Читать книгу Being Shelley - Qarnita Loxton - Страница 17

Except I was late. Obviously. It’s my special skill to be late even when I plan to be on time. I tried, but my make-up was taking longer than it used to, longer than it was meant to, I’m sure. Bloody eye concealer needs its own special mention. A youthful glow can be hard to achieve when you are no longer so youthful or so glowy, no matter how expensive the stuff is that I buy from Lily. I joke with her that she is a fancy snake oil peddler, but I’m so glad for her advice. Nothing like having a GP turned ‘aesthetic practitioner’ on speed dial. She will tell me the truth about what works (and when I need an antibiotic), and I know she isn’t just looking to build comms off me. Or I don’t think so, since she is a real rich girl and doesn’t need to make a living off my commissions. When my make-up was finally done, Theresa arrived home with the twins, which meant I had to stay and hear how their day was. All three hours of their day since Jerry had dropped them at school. By the time I rushed up the escalator at the mall, it was two o’clock.

There Di was, standing in the doorway of the shop, waiting for me. Looking at her face, she might as well have had her hands on both hips and tapping one foot.

‘You’re late. Beauty has already left for the day,’ she said, deadpan. We’d agreed that I would be there by one-thirty to do a handover before she had to leave at two when Wayde got there.

‘And hello to you, too,’ I said, giving her my biggest smile together with a bag filled with three packets of crisps, bottled water and three mini Oreo packs. Bananas for in case she moaned about it not being healthy. ‘I brought some stuff for you and the girls at pick-up.’ Di always complained that the first thing her girls asked her in the car was whether she had any snacks for them.

‘Stop trying to butter me up,’ she said, but she still took the bag, peered inside.

‘Me? I’d never do such a thing,’ I said, leaving her in the doorway and walking towards the back of the shop. I pushed open the white-painted wooden swing door to the left of the coffee counter that closed our tiny behind-the-scenes kitchen and storage area from view of the shop. Inside sat boxes of unopened stock that needed to get onto the shelves. Three floor-length mirrors stacked against one another that also needed to find their way onto the shop floor stood against the wall. I grabbed Di’s little bag hanging on the coat hook, slung my own shopper bag onto the boxes. There was hardly room to move; I’d have to tackle the boxes as soon as Wayde arrived.

‘Right, so in five seconds, has anything important happened that I must know about right now?’ I asked Di, who was actually tapping her foot outside the storeroom. ‘Otherwise don’t hang about,’ more smiles at her, ‘the girls will be waiting.’

‘You know, Shelley, you are worse than those girls of mine,’ said Di, taking her bag from me, checking the time on her phone. ‘Nothing too much happened, lots of browsing yesterday but not a lot of shopping. I see Poetry and The Pause Room are doing sales – we should do one too. Maybe a promo with a free coffee for every gift or a free chocolate with every coffee, or something like that. I wanted to talk to you about it, but you got here too late.’ Di started walking towards the door.

‘Yes, fine. Good idea. I’ll look for some things to mark down.’

‘What else?’ She paused under the Coffee & Cream sign. ‘Wayde was fine with the customers yesterday. A lot of talking and smiling. I think he irritates Beauty with his flirtiness but he clearly has a way with the shopping ladies. I hope we get more sales than he gets tips out of it. I’ll message you tonight, okay? I’ve got to go or I’ll be late. Thanks for the snacks.’ And like that, she was gone before Wayde arrived.

I waited. In my black-and-yellow dress with my flamingo panties and pink bra, I waited like a girl waiting for her date to arrive. Pretending not to be nervous. It didn’t help that there was nothing to distract me. The shop was dead, mostly everyone around here caught in the school run. Table Bay is still a weekend mall, one of the mall management types said when I complained that things were quiet. I hung around at the counter, organising what I could without going into the storeroom and leaving the shop unattended. No-one was ever supposed to be alone in the shop.

Wayde strolled in at two forty-five. Face and hair crumpled and messy but his T-shirt and jeans not. He had to be living somewhere he could sleep late but still have his clothes washed and ironed. A girlfriend? Or his mommy? Had to be, I couldn’t imagine him ironing anything unless it was that extreme ironing Jerry mocked and said was for idiots.

‘Heyyy, don’t you look good today. That sun from Saturday with that yellow dress has a lekker holiday vibe on you,’ he said, looking me up and down as he got to the counter. ‘I’m sorry I’m late. I’m not a morning person and everything was slow this morning,’ he slipped it in before I could ask about it. ‘Won’t happen again, just getting used to new routine to work Sundays and Mondays. I’ll make up the time tomorrow.’

‘Okay, it’s fine. You don’t have to do that. I’m not a morning person either. So long as you don’t tell Di – she is strict on the time.’ I don’t know why I made Di the bad guy; it’s not like I’m a softie or that I need to hide behind her. It wasn’t a lie, I consoled myself – Di is usually on time. I would be a hypocrite if I complained about his being late since I was the one who was always late.

‘I won’t tell if you don’t tell.’ Wayde smiled that smile, reached back to pull his hair into a small bun he tied with something at the back of his head. I could see he had an undercut on the back of his head. ‘Let’s get this place going then,’ he said as he went to wash his hands at the basin behind the counter. ‘Mind if I change the music?’

We had something that sounded like spa music going that Di must have chosen before she left. ‘I invited some of my friends to come check out where I’m working … I mean, they won’t be into the stuff we’ve got,’ he pointed his chin in the direction of the shop displays, ‘but I told them they gotta buy a coffee or they can’t come back.’ He came to stand next to me, checking that the machine and all the coffee bits were in order. As if Di would not have left everything in perfect condition. He wasn’t standing that close to me but I was hyper-aware of his tallness. It made me nervous and I wanted to tell him to sit down when he spoke to me. Ridiculous. He was close enough for that Pina Colada Coconut Vanilla Dessert smell to swirl under my nose.

‘Okay, that’s cool. Put on whatever you like,’ I said. ‘And I got some new stock – you never know, your friends might like what we have. I’m going to be in the back to unpack. I might need you to carry some of the boxes out.’

‘Shot, just shout,’ he said, spotting a woman with a Woolworths trolley hesitating in the doorway. The lines creased between her eyes as she frowned at the window display, the sexy Bossa Nova playlist Wayde had chosen not yet getting her in the mood. ‘I’m going to see if I can help that lady.’ I watched as he went over, saw her do an instant drop of her frown and a five-second smooth down of her hair as he approached. I’m sure she didn’t even realise she was doing it. I spied on them as he talked her into the shop, as he said something that made her laugh while pointing to the fresh chocolate cake on the counter. It seemed to work. She released her trolley so that he could push it to the back of the shop, following him to the table closest to it. She hardly noticed me standing there. It was only when he walked up to me and touched me on the shoulder that she nodded a greeting to my smile. ‘Why don’t you do the stock – I’m going to hang out with Linda.’ Seriously, how had he got the name of this woman who looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth? He’d only been talking to her for fifteen seconds. I could swear I saw her shoulders doing a micro shimmy to the music. ‘She is looking for a gift for her sister, so I’m going to show her all our things over a cappuccino and cake.’ His hand was still on my shoulder, his smile still in my face.

I listened.

For a moment I forgot I was the boss.