The Tremendous Turmoil of Indigo

Chapter 13

Slightly after ten, Indigo finally strutted through the doors of Adorn. The essence of lavender and chocolate caressed her chilled face bitten by the nippy breeze whirling outside. She ignored the wind chill knowing it'd heat up by noon.

Indigo's eyes quickly accessed the boutique as she slid her sunglasses off her face. The boots were neatly stacked along the wall. The heels were sitting upright on copper display tables. The glass jewelry case was fingerprint-free free and the remaining supply of leather jackets was neatly hanging on wooden hangers on the metal rack.

Indigo dropped her aviators in her purse as her eyes searched out her newest employees—her old employees went off into the world to do big things.

Jamika, a slack bob-having wispy of a girl with a mouth that spitfire had a hustle and conquer attitude she admired. Carmesi with her pounds of tangled red curls was a transplant fresh off the plane from Scotland begged her for a job after she dropped out of Rice University and needed one to keep her US Visa. Rounding out the morning crew was Antonia Sula Garcia—which was how she introduced herself at her interview, but now she went by 'Toni'. She was a nursing student who only worked mornings because she had classes in the evening. All the girls were busy with customers—fitting shoes on feet, coming from the back with arms full of boxes, or neatly placing shoes in boxes to be taken back to the vault.

"How's it going?" Indigo asked as she stopped by the checkout counter.

Alexis, the new supervisor that Hazel trained to replace her stood at the counter, with her black hair in a simple braid hanging over her shoulder stopped swiping through the stack of hundreds in her hand, "All good. Um..." She hit the paper bills on the counter getting them even, "But Jamika's pants had a white stripe. She thought I was going to send her home but I told her it was okay."

The young woman waited anxiously to see if she made the right call.

"Yeah." Indigo nodded glancing over at the young lady fitting the top back on the box of Stuart Weitzman thigh-high boots. "She's just been here three weeks, right."

"Almost a month," Alexis added, picking up a stack of twenties, "But I mean...let's be real...she doesn't have it easy being a single mom and all. It's tough." She spoke from experience. Her four-year-old just started pre-k last year. "She has more to do with her money than buy more black clothes."

"You made the right call, boss lady," Indigo smirked with a playful slap to Alexis' shoulder. She was aware that Alexis still doubted her talents and skills so she tried her best to stoke her confidence. She wanted to get her to stop seeing herself as the high school dropout who folded polo's at the Gap.

"What did Horatio say?" Indigo continued. "I know he was probably pissed because I wasn't here...but will he be done with construction by next month?"

Opening up another location was stressful but it was going to be worth it. It was close to home, she'd have to endure less traffic on her commute and she'd be there to pick the kids up from school.

"About that...the brass light fixtures will take a little longer to get here and shipment of that brick you decided on for the wall can't be delivered until the beginning of April because of the snowmelt flood."

"Damn." Indigo said under her breath so the customers couldn't hear, "Well, we can't do anything about the weather. We'll just have to push back the opening date."

Alexis nodded as she racked through the twenties making sure all the faces were up, "Oh...speaking of deliverers—something come for you." She clenched her hand around the money focusing on Indigo. "You really do have the best husband. So lucky."