Monday, June 29. 2009Benoni (Section 4)
I had a short morning shift Tuesday morning with Kim. It took me a while to ask her if anything catastrophic had happened the night before as Ben and Erica shared their first shift. I didn't want to seem nosy. I finally decided to just work to it from a sideways direction. "So. Ben seems to be working out pretty well here. Dave seems to have really bonded with him."
"I told you he was a good kid. My biggest worry at this point is not showing favoritism," she beamed. Right, I thought. "Guess I'll have to redouble my efforts to be your favorite, then," I sort of half-joked. "Oh, Rhys. It's not about who's my favorite. We're all just supposed to really enjoy selling books." "And getting paid in them too, I suppose." She laughed. "Good thing my husband pays all the bills. Otherwise I couldn't afford to work here." I chuckled somewhat ruefully at the truth of her words. Occasionally things got a little tight for me too. That was the problem with being a "book whore" as Kim gleefully referred to all of us. I couldn't really dispute it either, not having a whole lot of willpower when it came to spending time or money on books. I shook my head as I realized my thoughts had wandered off the course of my investigation. "Did Erica say it was busy last night? I half-expected from the way she usually handles new employees that the whole place would shine, but it looks like some of the magazine piles are slightly askew." There, that seemed subtle enough.
"Oh. I don't know. She didn't leave a note, and I haven't checked the till from last night yet. Ben said he had a really good time though. I was actually a little surprised. I expected Erica to give him a little bit of trouble to be honest. She's a little rough around the edges, bless her heart. But Ben apparently won her over. Said they even went for ice cream together after closing." I almost dropped the books I was holding. "Seriously?!" I didn't quite keep my voice under control and squeaked a little on that last syllable. "I know he's a cute boy, but that's no reason to be jealous." I couldn't tell if she was joking, but I definitely regretted that squeak. "Oh, I'm not jealous. He's a couple years younger than me anyway, isn't he? I'm just surprised that he won Erica over so quickly. She, um, usually takes some warming up to." I clearly needed to work on my detective skills. Poirot never got caught sussing out details so easily and Kim was painfully aware that I was interested in how things had gone last night. "Mmhmm. He's actually just a year younger than you, and I'd much rather. . .well, maybe I shouldn't say that as the boss. I'm playing favorites again. Jim keeps warning me I need to get along with her better," she trailed off muttering about how it should be impossible to have PMS constantly. I went back to work thinking about how wrong I'd been about Erica and Ben. It just seemed to so weird. She didn't get along with anyone at the bookstore well. Definitely not well enough to go out for ice cream. I decided to just let it go until my next shift with her. Maybe he shared some secret interest with her none of the rest of us had been able to uncover. Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
|
Handy LinksItems of InterestCategoriesBlog AdministrationSyndicate This BlogPowered byTheme dropdownBookmark |