Woman Up (Port Ranch Book #2)

Chapter 9

WALKER

The bell chimed as I opened the door and the elderly lady working the front counter greeted me right away. “Good morning! How can I help you today?”

“Yes, I have a pick-up for Walker Lee.”

“Sure, give me just a moment.” She took my dry cleaning ticket and made her way into the back while I glanced over the announcements and business cards that other patrons had stuck on a bulletin board in front of the dry cleaners.

The first time I dropped my clothes off here, I was nervous about how they’d treat my expensive suits. In the end, there were no worries. They were quick and efficient, usually with just a twenty-four-hour turnaround. Suits were a staple item for me, even now that I worked in a casual environment. I’d travel to get them cleaned if I needed to, but I was thankful that wasn’t necessary.

Even at my old office, some co-workers scoffed at me always dressing up. I wasn’t trying to seem like I was better than anybody, but being a young man in a field like accounting, your looks and the way you presented yourself made a difference in how people treated you. I saw it firsthand when I was interning in college. Other interns wore polos and khaki pants and they were asked to make coffee runs and deliver paperwork. I wore an expensive suit and I was asked to shadow important meetings and help clients right away.

As the lady hoists the week’s worth of dry cleaning onto the hanger, I pull out my debit card and set it on the counter. Rather than take my card, so hands me a slip of paper.

“What’s this?”

“Your receipt. We’ll see you next time, Mr. Lee.”

“I still need to pay,” I hold my card up for her.

She looks at my dry cleaning ticket and then on the tag on the clothing, “Hmm, It shows here that you’ve already paid.”

“There must be a mistake, I always pay when I pick them up. Can you double-check for me? I don’t want you to be out anything on a clerical error.”

She makes some humming noises as she works through the computer, clicking and scrolling and then nodding. She moved her reading glasses back up her head and then turned the screen so that I could take a look.

“Looks like it was paid for on Wednesday by a Beverly Port. Oh, Bev! That’s right, I took her payment.”

“Why did Bev pay for my dry cleaning?”

“I’m not sure, Mr. Lee. She had dropped off some tablecloths, but now that I’m thinking about it, she did ask to pay for an order. I didn’t put two and two together when you said your name, but yes, it was you.”

“Did you ask her why she paid for it?”

“No,” she shakes her head, “but my girl Leila was here and she said maybe you two were a couple, but she’s engaged to that fella. That isn’t you, right?”

“Uh, no, ma’am. I’m not seeing or engaged to anybody.”

“Well,” she hands back my receipt, “that’s all I have for you, Mr. Lee. I guess talk to Bev?”

“Yeah,” I grumble. “I’ll have to do that, thank you.”

I wasn’t planning on going to the ranch today, but now I feel like I need to figure out what is going on with Bev. I told her not to pay for my dry cleaning. I know she felt bad about the incident, but it was also just an accident. Tracy actually did god’s work with the stain to begin with and by the time I took it in to get dry cleaned you could barely see that anything was wrong with it.