The book worm

38

I've decided to talk to my advisor about dropping the class where my professor makes me feel uncomfortable and as of right now Hunter is away . We FaceTime but he's still really busy doing whatever he's doing .
I organize the books from left to right in alphabetical order And the numeric system we have put in place at the store .

"Aja do you think you can cover tonight's closing shift as well " asked my coworker dale.

I don't really care for dale , he kinda just sits behind the counter and only interacts with girls if they come in . I sigh the one thing I didn't wanna do is be here form open to close but I turn around with a smile and say " sure it's not a problem just make sure our manager knows that I took your shift ok ?".

Dale holds out a fist and brightly smiles at me "you're the best " and I begrudgingly fist bump him .

I roll up the sleeves of my Burnt orange cardigan and start pushing the cart to the counter.

We have new weekly displays coming in after taking down our Labor Day ones, not to mention the newest New York best seller we need to put out and then I have to close the store and clean all by myself.

I took a deep breath this is what I wanted , a life of independence and freedom and adventure.
I wanted to move away and have my own place and my own bills and my own money .
I didn't realize I was crying until a tear fell on my hand , I tilt my head back and dab with my sleeve .

Let's just get this shit over with so I can go to bed .

The night progresses dale has skipped his way out of the store with a see ya later and only a few costumers mill about the store .

"Excuse me do you have a devils night storm here" an older lady asked me .
I handle customer service very well.
I smile at her .
"I'm sorry I don't believe we carry that book but I can check in adult fiction for you" I replied

" No I already checked there would you have it somewhere else " she replied with a sickening sweet grin.
    "Sorry ma'am if it's not on the shelf it's likely we don't have it we try and keep everything out and up to date " i wait for her replay as she looks at her phone .

   "Well it says you have it in your online store" she snaps .
       I nod  " yes some additions we have are only available if we order them I can get a store order in for you and we can have it by the end of the week "  
The more I look at her the more I know she's not gonna take this as an answer.

" can't you just grab it out the back , this is why I checked you guys website before driving all the way over here"

I make a quite inhale, and offer a bother solution " well ma'am I can have this book delivered right too you or I can  have it brought to the store but I can promise you we don't have books in the back and all of our books are gonna be out here. If you would like to shipping it to the store is no extra charge and I can have it at the end of the week ."

She looks annoyed " I wanna speak to your manager"

I deflated is this lady serious I've given her every option I can give and I'm the only one fucking here"

"I'm so sorry ma'am because this is a privately owned establishment with limited staff as of right now I'm the manager that can help you"  I say in a light fake voice that would have Siri run for the hills .

She huffs " fine put in the order "
I nod tell her to come  back at the end of the week and that was that .  Thank Buddha.

I'm glad she didn't make some sort of fuss , I literally hate when that happens

I sigh and lock the doors at 8:30pm  our standard time to close .
   I wipe the windows and dust the displays , count the register and input it into our system and I head out the ally way door with the trash .

Im done for the night so I go to turn in and what to I find .

:
*
  A fucking small calico kitten.

Of course im taking it home .