At Wick's End - Tim Myers [18]
On one of the rare breaks when we didn’t have any customers, Eve said, “Harrison, why don’t you take a few minutes and clean the storeroom.”
“I can take care of that after hours. I want to watch you work.”
“Honestly, I can’t work with an audience.”
I said, “Okay, I’ll try to hang back a little more, but how else am I going to learn?”
Eve said, “We have books to teach you all about candle-making. They’ll do a better job than I can.”
“How about this? I’ll try to stay out of your way. Honest.”
She sighed, then asked, “Have you ever run a cash register in any of your previous jobs?”
“I’m a whiz at one,” I admitted. “But I want to be able to sell on the floor, and I can’t do that until I have a better grounding.”
“You need to learn to take small steps before you’re ready to tackle selling on the floor. If you run the cash register when things get busy, I’ll let you follow me around other times. Is it a deal?”
“I guess so,” I said.
She looked at the clock and said, “Why don’t you take a quick lunch break?”
“Then I can cover for you?”
She said, “Hardly. I brought my lunch with me. I’ll eat here in the store.”
I started to protest, but I’d probably pushed her hard enough. It was a fine line, dancing between forcing her to help me and risking running her off entirely. I decided to keep my small advantage and grab a quick bite while things were slow at the shop. I thought about going to The Crocked Pot, but it looked like Millie was really busy with customers. Instead, I jumped into my old truck and drove into town, getting a hot dog and a Coke and driving back to River’s Edge as I ate. I knew I wasn’t gone long enough from Eve’s point of view, but I didn’t want to miss a thing.
I bumped into Lucas Young as I walked into the candle shop. “Mr. Young, were you looking for me?”
He nodded. “Eve told me you just went out for lunch.”
“I grabbed a quick bite, but I’m back now. What’s up?”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d have a bite with me. There are a few other things we need to go over, the sooner the better.”
I looked around the store and saw a lone man studying candlemaking kits. Eve overheard the question and said, “Go, Harrison, I have things under control here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” she said just a little too forcefully.
“Okay, but I won’t be gone long.”
The lawyer and I walked outside into the beautiful crisp autumn day. I said, “If you’d like, we can find a table at Millie’s and I’ll keep you company while you eat.”
He glanced at his watch, then said, “No, I’m not all that hungry. It was more of an excuse to get out of my office than anything else.”
“So you don’t have anything for me?”
He patted his briefcase. “I wouldn’t say that. Why don’t we sit at one of the benches that overlook the river? That way we can have some privacy for our conversation.” We found a spot unoccupied in front of the potter’s shop and sat down. The attorney reached for his briefcase and said, “I took the liberty of collecting some papers you should see. I’m not sure if you’re going to change the system, you certainly can, but Belle hired a team of three of us who work together on small business accounts in the area. I handle the legal issues, one woman does the books and another handles advertising and promotion. At least she did until she moved to California last week. I’m afraid you’re on your own in that department.”
“I’m not planning on making any changes. To be honest with you, I don’t know enough at this point to do anything, but I’m going to learn, you can bet on that.”
“That’s admirable,” he said. “Still, it wouldn’t hurt to look over these statements.” Young handed me a thick sheaf of papers and said, “If you need help reading these, I’ll be glad to offer my assistance.”
I looked at the top paper and saw an incredibly high figure. “Is this how much the property