Vanishing Alley

-7-

     On Friday morning, Amy texted me and asked if I wanted to go with her to pick-up her box at the antique store. I figured, why not. Now that I had for sure decided to tell them the story, it didn't really matter anymore if the store owner brought it up. I could go stress-free, and if she did mention it, then I'd tell them. Since there isn't a lot of time between breakfast and lunch, we decided to go in the afternoon again so that we wouldn't have to rush. This time, I went to Amy's cottage to meet her there, and we walked there together. She was excited to be picking it up - like I said, she loves antiques just as much as I do. When we got there, we went straight to the antique store first. We walked in and said hello to the owner.

"Oh hello, you're back! Let me guess, you've come to get the box you set aside."

"I did and thank you again for putting it aside for me!"

"You're very welcome. I like to keep my customers happy, so I offer a hold service for 3 days. If they see something they really want, but aren't ready to buy it yet, they can set it aside. They understand that if they don't come back within the 3 days, it goes back on the table, unless they give a deposit, which I realised after that I forgot to mention to you. But you came so it all worked out. I think I'm going to make a sign and put it up in the shop so customers can just read it in case I forget to mention it."

"Well, I'm happy I was able to come to pick it up. If not, I would have come by to let you know."

"Here it is. I have a feeling it's going to a great home!"

"It is." Amy reassured her, just as I did when I bought my watch. "Thank you so much. Have a nice day."

"Thank you. You too! Oh, and I see you're still wearing the watch." She noted as she saw it on my wrist. "A lot of the people who come in to buy jewellery don't usually have it with them when they come back. You're one of the rare ones who actually wears what they buy." This explained why she sounded surprised to see me wearing it! Now it made sense. Well, that, and I'm sure she was fishing for an update on whether I tried to find out if the story she told was true.

"I am. I wear it pretty much every day, except if I'm doing something that ruin it. I'm very happy with it! No regrets at all. Well, have a nice day."

The shop owner nodded and smiled as if to say, "Thank you, you too". I noticed, as we were talking, that Amy was looking at us. She seemed a bit confused, as if we were talking about something only the two of us knew about and she was clueless. Well, it was something she didn't know about, but we didn't actually talk about it. Sorry, I'll continue. Anyway, back to the story. This was the second time I went into the store with Amy and the watch was mentioned. Granted, she did seem to be invested in every item she sells and wants to make sure the customers are happy with what they buy. But I still think she was fishing for a story update. She didn't ask me, but by the look on her face, I had a feeling she already knew that I hadn't tried it out yet. When we left the store, I could sense that Amy wanted to ask about it. We had just walked about 5 minutes before she couldn't wait anymore to ask. I knew it was coming.

"So, Clara, I have to ask you... What is with that watch?"

"What do you mean?" I pretended not to know what or why she was asking. "It's an antique watch."

"Yeah, I know, but, that was the second time we went in and the second time she brought it up. I get a store owner wanting to make sure their customers are happy and asking them if they are still happy with what they bought, but asking twice?"

"I don't know. She brought it up and I answered."

"I know this is going to probably be a stupid question, but are you sure there's nothing else to that watch? Did you ever think to ask her for details about it?"