PURE HONEY | spencer agnew

1.18

   THE STORE WAS PICKING up business just a little bit on the weekends, but still not what they need. It was just Layla and Londyn today, and luckily all office work was done so they were both just sitting at the registers, not having much to do.

   All shipments were canceled since they didn't need them right now. The only thing that was mostly needing stock was their accessories by the front door and the Booktok table since a lot of their demographic was teenagers and young adults.

   Layla was reading a book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as Londyn was helping out a customer with a return. The older girl was barely reading the book, and more paying attention to her surroundings.

   The customer that Londyn was helping seemed to be upset so just incase, Layla was listening. Londyn was more than capable of handling herself, but as the business owner and the older sister, she wanted to be there.

   "I just don't understand how you can sell this book to kids. It's inappropriate!" The man raised his voice, slamming a hand down onto the counter. "I want to speak to your manager!"

   Londyn sighed, "Sir, I'm–" But the man cut her off before she could say anything else, whatever he was saying being nonsense.

   Layla sighed, putting a bookmark in her book and setting it down calmly, before standing from her stool and walking over to her sister and the customer. "Hi, sir. What seems to be the issue over here?" Layla put on a fake front, smiling sweetly at the older man.

   "My daughter is fourteen, reading this filth!" The man continued on, slamming the book on the counter. "Are you the manager?"

   "No, she is." Layla directed to her sister. "Technically, she's the one in charge right now. I'm actually supposed to be back there doing work, but unfortunately we've had some mishaps with customers today so I'm out her with her today. Hi, I'm the owner."

   The older girl put her hand out, a passive aggressive smile on her face. The man groaned, ignoring her outstretched hand and rolling his eyes. "You can't have books like these on your shelves when kids shop here." His voice was still raised, and it didn't seem like he would be giving up anytime soon.

   "Sir, we don't pick what your daughter comes in and buys. We have a selection for everyone, not just teenage girls." Layla started, sliding the back towards Londyn. "Now, we can give you a full refund if you have the card it was bought with, or you can exchange it with a receipt."

   "Jesus Christ, I'll just return it." The man grabbed his wallet out of his pocket, not daring to look either of the girls in the eye.

   Layla gave a slight nod of her head. "Alright. Sorry about the inconvenience."

   She turned and walked away, rolling her eyes as she did so. It was rare that they had bad customers as mostly everyone was regulars, but it did happen occasionally and it always made Layla upset for the rest of the day as she never understood how people can treat others so poorly.

   Just as she was walking over to the front tables to stock more of their accessories and small items, two people walked in. "Hi, welcome in!" Layla called out to them, giving a brief smile before grabbing some of their tote bags from under the table.

   She began hanging them up, before someone cleared their throat behind her. Layla turned, the two people who just walked in facing her. "Hey, what I can I help you with?"

   "Hi, I was wondering if we could speak to the owner or whoever is in charge?" The one with short, dark brown, almost black hair asked. She was dressed really cute, in a long jean skirt with a black long sleeve shirt and black boots.

   Layla nodded her head with a smile. "Yeah, I'm the owner, Layla. What's up?"

   "I'm Erin, this is Mallory, and we work for Smosh." Erin started, giving Layla a moment to nod along. "So, we were wanting to do a small meet and greet event next Saturday, and because it's so last minute, we were wondering if it could be done here? Usually we would give more notice and it would be a more professional ask and meeting, but we're kind of short on time."

   "Oh my god, of course. If you guys want, we can either close early on Friday to set up or you can come early on Saturday since we open at 10. Or should we close Saturday for the event?" Layla asked, beginning to lead them over to the coffee bar so the three of them could sit down and talk.

   "Well, that's up to you if you close or not. We would just have a line starting outside, and have people be directed in. Nothing to big." Erin began, setting her purse down on the counter. "We should be able to get everything set up Saturday morning if we could get in around 8?"

   "Yup, sounds perfect." Layla nodded, smiling brightly at the two girls. "So, you work at Smosh. Did you guys come here and ask because of Spencer?" She chuckled.

   The two girls both nodded. "Kind of? We were looking for somewhere small for it to be held anyway, and because you and Spencer are, you know, we thought this would be easiest."

   "Makes sense. Well, you can get my number from Spencer or I could give it to you now and we could talk more about it later this week and plan? We also open later tomorrow and Sunday if you guys want to come and see how you want to set up." Layla said, taking her phone out of her back pocket.

   "Actually, that might help if we can come in tomorrow." Mallory said, resting a hand on Erin's shoulder. "We can talk to them when we get back to the office."

   Erin nodded at her, agreeing, before looking back at the blonde girl. "Yeah, for sure. We'll talk to everyone about it, and hopefully we can come in sometime this weekend."

   "Ok, sounds good. Here, I'll give you my number so we can talk more about it sometime later today." Layla opened up her phone, before exchanging numbers with the girl.

   They left just a few minutes later, and Layla made her way back up to the register to meet her sister. She sat back down at her stool, picking her book back up. Londyn was cleaning up behind the counter, putting the spray bottles and paper towels back in their respective cabinets.

   "Hey, what was that about?" Londyn asked, standing back up and adjusting her shirt, then sitting next to her sister.

   Layla shrugged. "They work with Spencer. They want to do a meet and greet at the store. They needed a last minute spot and because of me and Spencer, they thought this was the best place."

   Londyn nodded her head slowly, then hummed at that response, "You don't seem thrilled about that." The younger girl mumbled.

   Layla stopped what she was doing and looked at the girl. "Well, I'm just not thrilled about cleaning the place before everyone comes." Layla chuckled to herself and continued what she was doing. "But I'm pretty excited about meeting the people I haven't met yet."

   The shop grew quiet for a moment before Londyn continued, "Do you just wanna go ahead and start cleaning now?" She questioned and leaned against the counter, crossing her arms over her chest.

   "Honestly..." Layla paused for a moment, "That wouldn't be a bad idea. We just have to keep up with it this week." She pointed at her sister accusingly.

   Londyn shrugged and smiled, "I'll turn on some music!" She said reaching into her pocket for her phone. Layla smiled and reached for the broom that was next to her.

   Layla was excited for her store to get some recognition, but the idea of having this many people at once was definitely a little nerve wracking. But she would have the people she cares about to help her, so there hopefully wasn't too much to be worried about.