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The mug I’d handed Everly had a moose on it.
“Does she have any hobbies?” Everly asked.
I sighed. “Well, she does love hiking.”
“What about a mug? She doesn’t have to use them for drinks. They’re great for holding pens, or for spare change. And this one has the sweetest little moose on it. Each of our mugs is also handmade, so no two of them are alike,” she said.
“I don’t know,” I said, taking the mug from her as the customer.
Everly leaned close to me as if she was going to share a secret. “Now, I don’t normally do this, but how about I offer you a special discount and I’ll wrap it up for her so you don’t even have to worry about wrapping paper.”
I smiled.
“You’re hired,” I said.
* * *
Everly was thrilledand I went ahead and got her information and told her I was going to check her references, but if everything was good to go, she could come in on Wednesday for her first training shift.
I could tell she was trying to hold back her excitement as she thanked me and then walked out of the shop to do a little happy dance on the sidewalk. Cute.
“Hey Mom?” I said, going into the back.
Mom looked up from the pot she was painting. “Huh?”
“I just hired someone to help part time. You’ll meet her on Wednesday.”
Mom blinked at me a few times.
“Sydney, you did what?” She set down her brush.
“I hired someone to help. We have the money and I can’t do everything anymore. She’s really nice and I’m going to teach her everything I know,” I said.
Mom sighed. “Oh Sydney. I wished you had consulted me before going ahead with this.”
“Ididconsult you. I tried to get you to look at applications and set up interviews and you wouldn’t, so I took matters into my own hands,” I said. “I need help, Mom.”
I hated saying that, but it was true. I’d been drowning in this job for a while and Everly had just thrown me a life preserver. If I had more help, then I might be able to do other projects and work on adding more products to the online store and do more marketing. Stuff I was good at. Packing boxes made me want to throw myself into the kiln.
Mom looked like she was going to argue, but then she stared into my eyes for a few seconds.
“Okay,” she said. “I trust you.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m going to have her train and be on a trial basis, but I have a really good feeling about her.”
“Your feelings are usually right,” Mom said.
“I know,” I said, and she tossed a wet paper towel ball at me.
“Modesty is a virtue,” she said.
“Modesty is boring,” I told her as I started wrapping a mug in tissue for shipping.
* * *
Lark messagedme off and on for the rest of the day and asked me what I was doing for dinner. I guess all our meals were going to be communal now, which was easier for both of us. She said since I’d done breakfast, she could handle dinner.
I’m fine with whatever you feel like makingI sent. Knowing that I didn’t have to cook tonight was pretty fucking great. It was almost like having Joy living with me again, except I had never wanted to have sex with Joy.
