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“But what did you want before?” he asks, indignant to be left hanging.
“I’ll tell you after. You don’t wanna keep Lucia waiting, do you?”
At the mention of the realtor’s name, he springs into action, quickly following me out.
Chapter Eight
EMILY
“Can you watch things around here for me?” Dan leans down and digs for his keys behind the counter.
“Going to see Andrew again?” I ask, bored with my spreadsheets.
“Nah, I need to make the day’s deposit.”
He finds his keys, shoves them in his pocket, and then goes digging into the register to see if there is anything worth taking to the bank there.
“Shouldn’t take more than an hour. Although, I do wanna drop by at Carla’s work.”
“You’re the boss.” I sigh but smile.
This store opened two years ago and is already very successful. With a second and a third store in sight, I won’t be shocked if someday this turns into a national chain.
Thank goodness for nepotism too, because I never would have got a manager gig in a store this big, not with my experience as a pregnant waitress and coffee barista.
Dan settles the envelopes then places them inside his briefcase. Shoving it under his arm, he smiles at me and leaves.
He passes by Helena and the other employees, warning them that I’m the one in charge, as if they don’t know that already.
I walk out from behind the counter and go see Helena. She’s our best sales representative and has shown enough leadership to ask for a spot as a manager in the new store, and I personally think she’d do a great job.
“Helena,” I gently call for her attention, as she’s busy dusting shelves and snowboard shoes. "Should we put up signs for our winter clearance in the window displays?"
"Hmm," she muses, pausing to think. "With spring around the corner in a few weeks, it might be the perfect time."
"Yeah, we could draw in some customers looking for deals," I suggest.
Taking a moment to finish her task, she brushes the dust off her hands onto her black pants before responding, "Sounds like a plan.”
“Alright, I’ll go get the window keys. You head for the stock room to grab the clearance signs. I’ll join you in a sec.”
I turn around and shout out, “You two!” at the front of the store.
Danielle and Anna are the other two salesgirls of the store. They tend to clients as they come in, and do as they are told without a hitch, but show absolutely no initiative whatsoever. Those two will die sales representatives if nothing changes, and I don’t feel like I have it in me to help them with that.
“Yes, boss?” Anna asks, still giggling from whatever Danielle told her.
“Hold down the fort. I’ll be in the stock room. Be back in five minutes.”
Both girls show me a thumbs-up and start to giggle like schoolgirls. Hell, they are schoolgirls; the oldest being seventeen.
I start trotting to the back of the store and get the window keys from the bowl under the counter. After placing them in my pants pocket, I finally reach the stock room and find Helena there, being buried alive by sports jerseys.
“Oof, careful!” Now I’m the one giggling, going to help her and stop the shirts from falling. “What are these for?”
“Baseball,” she says, her tone light and amused. “I thought we could go ahead and start putting these out now too.”
We pick up the jerseys, and she piles them all in my arms. Helena picks up a tower of shoe boxes, plus the clearance signs under her arm just to show off.
