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“Of course.”
She hands me the ring. It’s heavier than I thought it would be and the black stone shimmers like a rainbow trapped in a pitch-black sky. It’s beautiful. I turn the ring, admiring the different colors shimmering in the light. I love that the stone runs the entire length of the ring in a never-ending circle. Like the rainbow is endlessly chasing away the dark night. For some reason that speaks to me deeply. Maybe because ever since I found Jude, I feel like he’s chased away the bleakness of my life. It might be cheesy, but he’s like my own personal rainbow.
“What kind of stone is this?”
“It’s a black labradorite. It’s said to be a stone of protection and good luck.”
“It’s perfect. I’ll take it.”
June smiles. “I knew you’d find the perfect thing for your boyfriend here.”
“You were right. I’m so glad I came in here. I don’t know why you’re not flooded with customers. Everything in here is so well-crafted.”
June shrugs. “My daughter’s only been open about three months. She used to sell her jewelry in a few other boutiques but finally decided to give her own store a shot. She’s not very tech-savvy so she doesn’t have much in the way of a website or advertising yet.”
“I could help with that!” I say, excited at the prospect of helping this little shop succeed.
“That would be excellent. My daughter should be back any minute. I’m sure she’d appreciate the help.”
A gorgeous woman who looks like a younger version of June walks up with the same bright smile that she has. It’s obvious this is her daughter. I can immediately tell she’s just as lovely as her mother.
“What kind of trouble are you getting into, Mom?” she says teasingly.
“No trouble. This is… oh! I’m sorry, dear. I didn’t even ask your name.”
“It’s Winter…”
“Nice to meet you, Winter. I’m Lauren,” she says offering me her hand to shake.
“Winter here offered to help set up a website and advertising.”
“Really?” Lauren says, sounding surprised.
“Yes, absolutely! I love your shop, and I think everyone else will, too, once they know it’s here.”
“My budget is tight right now…”
I giggle. “I didn’t offer to do it for money. I want to help. You only need to pay for the web address and the hosting fees for the website. I’ll handle everything else.”
“You want to do this for free?” Lauren looks at me suspiciously.
I shrug. “I’m good at computers, and it wouldn’t take me long to get it up and running. Plus, the best form of advertising is social media. You can do that right from your cell phone. I’m not good at the advertising stuff, but a good website is the first step.”
It’s not a total lie that I’m not good at advertising, but I do know a lot about social media. In fact, I’m in the middle of creating an app that will streamline advertising to multiple social media outlets. I started working on it when I realized finding a job wouldn’t be as easy as I thought. Working on the app has been a good distraction; if I can perfect it, it could be a good source of income.
Making apps isn’t really what I want to do, but it’s something I can do in my free time when I’m not working at Lush or applying for jobs. Now that I’ve met Lauren, I’m excited to finish the app. It would make advertising for a small business like hers so much easier. Especially since she’s not tech-savvy. The whole concept of the app is to make it easy to do something that most apps make overly complicated.
“I don’t know why you’d offer to do something like that for a total stranger.”
June elbows her daughter. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Just say yes and thank you.”
Lauren looks exasperated by her mom’s meddling, but I can tell she wants to accept the offer and is just struggling with my doing it for free. I suddenly get an idea and hold up the candle.
“What if we do a trade? I’ll build your website, and you let me have this amazing-smelling candle.”
June nudges Lauren again. “Do it.”
“Okay, you have yourself a deal.”
