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“Oh, good,” she says quickly. “The day went by exceptionally fast. I couldn’t believe it. I have to tell you. I really enjoyed manning the store for you today.”
Mmmm, that’s strange. Persia has never enjoyed covering for me anytime I’ve asked her to. Yet, tonight she’s taken pleasure in it. I purse my lips. “That’s good to hear. So what made it so enjoyable?” She tells me nothing specific. That she can’t put her finger on what made the day at Paradise pleasurable. “Well, was it busy?”
“At times,” she tells me, sounding distracted. “There was a steady flow of customers. And then there were a few hours where it was sort of slow. But, it gave me time to refold clothes and do some of my own work.”
“That’s good. How were sales?” I ask, walking into the bathroom and placing her on speakerphone while I wet a washcloth. I lather it up, then wash my face.
“Very good. I sold a few tees and a Judith Leiber piece.”
“Oooh, which one?” I ask excitedly. She tells me The Grand Dutchess piece. I smile. That’s a thirty-nine-hundred-dollar bag. She tells me I pulled in close to six grand today. “Oh, that’s great, girl. Shit, I need to have you cover for me more often.”
“Girl, you know I got you. Annnnnytime, boo.”
Unh-uh, something isn’t right. “Oh, reaaaaaallly, now?” I walk back into the room, sitting on the bed. “Hmmm. Sounds like there was a whole lot more happening there than sales.”
“Oh, no. Not at all,” she responds, quickly again, still sounding preoccupied. “Other than those sales, it was a pretty uneventful day.” Something’s not right. It’s in her tone. An uneasy feeling settles in my stomach. Desmond pops in my head. I ask her if there were any calls or messages for me. I didn’t think to tell him I was going to be out of town for the night. Not that it’s any of his business. Still, it would’ve kept him from calling for me at the store and Persia picking up. Oh God, I hope he didn’t call me today. “No, nothing I couldn’t handle. And there were no messages for you.”
“Oh, okay,” I say, surprised that I’m a little disappointed; yet, relieved at the same time that he didn’t call. “Good.”
“Why?” she asks, curiosity coursing through her tone. “Were you expecting a call from someone?”
“No. I was only asking.”
“Oh. Well, enough shop talk. I wanna know how things are going in Lancaster with you and the Wicked Witch?”
I shake my head, sighing. “Don’t start, Persia. She’s really been trying. Actually, things have gone great. We’ve gotten along. And—”
“Whatever. How many times did you have to ignore something she’s said sideways?”
“A few…” She laughs. “Look, that’s beside the damn point. The fact is we’ve had a good day together.” I tell her how we shopped and laughed and had dinner at this nice restaurant where we ate homemade chicken pot pies, then went to one of the local bakeries and gobbled up apple dumplings and shoo-fly pie for dessert. “We were like two greedy pigs,” I say, laughing. “You should have seen us.”
“Oh, joy; how exciting. Oink, oink, so glad I missed the pig show.”
“You know, you can be such a bitch sometimes.”
She laughs. “Takes one to know one, boo. So where is she now?”
“In her room knocked out.”
She grunts. “Well, look. Let me go. I have a few more things to handle here before I head home.”
“Home? Where are you?”
“Still here at the boutique.”
I glance over at the digital clock on the nightstand. It’s almost ten o’clock at night. I raise a brow. “What, this late? What in the world are you still doing there this time of the night?”
“Well, I straightened up, closed out the register, then ended up doing some website stuff.”
“Girlfriend, that doesn’t take all night,” I state, frowning.
“And I worked on a few sites for three new clients while I was here. Time slipped by. But I was able to get a lot of work done today.”
“Oh,” I say, pausing. There’s a lie floating around somewhere in all of this. I just don’t know where it is, or what it is. But I’m sure, it’ll be discovered. “Well, thanks again, for holding things down today.”
“Anytime, Sis. You know I’ll always have your back.”
“I know you will,” I say, trying to shake the unsettling feeling rising up in my stomach.
