Even as I struggled to keep my attention from the guy beside me, I found I enjoyed reading the book he picked out. But eventually, my eyes hurt and Iclosedit.
I looked down at my phone. “Wow. There are only fifteen minutes until we close. Want to start shutting down theregister?”
“What if a customercomesin?”
“You and I both know no one iscomingin.”
He looked at the entrance, then to the cases of books that lined the store, and back at the entrance of the store before lookingatme.
“Live a little, Rainier. Besides, I’m the owner’s daughter. I’m practicallyyourboss.”
“Except I’m theshiftlead.”
“Whatever. By the time we finish arguing, it’ll be closing timeforreal.”
Rainier sighed like he was in pain before nodding his head in agreement. What a rule follower. What was the worst that couldhappen?
He started his work while I emptied the trash and took it outside. The store’s back door opened up to an industrial looking area that had a large dumpster and an area for trucks to park while making deliveries. It barely took any time for me to go through my list ofduties.
When I went back to the register, Rainier was just finishing up. Apparently, he sped through his work too. All that was left was pull down the gate, lock it, andgohome.
“I hate to admit it,” he said, as he signed his time card. “But it’s kinda nice leaving atclosing.”
“Toldyouso.”
Rainier smiled. “Did you locktheback?”
“Oh, crap.” I’d forgotten and went to the back room. The key to the exterior door was hanging on a hook on the wall. I grabbed it, stuck it in the lock andturned.
Well, I tried to turn the key, but it wouldn’t budge. I took it out before attempting it again. I knew how to freaking lock a door and I couldn’t figure out what wasgoingon.
“Everything okay?” Rainier popped his head through the door that led to the front of thestore.
Just great. That’s just what I needed, Rainier to think I wasn’t capable of locking a door. I turned the key as hard as I could in the lock. My hand slipped as the key snapped inmyhand.
The stupid thingbroke.
The long part was stuck in the lock, while I held the other piece. And to make matters worse, the door still wasn’t locked. I turned back to Rainier with wide eyes, only to find his were wider. They were so big, I could see the white around hisentireiris.
“Tell me that did not just happen," hechoked.
I tried to feel guilt or any appropriate emotion, I honestly did. But between the expression on Rainier’s face and the fact that I broke a key in the lock, I couldn’t help it. I startedlaughing.
Like, reallylaughing.
It started out as a chuckle. I even covered my mouth when the first one escaped my mouth. Unfortunately, as I watched Rainier’s face transform from shock to frustration, I found the situation even funnier. The small chuckle turned into a laugh, and the laugh turned into a fit that had tears streaming down mycheeks.
Of course, this would happen while I was working with Rainier. Of course, it would happen on the one night we were going to leave right atclosing.
I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked back up at Rainier. He was still serious as could be, which only caused a fresh wave ofhysterics.
“What are we going to do? I’m exhausted, and we can’t just leave the backdooropen.”
“Nope,” I said, as I caught my breath and began tocalmdown.
“Michelle, your dad is going to bepissed.”
“My dad, good idea! I’ll call himrightnow.”
