Miranda

Chapter Ten

"Abuse and respect are diametric opposites: You do not respect someone whom you abuse, and you do not abuse someone whom you respect."

― Lundy Bancroft

~Miranda~

Another busy day. And we are short staffed because all the trained staff have to be paired with one of the new seasonal hires, which means everything is running extra slow today. Tensions are running high too, not all these new people are ready for working in a polite society. The pretty little girl on the far register has rolled her eyes so many times I think she has the ceiling tiles counted by now. She also doesn't take criticism, and not like doesn't take it well, she doesn't take it at all. And then there is the flirting problem, I originally had her paired with Chris from the shoe department but I think he was trying to get her number in front of customers, so I switched her over to Gina.

But at the moment I have to run and relieve the girl in the customer service booth who has needed to pee for the last thirty minutes. I am weaving in between the isles in an effort to dodge customers. Not that I don't want to help them, but every time I have tried to come back here, I have been apprehended by another one asking for something.

"So sorry!" I squeal out as I slide to a stop at the door, punching in the code.

"No problem!" Valerie rushes by me, leaving the customer she was helping behind, mid transaction.

"Sorry!" I tell the customer as I survey what is going on, it is a simple return, so I quickly pick up where she left off. "We have been busy" I try to explain.

"Oh no worries hun, when you gotta go, you gotta go." The man says, grinning at me.

Valerie comes back a few minutes later looking much better. I leave the booth and head back to the front to check on all of my trainees. I cut through the towels but get snagged by a young man asking about a set of place mats we have on sale. I lead him over to the isle with all the dining room accessories.

"Do you have these in the dark blue?" he asks me holding up a mat with a swirly pattern in pink. "The ad shows a blue one, and I want my new apartment to look nice for when my grandma comes to visit. Gotta make her proud of me, right?"

I force a pleasant smile on my face, "Of course. Let me go check the stock room, I will be right back, just stay in this area so I can find you again." I take a good look at his shirt and tell myself it is red with a Baylor College logo on it. I know that logo well so I should be able to remember.

I dash into the stock room and up the stairs to where the overstock for the towels and other linens are kept. I find the blue mats he wanted and grabbed a set of the matching napkins and napkin rings for good measure. I have to hunt a little for the guy when I get back out on the main floor because he wandered into the bath accessories. I find him looking at shower curtains.

"Here you are" I proffer the mats. "And I found the matching napkins and rings as well if you want them." I show him the other items.

"Oh wow, those are great! Thank you!" he takes them and puts them in his basket.

"I just graduated, and my grandmother wants to come see the new doctor in the family." He turns back to the shower curtains.

"I assume you just graduated from Baylor?" I ask politely.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" his face lights up.

I inwardly cringe, he is wearing a shirt that says Baylor for crying out loud, how good of a doctor is he?

"Uh" I point to his shirt, "your shirt. I went there too for a while."

"No shit! Did you live in the dorms? I don't remember seeing you and I am positive that I would have remembered a cute girl like you." He gives me a wink. Oh lordy.