Oil & Ink

Chapter 9: Let's Investigate

Amanda had a shift with Cody this afternoon. They hadn't hung out again since that night at Dina's, but they had sent a few text messages back and forth. She always felt a little bit anxious before a shift when she knew he was going to be there.

She pulled on a pair of light blue jeans. Even in the height of summer, they weren't allowed to wear shorts at work. She grabbed a clean t-shirt from the dryer; it had the store's logo on the pocket.

She grabbed her purse and headed toward the door. She had just enough time to get there and not be late. The store was about 20 minutes away without traffic and it was always hit or miss on a Saturday afternoon.

When she pulled into the parking lot, she immediately saw Cody's car.

Be cool, be cool, she thought to herself. She didn't understand why she always got so nervous. He was just a coworker.

She walked in the front door and Cody was on a ladder getting a hat down from one of the top shelves for a customer. He smiled at Amanda immediately. She gave him a tight-lipped smile and walked directly to the back to put her purse in her locker.

She closed her locker and peaked into the bathroom to take a look at herself in the mirror one last time. Makeup was subtle, but perfect. She walked up front and clocked in. Cody was ringing up with customer with the hat.

"Thank you," Cody said to the customer. "Have a good one."

The customer took the bag and headed out. Amanda turned toward Cody and tried to keep it casual.

"What should I work on?" she asked.

"There's a few boxes leftover from a shipment last night," he said. "If you'd bring it up to process and then just help customers when they come in."

Amanda nodded before walking to the back hall where the boxes would be. There were three boxes. It was always a gamble with these. Sometimes a box had just a few shirts in it, and sometimes they were crammed with jeans.

She grabbed a box cutter from a nearby table and ran it across the top. She opened the flap: flannel shirts. These would likely be hung, which was much better than having to fold all of them. She closed the box and carried it up to the register, where she could easily grab the security tags.

Cody was still at the register, looking at the sales for the day. They were supposed to hit sales goals every few hours based on the sales from the previous year.

"We had a pretty busy morning," he said, not necessarily to Amanda, but there was no one else in the store.

"Oh?" she asked, reopening the box and laying each shirt flat in a stack.

"Well, not a lot of customers," he said. "But some pretty big sales."

"Like what?" she asked.

"Someone bought a kayak," he said. "And a few people got those new hiking boots."

"Oh, cool," she said. "Maybe we'll get some more big sales this afternoon."

Cody smiled at the register screen. He turned in her direction.

"Now that you're here," he said. "I'm going to take my lunch break."

She nodded. "Oh yes, of course," she said, snapping on a security tag in the seam of the flannel shirt.

"I'll just be in the back," he said. "In case you need anything."

"I'll be fine," she said.

He headed toward the back. This shift already felt like it was going to drag on. She continued to process the shirts, putting the tags on each one and making a separate pile for the ones completed. Occasionally, she looked at the door to see if anyone was on their way in. There were a few other shops on either side of them, so there was a little bit of foot traffic.