Chapter 1
“Hey, Gabe did we get that Amythyst in yet? I want to see about making some necklaces with it?” Claire asks as she pulls back the curtain to the small kitchen.
Claire doesn’t understand that I don’t make decisions before I have at least one if not three cups of coffee in me. Especially lately with not sleeping much there’s a major weird energy going on and it is not the full moon this time. Sipping my coffee, I point towards the pile of inventory that just came in yesterday.
“It might be in there I don’t know since someone left me hanging to go on some hot mysterious date last night.” I lay on the sarcasm as thick as possible. "Speaking of which where did that gorgeous white rose come from?" I nanchalantly ask as I point to the single white rose sitting in the middle of the table.
Claire rolls her eyes and starts towards the coffee pot. “There is no room in here for your negativity coffee or not. That came from my amazing date last night. Ugh she was so wonderful. Charming, sweet and extremely funny." Claire answered with a dreamy look in her eyes.
"So when do I get to meet her?" I ask as I follow her up front. We only have about 5 minutes till we open and it is summer, so all the tourists are going to be wandering through.
“Don’t forget we have that bachelor and bachelorette party booked tonight.” Claire tosses over her shoulder as she goes to flip our closed sign to open.
"Yes, I know you have only told me about 100 times since they called to book it last week." I retort as I sit my coffee down on the counter. "Do you want to man the front while I do inventory or do you want to do inventory and leave me up here?" I start to rearrange all the various pamphlets that litter the front counter. I knew in my heart that it was good to help others, but all the papers scattered up here were driving me mad. They got everywhere. I made a mental note to order the organizer that I had seen advertised this morning.
"Hey, I am going to go work on sorting the inventory and working on making some of those Labradorite necklaces for the festival this weekend. I think all the crafters will love them." Claire called over her shoulder as she walked to the back. "Let me know if you get busy and I'll come back up."
"Will do. I don't think we will be too busy it is still early in the summer season." I jinxed myself I knew as soon as those words left my mouth that it was going to get crazy and crazy it did. The next thing I knew we had two different busses of people and the store was filled to capacity. I spent the next several hours talking to people about different products and their uses. Spent just as much time explaining that no in fact we do not make voodoo dolls that actually work nor can we curse people. We finally got a break in the masses and hurried up and closed for lunch.
"Wow! That was insane." Claire exclaimed as she flopped on the fainting couch we kept by the front door. "Where did they all come from? You are never allowed to utter the phrase 'I don't think we will be that busy' ever again or at least until we get some more help."
I flopped down next to her. "I am truly sorry I jinxed us this morning. I honestly didn't think that would happen already. I'll buy you lunch. How about from the Thi place you love so much."
"I don't love the Thai place you love the Thai place." Claire retorted, "But it does sound good. We probably do need to look into hiring at least one extra person this summer. Maybe someone that we can call in on delivery days and weekends. I think we have finally crept over that edge of leariness and people actually know about us and talk about us. Business has been picking up a lot." Claire rolled her head towards me. I knew that look and it was one where she had already made up her mind and just wanted me to agree with her.
"That sounds like a good idea especially if every day is going to be like this and it is only Tuesday." I quickly agreed. I knew we needed help I had just been dragging my feet because I was worried business would fail. People here were leery of anything that oozed with the unknown or seemed against the church. It seemed though here recently that business had picked up. Maybe people were just curious or wanted to see what all the gossip was about. Who was I to complain it helped keep business going. I got up to go order lunch.
"Do we need anything else while I am out?" I asked as I walked to the back to grab my phone and wallet.
"I don't think so. I am just going to work on some of those jewelry pieces for this weekend while you are gone and sort the boxes. Ya know those ones I said I was going to do 3 hours ago." Claire said rolling her eyes.
I hurried up and got my stuff and walked out the door. Little did I know that this would be my last normal afternoon for awhile.
