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She struggles to show me the openings. That’s how awful this thing is. It’s so giant and inflexible, even the costume lady has to wrangle it into place.

“Here is where your legs go, and this is where your head will pop out. It’s not as bad as it looks,” she says. Her sympathetic smile is supposed to encourage me, but all I feel is dread.

After fighting with it for a few minutes, I finally manage to fit into the costume. Macy leads me toward a mirror, and I have to swallow hard in order to push away the tears threatening to fill my eyes.

I look… I don’t know. I’d say hideous, ridiculous, or horrible, but even that mixture of words doesn’t quite cut it. It’s worse than that.

“Looks like a perfect fit,” Macy says, fumbling with the ends of my buns.

I nod. “It doesn’t feel like it’ll be easy to actually move around in this thing, let alone serve hot dogs.”

She waves my remark away. “You’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Layla will show you the ropes. You’ll be manning the cart together.

“And she’s also going to be dressed as a hot dog?”

Macy shakes her head. “No, she got promoted to ketchup bottle last summer.”

“Oh, okay.”

She stands behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “I know being a hot dog is not ideal, but it could be worse.”

“Worse than being squeezed between two beige buns, you mean?”

“Oh, honey, yes. You could’ve been assigned to scrubbing the toilets in Adventure Land, where all the crazy roller coasters are located. You won’t believe what the cleaners witness over there. It always smells like wet diapers and sour milk after a couple of hours, no matter how many times they clear out the bins.” She pulls a face and shudders. “If you work hard, you’ll be promoted to mustard bottle in no time. Or even ice cream cone. That one’s a definite winner.”

I feel my heart sink into my shoes. I guess I’ll have to make the best of it. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that clichéd stuff. Besides, I’d rather be stuck in between two buns than having to deal with wet smelly diapers. Ew.

As long as Colton doesn’t see me in this outfit, I’ll be fine. All I can do is hope he won’t ever get a craving for a hot dog during work hours.

“Oh, wait,” Macy says. “The costume’s not complete yet.”

“There’s more?” I ask in horror.

She plops a red hat over my hair, slivers of red fabric dangling from the seams. “There you go.”

Great. Now I look like a hot dog with ketchup running down my face.

Macy takes a step back. “Much better, don’t you think?”

“Uh-huh,” I say, wholly unconvinced.

I cringe while staring at my own reflection. If by much better she means a much better and faster way to kill my self-esteem, then yes, the ketchup hat is awesome.

Chapter Six

Colton

I left Elle with Frank half an hour ago, and I’m crossing my fingers that she gets the Tier One Costume Crew job. After what Maggie told me about her failed relationship and her money-hungry ex-boyfriend, she deserves for things to go right. It would also be nice to ride into work with her every day, but I’m keeping that small fact a secret. It’s not as if I’m going to act on the warm feelings that flood my body whenever Elle’s eyes light up when she smiles. I’m leaving. Not now. But someday. Soon.

“You seem deep in thought,” I hear someone say while walking into the employees’ lounge. “Thinking about your motorcycle? Or a girl?”

I look at Sarah, my colleague and Head Princess, and raise an eyebrow. “When have I ever thought about girls at work?”

“Just because you never talk about girls doesn’t mean you never think about them,” she says with a laugh. “Anyway, had a good morning so far?”

“Sure. You?”

She shrugs. “It ought to be a great morning, right? The sun is out, we’re expecting lots of visitors today…”