Pear Shaped

Chapter Fifteen

“Hi Mark, I was wondering if I could have a word with you?”

I dive behind the boxes of new stock, hoping that Suzy won’t see me.

“About the job merger,” she continues. “I know Janine wasn’t on top form the other day but she’s clearly the best candidate, all things considered. I was thinking…what if she shadowed Chloe for a week or so?”

“So you want Janine to take Chloe’s job and for Chloe to show her how to do it?”

I can hear in Mark’s voice that he’s as surprised as I am. Does she seriously think I’d do that?

“Janine has a vibrant personality and will appeal to the younger customers.” I can picture Suzy pursing her lips as she speaks.

“But Chloe is an experienced personal shopper, and she’s capable of doing Janine’s work too.”

At least Mark’s on my side!

“Chloe might know her apples from her pears, but she thinks it’s all about body shapes and totally ignores building a rapport with the customers.”

 I stand up and angrily push a box out of my way at Suzy’s words. What the hell does she know? She swans around holding her clipboard and thinking she’s more important than the rest of us, but does she actually speak to any of the customers? Does she know what they think about me?

Suzy might be startled by my appearance but she’s not worried.

“Why do you hate me so much?” I ask accusingly.

“Don’t take it so personally.” Suzy gives a condescending laugh as though I’m being ridiculous.

“I’m good at my job, Suzy,” I declare confidently. “You’ve had some sort of personal vendetta against me since I started here.”

Mark steps in between us as though he’s worried a fight will break out.

“You wouldn’t have got this job in the first place if it had been up to me!” Suzy screams.

“What did I ever do to you?”

She turns her eyes on me viciously. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

I stare back at her, trying to figure out what she means.

“I’m Richard O’Brien’s mum.”

My mouth drops opens, my eyes set back in shock. How can she be Richard’s mum? Richard is the guy I dated before Dan. The one with the superhero obsession. He took me to meet his mum once. And she wasn’t anything like Suzy.

“You…you can’t be,” I stammer.

“Biological,” she clarifies. “And I know all about what you did to him.” She waves a finger at me like a witch waving her magic wand.

“All I did was finish with him,” I say, adding, “He was a psycho! Into comic books and dressing up as superheroes.”

Mark pretends to cough at that but his dark eyes are shining like he’s hiding laughter.

“You shouldn’t have got this job! I’ll make sure that Janine replaces you,” Suzy hisses.

“And how will you do that?” Mark asks. “I’m the store manager.”

I look up at him gratefully. Maybe I didn’t need a plan to defeat Suzy. Maybe all I needed was Mark.

***

At the meeting on Monday, Mark suggests other ways that the fashion department can cut back. That means that Janine and I will both be keeping our jobs.

I’m actually quite fond of Janine. I mean, what happened with Suzy wasn’t her fault, was it?

I can’t make any promises but I might not be man-free anymore. I’m still not totally into the idea of having a boyfriend but Mark did kiss me again, and he is a good kisser. It would just be a waste to let that go, wouldn’t it?

The only thing left to do is to call Bianca and let her know these developments. She hasn’t been talking to me much since what I said to her but she won’t want to miss out on any gossip.

She answers the phone squealing, “Ohmygod!”

“Bee?”

“I’m engaged!” she screams down the phone. “I asked Jeff to marry me!”

Smiling to myself, I decide my news can wait and allow myself to be swallowed up by Bianca’s wedding talk.

The end