”
    “I don’t mind.” I push the dolly forward.
    She swipes a sleeve across her forehead. The dolly is heavy, and the store is hot compared to the chilled warehouse. “What were you saying?”
    I take a deep breath and scratch at my temple, which doesn’t itch. But now that I’ve scratched it she probably thinks I have dandruff or something. Maybe lice.
    “I was wondering…if you’d want to, I don’t know, get a coffee sometime. After work or something.”
    She stops walking, but then quickly starts up again to keep pace with me. I’m barreling forward, pulled by the momentum of the merchandise I’m pushing.
    “Coffee?” she says. Her voice sounds higher than usual.
    I clear my throat again. “Yeah. Like tonight, maybe? We could go somewhere and watch the Powerball