The Girl Behind the Counter

Chapter 9

About a month later Michael made his way down the stairs from Maxie's room, just like he had the day after the gala. He walked into the kitchen where a fully dressed and groomed Maxie sat perched on the counter with coffee in one hand and the newspaper in the other. "Morning love." Michael greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "There's a plate of sausage and eggs being kept warm in the oven for you. Want some coffee?" She asked. "Please!" He answered while pulling out the slightly warm plate and sitting down on the table. Maxie brought him his coffee and set it down next to the plate. She then perched herself on the table. Since spending so much time at her house Michael noticed how much she liked to perch and it made him smile. There was something childlike about sitting on a counter. Maxie's sitting on this table this morning, however, was not childish, but strategic. She was sitting above him, looking down upon him. "I've been reading the most interesting article." She said nonchalantly. "Yeah?" Michael asked with his mouth half full of eggs. "Mhmm, I think it might be of interest to you." She dropped the paper with a dramatic flare onto the table in front of him. The headline read, FOURTH CLUB SHOOTOUT IN LIVERPOOL IN AS MANY WEEKS with the subtitle Suspected members of local Italian mob have been found dead at the scene. Michael swallowed hard, which told Maxie all she needed to know. "Liverpool? Was London not enough? You have to venture north now? What's next? Newcastle, or will you skip straight to Aberdeen?" Maxie looked down at him from where she sat in her place of power. "Don't worry about it." Michael gave his usual response. "No Michael, I will worry about it. I'll worry that it's dead Peaky boys I'll be reading about next." Maxie had grown quite close to the Peaky Blinders. She was a favorite of the Shelby family and had once or twice let a junior blinder use her greenhouse as a hide out when in a bit of trouble. Michael sighed. "Look, If you're content with staying where you are you become the type of organization that the Peaky Blinders over throw. Ambition scares people so when we stop being ambitious we become weak. Liverpool makes sense for an expansion cause it'd simplify getting our product to America." Michael explained. "I see the reasoning behind that. But the expansion will have to stop eventually, after Liverpool you and Tommy should concoct some way to keep your territory. A new way people haven't tried. A way that doesn't simply rely on bad coppers and boys with razors in their hats." Maxie warned. "If you have suggestions I'm all ears!" Michael sassed back. "I do have an idea actually, but one thing at a time. Tie up Liverpool and I'll tell you how to keep your empire."Maxie  fit in well with the gangsters and Michael chuckled cause he knew it. "Any more demands?" Michael jokingly asked, but Maxie replied "Yes. Let me know when your next move north is so I can light a candle or say a rosary for fucks sake!" She picked up the paper and lightly hit his head with it. Michael found it amusing that Maxie still said her prayers every night and made it to church every Sunday. "Right then, I'm off to open the shop and you shouldn't be long after me. Don't forget to lock the door on your way out." Maxie reminded him while pinning her lilac colored hat into her neat pin curled hair. She hurriedly made her way towards the door, only stopping when Michael said, "Oh darling!" causing her to look up. "I love you." He smiled. Maxie grinned while walking over to him. She straightened out his tie and collar, kissed his cheek, and whispered "Yeah I know." Then she whisked off to the door, with Michael following not too long after her.
At the shop Maxie spent her day doing the usual. Selling a few flowers here and there, taking care of the ever needy flower growing in the green house, making flower arrangements in the back room for customers who had ordered ahead, and taking the occasional break to head up stairs to check on her Aunt. The reason Maxie didn't live above her shop, like most shop keepers, is because the rooms upstairs were her Aunt's and she wanted them to stay that way. "Hello Auntie, I've brought you some tea." Maxie smiled at the woman now attempting to sit up in bed. "Oh thank you ah...? ah...?" Her Aunt stammered. She often forgot things as part of her illness. It wasn't her Aunt's fault, yet it still hurt Maxie that she couldn't remember her niece's name. "Maxie!" Came a squeaky voice on the bed side table. "Maxie! Thank you Maxie!" Her Aunt exclaimed. At least the little grey parrot, called Tillie, could remember my name. The bird was a very good companion for Rosella Wiles, eldest daughter of Rosemary Lee. They could talk nonsense to each other all day long. "Maxie, when will you bring that nice boy back?" Auntie asked. "I don't know. He's very busy. Plus he might have been frightened off by Tillie talking about masturbation last he was here." Maxie smiled at the memory of how uncomfortable Michael had gotten. "Everyone does it! Tillie and I talk about it all the time!" Auntie insisted. "All the time!" Tillie repeated. "I know they do. He just has more of a stick up his ass than either you or Tillie." Maxie sat on the edge of the bed and brushed back strands of her Auntie's now grey hair. "Do you need anything? Would you like some biscuits?" Maxie asked. "No thank you dear." Auntie replied. "I'll get back down to the shop then, I'll be back in a few hours to get you anything you might need. I'll bring you fresh flowers too, the one in the vase are wilting." Maxie pointed to the little vase next to Tillie's cage. "Don't forget! Make them white roses! Like snow on Christmas eve!" Her Aunt reminded her. "Roses as white as winter, got it." Maxie smiled before closing the door behind her and heading back down into the shop. Once back down Maxie went to take the 'temporarily closed, come back in half an hour' sign from the window, but was startled half to death by a man wandering the shop floor. "Excuse me, can I help you? Maxie asked the stranger none too nicely. "No, no. Just looking. "Could you not read the sigh on the door?" Maxie still used a harsh tone. "I didn't know when you had put the sign out, for all I know the half hour could've come and gone." He reasoned. "Logic would tell you that if the sign is still up then the 30 minutes is still on. Now sir, I'm going to have to ask you to make a purchase or please leave." Maxie's voice was firm and unwavering, some might even say slightly  intimidating. "Very well, I'll go then." The man left the shop, but he only went as far as the other side of the street. He watched the shop for nearly an hour before Maxie decided to call Michael. What would she say? Perhaps this was just a confused, and lost man who wasn't quite all there, or perhaps it was an Italian down from Liverpool. What would they want with the shop? It's not the shop, it's whose in it. Michael comes for lunch everyday. If the man across the street is a gangster that's who he's after. Maxie hurried into the back room where the phone was. After three rings she heard a familiar, "Hello?" on the other end of the line. "Michael hi, its me. Sorry to have to do this, but Auntie is having a difficult day and she needs me so I think it's best if you don't come for lunch." Maxie lied. "Is she alright, do you need my help?" He asked. "That's sweet of you but I think I can handle it. I'll call back if I think I need you." She said. "Alright, see you tonight?" He asked. "Absolutely, tonight we're at your place, I love you and will see you then." Maxie said. "Love you too, goodbye." The phone call ended. Maxie went back out front to check and sure enough the guy was still there. For the safety of her mind she reached into the slot in the counter where the books were kept and wrapped her fingers around the pistol she had stashed between the books. She carefully took it out, making sure that there was no way the man could see, and she made sure all of the bullets were in place before putting it back. She breathed a bit easier now that she had felt it's weight in her hand.