The Haunted - Jessica Verday [91]
“Staying away from the customers, are we?”
I spun around. “It’s my fifteen, and I…”
He chuckled. “It’s okay. I understand. Sometimes they can be pretty rough. I swear, this summer heat brings out the crazy in people.”
It drives some employees crazy too, I thought. He gave me an odd half smile, like he’d heard me.
Moving around the desk, he shifted a stack of papers from one side to the other and then sat down in his chair. “You know what I like best about you, Abbey?”
“Um… my adorable personality?”
Uncle Bob shook his head. “You change people. That’s what I like best about you. Take this office, for instance.” He gestured around the room. “When you took it upon yourself to or-ganize it, you changed me.”
I started to protest, to say I was sorry for not asking him first when I’d come in here last Thanksgiving and rearranged his stuff, but he held up a hand.
“I mean that in a positive way. I liked the fact that you took initiative. Now, granted, not everything took”—his eyes slid over to his messy cabinets, and I grinned at him—“but for the most part you helped me change in a positive way.”
He picked up a metal, triangle-shaped paperweight and studied it before looking back at me. “Some of the people will be negative. They’ll go out of their way to make you miserable or choose to ignore you.”
I glanced down at my feet. It wasn’t hard to figure out he was talking about Aubra.
“What’s important to remember though, Abbey, is the fact that you change people. That overrides all, no matter what. Always remember that.” I looked up at him.
“Do you understand what I mean?” he asked.
“Yup. I got it. Thanks for the pep talk.”
He looked pleased and bashful all at once. “It’s nothing. Just my way of buttering you up so that I can ask you to stay an extra hour. Busy shift.” I groaned. “Uncle Bob. Seriously?”
“Sorry, Abbey. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need it.”
“Fine.” I sighed heavily. “I’ll call Mom and tell her to pick me up later.” He pushed an old-fashioned, eighties-style professional-office phone my way. “Here you go, you can use this.”
I picked up the clunky black receiver and eyed it doubtfully, but dialed Mom’s number.
“Hey, Mom. Uncle Bob needs me to stay for an extra hour, so you’ll have to pick me up at six.”
“Okay,” she said. Someone was laughing in the background, and she sounded distracted.
“Wait, six? But the Maxwells are coming over for dinner, and I told them we’d eat at six thirty.”
“They are?” I could feel a happy smile cross my face. “I haven’t seen them in so long! Oh man, that will be great. Just push dinner back to seven thirty, then.” She didn’t say anything, and for a minute I thought the old phone had given up the ghost.
Finally, she came back on. “Mmm-hmm, okay. That’s fine, Abbey.” There was more laughter, and she laughed too.
“What’s going on, Mom?” I said. “Are you having a party or something?”
“What? No. I just have some company over for coffee. See you at six.” I hung up the phone and rolled my eyes at Uncle Bob. “Mom’s schmoozing again. Hope there’s no wine involved.” His booming laughter followed me as I started to head out to the customers. “Just wait,” I called back. “You haven’t heard the story about my birthday party yet.”
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Mom was about ten minutes late picking me up, and she drove with a lead foot the whole way home, telling me again and again how I had to hurry and change when we got there because we were running so late. I wanted to plug my fingers in my ears and scream.
When we made it home, she rushed into the kitchen, and I took my time heading to the stairs. “Maxwells will be here in ten minutes,” she called out. “Hurry, hurry.” When I reached my room, I went straight for the closet. My hand automatically grabbed the first thing that was there, and I saw it was the pink shirtdress I’d worn when Aunt Marjorie had come over for dinner last year.
That would do.
Changing course, I brushed my teeth, detangled my curls, and put on some new deodor-ant. My ten minutes