AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The first words out of my mouth to our offsite security company were, “Have the police contacted us for our security feed?” That surprised the technician on the hotline a little bit, but he came back saying, “No request, Sir, no.”
I asked him to review the feeds front and back and gave him a wide time frame for the review. He promised to call if there were any individuals at all showing on the feed, known or unknown.
Less than thirty minutes later, the same tech called me. “Nothing on the front of the building, Sir. However, there is some coming-and-going in the back alley. What would you like me to do with that footage?”
I gave him the policeman's name and phone number from Amy's information. I just asked him to identify our building as adjacent to the bakery and to put my name and number on the security feed he would send with the cops. This wasn't their first dance. He knew what to do.
I was that worried, so I called the bakery again.
“Amy, it’s Mr. Peterson again. Did the vandals do any equipment damage in Samantha’s kitchen?”
I heard Amy hesitate. But it had been an exciting morning for them, and I didn't think much of it. She finally said, “Mr. Peterson, I'm just not sure. I'm not sure that Alex and Samantha have gotten that far in their clean-up yet.”
Amy knew I had already fixed the deep fryer. I volunteered, “Listen. I know a lot about machinery. All kinds. Really. It's what I do. If Samantha wants me to look over the equipment so that she knows what kind of repair technician to call, let me know. Please. I willnotdo the repairs, because, of course, it will be an insurance thing. Any repair needs to be done so that it's covered by her insurance. But I could save her some time. Get it?”
Amy sounded relieved, “Oh, Mr. Peterson! You aresucha good neighbor! What a wonderful way to gain some time. I'm not sure, though, that Samantha can get to that today. But I’ll let her know about your offer.”
Since Amy was my lifeline to the beautiful Samantha, I asked, “Amy? I'm not just your neighbor. I’m a business owner like Samantha with employees to protect. And Iamconcerned about all of you. How are you, Alex, and Samantha holding up? Anything I can do? Like maybe, hmm, bring over some food??”
That made Amy laugh. Good! Whew! She admitted, “With all of her baking ingredients thrown every which way, I'm not sure she's thinking about eating! But Alex and I would welcome some breakfast.” And she laughed again.
I said, “Give me one hour, and then watch for me out front.”
I called the breakfast diner that I'd frequented before Samantha opened her business. I asked them to prepare six meals. Three of them were breakfasts and three of them were sandwich lunches.I had them delivered to my address. The food wouldn't be hot, but it would be nourishing.
Wondering about Samantha, and whether she had called her boyfriend/husband about the incident, I hoped that she would agree to let me examine her equipment and test it.
When the food arrived at my place, I called Amy. We chatted out on the sidewalk in front of the bakery. She told me, “I haven’t had a minute to talk to Samantha. A policeman came back and she went with him. I guess to the station. I thought she had already made a statement so no idea why she had to go. She told me she would head over to her insurance agent’s office when she was done with the cops. No clue when she'll be back. I'm helping Alex clean up in the back. But then a real cleaning crew will be coming in.”
I nodded and handed her the two bags of food, explaining what I had done.
“Thank you so much! You aresowonderful to us! I do have to get back to it, though. Thanks so much for the food. I think we'll all be doing overtime today.”
I said, “I’m sure her boyfriend is happy that she has your support, Amy!”
Never noticing Amy’s odd look at me, I said my goodbye and turned on my heel to head back to work.
I wished I were doing that overtime with Samantha.
I sucked it up and went back up to the office.
Samantha
In all, the vandalism and clean-up had closed the shop for three full days. But it took nearly another full week for business to pick up anywhere close to usual.
Also, the police got their man! Not only was I relieved. So were Alex and Amy. I needed my staff not just tofeelsafe but to genuinelybesafe.
It was later that early afternoon when Alex had already gone for the day, that Amy cornered me.
She put her fist on her hip and leaned on the doorway to the kitchen.
When I finally looked up at her, she asked, “So when were we going to meet your new boyfriend?”
My face pinched. Uh-oh. What's this?
Amy persisted, “So this is a secret? Inquiring mind wants to know if you're dating someone behind our backs!”
Her question tore into me! How did she know? Leighton was definitely not my boyfriend. I thought of him though the second she said the word.
