Trust Me *A Cole Labrant Love Story*

Chapter Five

*7am Monday August 21st*

My phone alarm wakes me up with Toxic by Britany Spears. I take a quick shower and blow dry my hair long enough. My natural curls come through and I get dressed then I grab my phone and purse. I eat a bowl of cereal and leave a note for Carmen. My mom has left for work before I woke up so Carmen was on her own today. I don't like leaving Carmen home alone but hopefully she would follow the directions I leave her. I shut off the lights and lock the door after I leave. I walk the few blocks to the grocery store and walk inside at exactly 8am. I find Mr. Davis' office and knock on the closed door. "Come on!" he says and I open the door. 

"Hello Mr. Davis," I say and he smile. Mr. Davis is an older fellow with white bushy eyebrows and a kind smile. 

"Miss. Raymond," he says and shakes my hand. 

"Reporting for duty," I say and he chuckles. 

"Lets talk scheduling. For the rest of the summer vacation you will work 8am to 4pm. When school starts you will be working 4pm to when we close at 8pm," says Mr. Davis. I write this down on a piece of paper I find in my purse. 

"Okay sounds good," I say.

"We usually pay new workers $7.50 an hour to start with," says Mr. Davis.

"That's fine," I say.

"Great, here is a list of the days you will be work until school starts. I will give you  a September schedule on the last day you work before September 5th," says Mr. Davis. 

"Thank you," I say and fold the piece of paper and put it into my bag. 

"Here is your apron, you are required to wear that while you work," he says and I nod and put it on. 

"Anything else I should know?" I ask.

"My wife Shelley will be training you this week. She will show you how to stock shelves, where to dispose of boxes and garbage, how to work the cash register and check out and stuff like that. You will most likely be stocking shelves and working the check out counter," says Mr. Davis.

"Perfect," I say and shake his hand again.

"Welcome Charlotte," I say. I thank him and leave. A woman is waiting for me outside the door and she smiles when she sees me. 

"Hello, I am Shelley," she says and I shake her hand too.

"Charlotte but please call me Charlie," I say. 

"Charlie, that's cute," she says.

"Thank you," I say. 

"Well follow me, I will show you where to put your things and where to clock in," says Shelley. She takes me through a pair of doors and there are coat racks and shelves along the walls. On the other side is a clocking in station. I hang my purse on a hook with my name over it and fix my apron. 

"Now, here is your card and here is your holder," says Shelley and she hands me a white credit card looking thing. Them she shows me how to swipe it and such. Then I put it in a little white plastic holder with my name on that too. 

"Alright now what?" I ask.

"By the way you will do the same thing just press out instead of in when you leave for the day. Now we check the aisles that are our responsibility that day and if need be we stock them," says Shelley. I follow her back to the main part of the store. 

"Okay," I say.

"Your aisles are the same as mine but we won't be working together. I have aisles one through three," says Shelley. Aisle three stocks bread and candy. Aisle two stocks coffee, tea, dressings, peanut butter and stuff like that. Aisle one stocks  OTC medicines, shampoo, soaps and feminine products. Shelley tells me the minimum number of items of each thing needed on the shelf. I write this down too and then we find the things we need to restock and then restock them. Oldest to the front and labels facing forward. 

"That wasn't too bad," I say and look at our work.

"Your a natural," says Shelley and she nudges me with her elbow and gives me a friendly smile. 

"Okay next?" I ask.

"Now since you are working a full time shift for the rest of the summer you will be doing the cashier job with Cole. He is another high school student that works here. You will focus mainly on that but you will have to check your aisles every so often to make sure you don't need to restock more," says Shelley. 

"Sounds like I will be able to manage," I say.

"You will, it's not too hard. Next, when you go back to school and work the part time shift you will have to close. When you get to that point your coworker will show you how that's done. Basically it's sweeping and mopping the store and turning out lights and then locking all of the doors. 

"Okay," I say. 

"Now lets go test you at the cash register," says Shelley and she leads the way. When we get there Cole is hunched over at the Service counter on his phone. 

"Hey ladies," he says and he smiles at us. I wave and he smiles a little longer at me. 

"Now we wait," says Shelley.

"It's a lot of waiting sometimes," says Cole and Shelley smacks his arm. We talk about the store and how Cole started working there and what a goof ball he is according to Shelley. 

"Oh here's one," she says. It's an elderly woman with a cart full of bread, jello and canned fruit and vegetables. Shelley shows me how to scan, what buttons to use for total and how to do credit and check. The lady pays with a check and Shelley shows me how to do that. It doesn't seem to hard. The next customer is a mom and she pays with a debit card. That's a little harder but not too bad. 

"The easiest is cash," says Cole when I have to redo the credit card. 

"Easier than this," I say. When I finally get it, I hand the receipt and card back to the customer. Shelley helps her carry her grocery bags to her car and with that I am done with another customer.

"You're doing good, working that credit card machine takes some getting use to," says Cole. 

"How long did it take for you to get all of this down?" I ask.

"About a week," he says and I nod. 

"Good to know," I say and I lean against the counter. Shelley comes back and she smiles.

"Tomorrow you and Cole are working together so he can bag for you," says Shelley and Cole smiles.

"Sure," he says. The rest of the day goes by fairly easy and just like Cole said there can be lots of waiting around. I check my aisles once more before clocking out and grabbing my purse and hanging my apron on the hook. I didn't even notice the name card pinned to it. 'Charlotte', is says and and I smile. It's nice to have a job again. It will make things easier. Not that things have been that hard lately but it's nice to have something to lean back on. 

*4pm*

I walk back to the main part of the store and walk out the door after waving to Shelley. Cole is waiting for me on a bench and he stands and smiles at me.

"Are you free?" he asks. 

"Carmen has been alone all day, I should probably go home," I say.

"Alright, well see you tomorrow then," says Cole and he walks over to employee parking and gets into his Jeep. I start walking home and when I reach the house I unlock the door and see Carmen watching TV on the couch. 

"Hey Carm," I say and she looks up and me and grins.

"Finally, I have been so bored without you," she says and I sit down next to her and wrap her in a hug. 

"Sorry kiddo, time to get use to it though. I have to work the rest of this week," I say and she groans. 

"What about the weekend?" she asks and I shake my head.

"It's Carmen and Charlie time then," I say and she smiles again. 

"Good," she says and we watch TV for a little while longer and then we go make supper together. We have stir fry and garlic bread. 

"Leave some one a plate for mom," I say and and Carmen makes her a plate while I set the table. We sit down and eat together. 

"Why does mom work like she does?" asks Carmen.

"Because sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do," I say and she lets the subject drop. We clean up the kitchen together after we finish eating and then put in Aladdin. 

*9pm*

"Alright you need to take a shower before bed," I say and look at her oily hair and she nods. She walks upstairs and I hear the water turn on. I walk upstairs and into my own bedroom and put on basketball shorts and a tank top. I put my phone on the charger and as I walk out to get Carmen's pajamas out and pick a story book for that evening, I run into my mom. 

"Hey sweetie," she says and she kisses my hair before walking to her room. Poor woman, she looks exhausted. My mom is a radiologist. She reads x-rays, mammograms, CT's, MRI's and stuff related to that. It's a lot of paperwork. She reads for more than five clinics. She is good at her job but it's hard on her, considering she is really sick.

She has stomach cancer. The doctor says she has a few more years at most and that will give me long enough to get into college. I will be 18 hopefully so Carmen will be able to stay with me. Mom has it all worked out but it's scary. She hasn't told Carmen, we don't think we will. It's going to be hard but I won't give up on my family.