She made her way to the front of the line, to see a large man looming over the older woman who was standing behind the counter.
“I’m so sorry,” the woman said again. “One of my part-timers is out with the flu, and the other one quit last week, so we’re a bit short-staffed. But I’ll get to you just as soon as I possibly can.”
The woman looked a little flustered, and Poppy couldn’t blame her.
The man rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Always some excuse.”
“Hey,” said Poppy sharply, and the man’s head snapped around. “Leave her alone. The more you talk, the longer you’ll have to wait.”
“Keep out of this, girlie,” he sneered. “What would you know about anything?”
Poppy bit her tongue to keep from answering with a sharp retort. As much as she wanted to give him a piece of her mind, she knew it wouldn’t help anything.
But therewassomething she could do.
“I used to work in retail,” she said to the woman. “Would you mind if I helped out?”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that!”
“I don’t mind,” Poppy insisted. “Truly.”
The woman looked at her for a moment longer, apparently trying to work out if she was trustworthy. Apparently she was satisfied, because she nodded after a moment, though she still looked uncertain.
“Are you absolutely sure, sweetheart?”
Poppy nodded firmly. “Positive.”
She moved behind the counter, putting her basket aside, and went up to the second cash register, wondering briefly if she’d gotten herself in over her head. It had been the better part of ten years since she’d worked in retail, after all, and technology had moved on since then.
Unsurprisingly, though, the registers in this shop were hardly what could be called cutting edge, and she found that there was nothing here that was too confusing.
Swallowing, she called out, “Next, please.”
The next fifteen minutes were a blur, muscle memory kicking in – she made a couple of mistakes early on as she got her bearings, but she got into the groove of it quickly enough. The time flew by, as she remembered it always doing when she was a teen and work was busy.
It was almost comforting, the repetitiveness of the work, the friendly greetings… though not quitesofriendly when dealing with Mr. Rude and his horrible attitude, and she definitely was glad to see the back of him when he finally left the store.
I could even get used to this… maybe….
Perhaps it was just her current state of unemployment – and with no real prospect of another job in sight – talking, but Poppy almost found herself feeling wistful as the line of people got shorter and shorter.
It was a foolish dream, of course – throwing over her old life and moving to an idyllic mountain town to work in a gift shop. And she knew running her own business would hardly be a picnic. But who could blame her for indulging in a few moments of harmless daydreaming that this was really her life? Greeting smiling customers, ringing up gorgeous gifts, watching the gentle snowfall outside the window?
At last, the line of customers had been whittled away until there was no one left. Poppy smiled in satisfaction. “It’s been a long time since I last did that!”
The woman beamed at her, gratitude in her eyes. “Thank you so much, ah…?”
“Poppy,” Poppy said.
“Poppy,” the woman echoed. “Thank you, Poppy. I’m Sadie.”
“Nice to meet you,” Poppy said, shaking Sadie’s proffered hand gently. She could see that her finger joints looked stiff and swollen – no wonder she’d been having trouble getting the customers’ purchases through quickly.
“Likewise,” Sadie said. “You really were a lifesaver today. Here, let me bag up your purchases – they’re on the house.”
“Oh, no, I could never,” said Poppy, holding up her hands in protest. “That’s worth way more than fifteen minutes’ work.”
“It really is no trouble,” said Sadie, but Poppy shook her head firmly.
