Page 11 of The Finder

Amy smiled and Olivia waved at her. “I found something that might work in the afternoon and evenings,” Amy said.

“That’s great,” Emma said.

“Yeah, it’s a start,” she said, looking hopeful. Emma’s heart went out to the both of them. Why was life so hard for some people and so easy for others?

On the way back to her room, she decided to check the free room again and see if she could find anything. She nearly squealed in delight when she saw that there was an entire box of travel-sized toiletries. Someone must have just dropped off the donations. Emma was so incredibly thankful. She looked through the box and found a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, a razor, and even a hairbrush. She was the most excited about a small bottle of body wash. She opened the cap and sniffed—vanilla, her favorite. She breathed it in and smiled.

In another box she found some feminine products and a new pack of underwear. She nearly cried when she saw the underwear. She dug through the clothes that had been dropped off and found two shirts that could maybe work. She pulled all her goodies together and tried to figure out what she could do to keep these from being stolen this time. She went to the shower room and looked all around, trying to find a place to hide her stuff. When she found nothing there, she decided to try the laundry room. She found nothing there either. She made her way back to the room. She decided to hide everything under her bed and hope her roommate didn’t find her hiding spot.

Emma woke the next morning excited to get to work. She couldn’t wait to share her ideas with Helen. After her shower, she dressed in the t-shirt she had found yesterday. She grimaced at the fit. It was bigger on her than she thought it would be, and the yellow was uglier on than it had been in the box. Emma stopped herself. It didn’t matter. It was a shirt, and more than she had yesterday. She piled her hair on top of her head in her signature look for work and finished getting ready.

She made it to work a few minutes early, but Helen was there and let her in. “Good morning,” Emma said when Helen opened the door.

“You’re here early,” Helen said.

Emma nodded. “I had something I wanted to run past you,” Emma said tentatively.

“Go for it,” Helen said, waving a hand at Emma while she continued getting products ready.

Emma took a deep breath.Here goes nothing.

Chapter 9

“So, I've been thinking about what we talked about the other day and how we can ensure that this business stays open for years to come to honor your husband’s legacy, and I think I came up with a few ideas,” Emma said and paused, waiting to see Helen’s reaction.

“Okay. What are your ideas?” Helen asked.

Emma thought she sounded a little reserved, but she hadn’t said no. So, Emma was going to go for it. “So the coffee here is awesome, but...” She stopped when Helen put a hand up.

“When have you even tasted the coffee here?” Helen interrupted her.

Emma blinked at her. “I, uh haven’t yet.” Emma’s mind quickly scrambled to the few dollars she had. She would have to use them to get a cup today. Maybe she could just do a small hot coffee.

“I thought you liked coffee?” Helen asked.

“I do,” Emma responded.

“How come you never drink any while on shift then?” Helen asked.

Emma wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “I didn’t want to spend the money on it,” Emma finally said.

Helen turned and looked at her. “You get free coffee whenever you work. Didn’t I ever tell you that?” she asked. Emma’s eyes widened and she shook her head. She would have remembered that for sure.

“I’m sorry, Emma. That’s on me. You can drink coffee while you work. Any drink is fine. Just be sure that it doesn’t interrupt you from serving people.”

“Of course. Thank you so much!” Emma was excited to try some of the drinks she had been making.

“What drink do you want to try first?” Helen asked.

“A white chocolate raspberry vanilla latte,” Emma said without hesitating.

Helen laughed, then paused. “Wait, I don’t think we have a white chocolate... What did you say?”

“We don’t,” Emma said with a smile. “I just thought of it in my head one day while I was making a drink and have wanted to try it ever since.”

“Hmmm, well let me know how it turns out,” Helen said noncommittally.

Emma decided to use that as her launching pad. “So, one of the things I was thinking was that we introduce a drink of the week or a drink of the month. We let our customers make up what they think would be a winning drink and write it on a 3x5 card with the name of the drink, their name, and how to make the drink. Then we pick one a month or a week and sell it. We put a chalkboard sign out and put the name of the drink and who created it. It gets people involved.”

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