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No more being kept up all night by drunk students from the local bar.
I was trading my less-than-comfortable surroundings for even fewer home comforts. But this was the chance I’d been waiting for.
A fresh start.
An opportunity to finally do something worthwhile with my life.
It was only one summer, but one summer could change everything. I knew that more than anyone.
Only this time, I hoped it would change my life for the better.
* * *
“Penny, there are racks to organize,” Tiffany, the owner-manager of Vrai Beauté, barked disapprovingly. “You’ve been very distracted this week.”
Taking a deep breath, I moved toward the rack and started rearranging the dresses. She was right, I was distracted. I needed to talk to her, but I hadn’t been able to find the words yet.
You can do this.
Scanning the shop, I made sure it was empty. Tiffany didn’t like chitchat when there were customers.
She didn’t appreciate chitchat at all.
The nerves somersaulted in my stomach again, but I inhaled another deep breath and approached her. “Actually, Tiff… there’s something I need to discuss with you.”
She glanced up from the counter and arched her eyebrow with a look that said, ‘what could you possibly have to discuss with me.’
“Yes?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
Irritated, Tiffany said, “Well, don’t just stand there. Out with it, Penny.”
God, why was this so hard?
“I… I applied to work at a summer camp. Camp Chance out in Hocking Hills. They offered me a position. It means I’ll be gone for the summer.”
When I’d spotted the ad for summer work at Camp Chance, a camp for fostered teenagers situated in Hocking Hills State Park, I had applied with zero expectations. With no experience and only a couple of childhood camping trips on my résumé, I didn’t expect to make it past the paper application. But in less than two weeks, I would pack my bags and leave for the summer.
“Aren’t you a little old for camp?” Tiffany replied, running her eyes up and down my body with a mocking brow. “I’m not sure I can hold your job here for that long, Penny. If that’s what you’re asking?”
She let out a huff of disapproval, and my heart sank. Of course, she couldn’t just congratulate me or show any interest in my news. It was exactly the reason I’d put off telling her until now. Because Tiffany was everything I wasn’t. Rude and brusque, she didn’t have a kind or compassionate bone in her body.
“If you can’t hold it, I understand.” I gulped down the disappointment lodged in my throat.
Tiffany pursed her lips and looked like she might say something else, but obviously thought better of it as she dropped her eyes and continued checking over price tags.
It was silly really. Tiffany wasn’t someone I considered a friend—I didn’t make friends with anyone—and she only spoke to me when the job required it. In fact, I think she only hired me because she had felt sorry for me the day I interviewed for the job.
I’d missed the bus and had to walk five blocks in the heavy rain. By the time I arrived, I was soaked through, my hair plastered to my face, but I’d insisted on continuing with the interview.
I needed a job, and I didn’t like to rely on second chances.
The doorbell chimed pulling me from the embarrassing memory, and I glanced up to watch a group of girls enter the store. They were laughing about something, and I immediately busied myself with the rack, trying to ignore them.
Over the last year, it had gotten easier. My job at Vrai Beauté was my first customer service position, all part of the plan to take control of my life. ‘You need to be around people more. You need to learn to live again,’ my therapist had repeatedly told me.
He didn’t count my previous job at the university’s library working in the storeroom or the one before that where I worked in the kitchen of a busy hotel.
