She just had a lot on her plate right now and only a thin level of trust in me. The right time would come. I just had to be patient and stick with my plan.
My sneakers pounded against each stair, echoing off the cement walls. It felt strange to not dress up for work, but after all the weird looks I’d gotten for wearing a white shirt and tie yesterday, I’d chosen to go casual. I’d also brought my hoodie since our floor was the temperature of a meat locker.
After clocking in with the company’s app, I slid into my desk with five minutes to spare. Now that I had my own system for how to approach cold calling, I didn’t loathe it as much. Not that I thought it was an effective use of time either way. There were so many better things we could do besides going down lists and crossing off people who never wanted to hear from us again. But I could only do so much at a new job where I was the lowest branch on the tree. I wasn’t even a branch, really. I was more like a pine needle.
Waking up my computer, I started right in on my next call, smiling when I got an actual person to answer. My method didn’t work with voicemail, although I was working on a solution for that. “Hey Kathy, this is Noah with Uncharted Treasures. Since you’re a former customer, we’d love to get your opinion on vacation preferences. Say, beach versus Big Apple. If we don’t get through all the questions, that’s okay. I’ll still give you the twenty percent off code.”
“What twenty percent off code?” Kathy asked gruffly.
I smiled. Everyone acted tough when they were fighting the urge to talk to a salesman. They were going against years of good advice. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t talk to salesmen. Don’t take drugs. Stop, drop, and roll.
It was sandwiched right in there. And I was rowing my boat against that tide. I had learned my approach needed to be exactly four things - to the point, casual, with an offer to listen, and a sense of mystery. As long as I mixed those together, they couldn’t resist me.
“The twenty percent off applies to any vacation package you book in the next year. You can jot the code down on a piece of paper, or if I reactivate your account, I’ll put it here in the notes and they’ll automatically apply it.”
“I’ll just jot it down.”
Oh, yeah. She didn’t trust me, but she still wanted the coupon code. When I’d followed the script in the cheap binder on my desk, I couldn’t give the coupon code away. But when customers had to earn it,andI offered to bend the rules a little bit for them to get it? Boom. Value.
“Great. So, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you like hiking?”
“I’m afraid of ticks.”
“Oh, me too. What about sandy beaches. Do you like those?” I wasn’t actually collecting data, so it didn’t matter what I asked or what their answers were. I just kept asking questions until I felt like I’d set enough vacation imagery in their mind, and then I gave them the coupon code.
From the desk across from me, I could hear several coworkers doing their versions of my new method, and it gave me a kick of unease. Nobody had given me permission to do any of this. I could be axed the second they found out about the mutiny I’d unwittingly started. But it was hard to care when the alternative was boredom and failure.
I kept going right up until my shift ended and then closed down my computer and ran downstairs. Jenny could say whatever she wanted about Denver just being a good friend. He had motives. Good ones, but alsoguyones. I should know. I fought that same battle every time I looked at her. I wanted to be her friend. I really did. I just wanted to be more than her friend, too.
Jenny had no idea how attractive she was, and her humility and goodness only added to the allure she carried around with her, sending off signals to guys in every direction. I’d seen guys at work try to hit on her to no avail. Heck, I’d watched the sandwich guy at the deli try to strike up a conversation with her. And she’d shut them all down, without realizing she was even doing it. It wasn’t shyness, so much as it was not seeingthem in the proper context.She left them… bewildered.
But she’d let Denver in, and that worried me. She obviously had a lot going on, and for whatever reason, she’d entrusted him with it. I didn’t want her to get hurt.
Once again, I reached Sadie’s Jetta before everyone else, but I didn’t have long to wait alone. Dan walked up moments later. Wisely, we chose to lean against a beater car that had no chance of having an alarm system rather than resting on Sadie’s car. Freaking Sadie and her alarm system trigger finger.
“No lost souls today? Nobody needed to rehome a hamster?”
Dan rolled his eyes. “Nope. Just me.” He loosened his tie before pulling it off completely and stuffing it in his work backpack. “Do you know what’s going on with Jenny? My wife is an open book. She doesn’t stub her toe without calling me and telling me every little detail. Yesterday, she called me from the grocery store to tell me about this lady who was clipping her nails right there in the health aisle. Hertoenails. I guess she really believes in the concept of try before you buy.”
“Oh, that’s super gross.”
“Exactly. I could have happily lived my whole life without knowing that. I was eating lunch. Lunch!”
I could talk to Dan for hours about nothing, but his wife’s adventure in grocery shopping was not the point he’d been trying to make. “Jenny hasn’t told me anything.” I sighed. Mystery was such an overrated virtue—great in a sales pitch, but in a relationship? No. I much preferred to know stuff. Not that Jenny had a lot of reasons to trust me with her secrets right now. But she should. I just didn’t know how to convey that except to take it a day at a time.
Dan scratched his head where a thin layer of fuzz was growing. He’d buzz it all off again soon. “She and Sadie are actually a lot alike. Everything’s on a need-to-know basis with those two.”
I turned to look at him. “Yeah, so much alike. Except that Sadie would have started a fight with the nail clipper lady.”
“And Jenny would have turned her cart in the other direction and pretended she never saw it.”
I grinned. “One’s tall and one’s short.”
“One’s a ginger and the other is a dishwater blonde. Oh man, Sadie hates when I call it that. And I never get to tease her anymore because I haven’t had hair in ten years.”
“That’s right you haven’t,” Sadie said, making us both jump.
I turned to see her glaring at us. She’d gotten the drop on me again.
