He laughs. “Is your mom okay with me hanging out at the store all day?”
“She’s not going to be there at all,” I tell him, the words feeling awkward as they leave my mouth. “She’s never taken off work unless she was really sick. Also, she’s only giving me thirty days, so I’m not sure how we’ll change her mind in that short of a time span.”
Jonah puts a hand on my knee and gives me one of his classic reassuring smiles. “We will. My mom’s annoying book club friends are coming over today to shop, and we have a meeting with Sue Cho at two.”
“A meeting?” I say, giving him a look. “Isn’t Sue Cho the name of a girl at school?”
“She’s the student council president,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows at me as if he just introduced me to a celebrity.
“Okay…?”
We’ve arrived at the store, so he walks over to my side and slides his arm around my waist. “Just trust me. I’ll explain it all in the meeting.”
Jonah’s mom is tall and beautiful, with long silky black hair and tanned skin a little darker than Jonah’s. They have the same eyes, but Jonah must have gotten a lot of his features from his dad. She arrives around eleven after having brunch with the seven women in her book club. Jonah introduces me to her and I mumble over a hello instead of being suave and charming like I’d tried to be.
All eight women have a lively discussion in front of our bookshelves while they decide which book to buy for this coming week’s club meeting.
After choosing a mystery novel, Mrs. Garza asks if we’d be able to order any book they want in advance.
“Yes, absolutely,” I say. “We can order any book online.”
“Wonderful. We’d like to use your store as our weekly book supplier.”
“You have book clubs weekly?” I ask, eyebrows raised. All the book clubs I’ve ever known take a month to read a book.
“Of course.” She glances at Jonah and smiles at him the way moms always smile at the children they love. “The best way to live is by reading at least one book a week.” She hefts four different hardbacks onto the counter. “These are just for my personal reading,” she says, giving me a grin. “I tend to read more than the other women do.”
“Thank you so much for shopping here,” I say loud enough for all the book club ladies to hear. “I’m so glad to help you all. Are these separate orders or all together?”
“Separate, dear,” a short woman with a Botox face says. “But we’re not nearly finished shopping yet. Can you hold these up front for us?”
“Of course.” I stack their books on the counter in eight piles. Just like Jonah’s mom had done, every other woman buys at least one more book. I look over at Jonah and he winks at me.
“These are the women you need shopping in your store. Most of them don’t work and have wealthy husbands. And, none of them have never been here before. They didn’t know it existed.”
“This is awesome,” I say, mentally adding up how much profit we’ll earn on around thirty book sales. “But unless your mom has a different book club with hundreds of other women each week, this won’t help us much in the long term.”
“No, but everything put together will.” Jonah wiggles the mouse on the computer. “How do I log in here?”
I log him into the store’s account and he goes to the website for the software we use to keep track of inventory and purchases.
“Whatcha doing?” I ask over his shoulder. I can’t help but inhale the sweet clean scent of him and I hope he doesn’t notice.
“I want to kiss you so bad right now,” he says in a low whisper. “My mother better leave soon.”
I slap him playfully on the back. “I want them to stay a long time and buy lots of stuff,” I whisper back.
“I see how it is… money is more important than kissing me.” He turns around and grins at me and we’re standing so close my boobs slide against his arm.
“That’s not a fair question,” I whisper back. My lips are tingling with the desire to lift up on my toes and kiss him, but that won’t happen with his mom just a few feet away. I need to be professional so I can secure these women as repeat customers.
Jonah clears his throat and I notice his ears are red. He turns back to the computer and I press up against his back, leaning to the side to see what he’s doing.
“Your point of sale software comes with a free add on download for customer loyalty. As I suspected, you don’t have that option set up here yet.”
“What is it for?” I ask.
He clicks around on the website and then a downloading box appears. “You input the customer’s phone number each time they purchase something. After a certain amount of purchases, they get a reward. Like the stamp cards at the frozen yogurt place.”
