Your job as a retail employee is not to tell the truth during small talk.
Your job is to be friendly and put the money in the register, while only speaking the truth about your fine products, which you stand behind one hundred percent. If you happen to sell crap you don’t believe in… good luck with that.
I gave the woman one of our new postcards with the new location’s address. She left with a smile on her face, which made me feel good. I hadn’t been completely ruined by fame! I still had the retail touch.
The rest of the day passed quickly.
Adrian came in at quarter to six and brought the sandwich board inside with him.
“Let’s close up shop,” he said.
“But it’s not six yet.” I trotted quickly to the area behind the counter, putting the furniture between us. I’d been meaning to talk to him about my engagement to another man, but hadn’t found the right time, or gotten drunk enough.
He replied, “Have it your way. I’ll hang out here and we can count down the final minutes, like they do on New Year’s Eve.”
“Don’t say that. You’re going to make me all nostalgic and weepy.”
He rested his elbows on the counter and leaned across to kiss me hello. I reached under the counter and quickly tucked my frog card away and zipped up my purse, then pretended to get distracted by the special orders shelf needing adjustment.
“Did you forget about our date tonight?” he asked.
“Of course not,” I lied.
He kept staring at me, his blue eyes darting from my eyes to my lips, as though he might be able to read my weekend activities on my face.
I crossed my arms and tried to put on a poker face.
“How’s Cujo?” I asked. “Still wearing the Cone of Shame?”
Adrian laughed, his smile relaxing his face and making me relax, too.
“Except for meal time,” he said. “We left the cone on for his first dinner at home, and he scooped all the soft dog food into the cone by accident. Then he could smell the food, but couldn’t reach it with his mouth, so he was like this, trying to get it with his tongue lolling out.” Adrian tilted his head and lolled his own tongue out while whimpering.
I had to laugh. “Poor little man. I need to see him soon so I can thank him for being my hero.”
“Hey! He’s your hero? What about me?”
“The guy who led me right into the bear’s territory in the first place?”
“And then dragged you right back out again. Like a hero.”
“Thank you for that. I guess I owe you. Dinner at DeNirro’s? Unless we made plans for something else?”
“I could go for some Italian. Can we close up the store yet?”
I looked down at my brand-new watch. “Seven more minutes.”
Adrian reached across the counter for my hand, then drew it near him as he studied the fancy watch. “This is new.”
I cleared my throat. “A gift, from this weekend.”
He let my hand go and turned his head to the side. “I don’t want to hear about him, or the expensive gifts he buys you.”
I leaned on the counter between us, reached up with one hand, and stroked the side of his face with my fingertips. “Adrian.”
It hurt me to hurt him.
“Seven minutes.” He pulled away from my hand, looking down as he withdrew his phone from his pocket. “I’ll step outside and call DeNirro’s to see if we need a reservation. What do you think? Monday night? Shouldn’t be too busy, unless they ran a coupon in the Beaver Daily.”
“I’ll start counting the float.”
“I’ll flip the sign.” He walked to the door, where he stopped and looked back at me. “You know, this is the end.”
“The end?” My heart leapt up, my pulse banging in my throat.
“Say goodbye and make it a good one.”
Adrian knew I was breaking up with him? I stood there in stunned silence. I had to tell him everything that was happening, yet I didn’t want our new relationship to be over. He wasn’t just some guy. He was Adrian, and we’d known each other for years. We had history. When I was with him, I felt like we had a future.
He patted the wall next to the door. “Goodbye old bookstore! I hope you like wine!” To me, he winked and said, “Say goodbye to the store. Something like that.”
“Five minutes!”
He paused, seemingly frowning at my watch, then retreated out the door to phone DeNirro’s about reservations.
I ran the reports on the credit card machine and double-checked that there were no customers in the store. I’d been pretty sure nobody was there at the time Adrian had arrived, but sometimes a person will be reading quietly on the other side of the shelf and make me scream when they reappear. Not this time, though.