"I thought the grand opening was wonderful," Meg's mother said to her on the phone later that night. "You have a great group of women working for you."
"Yeah, they're great but I'm not sure if I agree about the opening. I think it could have gone a little better."
"Meg," her mother said, "this was your first official day of business. I think you need to give things a little time. It sometimes takes years to get a new business off the ground and turning a profit. You knew this getting into it."
Meg rolled her eyes and leaned against her kitchen counter. "I know, it's just that I'm not sure I chose the best location anymore."
Her mother sighed. "I think you chose the perfect location. You're thinking too much. What you need is to rest and prepare for tomorrow."
Meg ended her conversation and retreated to her bedroom which was at the far end of her condo. The layout of her home was a one floor, two bedroom unit with two full bathrooms, living room, dining room, eat-in-kitchen and laundry room. She also had her own private balcony where she kept a small table and two patio chairs and one outdoor lounge chair for the rare occasion she was able to lie out in the sun.
Meg's home was a reflection of her personality - warm and inviting while at the same time cool and relaxed. Her wall colors were muted shades of grey and almond, alternating in each room. Her style was somewhat 'sixties mod', her furniture designed with clean lines and simple patterns. Her favorite pieces by far were the Herman Miller table and chairs in her kitchen. The table was a severe rectangle surrounded by molded wooden chairs with chrome-plated steel legs and a subtle veneer. Meg prided herself on furnishing her home slowly, carefully choosing each piece at a time until she was satisfied that it would complement the rest of her decor.
She decided to iron her work polo and khakis for the next day. The grand opening was scheduled to last the entire weekend and she figured there was no need to dress up or put on airs. She actually liked the polo shirts she'd ordered for herself and the staff. They were solid black with white embroidered lettering and logo and judging from earlier in the day, she thought they looked good on everyone.
Her mind went back to the conversation she had with Albie earlier in the day regarding Dan Keagan. She still couldn't get over how nervy it was of him to approach a virtual stranger and start bad-mouthing her business. He and his fake muffins - she should have thrown them in the trash.
*
The next day was Saturday and she arrived at work a little early to put out more cookies, water and coffee. She started her computer and reviewed her sales from the day before. She'd sold a total of sixteen books. Not great but it could have been worse. Her current price of used books was exactly half of the retail price listed on the cover. As soon as she'd move out some of her inventory, she planned to get the new books in.
Clare and Ev, her two oldest employees, arrived at 9:45. They walked in through the back door, chatting and both carrying the 'Chapters' tote bags she'd given them.
"I love that you're using those," Meg said, pointing to their bags.
"Are you kidding?" Ev said, "this bag is great! It holds everything but the kitchen sink. You wouldn't believe what I have stuffed into this thing."
"It's really cute," Clare said. "My sister already told me she wants one."
"I think we can arrange that," Meg said. Actually, having more tote bags made wasn't a bad idea. She thought perhaps she could offer them for sale down the road.
"So what's on the agenda today?" Clare asked.
"Well," Meg began, "it's the three of us until this afternoon. "Leslie will be coming in later and I'll close with her. Are you both comfortable with the cash register?"
"Absolutely," Clare said and Ev nodded in agreement. "You have everything organized so well in the system. When I sell a book, I pull up its record inside your master list and mark it 'sold'. Then I do the sales transaction. You really couldn't have made it any easier."
Meg was pleased. "I'm glad. It's my own home-grown system and I wanted to make sure it was as user friendly as possible."
"Even I thought it was easy," Ev said. "And I'm not your typical computer-type if you know what I mean."
"Since you're both comfortable, I'm going to take a bit of an extended lunch later. I have a couple of things I need to get done before it's just Leslie and I holding down the fort tonight."
As Ev and Clare busied themselves, Meg signed onto the Internet to pay a few personal bills and to check her email. She realized that Albie's birthday was coming up and she wanted to plan a dinner for him. She jotted a few ideas in her notebook. She'd call her other closest friend Emma along with their good friend Tom. She'd hesitated to write down Alice, Albie's ex, but for all intents and purposes Alice and Albie have remained fairly close. Meg thought that was mainly due to Alice's adoption of Albie's friends as her own, herself included. Alice had completely forfeited her own identity while they were dating and that was part of the reason Albie broke up with her. Albie was a strong personality and it took a strong personality to match him. He had no interest in dating a 'yes' woman. In fact, he enjoyed a good argument. And Alice enjoyed peace and quiet and was completely adverse to conflict. A match made in heaven, those two did not make.
But, Alice was kind and sweet and if you really got to know her you began to realize that she was also a bit selfish and narcissistic. She hid her more distasteful qualities well when she had to and that seemed to be all part of her strategy to make herself as attractive as possible to the male species. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Meg never tired of watching her try, though.
Predictably, Alice Greene was jealous of Meg solely because of her close relationship with Albie. Alice was sure Meg harbored a crush for him and quietly sabotaged his relationships. Although Meg had her word to say about anyone Albie dated, she never purposely interfered in an effort to snag him for herself. Meg and Albie had been friends for more than a decade. In a strange way, she could understand how his girlfriends might be intimidated by such history.
As she jotted down the guest list, she began to question why she'd bothered. It was always Tom, Emma, Albie and herself whenever they went out. The addition of Alice wasn't set in stone - she'd have to run that by Albie - but the four of them were core friends and rarely did anyone infiltrate their little group. Unless, that is, one of them was dating someone. At the current time, everyone was single.
Meg made a note to call Albie later and choose a restaurant for his birthday dinner. She looked up as two older women entered the store and were greeted by Clare. Meg smiled and walked over to welcome them.
"Hello, dear," the woman with up-swept grey hair replied.
"Would you ladies care for some coffee or cookies? Or both?" Meg asked with a wink.
The ladies approached the refreshment table and helped themselves to the coffee.
"I'm Madelyn Harold," the grey-haired woman introduced herself. "And this is my sister-in-law, Frannie Meikle. We've been waiting for you to open for weeks."
Meg smiled, her eyebrows raised. "Really, is that so? You must be book lovers then."
Both women nodded. "So much that we have our own club. We choose a different book every month then meet and discuss it."
"That's wonderful," Meg said, genuinely enthused. "I don't know where your club usually meets but we have two spaces perfect for such gatherings."
The women looked at each other and smiled. "We'll need to talk to the rest of the club but we have been considering the idea of moving it out of our homes and into a regular meeting spot."
"Why don't you talk it over and give me a call," Meg said, handing them her business card. "I'd be happy to work something out with you."
"That's wonderful," Frannie said. "We'll be in touch with you this weekend."
Meg returned to where she'd been standing behind the cash wrap and felt good about the ladies' book club. If she could get a few clubs to hold their meetings in her store, she might be able to sell them their books and receive a little return business in the process. She made a note with their names so she'd be able to address them correctly when they called.
More customers made their way through the store that morning. They'd sold fourteen books by noon - five of them were to a woman on her way to a relaxing beach vacation. She'd bought the books and planned to devour them while sunbathing in front of the ocean. Meg felt a pang of jealousy. She hadn't had a vacation in a long time and with the opening of 'Chapters' it was going to be quite some time before she'd have the chance again.
The store seemed to clear out around twelve-thirty. Meg wrapped up some of the papers she'd been working on and decided to leave for lunch. Ev and Clare had each taken thirty minute breaks so the store was covered.
Just as Meg went to grab her purse and keys, she saw the front door to the store open again. In walked Dan Keagan and Meg's stomach lurched at the very sight of him. In typical fashion, he held another gift basket.
"Hello, ladies," he greeted as he walked through the door. "How's business today?"
Meg walked out from behind the cash wrap desk and forced a sickening-sweet smile. "Excellent," she replied. "We're off to a great start."
Dan introduced himself to Ev and Clare and handed over the basket to them. "Just a few baked goods," he explained. "Cinnamon rolls, a few muffins..." he trailed off.
Great, Meg thought. More of his damn muffins.
"So what's in demand today?" Dan asked, attempting to appear friendly. "Shakespeare? Twain? Harlequin Romances?" he said with a laugh.
Meg squinted her eyes and gave him another fake smile. "Oh you know, a little of this, a little of that...your basic literary shit."
Clare and Ev looked at her, shocked. Clare laughed a little, possibly out of nervousness or possibly because she didn't know what else to do.
Dan chuckled, uneasily. "Well, that's certainly an interesting way to describe it."
Meg shrugged. "They're just books. Used books," she insisted. "How would you describe it?"
Dan shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I love to read," he said, lamely.
"Do you," Meg said, more of a statement than a question.
There was an awkward silence and then Dan spoke up. "Well, I just wanted to drop by and say hello. The place looks great. It was good to meet you, ladies."
"Yes," Ev said, "you, too."
"Bye," Meg said, sweetly.
As soon as Dan was safely out of earshot, Clare and Ev turned to her.
"What was that?" Clare spoke up.
Meg took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm sorry to have done that in front of you," she apologized. "It's just that, that man is not exactly how he seems."
"He seemed nice enough to me," Ev said, defensively. "Look at all this," she said, uncovering the baked goods inside the basket. "It was a very nice gesture."
"I know," Meg said, "and I wish he was as nice as he appears but the truth is, Dan Keagan would like nothing more than for me to fall flat on my face and close up shop."
"Why?" Clare said. "What makes you say that?"
Meg proceeded to explain the whole story. They were her employees and more than that, they were nice people. The last thing she wanted to do was give them the impression that she's downright rude for no good reason.
"Ah, so the 'shit' comment was your little way of telling him you know what he said about your store to your friend Albie."
"Precisely," Meg said. "So please don't think I go out of my way to attack any do-gooders who walk through the door. That's not me."
"Hell, Meg," Ev said, "I knew something had to be going on. I know you're not that type of person."
Meg felt relieved that Ev and Clare understood. And she was furious that Dan Keagan thought he could waltz into her store under false pretenses so he could do nothing short of 'case the joint' to use an old expression.
Hopefully after their short little run-in, Mr. Keagan would realize that Meg was no push-over. If he planned to try and run her out of business, he'd be met with a fight.
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