Narcissus

Chapter Five

"Good to see you back again, Mrs Elderflower." Beaming at the woman, I watched her enter the store with some trepidation, clearly still uncertain in this new territory.

"You're a bit chirpy for 4:00pm."

"What's not to be chirpy about?" I gestured around me at the empty shop, "I love standing around for hours on end. Rach' and I have found another way to pass the time." ducking below the counter, I produced a basket of large elastic band balls. "Elastic band basketball." pointing to a shitty, square 'hoop' wedged onto a shelf across the room, I lifted up a ball and fired it at the hoop, missing the shelf completely.

"Nice!" came Rachel's voice from somewhere near the hoop, her body concealed by the shelves but the top of her brunette hair ever-so-slightly visible.

"Don't you play for the basketball team?" Mrs Elderflower questioned, folding her arms, unimpressed.

"Hush." I grinned at her and put the basket away. "We have a home game this Friday, though, you can come and see it if you want. We're playing one of the private schools so there might be a fight." I winked at her and ignored the secret joy I felt when she blushed.

"I don't think so. I would rather not wake up with a headache the next day from the constant sound of overly expensive basketball shoes squeaking on a sports hall floor."

"Wow. That was oddly specific. No Basketball, then." I laughed, "So, Mrs Elderflower, what can I do for you today?"

"I would like to see if my order has come through yet. For my husband." she added.

"Yeah, it arrived this morning, actually." I smiled at her. "So, where are you parked?"

"Excuse me?"

"Where are you parked?" Mrs Elderflower blinked, and I rolled my eyes, "I need to know where your car is so I can load all the boxes in for you."

"Oh. Boxes? Are there a lot? I only ordered a few machines."

"Are you serious?" I laughed, "You do know the machines don't just come in one big box. You have to assemble them yourself, and have them installed, then come back and fill in the necessary forms and have a health and safety officer come in to check it's all healthy and safe and whatnot."

"Oh." Mrs Elderflower was definitely out of her depth, "Right."

"If you want, I could install them for you. I've done it before, and I have all the licenses and papers somewhere around here I can deliver to you for you to look over beforehand if you wish. I can't do it for free, obviously, but as I know you I can give you my staff discount or something." Mrs Elderflower looked surprised, and I quickly backtracked, "I mean, Rachel or my manager Gary could always do it, yeah, I can go get Gary now actually, he's probably a better option to be honest, let me just -"

"No." Mrs Elderflower stopped me, "That would be lovely, thank you, and I would pay full price. When would you be able to do that?"

"I'm not sure when I'm next free, to be perfectly honest, work is pretty hectic."

"It is?" Mrs Elderflower smirked and looked around the empty store.

"Haha, very funny." I said sarcastically, grinning, "Nah, I work somewhere else after this and on weekends I work at the pub."

"You have three jobs?" Mrs Elderflower looked shocked.

"Well, part time jobs." I corrected. "And, I live alone in a two bedroom house, I kinda have to work three jobs. At least I'm only paying for myself." chuckling awkwardly, I came out from behind the counter. "Keys?" I changed the subject and Mrs Elderflower reluctantly handed over her car keys, still looking shocked.