Molly smelled better as soon as she was out of the thrift store clothes. She threw them in a heap on the floor. “Should I burn them?”
“If you wash them, you could use them for a retro costume.”
“Oh well, I guess I could donate them back.”
“Sure.”
We were both dressed and ready to take on the next challenge. I left the storeroom first and was surprised by the crowd Pinky had in her shop. I went to help her, with Molly at my heels. It was a group of people on a bus trip that had stopped in Brooks Landing to do some antique shopping.
When a number of them wandered into Curio Finds, I left Molly and Emmy in Pinky’s capable hands, which she later said was the worst thing I’d ever done to her. I didn’t know what she meant until I worked with them myself. It seemed the pressure of having a number of customers to wait on before they were fully trained and the fact that neither one appeared to like the other played a part in their first-day woes.
Emmy came into my shop about five minutes later, looking flustered. “Pinky said if you could go help her, I should mind your store.”
I excused myself from a customer I was helping. “All right. Well, answer whatever questions you can, and come get me if someone wants to buy something.”
Emmy forced out a smile and nodded.
Pinky and Molly were behind the counter. Molly acted like it was the first time she had ever held a cup of coffee in her hands. Her hands were shaking, and the hot brew was spilling out over the top. Pinky was actually sweating. I excused myself through the line of customers and stepped between the two of them. “Molly, why don’t you go help Emmy? I’ll finish up in here.”
She set the mug down without hesitation, wiped her hands on a towel, got around Pinky, and made her way into my shop without further disaster. Pinky shot me a look that would best be described as pleading. We’d worked her rushes together many times. I took orders from the next four people in line. Four specials coming right up.
3
I’d barely finished making and ringing up the drinks when I heard a crash and a cry of, “Oh no!” coming from my shop. Pinky was waiting on the last two people in line, so I broke away without feeling like I was deserting her. Lying on the old enameled ceramic tile floor, in a snow-filled puddle of water, was Marilyn Monroe wearing a long, flowing, strapless turquoise gown. I often admired the collectible globe. Amazingly, the figure was still intact. The water had likely insulated it in the fall.
I looked up from Marilyn to Molly. She was standing with her palms up, as if a police officer had directed her to do so. Her body was shaking, and I thought she might collapse. Three women closed in behind her to survey the damage. But my eyes were drawn to the woman Emmy was following out the door. It was Senator Ramona Zimmer. What in the world was she doing there? Following her husband, or spying on me?
I ran over to the door, and Emmy turned to me, flustered as could be. “I tried to catch that woman. I think she was the one who broke the globe, but she wouldn’t answer me. Should we call the police?”
Thoughts were spinning in my head so fast that it took me a minute to slow them down and process what was going on. Should we involve the police? I turned to the group standing close to Molly. “Looks like we had a little mishap,” I said.
Molly pointed at the snow globe mess on the floor then to a shelf a few feet away. “I was over there helping these ladies and had my back turned when we heard the crash. I don’t know what happened.”
Emmy used her thumb to point at the door behind her. “That woman who just ran out was staring at Molly and the others right before the snow globe dropped. She looked like she was waiting for her, so I asked her if I could help her find something. She said she was just looking, so I was going to help someone else. The next thing I knew that snow globe was on the floor in pieces.”
Molly nodded. “When I turned and looked at her the woman got the funniest look on her face, like she was surprised. I thought she was going to apologize for having an accident. I didn’t know what had fallen, or if it was even broken. Instead of offering to pay, she headed for the door without a word.”
The three customers agreed with Molly. Had Senator Zimmer come into my shop with the express goal of destroying some merchandise, or was the broken snow globe an accident, as Molly had supposed? It was freaky enough that Ramona had the guts to be there in the first place. Then to duck out after she had everyone’s attention was even freakier.
Emmy walked to the counter and picked up the phone. “Should I call nine-one-one?”
“No, I happen to know that woman, and I’ll get to the bottom of it,” I said. If I needed to, that is. I’d think on it and decide if it was worth it. I would just as soon never talk to her again. Ramona had come into my shop the same morning her husband had paid me an unwelcome visit. I didn’t believe it was a coincidence. They lived in a town about twenty miles away.
One of the customers said, “You know who that lady looked like? Senator Zimmer, the one who just lost the election.”
“Oh yeah, she does,” another agreed.
Ramona Zimmer may have tried to go incognito in her insulated long coat and animal print winter hat, but I’d recognized her immediately and was surprised the others didn’t know who she was. Of course, I’d worked beside her for years, and they had likely never seen her in person. I kept my mouth shut, not ready to either confirm or deny Ramona’s true identity.
After the commotion, the women left without making a purchase, and I picked up the pieces of the broken snow globe. I didn’t want Molly or Emmy getting glass stuck in their hands. And with the way the day was going, that was sure to be the next mini crisis. The two of them stood in opposite corners of the store, looking like two boxers about to go against each other in the ring. For the tenth time that day, I kicked myself for not following Erin and Mark’s advice. Had I known Molly would rub Emmy the wrong way, I would have suggested to Pinky that we hire Molly since she was the first to inquire. On the other hand, Molly was not proving to be overly capable.
I set Marilyn Monroe on a shelf then bent over to sweep up the glass with a small brush and dustpan I had brought from the storeroom. Lying on the floor next to the largest chunk of glass was a penny. I could have sworn it was not there a moment before. A penny from heaven, or specifically, a penny from my birth mother who, along with my birth father, went to heaven when I was five. I believed it was she who left me a penny once in a while. Sometimes it seemed like she was warning me about something, and sometimes it seemed like she was telling me things would be okay.
Thanks, Mama. Yes, my friends and family probably thought I was a bit loony and was imagining things more often than not. But the pennies had appeared out of nowhere when I was lonely or sad or in trouble or when something big was going on.
A second crash sent my eyes heavenward. “I’m so sorry,” Molly said and dropped down to pick up a plate she had knocked off a shelf. It had miraculously landed on one of the small mats lying on the floor and was not broken.
“Oh my stars and garters,” Emmy said and moved in from her corner.
I lifted my hands to form a T. “All right, ladies, let’s all relax and get on with a brief training. There are instructions by both the cash register and credit card machine.”
“You don’t use a square? A lot of the small businesses do,” Molly said.
“What are you talking about?” Emmy said in a near growl.
Molly drew her thumb and index finger together to indicate its size. “It’s a little square thingy that you connect to your smart phone, and then you can run customers’ cards through that.”
Emmy crossed her arms tightly against her waist. “What next.”
The day went downhill from there. After the morning rush, there weren’t too many customers, which enabled me to devote more time to training. Not that we got very far. I was relieved when it was lunchtime
and Emmy took the meal she had packed over to a table on Pinky’s side, and Molly left to get some soup and a sandwich at a nearby deli. Pinky’s business had quieted, so I waved her over to have a heart-to-heart. We went behind the counter, and I talked as quietly as possible. Even though Emmy was out of earshot, sometimes voices carried in strange ways.
“Pinky, I’m starting to wonder if Molly isn’t putting on an act after all. She’s struggling, but maybe that’ll ease as time goes on.”
“But she’s clumsy besides. That’s not a good thing in a shop that’s filled with glass items, or in my place where the main task is serving hot coffee.” She tugged at her headband. “Short of murder, how are we going to get rid of her?”
“Now, now, we have a few more hours in the day, and it’s the first day, after all. We’ll do more training and see how it goes.”
“I don’t know if I’ll make it. I’m not all that smart myself and even I can run a cash register.”
“You are very smart, Pinky. But no matter; Molly’s not the only one. Emmy’s having problems, too, and she has been crabby—bordering on nasty—to Molly. Which of course makes Molly even more anxious.”
“We’d be better off without either one of them working here, if you ask me.”
“You convinced me we need help for the holidays, so let’s not make a hasty decision here. Another day or two will tell us what we need to do. I’ll keep them both with me for the rest of the day, and we’ll do the coffee shop fifteen minutes at a time here and there until they are comfortable with running the till, at least.” I tapped her arm. “Oh, and something else I’ve been waiting to share with you for over an hour. You won’t believe it.”
“Do tell.” Pinky’s eyes grew rounder. She loved hearing stories; the juicier the better.
“You know when we heard that crash earlier and I left to take care of it?”
She thought a second. “Oh yeah, toward the end of that mad rush.”
“You will never in a million years guess who caused it.”
“Justin Bieber.”
“No. Worse. Ramona Zimmer. She dropped the Marilyn Monroe snow globe on the floor and broke it. And then she ran out without even apologizing.”
“Get out of here.”
“It’s true. I saw her leave. And I think she did it on purpose. But how would I prove it?”
“That is cold. And downright mean. The fact that she ran out after breaking an item without offering to pay for it screams guilty. I bet you’re right, that she did it on purpose.”
“Talk about immature. I think losing the election has made her a little wacky.”
The bell on Pinky’s door dinged, and she went back to Brew Ha-Ha. I waited until Molly and Emmy came back from lunch and were each fairly comfortable with running the cash register and credit card machine then decided I needed a break myself. “Will you two be able to handle the shop while I pick up some lunch and take a walk? It shouldn’t be more than thirty minutes.”
Molly and Emmy both raised their eyebrows like they thought I was kidding.
“Don’t worry. Pinky is here if you have any questions. Look at the shelves to familiarize yourself with what we have. Some people come in looking for specific things, like a snow globe with a barnyard scene in it. So the more you explore, the more you’ll know. My parents have boxes of new things in the storeroom and at their house. Well, they’re not all exactly new. Most of them are antique, one of a kind. We’ll be adding them as we have room.”
They glanced at the shelves, and as if by mutual agreement, Emmy went one way and Molly went the other. I grabbed my long wool coat from the storeroom, slipped out past Pinky, and told her I’d be back in a half hour.
Then I mouthed the words, “You’re the referee,” so her customer couldn’t hear me. Pinky gave her head a little shake. “Do you want anything?” I asked.
“Nothing that money can buy.”
I stopped by the Bread Man deli for a bowl of stuffed green pepper soup, one of my cold weather favorites. It was only forty-four degrees, but the sun was shining, so I opted to eat outside. I had my choice of any one of the twelve seats around the three small, round patio tables. The crisp air was refreshing compared to the heat created by the tension in our shops. I spooned soup into my mouth and considered how to make the new situation work. A person couldn’t make another person like someone, but I would try to smooth things over between Emmy and Molly.
Although at that particular moment, I didn’t care much for crabby Emmy or needy Molly. I preferred yelling over whining, but not by much. My adoptive mother had created a harmonious home, even with her Italian husband, who could be hotheaded at times. Harmony, that’s what I longed for among family and friends. And employees. One of them would have to go if they couldn’t be coaxed into getting along.
I finished my soup faster than normal, knowing the last thing Pinky wanted to be in life was a referee. When I got back to Curio Finds, Emmy was scowling, Molly was crying, and Pinky was hiding in her back room. My referee had left the game.
“I was just asking Emmy to show me how to use the credit card machine and she yelled at me,” Molly said.
“Molly, I asked you to step back because you were pushing against me so tightly that I couldn’t breathe,” Emmy countered.
“I’m sorry, but I like being close to people.”
“That’s suffocating. I live alone and I’m not used to all this togetherness.”
“Okay, Emmy, why don’t you come with me? It’s slow, so it’s a good time for Pinky and me to show you how to make the most popular coffees. Molly, you can get familiar with the categories of items we have on the cash register buttons. And remember that you have to push the sales tax button on every item you sell.”
Molly headed to the spot behind the counter, and Emmy followed me into Pinky’s shop. “Read over some of the drinks, and you can decide what you want to practice making. Look in the fridge under the counter so you know where Pinky keeps the different items. She likes to keep things in the same spots. That way she can reach in without looking. I’ll go get her.”
When Pinky saw me, she pretended like she was banging her head against the wall. “Put me out of my misery.”
Instead, I put my hands on her shoulders. “I’ve got Emmy making coffee. And Molly is working with my till. I think we need to show more confidence in the efforts the two of them are making. And we should keep them separated as much as possible. Emmy needs to lighten up, and Molly needs, well, she needs . . .”
Pinky pushed away from the wall and turned to me. “What she needs may not be something we can help her with.”
The bell on Brew Ha-Ha’s door dinged. Pinky straightened up like she was preparing to go into battle. “The afternoon rush is about to begin.”
I checked to see how Molly was doing in Curio Finds. There were no customers milling around, and she was spending more time studying the merchandise on the shelves. I joined Pinky and Emmy behind the counter.
“Emmy, would you check to be sure the tables are all wiped off in the back?” Pinky said.
“I can do that.” She picked up a damp cloth from the counter with one hand and a cup of coffee she’d made in the other. She headed into Curio Finds, and I thought she’d misunderstood what Pinky had asked. But a few seconds later, she reappeared minus the cup of coffee, still armed with the cleaning cloth, and went to check out Pinky’s tables.
There were a number of people I didn’t know, which was unusual. More groups of antique shoppers, I learned. Many of them took their coffee and wandered into my shop. I kept an eye as best I could, but most of them seemed to be simply looking. Emmy wandered around, talking to customers in both shops, and it occurred to me that maybe that should be her main role. She could be the first line of defense, answering questions to the best of her ability and refilling coffee cups. Our very own customer service specialist.
Pinky focused on whipping up different drink combinations and serving muffins and scones. She seemed more relaxed than she had all day, giving me hope that the worst was behind us and we could make our new arrangement work for the next few weeks. I patted the penny in my pocket, taking it as encouragement that things were on an uphill trend after all.
—
Since Pinky opened her shop at 7:00 a.m., we did our best to get her out the door between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., depending on what was going on. Both of our shops stayed open until 6:00 p.m., but it was unusual for either one of us to be overwhelmed with customers at that time of the day. With the Christmas shopping season approaching, that would likely change, and we’d need to extend our hours. It was a relief knowing we’d have two workers trained before long. Hopefully.
The afternoon rush was over by 3:15, and I told Pinky to take off. “Are you sure?” she said, sounding anything but.
“Yes, we will manage just fine. In fact, I’m going to send Emmy and Molly home pretty soon, too.”
She blew some air out of her mouth. “Good idea. All right, then, I’ll go home and bake. That always makes me feel better.”
Pinky gathered her things and was out the door in a flash. Not that she was in a hurry to get out of Dodge or anything. I went into my own shop and found Emmy frowning at a snow globe.
“Is everything okay?”
It took her some seconds to look at me. “What?”
“I was wondering how you’re doing.”
“Oh. Well, I hate to admit it, but I’m a little tired.”
“That’s understandable. The first day on the job is always tough. At least I think so.”
Emmy nodded but kept her opinion of how tough she thought the day had been to herself.
The Iced Princess Page 4
