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“I didn’t realize you were still asleep…” He pursed his lips. “Yeah. I should have enough for two.”
He then passed me a plate with a couple of fresh waffles on it. I smiled softly before taking it to the counter. I found the butter and syrup and then started to eat. Jesse said nothing as I ate and he manned the waffle iron.
Part of me wanted to say something, but I supposed it was not that hard to learn when we got to the fire station.
“What time is your meeting?” I tried to make conversation.
“Ten this morning. Why do you ask?”
“I have somewhere to be around ten this morning as well,” I admitted. “Jesse…”
“Well, that can be easily done, because once I leave, you’re going to be able to leave. I’m going to go out early this morning and get some other things done,” he said without giving me a chance to say anything more. “I’ll see you when I see you next.”
“Oh. All right.”
I didn’t know what to say now. However, I soon learned it did not matter. Jesse simply unplugged the waffle iron, scooped two of the waffles up from the plate of waffles, and walked to the front door. The front door opened, and then shut quickly. Outside, I could hear the crunching of the gravel under his shoes.
“Well, I suppose that leaves me time and space to prepare the display here before I take it out to my car.” I sighed.
I finished my waffles and cleaned up the kitchen a little. The waffle iron was still hot, so really, all I did was put the dishes in the sink and let the waffle iron cool while I set up my display.
Upstairs, I pulled out the large posterboard that Maria and I had decorated. It looked a little bit like a school project, but that was all our budget would afford right now. It’d have to do. Hopefully, the fire fighters we were working with would understand that we were a new business and didn’t have the same kind of budget that other businesses in the area had.
The poster board made the trip out to the car first. It was the largest thing I was taking. Therefore, it needed to be the first thing out to the car to make sure I had enough room for it. It managed to fit in the backseat without needing to be folded. If it had needed to be folded, I would have stuck it in the trunk. It did have a place to fold it that wouldn’t be obvious, but I didn’t want to have to do that.
Not if I could avoid it, anyway.
Once that was in the trunk, I gathered the jewelry that I was taking. It had mostly already been pulled aside from the reserves I kept for online orders, but I double-checked against the list I had on my phone.
The simple earrings, bracelets in red, necklaces with orange and yellow in the beads… it was all here. I packed a few of my displays to be safe since I wasn’t sure what kind of an area we’d have to display what we were selling.
I also had to wonder what Maria was bringing. She had promised that it would be just as spectacular as my jewelry but hadn’t given me any indication of what it would be.
I shook my head.
“I can learn that when I get there. I should probably leave a little early so that I can set up before the rest of the firefighters arrive…”
I glanced at my phone’s clock. It was only eight-thirty in the morning. I could probably wait another half an hour before I left. If the GPS on my phone was right, it’d take about a half hour to get there this early with traffic, and I wanted about a half hour to set everything up. It was mainly the jewelry displays I suspected would give us trouble.
I was just about to head back upstairs to start beading something else when my phone buzzed at me.
It was just a text from Maria. I walked inside anyway and checked it. There were just some days that I couldn’t see the screen on my phone outside for the life of me. Today was one of those days.
Need help setting up. Come to fire station early, please.
Maria… I sighed. What had she brought that would require two people? Had she actually taken a set of curtains to show off? Unless they were red and orange and yellow – like a fire – I doubted that it would be something that people would be interested in today.
Regardless, I texted her back that I’d be there as soon as possible and got in my car.
The drive to the fire station was indeed about a half hour, and there I found Maria struggling to set up not curtains, but a table to put her purses and a few pictures of her curtains on. At least she had done something sensible.
“Maria, where did you get this table?” I asked as I walked over. “And why is it giving you so much trouble?”
“I bought it second-hand so that I could have something for the store to set my purses on,” she admitted. “Help, please.”
Chapter eleven
Eleven: Jesse
