Chapter Three
The next morning, I wake up to the smell of bacon. Groaning I get out of bed and head to the bathroom. There is only one person who doesn’t care to let themselves into my apartment and make themselves at home. My mother. Knowing Heather probably called Missy last night to tell her what happened means that Missy called mom and told her. Now mom is most likely here to check up on me and get the full story.
I take a quick shower and change into a pair of jeans and a bright pink tank top. I brush my hair out then twist it into a messy bun. Slipping on my go to jewelry - a pair of music heart earrings, a guitar pick necklace, and a silver link bracelet - I take a quick look in the mirror then head for the kitchen.
I smile when I see mom already sitting at my small kitchen table with two plates piled high with bacon, eggs, toast, and fresh fruit.
“Already got your coffee made.” She points to the cup across from her. “Even added that nasty creamer you like so much.”
“Thanks mom.” I roll my eyes at her but couldn’t hold back my smile. I love candy bar flavored creamers. The new Reese’s peanut butter cup flavor is amazing, but mom thinks it smells like feet. Her words not mine.
“So, wanna talk about it?” She asks as she takes a bite of her breakfast.
As we eat I tell her everything that happened last night. From the kidnapping to the kissing. My mom and I have always been close. I’ve never really hidden much from her. I was never afraid to go to her with any problems I was having. Even when I had questions about a guy I was dating, I didn’t care to ask her.
Mom asked a few questions here and there but mostly let me get the whole story out. We had both just about cleaned out plates when I finally finished. I went to get another cup of coffee as I waited to see what she was going to say.
“Heather’s right you know.” I hear her say. I turn to face her and raise an eyebrow. “You’re letting your past control you. Your fear from what happened has made you push all men out of your life. Think about it. Name one guy, other than family, that you are friends with.”
I take a drink of coffee and pretend to be in deep thought. Truth is, she’s right. Other than family, I don’t have any guy friends.
“I’m not saying you have to go out and date half the town.” Mom laughs. “But maybe let this Riker guy take you to dinner. What could it hurt?”
“I’m not going out with Riker mom.” I mumble. “Look, I’m not going to get into this right now. I’ll think about maybe dating sometime soon. But not Riker.” I dump my full cup of coffee, rinse the cup and place it in the dishwasher. “I need to get to work. Will you put the plates in the dishwasher please? I’ll run it when I get home tonight.”
She gives me a big hug and promises to lock the door before she leaves. I grab my bag and my favorite Duke hoodie as I rush out the door.
A few minutes later I pull into my spot at work. I’m the first one here but that’s normal. As I’m turning on the lights in the office I see a note taped to my desk.
901-555-7465
Did he really think leaving his number would make me want to call him? I crumble up the note and toss it in the trash. Needing something to block out all the thoughts running through my head I turn on some music. As my favorite band, Nickelback, starts singing about being a rock star I walk into my office and load my laptop.
It only took me twenty minutes to do the order sheets. Heather had done them last night, but a few new orders came in this morning. Our sells are going up and I think the girls are right. We are going to need some more help if things keep progressing like this.
“Darcy? You here?” I hear Kristy yell from out front.
“Back here!” I say as I walk out of the office.
“Morning,” She says happily. “The UPS truck is downstairs. It’s not our normal driver so you may have to go down and sign for our orders.”
Mark, our usual UPS driver lets any of the girls sign my name for me. The company we order most of our supplies from demands a signature upon delivery.
“I’ll go check.” I tell her. “We should only have two boxes today. But we all need to do an inventory list before we start working. If I can get an order placed by noon we should get everything no later than Monday.”
“I’ll get the coffee started and once everyone gets here we’ll dive in and get the inventory done.” She says as she walks over to the industrial coffee pot Tonya got us not long ago.
I see Heather and Missy talking to the new UPS driver when I walk downstairs. Missy glances over at me and smiles.
“Here she is.” Missy says. “She probably heard the truck and came rushing down to get our boxes.”
“Sorry Darcy,” Heather says. “He wouldn’t let one of us sign. I told him Mark never has a problem with it but he claims that only you can sign.” Wow, this guy has really annoyed Heather. Her tone alone says it all.
“It’s ok. Kristy saw him pulling in when she got here. She saw that it wasn’t Mark and knew I’d probably need to come sign for them myself. We’re doing an inventory check this morning, so I can place another order before noon.”
The UPS guy still hasn’t turned around.
“We’ll go get started then.” Missy mutters as she takes Heather by the elbow and pulls her to the stairway. What was that about?
“I think I have two…” I start to say as the UPS driver finally turns around to face me. All thoughts stop when I see who it is. Shit, why him?
“Hello, Darcy Girl.” Luke says sweetly.
“Luke,” I mumble.
We stand there staring at each other like complete idiots. Finally, I sigh and reach out for his digital notepad. Taking it from his hands I was happy to see the little X with a line beside it. This meant Luke had already scanned my boxes and loaded the notepad. I signed with my finger, pushed the notepad back into his hands, then walked around him to find my boxes sitting by the door.
Knowing they weren’t going to be heavy, I picked them both up and started towards the stairs.
“See you around Darcy.” I hear Luke say as the door to the stairway closes.
The girls had already started the inventory lists when I got back to the office. I hand the boxes off to Missy and head to the back office. Laying my head down on the desk I let out a silent scream of frustration.
“You ok?” Kristy asks from the doorway.
“Yeah.”
“Tonya called, she’s going to be a little late today.” Kristy tells me as she walks over and takes the seat across from my desk.
“Hangover?”
“No,” Kristy giggles. “she has a flat tire. Zack was on his way to get her when she called.” Zack is Tonya’s brother. I glance out the door and see Heather unpacking the boxes.
“Does Heather know Zack is bring Tonya?” I ask Kristy. Heather has the biggest, craziest, most embarrassing crush on Zack. Usually we love to teaser her about it but the last couple of times they’ve been in the same room I’ve noticed a change in them. He watches her while she tries to ignore him.
“No,” Kristy sighs. “Something happened between them. I just wish she’d tell us. We can’t help her if she doesn’t tell us. I mean do we kill him or lock them in a room together and let them fight it out?”
Most people would think Kristy was joking but I know she’s not. If Zack did hurt Heather in someway none of us would blink an eye at teaching him a lesson. Not even Tonya.
“If Zack shows up let me know. I need to work on the books and get payroll in order if you guys want to get paid this week.” I sigh when I realize I have about three hours of work ahead of me and none of it is design work. “Also, can you send sis in when she’s done? We need to talk about the ad for part time workers.”
Kristy promises to let me know if Zack comes, and to send Missy in when the inventory is done. I start working on the books, but I hate every minute of it. The girls are right. We are at a point in the business that we can hire someone to do all of this. We could easily afford one more full-time person who could take over the books, payroll, and website duties. Plus, we can add at least two part-time workers to help with the actual making of the jewelry. They would need trained, and I’m ok with doing that but I can’t keep doing everything.
Missy brings me the completed inventory list about an hour later. She’s thrilled when I tell her about wanting to hire one full-time and two part-time workers. It didn’t take long for us to draft up an ad and get it submitted to the paper and a couple online sites. I put her in charge of arranging the interviews.
When I finally get finished with all my computer work I have a raging headache and I’m in some serious need of some food. Looking at the time on my phone I see it’s just after one. Standing I groan as I stretch, leaning back to let my back pop takes some of the stiffness away.
Walking out into the main office space I smile when I see everyone bent over their desk working. Music is still playing but everyone seems lost in their work. I know they enjoy making jewelry as much as I do. It makes me happy to see them enjoy their work.
“Ok, what are we doing for lunch today?” I ask and have to hold back a laugh when all of them jump at my voice. They really were lost in their work.
“Missy went to get the usual from the deli downtown.” Tonya answers me as she stands and stretches just like I did.
“Sounds good. How’s everything going out here? Anyone need any help?” I ask as I walk over to my desk. Even though I do most of the designs I still help with putting together the jewelry too. Especially when we get large orders.
They all assured me they didn’t need any help, so I went to work on a new design I had been playing around with right before I was kidnapped last night.
Sis walks in a few minutes later and starts passing out the food. She hands me a grilled turkey sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries with a large Dr. Pepper. As we all eat we discuss our projects, the new hires we were going to get, and even did a round of design ideas.
After lunch we all go back to our work and the day passes easily. I laid out three new necklaces I made and had all the girls come over to check them out. I went over how each piece would have to be made, then where each piece was connected. They all seemed to like the new necklaces and Tonya even suggested a way to make a matching bracelet for one of them.
We weren’t the type of business that did the whole nine to five work days. We all liked to get to work by eight or eight thirty, but most days we all stayed until at least seven at night. I was the odd man out because I stayed much later. Sometimes not leaving until after midnight. However tonight I was tired. My body ached, and I was worried I was coming down with something.
All the girls were surprised when I started shutting everything down as they were packing up to leave. It was a little after seven and it was time to call it a night. When they asked if I was ok I simply told them I wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to go home. Sis offered to come to my place and make me some of her homemade soup, but I passed on that. Right now, I just wanted to take some Tylenol and go to bed. We all said goodnight in the parking lot then got into our cars.
As I walked into my apartment building Sam, the main desk manager, waved me over to the desk. Thinking I may just have a package that wouldn’t go into my box I walked over and said hello.
“The landlord called today and asked me to talk to you.” Sam says in a hushed voice.
“Why? What did I do?” I ask. The landlord is an older gentleman who lives in New York with his family. He owns six apartment buildings here in town, all passed down to him from his father after he passed away.
“Oh, you didn’t do anything honey.” Sam says kindly and reaches out to pat my hand. “The apartment next to you has been sold. There is going to be some construction done and he wanted you to know before hand. He also said that if the noise bothered you too much to let him know. He warned the new tenant that they needed to be respectful to the others in the building when it came to construction noises.”
It was rare that someone bought an apartment in this building. Most of the time people just rented them. I had thought about buying my apartment, but renting is just so much easier. Plus, if anything breaks I’m not the one who has to replace it.
“As long as they aren’t doing construction during the night I think everything will be ok.” I smile at Sam. “Thanks for letting me know.” I tell him good night and head for the elevators.
So, I’m getting new neighbors. Wonder if it’s a family or just a single person. My apartment is a two bedroom, but I know the once across from me is larger, so it could have three to four bedrooms. When I elevator doors open on my floor I can’t help but look down the hall at the newly sold apartment. The door is open, and I can hear voices but I can’t see anyone.
Not really wanting to meet the new neighbors tonight I let myself into my apartment and lock the door. I’m sure I’ll meet whoever it is soon enough but for tonight I’m taking a hot shower, grabbing a quick sandwich and going to bed.