“Uh…Wynn?”
The store’s manager, although she suspected he was a lot more than his
title indicated and did a lot more than what was in his job description,
turned from the shelves where he was arranging a collection of different
owls. They’d unpacked them that morning and grouped them all together to
make the display.
At a lift of his bushy white eyebrows, she was encouraged to continue.
“I-I hope I didn’t do anything yesterday to, well, it seemed like—she was
only here for a few minutes, but it seemed like Miss Winson didn’t like me
very much.”
“Call her Kiera. And it wasn’t you. She was just tired and hungry. I
caught her at the end of a long pick and maybe I should have waited.”
“So she really was looking at me like some stray dog snuck into the store
and took a crap on the floor and I was that crap.”
Wynn’s lips twitched. “I knew I hired you for a reason. You’re a breath of
fresh air. I could use a daily dose of poop jokes.”
Romi could feel her cheeks heating up. She stooped and picked another
ornament out of the box at her feet. It was a rather large camel and she
curled her hand around it just to make sure she didn’t drop it. “I…thanks,”
she mumbled. “But…I mean, I’m not going to get fired, am I? She didn’t
look very happy to see me for some reason. I didn’t even say anything. It’s
like she took one look at me and decided to hate me.”
“Like I said, she was just hungry.” Wynn shrugged. “She put me in
charge of the hiring and she trusts my judgement. She’s going to be back in
on Monday. I’m sure she’ll be in a better mood. The guys will be unloading
the trailers and we’re going to be going through all the things she picked.
She loves that. When we all get to ooh and ahh over all the new finds.”
“That sounds like Christmas. I can’t wait.”
“It is. We get Christmas a few times a month here. That’s the best part
about the job. Well, that and watching people get excited. We’re going to