Bradford Bad Boy

Chapter Seven

"I can take the next customer," I say to the guy standing in the line. He smiles and walks forward.

"How are you?" he asks. "I'm good how about you?" I question. "Doing pretty well. Can't wait to get this Eagles CD home," he says. "I know what you mean. Classic band. Love them," I say. "Legends," he adds. "Absolutely."

We both smile at our comments.

I scan the barcode on the CD, before putting it in the bag.

"That will be ten, fifty eight," I say. He hands me two bills.

I put them in the cash register and hand him his change.

"Here you go," I say putting the receipt in bag, and handing it to him. "Thanks so much." He puts the change in his pocket, and takes the bag. "Have a good day," I say, smiling at him. "You too." He smiles back, and walks away. I turn around look at the next customer.

Britney was still in the office talking to Owen. They had been in there for about five minutes. I wonder how things were going.

"Next customer."

An older woman walks up to the counter.

"How are you?" I ask. "I'm doing pretty good. How are you?" she says. "I'm doing well," I say. "Did you find everything okay?" "Yeah. My sons having a birthday. He said he wanted this CD, so I thought, why not," she says, making me laugh. I look at the CD, and see that it's an Eminen CD. I laugh at it. Not my first choice, but hey, whatever he likes, right?

I scan the barcode and put it in the bag.

"Okay that's nine-seventy two," I tell her. She hands me some money.

Right as I'm about to hand her, her change, Britney and Owen, are standing next to me.

"Here you go," I say handing her, her change. She smiles and takes it from me, putting it in her purse.

"You're going to train Britney," Owen tells me. I look at them. Britney has a huge smile on her face. "She'll start tomorrow. And you'll continue to train her," Owen continues. I take the receipt out of the machine, still listening to him. "You'll show her how to stack the CD's, work the cash register, show her where to take the trash out, how to greet customers, things like that." I nod, and hand the woman her bag with the CD.

"Have a nice day," I say. "You too," she replies, giving me a smile. I smile back, and turn around to them.

"You think you can do that?" Owen asks. I can tell he's still mad over our conversation. "Yeah, of course," I say. "Okay. I'll be in my office, if either of you guys need anything," he says. "Alright," we both say at the same time. He turns around and walks back into his office.

The next thing I know, Britney starts jumping up and down, and squealing from excitement.

"Britney!" I exclaim, causing her to calm down. "You are in a public business. You can't act like this. I know you're excited, but calm down." She takes a deep breath, but continues smiling, wildly.

"Okay, we'll work on the cash register first," I tell her.

"Next customer, we'll take you down here," I say. An older guy walks up with a big record.

"How are you sir?" I question. "I'm pretty good," he says. "This is a new worker here. So I'm training her," I tell him. "So we'll probably need some patience." "No worries," he replies, smiling at us.

"Okay, so you take the record. You have to be careful with it, because it is much more fragile then an actual CD," I tell her. Britney holds her hand out, and takes the record, carefully, lying it on the counter. "Take the scanner, scan the barcode," I instruct her. "Then you put it in the bag, tell him the price." "That will be fourteen-forty eight," she says. He hands her the money. "Okay, you press this button, to put the money in the cash register," I say, showing her the button to push. She pushes it, making the door shoot open. "Put how much money he gave you into the machine, give him his change, put the record in the bag, wait for the receipt, put it in the bag, and hand it to him," I say. She does everything as fast as I'm saying everything. I was actually very surprised.

"Have a good day," she says to the guy. "You too," he replies with a smile.

"Well," I say, looking at her. "Nice job." "Thanks. I worked the cash register at the restaurant," she says. "Well, in that case. I am going to put some new CD's out. If you need me, I'll be around the store," I tell her. "Okay."

I turn around, and walk out from the behind the desk, making my way to the back, where there are boxes of CD's, waiting to be put on display. I put them on a cart, and push them out into the main part of the store, where I start sorting them.

Minutes into stacking, I hear the bell of the door. I don't look up, because I know it's just another customer.

That is, until I hear his voice.

"Do you have ACDC?"

I look up for a brief second, and see him talking to Mark. I look back down. I was putting the ACDC CD's up right now.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to come with what I was going to say to him, when he walked over. Maybe I could get away, now. I told Britney I wouldn't see him again. Maybe if I walked away, I wouldn't have to talk to him. Yeah that's a good plan.

As I'm about to turn and start on another CD rack, I'm stopped by his voice.

"Do you have any ACDC?" he questions. I close my eyes and take a deep breath once again.

"Yeah," I say, turning around.