Free Clean Slate by Holley Trent

expect to start getting feedback in so soon, but a lot of folks who took
soap samples yesterday have already tried them.”
    Daisy’s stomach clenched. She wrapped her fingers around
the back of one of the kitchen chairs and pulled it away from the table to melt
into it. “Okay?”
    Trinity put down her drink and counted off on her fingers.
“One, they were in love with scents, especially the orange cream. There were at
least two reports of people trying to lick them and regretting it.”
    Daisy cringed.
    “Two, they liked the way the soaps felt when wet. They
were very creamy and melted the way they liked.”
    “I like soaps that are a bit malleable when wet.”
    “Yeah, which is good for sample sizes, but full-sized
bars? Might be a problem. That brings us to three. Some people liked the idea
of the lemon soap becoming liquid hand soap. They asked if we had it. Nikki
hedged.”
    “That’s easy to do. I make my own hand soap.”
    “And you never told anyone?”
    “No one asked.”
    Trinity narrowed her eyes at her briefly. “And related to
larger bars, the overwhelming response was that they wanted a full-size orange
cream soap, but they wanted a bit more lather.
    Daisy closed her eyes and groaned. “I worried about that.”
    “You’ve got time to fix it. Feedback is coming in, but I
fully expect tomorrow by the development meeting Nikki’s going to want to
escalate that into a permanent product as well as one more soap.”
    “Which?”
    Trinity picked up her drink and shrugged. “Knowing Nikki,
probably something people haven’t seen yet. Be ready with some ideas.”
    “Wow.”
    Wow was an
understatement. Daisy had been itching to pitch her own ideas to Nikki for
months, and now things were snowballing. It was a small snowball. Manageable . But what next? Did it mean
Nikki trusted her now? Or did it mean Nikki was still testing her? What would
Momma say?
    She went dizzy at the thought. Momma is going to nag until she turns blue in the face . She pulled
her lips back and started laughing uncontrollably. Blue in the Face. Perfect name for a facial soap.
    “Are you all right, Daisy? Do I need to cut you off
already?” Trinity held her glass under the little tap and topped off her drink.
    “No, sorry. I’m okay.” She wiped away the tears forming at
the corners of her eyes. “Just feeling a bit crazed.”
    “Join the club. I was at that place last night when I
found out Clara was flying in.”
    Daisy downed her drink in one long gulp and let out a
shuddering breath. “So, fried chicken?”
    Trinity’s eyes widened behind her drink glass. She lowered
it to the counter and walked to the freezer. Seconds later, she tossed a frozen
ice block with a chicken label onto the counter. “Sorry.”
    Daisy pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes and
laughed again. “Figures. How about you leave it out and I’ll come back at
dinnertime?”
    “Eh.” Trinity picked up her glass. “What’s the hurry? You
have somewhere to be?”
    Daisy opened her mouth to talk, then closed it. No,
actually she had absolutely no place to be, and couldn’t even go home. Barry
was at the house. When she’d left, he’d been sitting on the sofa next to Liz
with his hand stuffed down the front of his pants, waiting for coffee to brew.
    “Where the fuck you going?” he’d asked as she pushed her
feet into her shoes at the door.
    She hadn’t answered because it wasn’t any of his goddamned
business anymore. It’d stopped being his business the day her surname reverted
to Mooring.
    Liz had called her during the drive out to the county and
asked a similar question, but Daisy actually answered for her . “Work stuff, she’d said.”
    “I’ll try to get him out of here before too late. I’m
sorry, honey. You know how he is,” Liz had said.
    “Too well,” Daisy had responded before disconnecting.
    Thunder shook the Earth and Daisy startled, splashing her
wine onto her good white blouse. Shit.
    Trinity leaned over