At Wick's End - Tim Myers [24]
“You know, you’re free to go somewhere else if you’d like if it’s too painful,” I said gently. I could see that I’d worded it badly by the way she reacted, but before she could say a word of retort, I added, “Not that I don’t appreciate you staying on. Eve, I’m the first person to admit that I don’t know how I’d run the shop without you. But it sounds like losing Belle might be more than you can take and stay on here at the shop.”
Eve tossed the unfinished bite of her sandwich in her bag, then threw the whole thing into the trash. “I’m staying,” she said firmly.
“Because you want to?” I asked gently.
“Because I have to,” Eve blurted out. “I love candles. Where else am I going to be able to find someone to pay me to be around them all day? I’ll go if you want me to, Harrison, but it won’t be willingly. You might need a little help throwing me out.”
“Eve, you’ve got your job as long as you want it,” I said. Now why did I say that? If she turned out to be the one who had shoved Belle off that ladder, she’d be gone as fast as I could turn her over to the police. But until I knew without a doubt that she’d been the one, I needed Eve’s presence at Wick’s End more than she needed me.
“I’m glad that’s settled,” Eve said as she brushed at a few nonexistent crumbs on the desktop. “Now let’s get to work and teach you how to pour candles. It’s the next logical step in your training.”
Unfortunately, it was not to be. We had a steady stream of customers the rest of the afternoon, something Eve told me was rare enough to savor. As before, I worked the register while she helped our clientele, and by the time we put our closed sign up, I was beat from standing on my feet all afternoon. That was one good thing, probably the only good thing, about selling those computers; most of the time I could do it sitting down behind my desk.
As I turned the lock and pulled down the door shade, I said, “Man, I’m beat.”
Eve said, “You can’t stop now, Harrison. There’s more work that needs to be done before we’re ready to go home.”
I smiled softly. “Point me in the right direction and I’ll get to it.”
“We need to restock the shelves, total the day’s receipts, then you need to take our deposit by the bank. I’ve done it when I’ve had to, but carrying cash around town makes me nervous.”
It suddenly hit me that I knew nothing about the ins and outs of running the place myself. “I don’t even know how much money you make. When do you get paid? Do I cut you a check myself or should I pay you in cash out of the register?”
Eve smiled. “Relax, Harrison, Belle had a system in place before we opened our doors. Ann Marie Hart does our bookkeeping. She’s the one who cuts my check, yours too if you keep Belle’s system in place. Instead of taking money off the top, Belle drew a salary just like I do, then she gave us both Christmas bonuses every year.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” I said.
Eve added, “When we had good years, it worked out quite nicely. Some of my bonuses at first were in the form of supplies when she couldn’t afford to give me cash.”
I nodded. “It sounds like I need to talk to Ann Marie.”
Eve creased her lips, and I asked, “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, but I may have jumped the gun. I’ve already set up an appointment for you with her first thing Monday morning. Don’t worry, you’ll be finished before Mrs. Jorgenson gets here, Ann Marie’s an early riser, and she doesn’t dawdle or waste time if she doesn’t have to.”
“That works for me, but until then, what do I do with our deposit tonight?”
“I’ll show you how to balance our receipts with the register tape,” she said. “Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they match perfectly.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then we order something from Millie and stay here until they do.”
Amazing as it was given the fact that I’d run the register most of the day, we balanced out to the penny. After a quick lesson at logging the deposit and filling out the slip, Eve said, “Now you’re ready to deposit this at the bank.”