“I think it’s only fair since, you know, I actuallyreadit,” I laugh. “I might even ask you guys questions about the book.”
“If that’s what you feel you need to do.” My gut is telling me she just rolled her eyes at me. She’s a smart ass when I can’t even see her.
“Well, I have to go for real now. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye.” She barely gets the word out before I’m hitting the end button.
Two minutes. That’s all I have left in my break. I have two options… Eat as much of this spaghetti as fast as I can and risk making myself sick. Or, put it up and eat it when I get home.
The latter wins. There’s nothing professional about a sales associate losing her lunch in front of customers.
* * *
Shit. I’m going to be late to “book club” tonight. The first few days, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough things to do to keep me busy. As the days get longer, and warmer, more people visit the shop. Most are looking for clothing to take on beach vacations. Some are moms looking for the perfect outfits for their little girls. Something they can wear to backyard barbecues that are cute but still functional.
That is the biggest difference I’ve seen in the two shops I’ve now worked at. The one back home had beautiful clothes for all ages, but most of them came with special cleaning instructions. Here, almost everything can be done with regular laundry. There’s no need to send it out for dry cleaning. It’s something I think the customers really appreciate. It doesn’t add more to their already full plates.
Now, if I could get these customers out of the door, that would be great. This lady came in ten minutes before we were supposed to close, and she’sstillhere. The shop closed twenty minutes ago. If I didn’t know how much customer satisfaction meant to my boss, I’d have told her to come back tomorrow. In a town this small, something like that would bring bad PR to the store, and I can’t have that.
“Ma’am,” I say just above a whisper to keep from startling her. “Is there anything I can help you with?” Because this isn’t the millionth time I’ve asked her since she’s been here. A wide smile is plastered to my face. In my head, I’m shoving her out the door and running in the opposite direction.
“Actually,” she says, back straight. “You may be able to. I need a Fourth of July dress for my granddaughter.”
“Do you know what size she wears?” That would make the process a hell of a lot easier on me.
“No, she’s a little over a year old.” She shrugs. It looks odd on this woman who carries herself as if she’s the most important person in town. “Maybe that will help on the sizing.”
Leading her to the wall of themed dresses, I pull out one sized at eighteen months and another that’s a 2T. The material is stretchy so it should fit either way. “We have these.” I hold them up in the air, doing my best to show them off without being off putting.
“Are those the only ones you have?”
“Yes,” I nod. “We haven’t gotten the rest of our summer stock yet. You can come back in a few weeks, if you’d like to look at the full selection.”
She clasps her hands together, weighing her decision. “That may be the best thing to do. It will give me a chance to ask what size she wears. Until then, can you hold these for me?”
“Absolutely.” Setting the dresses behind the counter, I make a note to hold until the rest of the collection comes in. “Can I get your name to ensure nobody grabs these?”
“Yes,” she huffs. She acts like I’m supposed to know who she is. “It’s Diane.”
My eyes go wide when she mentions her name. Doing my best to school my features into a blank mask, I turn. “There we go. It shouldn’t be more than two weeks before we have the new merchandise in.”
There’s no goodbye, or thanking me for keeping the shop open much later than usual, to accommodate her. Good riddance.
At least I’ll have some juicy information to bring to the table when I make it to the coffee shop. Tonya is going to lose her shit.
And so much for eating my lunch for dinner. It’s a good thing they have pastries at the coffee shop, or I might starve until I make it home later tonight.
* * *
“Absolutely not,” Tonya shrieks. “You will not, under any circumstances, sell that woman a dress for my child.”
That’s exactly the reaction I knew she would have. Not that I blame her. Everything I’ve heard about Jake’s parents has been awful. They sound like miserable people who want to control everyone.
“I second that,” Charleigh says from the big red couch next to Tonya. Some days it’s weird to me that the two of them hang out, but I’m happy they don’t fight like most people who share a child. “That woman is unhinged,” she shudders. “I’ve only had thepleasureof meeting her twice, and that was two times too many.”
“Maybe she’ll forget, and won’t come back,” I say, trying to calm my cousin down. “That’s probably the best-case scenario for everyone involved. I mean who exactly is she going to ask for Layla’s size? It’s not like you’re going to hand that information over freely. And, I’m pretty sure Jake isn’t talking to them.”
“He’s not,” Charleigh chimes in.