CHAPTER TWO
At 10:30 am, an alarm goes off on Alyssa’s phone to remind her to open up the store. She walks over and unlocks the door for the few customers who are already waiting for it to open. Once she gets back to her computer, she pulls up her usual rock station to play throughout the store. She hears the host say the next song is from Seven Ravens. He says it’s a song from their new album and that they are really starting to break it into the big time. Then, the store is filled with music. Gotta kick me while I’m down, she complains as she makes her way from behind the counter.
The first customer is a mom by herself who wants to know where the prom dresses are. Alyssa takes the time to help her out by showing her the dresses and explaining the fashion trends for prom this year. Then she helps the next person who comes in, a guy shopping for himself who just wants to look at some of the dress shirts. After she helps them she returns to the counter and rings them up.
It’s only morning and she’s already made five sales. Maybe it won’t be such a bad day after-all, the store is doing well already this morning. A few more customers mosey through the store but only one more person makes a purchase, she buys an extravagant dress, a bunch of accessories, a blouse and a cardigan.
At the next door chime Alyssa looks up from her phone to see her friend Layla come in. “Hey! What are you doing here girl?” Alyssa glances at the clock, “Coming to see me before your shift?” she asks.
“You know it. I work right across the street; I might as well come over before I start my lunch shift. You know, get myself acclimated to people before dealing with a crap-ton of them that I don’t like. I have to have my dose of Alyssa in case they don’t tip well.” Layla laughs as she comes in and sits down on a spare chair behind the counter. “How are sales going today? Doing well? It seems pretty empty right now.”
“Well, despite it being empty right now, the sales have actually been going really well today.” After clicking a few things on the computer. Alyssa continues, “Have you heard about Jewel?”
“Yeah! Ash proposed, didn’t he? Good for her. Did you see her in that dress though, the day before he proposed? Gosh. He must have waited because he didn’t want the pictures of their engagement to be ruined by that outfit.” Layla burst into laughter at her own statement.
Alyssa chuckled, “It wasn’t her best outfit choice, I’ll admit that. I miss her though. It sucks not having her around.”
“Well, you won’t have to miss her for much longer-“ Layla’s statement is cut short as she notices a customer approach the register. Alyssa gives her a look as if to mean it’ll only take a second.
The customer at the register seems confused, and before putting his items on the counter to be rung up, he asks a ton of questions about the principles of matching clothing together and whether or not he could wear the things he picked out. Alyssa does her best to respond to him, letting him know that he could indeed pull the look off and she gives a few suggestions about what else he could wear his pieces with. After a few more nods and some slight hesitation he puts the clothes on the counter. Alyssa gives him his total, asks him to swipe his card, and bids him farewell.
Alyssa turns her attention back to the conversation, “Anyway, what were you saying?”
“Oh, um. I was saying that you won’t have to miss Jewel much longer. She told me that the band is coming back into town. Apparently they have a show next week.”
“Are you serious?!” Alyssa asks and she tries quiet the last word as the door chimes signaling someone has entered the store. Jewel can’t even talk to me, tell me, let me know? I’m the whole reason she got with that band and now she’savoiding me like the damn plague. What gives?
“Hey. Hey, calm down. It’s okay.” Layla doesn’t get to say anything more before Alyssa puts a finger in the air for her to pause.
“Do you need help with anything?” Alyssa projects her voice to the customer while leaving it in a servicing tone. Layla is clearly impressed that Alyssa didn’t have to grit her teeth to ask.
“Oh. Uh, no. No. Thanks though.” The customer replies as the exit door opens and closes behind them.
“People are weird…” Layla remarks. “Anyways, try not to be so mad at her, she wanted to talk to you first. She knows how much you liked Vincent when you guys first met the band, so she didn’t want to seem like she was rubbing her happiness in your face. Especially considering her and Ash have hooked up.”
Alyssa doesn’t respond. Instead she crosses her arms and shakes her head.
“Hey” Layla says again as she puts her hand on Alyssa’s arm, “Think about how bad it would look for her to come back here throwing around her happiness. She was doing it for you. She wants to talk to you too.”
“Fine.” Alyssa says in response.
“Hey, sorry chick-a-dee, but I’ve got to go clock in. I’ll see you later. Mwah.” Layla says as she jumps from her chair to walk to the door.
“See you later, I hope you get a ton of tips!”
I’m really glad I have Layla.
With the store now empty Alyssa stares at her computer screen and mulls over the conversation she just had with Layla. She doesn’t get to stay too lost in thought as customers come and go from the store. She makes quite a few more sales over the course of the next few hours, and when it’s finally her lunch break, she locks up the store and heads to the back room. From there she looks at her phone and dials Jewel. There is no response, instead the voicemail beeps to let Alyssa know she can record her message.
“Hey girl. Haven’t talked to you in a while. I saw that you got engaged, that’s pretty awesome. I’m happy for you, and I do miss you. And hey, don’t worry about me, all right? It’s okay. I know you were worried about how I’d take it, but we’re friends and that hasn’t changed. So, I’ll talk to you later I guess. Love you. Bye.”
At the end of Alyssa’s lunch break, right before she’s ready to open the store again her phone alerts her to a new text message. It’s Jewel.
Jewel: “Hey girl! I’m so happy to hear from you! It’s been a long time. I’ll be back in town tonight, are you doing anything? We should meet for drinks.”
When Alyssa looks at the message she smiles, and nods. Yeah. Yeah we should. That’d be real nice. We’ll finally have a chance to catch up. Goodness, that girl. Alyssa thinks to herself as she walks to the front of the store to unlock the door. Again there are a few customers waiting outside for the lunch hour to be over so they can shop.
“Thanks for waiting.” Alyssa says as she opens the door and greets the customers.
Alyssa makes her way back to the counter and sits down. The music is still playing and another Seven Raven song comes on. This time she doesn’t let herself think about Vincent and instead thinks about how she’ll get to see her friend soon. I know that I should be more excited for her, but I can’t help but miss Vince. I know she isn’t rubbing that in my face, but damn it, Vince should have brought me along too. Though I guess we had agreed to just see each other at the next show… I’m so damn stupid.
The rest of Alyssa’s work goes smoothly. She makes quite a few more sales, and every one of her new arrivals has been bought at least once They are probably the most popular things selling out today. At the end of the day, Alyssa begins to feel excited about meeting up with Jewel.